From: Dan George <endege@...>
Date: 2007-08-22T20:59:58+09:00
Subject: Using external text file to do search and replace?

I recently started to take an interest in Ruby programming and with
the help of some people and by reading Learn to program by Chris Pine
I made myself a little program that has come to a halt because I don't
know if or how I can use an external file where I store the strings I
want to search and replace in text type files.

This is what I have so far:

txt_files = Dir.glob('**/*.txt').each do |path|
puts path
txts = path.to_s
  file = File.open(txts).readlines.each { |line|
    if line.match(/PROMOS:/)
      then line.gsub!(/PROMO1=[A-Za-z0-9]+/, 'PROMO1=some_text')
    end }
  file2=File.open(txts, "w")
  file2.write( file )
end

What I want is to be able to use an external file where I store the
values I want to search and replace with "line.gsub!" eg.: "/PROMOn=[A-
Za-z0-9]+/, 'PROMOn=some_other_text'".
I will need to use RubyScript2Exe because I'm not sure that on some
other machines I will have ruby installed and it's easier to just put
the strings I want to search and replace in an external file that is
located in the same folder as the script or on a predefined path.

Any ideas, hints, improvements and critiques are highly welcome.