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I have an XML file (config.xml) as below.

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project> <blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding>false</blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding> <triggers> <com.cloudbees.jenkins.GitHubPushTrigger plugin="[email protected]"> <spec/> </com.cloudbees.jenkins.GitHubPushTrigger> </triggers> <concurrentBuild>false</concurrentBuild> </project>

I want to replace the triggers block with only <triggers/>. But when I use SED to do it, I get this error:

sed: 1: "/<triggers>/{:a;N;/<\/t ...": unexpected EOF (pending }'s)

Command:

sed -i '.bak' '/<triggers>/{:a;N;/<\/triggers>/!ba;N;s/.*\n/<triggers\/>\n/};p' config.yml

I want you to know what am I missing here and how to get the desired outcome?

Desired Output:

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project> <blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding>false</blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding> </triggers> <concurrentBuild>false</concurrentBuild> </project>
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    You can't parse [X]HTML with regex. I suggest to use an XML/HTML parser (xmlstarlet, e.g.). Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 6:45
  • You mean you actually want to produce invalid XML output, containing an end tag with no matching start tag? That's a pretty weird requirement... Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 9:43
  • This should work in your case, but I don't recommend it: sed -e '/<triggers>/,/<\/triggers>/{/<\/triggers>/{i \ \ </triggers>' -e '};d}' file.xml Commented Jul 15, 2018 at 6:46
  • I have edit the question, realized it later. Modified it to get valid XML. When I run: sed -e '/<triggers>/,/<\/triggers>/{/<\/triggers>/{i \ \ <triggers\/>' -e '};d}' file.xml Output: sed: 1: "/<triggers>/,/<\/trigge ...": extra characters after \ at the end of i command Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 14:27

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

With this valid XML file:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <root> <blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding>false</blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding> <triggers> <com.cloudbees.jenkins.GitHubPushTrigger plugin="[email protected]"> <spec/> </com.cloudbees.jenkins.GitHubPushTrigger> </triggers> <concurrentBuild>false</concurrentBuild> </root>

With this command:

xmlstarlet edit --omit-decl --update "//triggers" --value ""

Output:

<root> <blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding>false</blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding> <triggers/> <concurrentBuild>false</concurrentBuild> </root>

If you want to edit file inplace, add option -L.

See: xmlstarlet edit --help

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3 Comments

I get this strange error with inline option: xmlstarlet edit -L --update "//triggers" --value "" config.xml config.xml:1.20: Unsupported version '1.1' <?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8"?> It doesn't seem to like the XML version.
It looks like your xmlstarlet does not support XML version 1.1.
And the other problem I am facing is, production servers don't have xmlstarlet installed. That is the reason I am stuck with SED. I went through a lot of questions here before posting mine.

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