Edit multiple files at once using change.py

For many years I have used a home grown tool that allows me to make simple changes to multiple files with one command. It is called change and has existed as csh, bash and perl incarnations over the years. I recently rewrote it in python and thought that it might be useful to others so I am publishing it. Here is an example of how it works:

#!/bin/bash
files=$(find . -type f)
change.py 'Copyright (c) 2010' 'Copyright (c) 2012' $files
change.py 'Version 1.0' 'Version 1.2' $files

I suspect that lots of you have written your own, similar tools. If that is the case, please look it over send me suggestions for improvements.

You can download it here: http://projects.joelinoff.com/change-1.0/change.py.

Make sure that you call it using the python command or edit the first line to correctly access your local version of python.

Have fun!

Here is the on-line help (-h or –help). It explains things in a bit more detail.

% python ./change.py -h

USAGE
change.py [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION
This a tool that allows you to conveniently change text in a group
of files using regular expressions. It will also change file names.

You specify the old pattern, the new pattern and the list of files.

The patterns are in python regular expression format which makes it
easy to change text that contains things like forward slashes.

Here is a detailed example thats shows how to change foo to bar.

% ls -1
foo.txt
foo-bar.txt
% cat foo.txt
foo foo
% cat foo-bar.txt
foo foo
% change.py -s foo bar foo.txt foo-bar.txt
Total Files Analyzed : 2
Files Changed : 2
Files With Content Changes : 2
Files With Name Changes : 2
Total Changes : 4
Elapsed Time : 1.00 msecs
Time Per File : 0.50 msecs
% ls -1
bar.txt
bar-bar.txt

If you want to substitute characters that used in regular
expressions like '.' you must escape it with a backslash '\.'.
Here is an example:

% # Change all 3 character strings that start with 'fo'.
% change.py 'fo.' 'bar' *

% # Only change strings that have 'fo' and a period: 'fo.'.
% change.py 'fo\.' 'bar' *

If you only want to change a work use the '\b' directive as
follows:

% # Change 'foo' to 'bar' but leave 'foobar' alone.
% change.py '\bfoo\b' 'bar' *

OPTIONS
-C, --keep-contents
Don't change file contents. By default file contents
change.

-d, --dir DIR
Output directory. By default the files are changed
in place. If this option is specified, then changed
files appear in <dir>/<xfn> where xfn is the file
name with the unique portion of directory for all
file names in the list prepended. This reduces the
depth of the output direction. This is useful for
debugging.

-h, --help Display this usage message.

-n, --noop No change. It only tells you what would be changed.

-N, --keep-names
Don't change file names. By default file names change.

-s, --stats Print out run stats.

-v, --verbose
Increase the level of verbosity.
This can be specified multiple times.

-V, --version
Print the program version and exit.

EXAMPLES
% # Help
% change.py -h

% # Change foo to bar for the C++ files in this directory.
% change.py -s 'foo' 'bar' *.cc *.h

% # Change old to new for all Python files in this directory
% # tree.
% change.py -s 'old' 'new' `find . -type f -name '*.py`

% # Change old to new for all Python files but leave the
% # file names unchanged.
% change.py -s -N 'old' 'new' `find . -type f -name '*.py`

AUTHOR
Joe Linoff

VERSION
Version 1.0

LICENSE
This for this change tool.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Joe Linoff

The change tool is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.

The change tool is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details. You should have received
a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the change
tool; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.