Unix: Search/Replace across multiple files

from the command line, using grep, sed, etc.

Quick One Liners

Replace foo with bar in every .java file in current directory (based on this source) (Does NOT WORK ON MAC… see below for alternate version).

cd /path/to/your/folder
sed -i 's/foo/bar/g' *.java

Note that on Mac, the second line should be:

sed -i .backup -e 's/foo/bar/g' *.java

Replace old-word with new-word in every file in current directory tree (based on this source)

grep -rli 'old-word' . | xargs -i@ sed -i 's/old-word/new-word/g' @

Longer articles

• Replace a String in Multiple Files in Linux Using Grep and Sed: http://vasir.net/blog/ubuntu/replace_string_in_multiple_files