NAME

     rpl — replace strings in files

SYNOPSIS

     rpl [-LhiwbqvsRepfdt] [-xSUFFIX] ⟨old_string⟩ ⟨new_string⟩ ⟨target_file ...⟩

DESCRIPTION

     Basic usage is to specify two strings and one or more filenames or directories on the
     command line.  The first string is the string to replace, and the second string is the
     replacement string.

     -h, --help
             A short help text.

     -L, --license
             Show the license and exit.

     -xSUFFIX
             Search only files ending with SUFFIX, e.g.  “.txt”.  May be specified multiple
             times.

     -i, --ignore-case
             Ignore the case of old_string.

     -w, --whole-words
             Make old_string match only on word boundaries.

     -b, --backup
             Move the original files to filename~ before replacing them.

     -q, --quiet
             Quiet mode.

     -v, --verbose
             Verbose mode.

     -s, --dry-run
             Simulation mode, no files are changed.

     -R, --recursive
             Recurse into subdirectories.

     -e, --escape
             Expand escape sequences in old_string and new_string.  Examples of escape sequences
             are ‘\n’ (new-line), ‘\t’ (tab), ‘\x42’ (hexadecimal number 42), ‘\033’ (octal
             number 033).

     -p, --prompt
             Prompt for confirmation before replacing each file.

     -f, --force
             Ignore errors when trying to restore permissions and file ownership.

     -d, --keep-times
             Keep modification times when replacing files.

     -t, --use-tmpdir
             Use a temporary directory for storing temporary files, usually the value of the
             environment variable TMPDIR.  The default is to put temporary files in the same
             directory as the file being modified.

     -a, --all
             Do not ignore files and directories starting with .

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

     An effort has been made to make the program behave as much as the original rpl as necessary.
     Where it has been possible to make improvements, improvements have been made.  This
     implementation lacks many of the bugs in the original.

EXAMPLES

     Replace all occurences of “F” (on word boundaries) with “A” in all text files under the
     grades/ directory:
           $ rpl -Rwd -x'.txt' 'F' 'A' grades/

SEE ALSO

     find(1), sed(1).

HISTORY

     This program was written for Debian as a free replacement for the non-free rpl program by
     Joe Laffey.

AUTHORS

     Göran Weinholt <weinholt@debian.org>.