Re: grouping in sed with OR operator in bash in one line

[Toby]

On Jul 20, 10:02 pm, pac...@kosh.dhis.org (Alan Curry) wrote:
> In article 
> <caa6a54d-8488-499c-8057-f24e930f3...@g35g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>,
>
> Toby  <tobias.wun...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >Hi,
>
> >I would like to replace a a set of words by another word via sed. My
> >first try was:
>
> >  echo "a cat or a dog" | sed 's/\(cat\)\|\(dog\)/PET/g'
>
> >I also tried some variations of this. But all failed.
>
> Works for me:
>
> $ echo "a cat or a dog" | sed 's/\(cat\)\|\(dog\)/PET/g'
> a PET or a PET
>
> The \(...\) aren't necessary, since the \| has low precedence.
>
> $ echo "a cat or a dog" | sed 's/cat\|dog/PET/g'
> a PET or a PET
>
> $ sed --version
> GNU sed version 4.1.5
> Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
> warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,
> to the extent permitted by law.
>
> --
> Alan Curry
Hi Alan,

indeed I had the BSD version. I followed this to install GNU. Now it
works.

Thanks a lot.

Cheers,
Toby

References
[1] http://dsmarkchen.blogspot.com/2007/12/gnu-sed-on-mac.html