sed gives “illegal byte sequence” error when trying to replace a character
I am using the “Terminal” in Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and I am trying to delete all occurrences of a from a file, by using sed:
sed 's/a//g' file
Which gives me the following error:
sed: RE error: illegal byte sequence
sed 's/a//' file works without a problem. The error appears when I add the g modifier to the regular expression.
macos terminal sed osx-yosemite
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ yesterday
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
add a comment |
I am using the “Terminal” in Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and I am trying to delete all occurrences of a from a file, by using sed:
sed 's/a//g' file
Which gives me the following error:
sed: RE error: illegal byte sequence
sed 's/a//' file works without a problem. The error appears when I add the g modifier to the regular expression.
macos terminal sed osx-yosemite
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ yesterday
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
RE error: illegal byte sequence on Mac OS X
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:26
Does it mean that the encoding of the file is different?
– sodiumnitrate
Apr 9 '15 at 15:30
As it stands,sedworks as expected on a text file. So maybe you should edit your question to clarify what type of file—and what the contents might be—you are attempting to run this command on.
– JakeGould
Apr 9 '15 at 15:31
Getting "sed error - illegal byte sequence" (in bash)
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:33
add a comment |
I am using the “Terminal” in Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and I am trying to delete all occurrences of a from a file, by using sed:
sed 's/a//g' file
Which gives me the following error:
sed: RE error: illegal byte sequence
sed 's/a//' file works without a problem. The error appears when I add the g modifier to the regular expression.
macos terminal sed osx-yosemite
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
I am using the “Terminal” in Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and I am trying to delete all occurrences of a from a file, by using sed:
sed 's/a//g' file
Which gives me the following error:
sed: RE error: illegal byte sequence
sed 's/a//' file works without a problem. The error appears when I add the g modifier to the regular expression.
macos terminal sed osx-yosemite
macos terminal sed osx-yosemite
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
edited Apr 9 '15 at 21:44
Kevin Panko
5,919113648
5,919113648
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
asked Apr 9 '15 at 15:18
sodiumnitratesodiumnitrate
2341416
2341416
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ yesterday
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ yesterday
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
RE error: illegal byte sequence on Mac OS X
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:26
Does it mean that the encoding of the file is different?
– sodiumnitrate
Apr 9 '15 at 15:30
As it stands,sedworks as expected on a text file. So maybe you should edit your question to clarify what type of file—and what the contents might be—you are attempting to run this command on.
– JakeGould
Apr 9 '15 at 15:31
Getting "sed error - illegal byte sequence" (in bash)
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:33
add a comment |
RE error: illegal byte sequence on Mac OS X
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:26
Does it mean that the encoding of the file is different?
– sodiumnitrate
Apr 9 '15 at 15:30
As it stands,sedworks as expected on a text file. So maybe you should edit your question to clarify what type of file—and what the contents might be—you are attempting to run this command on.
– JakeGould
Apr 9 '15 at 15:31
Getting "sed error - illegal byte sequence" (in bash)
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:33
RE error: illegal byte sequence on Mac OS X
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:26
RE error: illegal byte sequence on Mac OS X
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:26
Does it mean that the encoding of the file is different?
– sodiumnitrate
Apr 9 '15 at 15:30
Does it mean that the encoding of the file is different?
– sodiumnitrate
Apr 9 '15 at 15:30
As it stands,
sed works as expected on a text file. So maybe you should edit your question to clarify what type of file—and what the contents might be—you are attempting to run this command on.– JakeGould
Apr 9 '15 at 15:31
As it stands,
sed works as expected on a text file. So maybe you should edit your question to clarify what type of file—and what the contents might be—you are attempting to run this command on.– JakeGould
Apr 9 '15 at 15:31
Getting "sed error - illegal byte sequence" (in bash)
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:33
Getting "sed error - illegal byte sequence" (in bash)
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:33
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
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oldest
votes
You need to add -i along with two empty ''. So it would look like this:
sed -i '' 's/a//g' filename.txt
Explanation is that -i equals in-place (save it right back to the original file)
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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1 Answer
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active
oldest
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oldest
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active
oldest
votes
You need to add -i along with two empty ''. So it would look like this:
sed -i '' 's/a//g' filename.txt
Explanation is that -i equals in-place (save it right back to the original file)
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
add a comment |
You need to add -i along with two empty ''. So it would look like this:
sed -i '' 's/a//g' filename.txt
Explanation is that -i equals in-place (save it right back to the original file)
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
add a comment |
You need to add -i along with two empty ''. So it would look like this:
sed -i '' 's/a//g' filename.txt
Explanation is that -i equals in-place (save it right back to the original file)
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
You need to add -i along with two empty ''. So it would look like this:
sed -i '' 's/a//g' filename.txt
Explanation is that -i equals in-place (save it right back to the original file)
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
answered Jan 9 at 10:43
Jannick LangkjærJannick Langkjær
12
12
add a comment |
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RE error: illegal byte sequence on Mac OS X
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:26
Does it mean that the encoding of the file is different?
– sodiumnitrate
Apr 9 '15 at 15:30
As it stands,
sedworks as expected on a text file. So maybe you should edit your question to clarify what type of file—and what the contents might be—you are attempting to run this command on.– JakeGould
Apr 9 '15 at 15:31
Getting "sed error - illegal byte sequence" (in bash)
– DavidPostill♦
Apr 9 '15 at 15:33