So, you want an easy to to replace text in files, even multiple files, on a linux machine, from the command line.
How? - You ask? Easy.

Let me show you.
Let?s say you want to replace all instances of ?John? with ?Pete? in a file, called resume.txt
In a bash shell, run the following:
Code:

PHP Code:
PHP Code: 
 replace John Pete ? resume.txt 


Now, how about replacing all instance of ?/home/? with ?/home2/?? in all files located in /etc/? (let?s say you have moved the home folder)
Code:

PHP Code:
PHP Code: 
 replace /home/ /home2/ ? /etc/* 


Or, you want to update your DNS servers quickly, after moving your servers to a new domain. The old domain was mydomain.com & the new domain is ourdomain.com
Code:

PHP Code:
PHP Code: 
      replace mydomain newdomain ? /var/named/*.db 
Albert.Nawaro Reviewed by Albert.Nawaro on . How to change a string in a text file on a Linux server So, you want an easy to to replace text in files, even multiple files, on a linux machine, from the command line. How? - You ask? Easy. Let me show you. Let?s say you want to replace all instances of ?John? with ?Pete? in a file, called resume.txt In a bash shell, run the following: Code: PHP Code: replace John Pete ? resume.txt Rating: 5