A simple replace script that I wrote long ago

replace

#!/usr/bin/python
 
import os, sys
argv = sys.argv
 
if len(argv) < 4:
    print "*********\nThis is the replace command, by William Stein (was@math.harvard.edu)\n*********"
    print "\tUsage: %s [-f] <from> <to> [file 1] [file 2] ..."%argv[0]
    print "Optional argument -f is to not ask for confirmation.";
    sys.exit(0)
 
if argv[1] == "-f":
    force = 1
    from_string = argv[2]
    to_string = argv[3]
    start = 4
else:
    force = 0
    from_string = argv[1]
    to_string = argv[2]
    start = 3
    if force:
        start = start + 1
    a = raw_input("Replace '%s' by '%s' in %s [Y/n]? "%\
              (from_string,to_string, argv[start:]))
    if len(a) > 0 and a[0] == "n":
        print "Not replacing."
        sys.exit(0)
 
for i in range(start,len(argv)):
    name = argv[i]
    try:
        file = open(name,"r").read()
    except:
        print "WARNING: file %s not found"%name
        continue
    if file.find(from_string) != -1:
        if not force:
            print "Replacing '%s' by '%s' in %s."%(from_string,to_string,name)
        #os.system("grep '%s' %s"%(from_string, name))
        file = file.replace(from_string, to_string)
        open(name,"w").write(file)