sed: can't read : No such file or directory
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Error message:
sed: can't read : No such file or directory
This is due to running sed with the option --in-place without having a given file:
$ sed --in-place s/from/to/ ""In a bash script
This error is usually encountered when sed is employed within a bash script. For example:
#!/bin/bash
sed --in-place "s/from/to/" "${1}" and forgetting to run the script with a file argument:
$ myscript.sh
sed: can't read : No such file or directory
$ myscript.sh file.txt # OK.Also, make sure the file name is enclosed in double quotes, in case there are spaces in the file name:
# This is brittle. Expect breakage with some file names:
sed --in-place "s/from/to/" ${1} With xargs
The same principle applies with xargs as with a bash script. Beware of file names which include spaces.
Use the xargs option -0, and make sure that whatever pipes the data to xargs is doing something similar:
# With find:
find "something" -print0 | xargs -0 sed --in-line "s/old/new/"
# with egrep:
egrep -Z "something" *.txt | xargs -0 sed --in-line "s/old/new/"Other
Other things to consider:
The 'file' may be a symlink to a non-existent file. Make sure the symlink points to something valid.