Shell Command To Update a text file

[Anon]

This may be a little off topic, but this is the only forum I go to, so please pardon me.

I am working on a RH Linux 7.2 box with Apache 1.3.26.

I have a folder in /etc/proftpd that has several files in it.

I need to find a command that will search each of those files and update an instance of a certain string.

Example, of the files in this folder contain the words "/bin/false". I want to change all of the instances of the words "/bin/false" to "/bin/bash"

Can any one help me here?

Thanks.

[Anon]

Also, I am looking for a command to do them all at once. I know I can use pico or vi to update each one individually, but there are 400 files and this would take me a long time.

Thanks

[mrskhris]

perl -p -i.old -e 's#/bin/false#bin/bash#g' *

Where * is a mask for your files. This command will also create backups of files - foo.txt will be copied to foo.txt.old (example)

[Anon]

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[Anon]

It worked like a charm. Thank you much.

Bill