sed: how to replace a specific string

Question

I have an issue I am trying to solve with sed. My goal is to quote a the content after content= if the content is not already quoted.

Here is the concrete example:

<meta name="ProgId" content=Word.Document>
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15">

I would like to add quotes around Word.Document so at the end have:

<meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15">

I was trying with

sed -i 's@content="\(.*\)"@content="\1"/@g' "$1"

However this is not working.

Thank you.

content=" There is no ", so why match it?

KamilCuk
– KamilCuk

2020-07-09 08:44:30 +00:00
Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 8:44 — KamilCuk
– KamilCuk, Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 8:44

KamilCuk · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-09 09:23:12Z

1

There is no " in the input behind content=, so you shouldn't match it. You could match up until a space or >.

sed 's@content=\([^"][^ >]*\)@content="\1"@'

Note that you should use XML aware tools to parse XML documents.

edited Jul 9, 2020 at 9:23

answered Jul 9, 2020 at 8:45

KamilCuk

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3 Comments

Milos Cuculovic Over a year ago

Thanks! This works partly. In the case the words after the content= are quoted, the sed will add another pair of quotes and this is not the goal. Sorry I didn't mention this in my question. I will rephrase.

KamilCuk Over a year ago

Well, then match not a quote. Fixed.

Sundeep Over a year ago

@Miloš you should be able to modify the suggested answer for that case.. sed 's@content=\([^" >]*\)>@content="\1">@' is one way to do it.. btw, there is an extra / left over before last @

Francesco · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-09 09:33:03Z

1

This should work:

sed -E 's/content=([^">]+)/content="\1"/'

Explanation:

In this way, you tell sed to substitute everything is after content= and before > only if it doesn't start with ". I used regex grouping to replace the content with itself surrounded by ".

Input:

<meta name="ProgId" content=Word.Document>
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15">

Output:

<meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15">

answered Jul 9, 2020 at 9:33

Francesco

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