This script will parse a markdown file and replace any lines that look like <@snippet path="pom.xml" prefix="complete"/> with <@snippet path="pom.xml" prefix="initial"/>. It writes the new files into <file>.new first, and then moves it to replace the existing file. See comments for more details

fix

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os
import re
import sys

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print "Usage: %s <file>" % sys.argv[0]
    sys.exit(1)

with open(sys.argv[1]) as input:
    with open(sys.argv[1] + ".new", "w") as output:
        for line in input.readlines():
            if "snippet" in line and "pom.xml" in line and "complete" in line:
                output.write(re.sub("complete", "initial", line))
            else:
                output.write(line)

os.rename(sys.argv[1]+".new", sys.argv[1])

This script will parse a markdown file and replace any lines that look like <@snippet path="pom.xml" prefix="complete"/> with <@snippet path="pom.xml" prefix="initial"/>. It writes the new files into <file>.new first, and then moves it to replace the existing file.

USAGE: fix <file>. Very handy inside a loop, like for repo in $(find . -name .git); do cd $(dirname $repo); pwd; fix README.ftl.md; cd ..; done;

REUSE: Edit the if blocks to alter the pattern you seek as well as the substitution pattern. Before committing to a final version, comment out os.rename and diff <file> <file>.new to see if it's what you want. Put the script somewhere like /usr/local/bin so it's on your path.

RECOMMEND: Only use with version controlled files so you can back out changes if need be.