Sed command error

[anatazi]

Hi all, I wrote this script (prog3a) that replaces all of the occurences of a search-string with the replace-string in the file specified on the command line. the sed command should send the output to a temp file , then the temp file is moved to $file.keep. when i run the script I get the following error message:
prog3a: to: not found
cp: . is a directory (not copied).
could not create the backup file

Below is the portion of the script where the problem is. I would appreciate any pointers.Thanks a lot.

for $file
do

if cp "$file" "$file.keep"
then
:
else
echo "could not create the backup file" 1>&2
fi


if [ -r "$file" -a -w "$file" ]; then

sed "s/$search_string/$replace_string/g" $file > temp
mv temp "$file.keep"
fi
done

 

[olded]

Hi:

The problem isn't with sed; What's probably happening is you're trying to copy a directory, so the error message is valid.

The obvious fix is however, you create $file, make sure it doesn't contain any directories.

Regards,


Ed

 

[tdatgod]

add an if to make sure $file isn't a directory.

if [ -d $file ] ; then
next
fi

 

[anatazi]

Thanks for the help,