===== Search and Replace in Files =====
<code>
grep -Z -R -l -E 'searchpattern' . | xargs -0 sed -i 's/searchpattern/replacestring/g'
</code>

===== Advanced Example =====
  * :!: remember to escape parenthesis when using [[sed]]
  * this example finds all occurrences of 'oldhostname' where it is not followed by a period, and replaces it with 'newhostname' 
<code>
grep -Z -R -l -E 'oldhostname[^\.]' . | xargs -0 sed -i 's/oldhostname\([^\.]\)/newhostname\1/g'
</code>

===== FreeBSD 5 Example =====
  * the -Z parameter was different for grep, so it actually wanted %%--null%%
  * the backup extension for sed was not optional, so '.sed' was used
<code>
grep --null -R -l -E 'oldhostname[^\.]' . | xargs -0 -t sed -i '.sed' 's/newhostname\([^\.]\)/xdev\1/g'
</code>

===== See Also =====
  * [[sed]]