Sometimes you need to search and replace strings over multiple files. This can easily be done using perl. I found this tip from www.liamdelahunty.com/tips

perl -pi -w -e 's/search/replace/g;' *.php

-e means execute the following line of code.
-i means edit in-place
-w write warnings
-p loop

There was an error when you login Cpanel

Can’t locate GDBM_File.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/local/cpanel /usr/local/cpanel/perl /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/CPAN/overload/__Digest /usr/local/cpanel/build-tools/stubs /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.2/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.2 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.2/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.2 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl .) at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/Locale/Utils.pm line 14.
Cpanel::Locale::Utils::BEGIN() called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
eval {…} called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
require Cpanel/Locale/Utils.pm called at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/Locale.pm line 15
Cpanel::Locale::BEGIN() called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
eval {…} called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
require Cpanel/Locale.pm called at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/StatsBar.pm line 11
Cpanel::StatsBar::BEGIN() called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
eval {…} called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
require Cpanel/StatsBar.pm called at (eval 74) line 1
main::BEGIN() called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
eval {…} called at GDBM_File.pm line 14
eval ‘use Cpanel::StatsBar ();’ called at cpanel.pl line 4974
main::modloader(‘StatsBar’) called at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/LoadModule.pm line 10
Cpanel::LoadModule::loadmodule(‘StatsBar’) called at cpanel.pl line 4982
main::api2_preexec(‘StatsBar’, ‘rowcounter’) called at cpanel.pl line 1451
main::cpexectag(‘<?cp StatsBar::rowcounter(%,rowtype) rowcounter=mainstats ?>’) called at cpanel.pl line 4808
main::dotag(undef) called at cpanel.pl line 4691
main::cpanel_parseblock(‘SCALAR(0xa93311c)’) called at cpanel.pl line 4643
main::cpanel_parse(‘GLOB(0xa514874)’) called at cpanel.pl line 2878
main::doinclude(‘/usr/local/cpanel/base/frontend/x3/branding//index.html’, 0, 1) called at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/Branding.pm line 95
Cpanel::Branding::Branding_include(‘index.html’) called at (eval 7) line 1
eval ‘Cpanel::Branding::Branding_include(@{$argref});’ called at cpanel.pl line 1660
main::exectag(‘<cpanel Branding=”include(index.html)”>’) called at cpanel.pl line 4808
main::dotag(undef) called at cpanel.pl line 4691
main::cpanel_parseblock(‘SCALAR(0x91a0700)’) called at cpanel.pl line 4643
main::cpanel_parse(‘GLOB(0xa4d4110)’) called at cpanel.pl line 1318

because there are some errors in PERL
resolve

/scripts/checkperlmodules
/scripts/perlinstaller --force Encode
/scripts/upcp --force

httpd has mod_cgi module that allows you running Perl and other server side programs via cgi-bin directory. The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server.

Step #1: Create a CGI cgi-bin Directory

First you need to create a cgi-bin directory for your domain. Assuming that your domain hosted at /home/lighttpd/theos.in/http (DocumentRoot), create cgi-bin as follows:
# mkdir -p /home/lighttpd/theos.in/cgi-bin

Step # 2: Load mod_cgi Module

Open lighttpd configuration file using a text editor such as vi:
# vi /etc/lighttpd/ligttpd.conf

Now append or modify text as follows so that support for mod_cgi get loaded:

server.modules += ( “mod_cgi” )

Find out your virtual server configuration and append the following:

$HTTP["url"] =~ “/cgi-bin/” {
cgi.assign = ( “.pl” => “/usr/bin/perl” )
}

Here is complete my config code:

$HTTP["host"] =~ “theos.in” {
server.document-root = “/home/lighttpd/theos.in/http”
accesslog.filename = “/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/access.log”
$HTTP["url"] =~ “/cgi-bin/” {
cgi.assign = ( “.pl” => “/usr/bin/perl” )
}
}

Step # 3:Restart the Lighttpd

Restart lighttpd webserver, enter:
# /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart

Step # 4: Test It

Create a file/perl program in /home/lighttpd/theos.in/cgi-bin/sample.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print “Content-Type: text/plain”, “\n\n“;
print “Hi there! This is a sample perl program!!!”, “\n“;

Save and execute the program (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/sample.pl).

Q. How do I replace a string with another string in all files? For example, ~/foo directory has 100s of text file and I’d like to find out xyz string and replace with abc. I’d like to use sed or any other tool to replace all occurrence of the word.

A.sed command is designed for this kind of work i.e. replace strings.

sed replace word / string syntax

sed -i 's/old-word/new-word/g' *.txt

GNU sed command can edit files in place (makes backup if extension supplied) using -i option. If you are using old or UNIX sed command try the following syntax:

sed 's/old/new/g' input.txt > output.txt

I recommend using old syntax along with for loop:

#!/bin/bash
OLD=”xyz”
NEW=”abc”
DPATH=”/home/you/foo/*.txt”
BPATH=”/home/you/bakup/foo”
TFILE=”/tmp/out.tmp.$$”
[ ! -d $BPATH ] && mkdir -p $BPATH || :
for f in $DPATH
do
if [ -f $f -a -r $f ]; then
/bin/cp -f $f $BPATH
sed “s/$OLD/$NEW/g” “$f” > $TFILE && mv $TFILE “$f”
else
echo “Error: Cannot read $f”
fi
done
/bin/rm $TFILE

perl -pie trick

perl -pie 's/old-word/new-word/g' input > output