Search and Replace Similar but Different Phrases

Question

How do I search and replace a common, but different, phrase to a single phrase in multiple files from the terminal.

For instance, I want to change the following:

File1, File2, File3:
--Link2-- --Link2-- --Link2--
--Link3-- --Link3-- --Link3--
--Link4-- --Link4-- --Link4--

ALL TO

--Link1--

Answer 1

Depending on whether you could represent the "common but different phrases" by regex, you could use the following from the folder containing the files:

Search n replace with Perl
Syntax:
$ perl -p -i -e 's/search_for/replace_with/g' filename(s)

• -e is for "execute" – It allows you to define Perl code to be executed by the compiler
• -p is for "process" – It adds a loop around your -e code so that it is applied to each line of any specified files
• -i creates a backup file before making your changes.
• -i.bak suffixes .bak to the filename. If -i has no arguments, the file names don’t change.