perl or sed s/// problem

[Matt Graham]

From: David <david at damnetwork.net>
> line="password    requisite     /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so
> newline="password required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so 
> I need to maintain whitespace
> 
> perl -p -i -e s/"$line"/"$newline"/  file
> 
> That tosses out all kinds of errors

Modern regexp engines allow you to use an arbitrary char as the pattern
delimiter.  If I've got slashes in my patterns, I tend to use # as the
delimiter, which allows you to avoid Leaning Toothpick Syndrome.  Other people
may use | .  # is visually distinctive and not as common as / in some
string-replace contexts, though:

perl -p -i -e 's#"$line"#"$newline"#'  file

-- 
Matt G / Dances With Crows
The Crow202 Blog:  http://crow202.org/wordpress/
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see