Search and replace text within text and binary files with the free sfk replace tool for the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux command line.

sfk replace singleFile [-text] /src/dst/ [pattern2] [...] [-yes]
sfk replace -[s]pat -bin[ary] /A0A1A2/B5B6B7/ -dir anydir -file .ext1 [-yes]
sfk rep [-dump [-wide]] -bylist words.txt file1 [file2 ...] [-yes]

replace text or binary data in text and binary files.
may replace many different patterns in parallel.

Multiple search patterns are executed in the given sequence. Mind this
if they overlap, e.g. /foo/bar/ /foosys/thesys/ makes no sense (foo is
replaced by the first expression, so the 2nd one will fail to match).

by default, replace functions run in SIMULATION mode,
   previewing hits without changing anything. add -yes to apply changes.
   Changing binaries may lead to unpredictable results, therefore keep
   backups of your files in any case.

subdirectories are included by default
   the sfk default for most commands is to process the given directories,
   as well as all subdirs within them. specify -nosub to disable this.

options
   -nosub        do not include files in subdirectories.
   -nobin[ary]   skip binary files.
   -case         case-sensitive text comparison. default is case-insensitive
                 comparison for all -text strings, but NOT for -bin blocks.
                 case-sensitive comparison is faster then case-insensitive.
                 for further details type: sfk help nocase
   -nocase       force case-insensitive comparison ALSO on -bin patterns.
   -pat          starts a list of search or replace patterns of the form
                 xsrcxdstx where x is the separator char, src the source
                 to search for, and dst the destination to replace it with.
                 e.g. /foo/bar/ or _foo_bar_ both replace foo by bar.
                 -pat is not required if a single filename is given.
   -text         the same as -pat, starting a text pattern list.
   -spat         same as -pat but also activates slash patterns like \t .
                 type "sfk help pat" for the list of possible patterns.
   -spats[trict] same as -spat, but stops with error on undefined
                 slash patterns like \m in C:\myproj. every slash
                 must then be escaped, e.g. using C:\\myproj.
   -bin[ary]     starts a list of binary replace patterns, specified
                 as hexcode like /0A0D/2020/
   -bylist x.txt read search patterns from a file x.txt, supporting
                 multiple lines per pattern. (add -full for more.)
   -bylinelist x read /from/to/ or just /from/ patterns from a file x
                 with one pattern per line. (add -full for more.)
                 -by(line)list does not support sfk variables.
                 to use variables in patterns create an sfk script
                 with patterns as parameters. "sfk script" for more.
   -usetmp       allow creation of temporary files if output data is larger
                 than the memory limit (default: 300 MB). without -usetmp,
                 SFK uses the whole RAM, but stops with an error if it runs
                 out of memory.
   -memlimit=n   use up to n mbytes of RAM to store output data, and when
                 the limit is reached, use a temporary file. this option
                 implies -usetmp. to set this permanently by environment,
                 type in a batch file: set SFK_CONFIG=memlimit:n
   -tmpdir x     set directory x as temporary file directory. default is
                 to use the path specified by TEMP or TMP env variable.
   -showtmp      tell verbosely which temporary files are created.
                 SFK temporary filenames contain the process ID
                 to make sure multiple SFK running in parallel
                 do not use the same temporary file.
   -notmp        never create temporary files (default). if combined with
                 -memlimit, sfk stops with an error if memlimit is reached.
   -recsize      set input record size for processing (default=100k).
   -firsthit     process only first found pattern match per file.
   -maxscan=nm   stop searching after (approximately) first n megabytes
                 per file. can be used only with same length replace.
   -quiet        do not show progress infos.
   -stat         show statistics like hits per pattern and no. of files.
   -perf         show performance statistics.
   -full         print full help text telling about -bylist pattern files,
                 special character case sensitivity and nested or repeated
                 replace behaviour.

output options
   -dump         create hexdump of search hits or replaced text.
    -wide        with -dump: show 16 bytes per line.
    -lean        with -dump: show  8 bytes per line.
   -dumpfrom     always dump search hits but not replaced text.
   -dumpall      dump search text and replaced text.
   -nodump       do not create a hexdump, list only matching files.
   -astext       no hexdump, but print search hits as plain text.
                 use this only with plain text files, not binary.
   -showle       highlight CR/LF line endings in hex dump output
   -context=n    with hexdump: show additional n bytes of context.
   -reldist      with hexdump: tell relative distances to previous hits.
   -to dir\$file write output files to given path. for details about
                 output file masks, type "sfk help opt" or "sfk run".
   -tofile x     write output data to a single output filename x
                 (which is not interpreted as a mask but taken as is).
   -more[n]      pause output every 30 or n lines.
   -showhits     list matching and missing search patterns.
   -showjusthit  or -showmiss lists only matching or missing patterns.

return codes for batch files
   0 = no matches, 1 = matches found, >1 = major error occurred.
   see also "sfk help opt" on how to influence error processing.

temporary files
   with option -usetmp or -memlimit sfk may create temporary files
   in a folder specified by TEMP or TMP environment variable,
   or within /tmp under Linux, or in a folder given by -tmpdir
   or from an SFK_CONFIG=tmpdir:... setting. type "sfk help opt"
   for further infos.

