How can I change one string in multiple files in f

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Find and replace with sed in directory and sub directories 6 answers

My qeustion is how in BASH I can change one word in many txt files in one directory and few subdirectories? I did as below (check all similar topics) but it is still not working. changePhrase is a name of directory where the subdirectories and files are. Inside that files is a string that I want to change. I have to make it with a for loop (it's a task). Where is mistake? Thank you.

#!/bin/bash

for file in changePhrase; do
    if [[ -f $file ]] && [[ -w $file ]]; then
        sed -i -- 's/old/new/g' "$file"
    fi
done

Answer 1

If changePhrase is the name of your directory try to append /**{,/*} to it. Using the globbing will make the loop go over all the files.

Answer 2

I think your code will work if you just add find to the for loop so:

#!/bin/bash

for file in `find changePhrase`; do
    if [[ -f $file ]] && [[ -w $file ]]; then
        sed -i -- 's/old/new/g' "$file"
    fi
done

Answer 3

you can do

find changePhraseDir -type f -a -writeable|xargs sed -i 's/foo/bar/'

• -type f -> file
• -a -> and
• -writable -> your -w