Try this instead of the space. I just had a long fight with sed myself. edit fix.sh and put in it: #!/bin/sh echo "s/^foobar[[:blank:]]/foo bar/p" > edit.lst sed -f edit.lst processedfile > processedfile.fixed rm -f edit.lst Then run it. If I add the ;p I get a different error but the insertion of the "foo bar" works fine. Cheers, Davidm On Wed, 2003-03-19 at 08:01, Liberty Young wrote: > So, the following command works from the command prompt: > > > sed -ne "s|^foobar[[:blank:]]|foo bar|p;p" processed_file > > Basically, replace foobar followed by a whitespace with foo bar > > Now, i'm trying to execute the same command in a bash script: > > #!/bin/bash > > sedrules="s|^foobar[[:blank:]]|foo bar|p;p" > file=processed_file > > sed -ne $sedrules $file > > #done > > which errors out with: sed -e expression #1, char 27: unterminated `s' > command > > I've googled and found out it has to do with bash and the quotes. Doing > the same command at the command prompt, but without placing quotes > around the expression, gives me the same error. But > sedrules="'s/foobar//p'" doesn't work either. It gives me a sed error of > unknown command > > Anybody come across this before and have any suggestions? Google pointed > me in the right direction, but with no solutions. > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss -- David IS Mandala gpg fingerprint 8932 E7EF CCF5 1B8C 1B5C A92E C678 795E 45B2 D952 Phoenix, AZ (480) 460-7545 HP, (602) 741-1363 CP http://www.them.com/~davidm/