sed returns “sed: command garbled”

Question

I have this data in file.txt:

1234-abca-dgdsf-kds-2;abc dfsfds 2
123-abcdegfs-sdsd;dsfdsf dfd f
12523-cvjbsvndv-dvd-dvdv;dsfdsfpage

I want to replace the string after "-" and up to ";" with just ";", so that I get:

1234;abc dfsfds 2 
123;dsfdsf dfd f 
12523;dsfdsfpage

I tried with the command:

sed -e "s/-.*;/;" file.txt

But it gives me the following error:

sed command garbled

Why is this happening?

Answer 1

sed replacement commands are defined as ( source ):

 's/REGEXP/REPLACEMENT/[FLAGS]' 

(substitute) Match the regular-expression against the content of the pattern space. If found, replace matched string with REPLACEMENT.

However, you are saying:

sed "s/-.*;/;"

That is:

sed "s/REGEXP/REPLACEMENT"

And hence missing a "/" at the end of the expression. Just add it to have:

sed "s/-.*;/;/"
#            ^

Answer 2

You are missing a slash at the end of the sed command:

Should be "s/-.*;/;/"

Answer 3

-.* here the * greedy, so this would fail if there are more than one ;

echo "12523-cvjbsvndv-dvd-dvdv;dsfdsfpage;test" | sed -e "s/-.*;/;/"
12523;test

Change to -[^;]*

echo "12523-cvjbsvndv-dvd-dvdv;dsfdsfpage;test" | sed -e "s/-[^;]*;/;/"
12523;dsfdsfpage;test

Answer 4

这应该工作：

sed 's/-.*;/;/g' file > newFile