.Dd July 31, 2005
.Os Debian
.Dt RPL 1
.
.Sh NAME
.Nm rpl
.Nd replace strings in files
.
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm rpl
.Op Fl LhiwbqvsRepfdt
.Op Fl x Ns Ar SUFFIX
.Ao Ar old_string Ac Ao Ar new_string Ac 
.Bk
.Ao Ar target_file ... Ac
.Ek
.
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Basic usage is to specify two strings and one or more filenames or
directories on the command line.
The first string is the string to replace, and the second string is
the replacement string.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Cm \-h, \-\-help
A short help text.
.It Cm \-L, \-\-license
Show the license and exit.
.It Cm \-x Ns Ar SUFFIX
Search only files ending with
.Ar SUFFIX ,
e.g.
.Dq .txt .
May be specified multiple times.
.It Cm \-i, \-\-ignore\-case
Ignore the case of
.Ar old_string .
.It Cm \-w, \-\-whole\-words
Make
.Ar old_string
match only on word boundaries.
.It Cm \-b, \-\-backup
Move the original files to
.Pa filename~
before replacing them.
.It Cm \-q, \-\-quiet
Quiet mode.
.It Cm \-v, \-\-verbose
Verbose mode.
.It Cm \-s, \-\-dry\-run
Simulation mode, no files are changed.
.It Cm \-R, \-\-recursive
Recurse into subdirectories.
.It Cm \-e, \-\-escape
Expand escape sequences in
.Ar old_string
and 
.Ar new_string .
Examples of escape sequences are
.Sq \en
(new-line),
.Sq \et
(tab), 
.Sq \ex42
(hexadecimal number 42),
.Sq \e033
(octal number 033).
.It Cm \-p, \-\-prompt
Prompt for confirmation before replacing each file.
.It Cm \-f, \-\-force
Ignore errors when trying to restore permissions and file ownership.
.It Cm \-d, \-\-keep\-times
Keep modification times when replacing files.
.It Cm \-t, \-\-use\-tmpdir
Use a temporary directory for storing temporary files, usually
the value of the environment variable
.Ev TMPDIR .
The default is to put temporary files in the same directory as
the file being modified.
.It Cm \-a, \-\-all
Do not ignore files and directories starting with .
.El
.
.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
An effort has been made to make the program behave as much as
the original
.Nm rpl
as necessary.
Where it has been possible to make improvements, improvements
have been made.
This implementation lacks many of the bugs in the original.
.
.Sh EXAMPLES
Replace all occurences of
.Dq F
(on word boundaries) with
.Dq A
in all text files under the grades/ directory:
.Dl $ rpl \-Rwd \-x'.txt' 'F' 'A' grades/
.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr find 1 ,
.Xr sed 1 .
.
.Sh HISTORY
This program was written for Debian as a free replacement for the non-free
.Nm rpl
program by Joe Laffey.
.
.Sh AUTHORS
.An "G\[:o]ran Weinholt" Aq weinholt@debian.org .