[ILUG] sed question

[Padraig Kitterick]

Do the 'second' tags always start on a new line?

P.

Marcus Furlong wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm having trouble using sed to do replacements on some badly tagged
> xml. I have a large number of files that are tagged as follows:
> 
> <first id="34">
> blah blah
> <second id="56" name="xyz1">hello hello</second>
> <second name="xyz4">hello hello</second>
> <second id="16" name="xyz5">hello hello</second>
> <first id="3">
> blah blah blah
> <second>hello hello</second>
> <second id="12" name="xyz5">hello hello</second>
> 
> The "first" tags have no closing tags at all, and may or may not have
> text between the tag and the next tag. What I want to do is remove the
> "first" tag and any text up to, but not including the "second" tag.
> 
> I've got to the following stage, but don't know how to get it to _not_
> delete the line containing the "second" tag:
> 
> sed -e '<first/,/<second s/.*//' file.xml
> 
> Any suggestions?
> Thanks,