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sedmacos-high-sierra

Sed * only modifying first file

I would like to delete the first 40 lines of a good number of ASCII files and save the ASCII files without those 40 lines

I'm working under OSX High Sierra, realized that the -i option in sed was not working unless I create a backup file, so I tried using this command:

sed -i'backup' -e '1,40d' *.txt

It however only modifies and deletes the first 40 lines in my first file (alphabetically), but not the others.

How can I edit multiple files with just one command?

Thanks

Solution

  • You can use the following command that will

    • look in the current folder
    • ignore sub folder
    • take only into account files whose filenames end with '*.txt'
    • before executing the sed command.

    Command: 

       find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.txt' -exec sed -i 'backup' -e '1,40d' {} \;