When piping output of find to xargs, always use -print0 option of find and -0 option of xargs. This allows processing files with any allowed characters in names (spaces, new lines etc.). (However I prefer -exec.)
There’s an i command to insert a line in sed, it is better to use it instead of s/^/...\n/. It makes code more readable (if we can talk about readability of sed code, huh).
If you want to split a delimiter separated line and print some field, you need cut. Keep awk for more complicated tasks.
If you want to split a delimiter separated line and print some field, you need cut. Keep awk for more complicated tasks.
Depends on the delimiter too! For anyone else reading this, sed accepts many kinds of delimiters. sed "s@thing@thing2@g" file.txt is valid. I use this sometimes when parsing/replacing text with lots of slashes (like directory lists) so I can avoid escaping a ton of stuff.
I know you know, as you already demonstrated your higher understanding. I just wanted to add a little bonus trick for anyone reading that doesn’t know, and is learning from your examples.
agree with one and two and younger me would have agreed with your third point but I think I don’t anymore.
yes cut is the simpler and mostly functional tool you need for those tasks.
but it is just so common to need a slight tweak or to want to substitute something or to want to do a specific regex match or weird multi character delimiter or something and you can do it all easily in awk instead of having to pipe three extra times to do everything with the simplest tool.
My 5 cents:
When piping output of
findtoxargs, always use-print0option offindand-0option ofxargs. This allows processing files with any allowed characters in names (spaces, new lines etc.). (However I prefer-exec.)There’s an
icommand to insert a line insed, it is better to use it instead ofs/^/...\n/. It makes code more readable (if we can talk about readability ofsedcode, huh).If you want to split a delimiter separated line and print some field, you need
cut. Keepawkfor more complicated tasks.Depends on the delimiter too! For anyone else reading this, sed accepts many kinds of delimiters.
sed "s@thing@thing2@g" file.txtis valid. I use this sometimes when parsing/replacing text with lots of slashes (like directory lists) so I can avoid escaping a ton of stuff.I know, but it is not the case I was talking about. I meant widely used commands like
awk '{print $2}'that can be replaced withcut -f2.I know you know, as you already demonstrated your higher understanding. I just wanted to add a little bonus trick for anyone reading that doesn’t know, and is learning from your examples.
the two are valid and no one is more correct than the other sooo…
agree with one and two and younger me would have agreed with your third point but I think I don’t anymore.
yes cut is the simpler and mostly functional tool you need for those tasks.
but it is just so common to need a slight tweak or to want to substitute something or to want to do a specific regex match or weird multi character delimiter or something and you can do it all easily in awk instead of having to pipe three extra times to do everything with the simplest tool.