Repren is a simple but flexible command-line tool for rewriting file contents
according to a set of regular expression patterns, and to rename or move files
according to patterns. Essentially, it is a general-purpose, brute-force text
file refactoring tool. For example, repren could rename all occurrences of
certain class and variable names in a set of Java source files, while
simultaneously renaming the Java files according to the same pattern. It's more
powerful than usual options like perl -pie
, rpl
, or sed
:
Run repren --help
for full usage and flags.
If file paths are provided, repren replaces those files in place, leaving a backup with extension ".orig". If directory paths are provided, it applies replacements recursively to all files in the supplied paths that are not in the exclude pattern. If no arguments are supplied, it reads from stdin and writes to stdout.
Aren't there standard tools for this already?
It's a bit surprising, but not really. Getting the features right is a bit tricky, I guess. The standard answers like sed, perl, awk, rename, Vim macros, or even IDE refactoring tools, often cover specific cases, but tend to be error-prone or not offer specific features you probably want. Things like nondestructive mode, file renaming as well as search/replace, multiple simultaneous renames/swaps, or renaming enclosing parent directories. Also many of these vary by platform, which adds to the corner cases. Inevitably you end up digging through the darker corners of some man page or writing ugly scripts that would scare your mother.
No dependencies except Python 2.7+. It's easiest to install with pip (using sudo if desired):
pip2.7 install repren
Or, since it's just one file, you can copy the repren script somewhere (perhaps within your own project) and make it executable.
Let's try a simple replacement in my working directory (which has a few random source files):
bash-3.2$ repren --from frobinator-server --to glurp-server --full --dry-run .
Dry run: No files will be changed
Using 1 patterns:
'frobinator-server' -> 'glurp-server'
Found 102 files in: .
- modify: ./site.yml: 1 matches
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/defaults/main.yml -> ./roles/glurp-server/defaults/main.yml
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/files/deploy-frobinator-server.sh -> ./roles/glurp-server/files/deploy-frobinator-server.sh
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/files/install-graphviz.sh -> ./roles/glurp-server/files/install-graphviz.sh
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/files/frobinator-purge-old-deployments -> ./roles/glurp-server/files/frobinator-purge-old-deployments
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/handlers/main.yml -> ./roles/glurp-server/handlers/main.yml
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/tasks/main.yml -> ./roles/glurp-server/tasks/main.yml
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/templates/frobinator-webservice.conf.j2 -> ./roles/glurp-server/templates/frobinator-webservice.conf.j2
- rename: ./roles/frobinator-server/templates/frobinator-webui.conf.j2 -> ./roles/glurp-server/templates/frobinator-webui.conf.j2
Read 102 files (190382 chars), found 2 matches (0 skipped due to overlaps)
Dry run: Would have changed 2 files, including 0 renames
That was a dry run, so if it looks good, it's easy to repeat that a second time, dropping the --dry-run
flag.
If this is in git, we'd do a git diff to verify, test, then commit it all.
If we messed up, there are still .orig files present.
Patterns can be supplied using the --from
and --to
syntax above, but that only works for a single pattern.
In general, you can perform multiple simultaneous replacements by putting them in a patterns file. Each line consists of a regular expression and replacement. For example:
# Sample pattern file
frobinator<tab>glurp
WhizzleStick<tab>AcmeExtrudedPlasticFunProvider
figure ([0-9+])<tab>Figure \1
(Where <tab>
is an actual tab character.)
Empty lines and #-prefixed comments are ignored. Capturing groups and back substitutions (such as \1 above) are supported.
# Here `patfile` is a patterns file.
# Rewrite stdin:
repren -p patfile < input > output
# Shortcut with a single pattern replacement (replace foo with bar):
repren --from foo --to bar < input > output
# Rewrite a few files in place, also requiring matches be on word breaks:
repren -p patfile --word-breaks myfile1 myfile2 myfile3
# Rewrite whole directory trees. Since this is a big operation, we use
# `-n` to do a dry run that only prints what would be done:
repren -n -p patfile --word-breaks --full mydir1
# Now actually do it:
repren -p patfile --word-breaks --full mydir1
# Same as above, for all case variants:
repren -p patfile --word-breaks --preserve-case --full mydir1
--at-once
.\n
, \t
, etc. (To match a multi-line pattern,\n
, you must must use --at-once
.)--word-breaks
will help.--literal
may help.my/path/to/filename
can be rewritten to my/other/path/to/otherfile
.-n
, especially when using absolute path--exclude
. Files ending in .orig
are always ignored.--case-preserving
logic only handles casing conversions correctly for plain[a-zA-Z]
.Contributions and issues welcome! Do understand and run the (manual) regression tests, review the output, and commit the clean log changes if you submit a PR. (And mention this in the PR.)
Apache 2.