rexreplace
v7.1.11
Published
Search & replace across files with a CLI tool that makes you trust what you are doing.
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RexReplace
RexReplace is a versatile tool to search and replace text in files from the command line. It's inspired by how developers often need to do quick fixes or one-liners for build scripts.
Key features:
- Easy and intuitive notation makes you trust what you are doing
- Replacement can be javascript code - giving you Turing complete flexibility
- Pinpoint the exact files with glob notation (
docs/*.md
represents each markdown file indocs/
) - No more brute-forcing the right combination of
find
,cat
,sed
,tr
, andawk
to replace a text pattern in the right files
Install
To use RexReplace from your command line
> npm install -g rexreplace
To use RexReplace from an npm build script:
> yarn add rexreplace --dev
# or
> npm install rexreplace --save-dev
Examples
Let 'foobar' become 'xxxbar' in myfile.md
> rexreplace 'Foo' 'xxx' myfile.md
Hard for your fingers to write on your keyboard? We got you covered with the rr
alias for rexreplace
> rr Foo xxx myfile.md
Catch the beginning
Let all markdown files in the docs/
dir get headlines moved one level deeper
> rexreplace '^#' '##' docs/*.md
Using glob notation to pinpoint files
Fix a spell error in all javascript and typescript files in the folders src/
and test/
recursively.
> rexreplace 'foubar' 'foobar' '{src,test}/**/*.{js,ts}'
Dynamically generated content
Let the version number from package.json get into your distribution js files (use the string VERSION
in your source files).
> rexreplace 'VERSION' 'require("./package.json").version' -j dist/*.js
Require have been given the alias r
and both are expanded to understand relative paths even without ./
prepended. As the file extension is not needed eighter you will get the same result writing:
> rexreplace 'VERSION' 'r("package").version' -j dist/*.js
Reference a matching group
Let 'foobar' become 'barfoo' in myfile.md
> rexreplace '(foo)(.*)' '$2$1' myfile.md
RexReplace defaults to treating €
as an alias for $
so the following will do the same as the previous example
> rexreplace '(foo)(.*)' '€2€1' myfile.md
Surviving backslash-escape hell
Let foo[bar]
become foo.0.[bar]
in myfile.md
> rexreplace '\[' '.0.[' myfile.md
The [
as a literate char must be escaped according to regex. If you run the command as a parameter (this could be from a script in package.json) you need to escape the escape:
"scripts":{
"fix": "rexreplace '\\[' '.0.[' myfile.md"
}
RexReplace defaults to treating §
as an alias for \
so the following give same result:
> rexreplace '§[' '.0.[' myfile.md
"scripts":{
"fix": "rexreplace '§[' '.0.[' myfile.md"
}
More relevant examples
Per file info
Add creation time, name of the file and human readable file size as the first line in each file in test-run
recursively.
> rexreplace '^' 'ctime_ + name_ + size + nl' -j -M 'dist/**/*.*'
Matching pairs
Let both "foo 'is' bar"
and ' foo "was" bar'
' become » foo ... bar «
independent of using '
or "
> rexreplace '(['"])([^\1]+)\1' '» $2 «' myfile.md
Usage
> rexreplace pattern replacement [fileGlob|option]+
| Flag | Effect |
| ---- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| -v
| --version
Print rexreplace version (can be given as only argument) [boolean] |
| -V
| --verbose
More chatty output [boolean] |
| -L
| --literal
Literal string search (no regex used when searching) [boolean] |
| -I
| --void-ignore-case
Void case insensitive search pattern. [boolean] |
| -G
| --void-global
Void global search (stop looking after the first match). [boolean] |
| -s
| --dot-all
Have .
also match newline. [boolean] |
| -M
| --void-multiline
Void multiline search pattern. Makes ^ and $ match start/end of whole content rather than each line. [boolean] |
| -u
| --unicode
Treat pattern as a sequence of unicode code points. [boolean] |
| -e
| --encoding
Encoding of files/piped data. [default: "utf8"] |
| -E
| --engine
What regex engine to use: [choices: "V8"] [default: "V8"] |
| -q
| --quiet
Only display errors (no other info) [boolean] |
| -Q
| --quiet-total
Never display errors or info [boolean] |
| -H
| --halt
Halt on first error [boolean] [default: false] |
| -d
| --debug
Print debug info [boolean] |
| -€
| --void-euro
Void having €
as alias for $
in pattern and replacement parameters [boolean] |
| -§
| --void-section
Void having §
as alias for \
in pattern and replacement parameters [boolean] |
| -o
| --output
Output the final result instead of saving to file. Will also output content even if no replacement has taken place. [boolean] |
| -A
| --void-async
Handle files in a synchronous flow. Good to limit memory usage when handling large files. [boolean] |
| -B
| --void-backup
Avoid temporary backing up file. Works async (independent of -A flag) and will speed up things but at one point data lives only in memory, and you will lose the content if the process is abrupted. [boolean] |
| -b
| --keep-backup
Keep a backup file of the original content. [boolean] |
| -m
| --output-match
Output each match on a new line. Will not replace any content but you still need to provide a dummy value (like _
) as replacement parameter. If search pattern does not contain matching groups the full match will be outputted. If search pattern does contain matching groups only matching groups will be outputted (same line with no delimiter). [boolean] |
| -T
| --trim-pipe
Trim piped data before processing. If piped data only consists of chars that can be trimmed (new line, space, tabs...) it will become an empty string. [boolean]