How to delete a particular line from several files in linux?

Question

I have several html files within subfolders which have a redundant link like:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="../demos.css">

I am trying to remove this line from all the html files using the following command in linux:

find -name '*.html' -exec sed --in-place=.bak 'demos.css' "{}" ;

But this gives me the following error:

find: missing argument to `-exec'

Yes of course I have checked all the solutions on Stackoverflow related to this but most of them are regarding a single file and the rest don't help. What am I doing wrong with this code?

check this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11245144/replace-whole-line-containing-a-string-using-sed — candymanuu, Feb 23 '15 at 14:59

anubhava · Answer 1 · 2015-02-23T14:39:30.267

2

find is missing starting path, sed is missing d command and you need to escape the semi colon in find command:

find . -name '*.html' -exec sed -i.bak '/demos\.css/d' '{}' \;

Or better:

find . -name '*.html' -exec sed -i.bak '/demos\.css/d' '{}' +

edited Feb 23 '15 at 14:39

answered Feb 23 '15 at 14:29

anubhava

713,503
59
514
593

I am getting an error like this `sed: -e expression #1, char 2: extra characters after command` -in both cases. – HackCode Feb 23 '15 at 14:31
In the first case I am getting this error several times and in the second one I am getting it only once. – HackCode Feb 23 '15 at 14:31
Still the same error. I don't understand why, it seems alright! – HackCode Feb 23 '15 at 14:34
Yes. Exactly like you posted. – HackCode Feb 23 '15 at 14:37
Ah just realized you don't have `d` command in sed (see updated answer) – anubhava Feb 23 '15 at 14:38
Glad it worked, Sorry for my goof ups, I was paying attention to other options in `find` rather than `sed` command. – anubhava Feb 23 '15 at 14:42
1

If it worked out, please consider accepting the answer. – anubhava Feb 23 '15 at 14:56

poll0rz · Answer 2 · 2015-02-24T14:37:07.617

0

try this please:

for i in `find /www/htmls/ -name "*.html" 2>/dev/null`
do
    sed -i '/demos\.css/d' "$i"
done

edited Feb 24 '15 at 14:37

answered Feb 23 '15 at 14:35

poll0rz

11
3

Does not give any error but does not change the html files either. – HackCode Feb 23 '15 at 14:37
sorry, escape the "." – poll0rz Feb 24 '15 at 14:36

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 23 '15 at 15:42

0

for i in `find /www/htmls/ -name "*.html" 2>/dev/null`
do
    sed -i 's/^demos.css.*//' "$i"
done

answered Feb 23 '15 at 15:42

candymanuu

110
7

4

While this code block may answer the question, you always should provide some explanation for why it does so. – Sascha Wolf Feb 23 '15 at 16:01

How to delete a particular line from several files in linux?

3 Answers3