Replace inplace?

[jmigual]

So, I've discovered the -r switch to replace some text. However, I have about 50k files where I would like to replace a string. I was expecting the command rg "out/gen" -r "data/gen" to replace all the "out/gen" string inside all my files with "data/gen" but I later realized that this does not work.

I ended up using VS Code to perform that task which was very slow. Would it be possible to add a switch to do the replacement inplace instead of just printing it?

[s-p-turner]

The documentation for the -r flag states: "Replace every match with the text given when printing results. Neither this flag nor any other ripgrep flag will modify your files."

I doubt the authors would want to modify ripgrep to do in-place editing of files. And neither should they in my opinion, as it's a file search utility and not a file editing utility. I would suggest either writing a script and/or using the find utility to iterate over your files and use sed -i to replace your text instead.

[BurntSushi]

See also #74 and https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/master/FAQ.md#search-and-replace.

[s-p-turner]

It's probably worth mentioning that sed -i ... will destroy symbolic links if you do an in-place replacement of text in a file that happens to be a symbolic link. The way to get around this behaviour is to use the --follow-symlinks argument i.e. sed --follow-symlinks -i... I don't know whether this might be worth adding to the ripgrep FAQ? I will of course understand if you don't feel this is within the remit of ripgrep. But you do mention sed as a possible solution to replacing text in files in the FAQ already ;-)

[BurntSushi]

I don't think so. The point of the FAQ item is to give folks some pointers. But I really do not want to get in the business of maintaining a complete guide to in-place replacement.

[BurntSushi]

(I have also never used --follow-symlinks with sed -i myself and it hasn't bitten me in a couple decades. Doesn't mean it isn't valid, but might point to it being a niche issue.)

[s-p-turner]

After 40 years of developing on Unix/Linux, it happened to bite me for the first ever time last week. Which is why I thought I'd mention it as the wound hasn't yet healed. But as I stated earlier, I completely understand your decision to not add this to the ripgrep FAQ.