unexpected repeat replace behaviour
   depending on the input data and search/replace expressions,
   it can happen that running the same replace multiple times
   on the same file produces further hits that didn't exist
   in the first run. add option -full to read more on this.

quoted multi line parameters are supported in scripts
   using full trim. type "sfk script" for details.

performance notice
   the system may cache output file(s), writing to disk in
   background after sfk has finished. subsequent batch file
   commands may execute slower.

office file support
   sfk ofind        search in .xml text file contents of
                    office files like .docx .xlsx .ods .odt.
   sfk help office  for more infos and options

see also
   sfk xfind     search  wildcard text in   plain text files
   sfk ofind     search  in office files    .docx .xlsx .ods
   sfk xfindbin  search  wildcard text in   text/binary files
   sfk xhexfind  search  in text/binary with hex dump output
   sfk extract   extract wildcard data from text/binary files
   sfk filter    filter  and edit text with simple wildcards
   sfk find      search  fixed    text in   text        files
   sfk findbin   search  fixed    text in   text/binary files
   sfk hexfind   search  fixed    text in        binary files
   sfk replace   replace fixed    text in   text/binary files
   sfk view      GUI tool to search text as you type
   sfk replace   replace fixed    text with high performance
   sfk xreplace  replace wildcard text in   text/binary files
   sfk setbytes  change byte sequences at absolute position
   sfk partcopy  copy, split and join parts of files

beware of Shell Command Characters.
   to find or replace text patterns containing spaces or special
   characters like <>|!&?* you must add quotes "" around parameters
   or the shell environment will destroy your command. for example,
   pattern /foo bar/other/ must be written like "/foo bar/other/"
   within a .bat or .cmd file the percent % must be escaped like %%
   even within quotes: sfk echo -spat "percent %% is a percent \x25"

common usage errors
   sfk hexfind in.txt "/foo\r\n/"
      will not find "foo" at line ends, but searches literal
      strings like "slash and r". add option -spat to enable
      slash patterns, converting \r\n to real CRLF codes,
      or use xhexfind where slash patterns are default.
   sfk hexfind mydir "/foo*bar/"
      will not find "foo" and "bar" with any characters
      inbetween, but searches a literal star "*".
      use xhexfind to enable search with wildcards.
   sfk rep in.txt "/foo[0.1000 bytes]bar/---/"
      will not replace up to 1000 bytes between "foo" and "bar",
      but replaces a literal string "foo" then "[1000 bytes]"
      then "bar". use xed or xreplace instead.

examples
   sfk replace myfile.dat "/Lemon/Curry/"
      replace Lemon by Curry within myfile.dat. search is
      case-insensitive, therefore "lemon" will be replaced as well.
      the quotes "" are optional here.
   sfk replace -pat /FooCase// -dir . -file .txt
      search for FooCase in all .txt files below current directory.
      note that if you leave out the single fileOrDir parameter,
      you have to say -[s]pat, -bin or -text first to tell clearly
      that you will specify the target fileset later on.
   sfk rep -spat "/The foo/The\tbar/" -dir mydocs
      replaces "The foo" by "The" and "bar" separated by TAB char,
      within all files within mydocs.
   sfk rep -binary /1A/20/ -dir docs -file .txt .info .note
      replaces all bytes with code 0x1A by code 0x20, in all .txt,
      .info and .note files, in directory docs and all subdirectories.
   sfk replace tmp\image.dat -bylist patches.txt
      searches for source patterns in file tmp\image.dat,
      replaces by patterns specified in patches.txt
   sfk rep -nosub -bin /00/01/ -dir docs -file .doc -to output\$file
      replace binary 00 by 01 in all docs\*.doc files, but do not look
      into deeper sub directories. write output files to folder "output".
   sfk hexfind mydir -pat /FooCase/ +list -late
      do not replace, just find binary files containing "FooCase",
      then list them sorted by time. also accepts -bylist files.
   sfk replace -binary /666f6f/626172/ -dir mydir -file .dat
      replace binary data with hex values 0x66, 0x6f, 0x6f
      by data with values 0x62, 0x61, 0x72 in all .dat files.
 
example with output:

   preparing a replacement of pattern "class Foo".

      sfk rep testfiles "/class foo/class Other/" -dump

   output:

      [simulating:]
      [total hits/matching patterns/non-matching patterns]
      testfiles\FooBank\GUI\include\FooGUI.hpp: hit at offset 0x64
      >6F6E616C 6974792E< onality. 00000054
      >0D0A2A2F 0D0A0D0A< ..*/.... 0000005C
      >636C6173 7320466F< class Fo 00000064
      >6F475549 0D0A7B0D< oGUI..{. 0000006C
      >0A707562 6C69633A< .public: 00000074
      [001/1/0] testfiles\FooBank\GUI\include\FooGUI.hpp
      testfiles\Formats\12-foo-jam.txt: hit at offset 0xE6C
      >6F6E616C 6974792E< onality. 00000E5C
      >0D0A2A2F 0D0A0D0A< ..*/.... 00000E64
      >636C6173 7320466F< class Fo 00000E6C
      >6F475549 0D0A7B0D< oGUI..{. 00000E74
      >0A707562 6C69633A< .public: 00000E7C
      [001/1/0] testfiles\Formats\12-foo-jam.txt
      38 files checked, 2 would be changed.
      [add -yes to execute.]

   the input data is listed as hex and ascii, with the hits highlighted.