How to inplace substitute the content between 2 tags with SED (bash)? - awk

Question

I want to inplace edit a file with sed (Oracle-Linux/Bash).
The content between 2 search-tags (in form of "#"-comments) should get commented out.
Example:
Some_Values
#NORMAL_LISTENER_START
LISTENER =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)
(KEY = LISTENER)
)
)
)
#NORMAL_LISTENER_END
Other_Values
Should result in:
Some_Values
#NORMAL_LISTENER_START
# LISTENER =
# (DESCRIPTION =
# (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)
# (KEY = LISTENER)
# )
# )
# )
#NORMAL_LISTENER_END
Other_Values
The following command already achieves it, but it also puts a comment+blank in front of the search-tags:
sed -i "/#NORMAL_LISTENER_START/,/#NORMAL_LISTENER_END/ s/^/# /" ${my_file}
Now my research told me to exclude those search-tags like:
sed -i '/#NORMAL_LISTENER_START/,/#NORMAL_LISTENER_END/{//!p;} s/^/# /' ${my_file}
But it won't work - with the following message as a result:
sed: -e expression #1, char 56: extra characters after command
I need those SearchTags to be as they are, because I need them afterwards again.

Answer 1

If ed is available/acceptable.
printf '%s\n' 'g/#NORMAL_LISTENER_START/+1;/#NORMAL_LISTENER_END/-1s/^/#/' ,p Q | ed -s file.txt
Change Q to w if you're satisfied with the output and in-place editing will occur.
Remove the ,p If you don't want to see the output.

Answer 2

This might work for you (GNU sed):
sed '/#NORMAL_LISTENER_START/,/#NORMAL_LISTENER_END/{//!s/^/# /}' file
Use a range, delimited by two regexp and insert # before the lines between the regexps but not including the regexps.
Alternative:
sed '/#NORMAL_LISTENER_START/,/#NORMAL_LISTENER_END/{s/^[^#]/# &/}' file
Or if you prefer:
sed '/#NORMAL_LISTENER_START/{:a;n;/#NORMAL_LISTENER_END/!s/^/# /;ta}' file

Answer 3

With your shown samples only, please try following awk code. Simple explanation would be, look for specific string and set/unset vars as per that and then print updated(added # in lines) lines as per that, stop updating lines once we find line from which we need not to update lines.
awk ' /Other_Values/{found=""} found{$0=$0!~/^#/?"#"$0:$0} /Some_Values/{found=1} 1' Input_file
Above will print output on terminal, once you are happy with results you could run following code to do inplace save into Input_file.
awk ' /Other_Values/{found=""} found{$0=$0!~/^#/?"#"$0:$0} /Some_Values/{found=1} 1' Input_file > temp && mv temp Input_file
Explanation: Adding detailed explanation for above.
awk ' ##Starting awk program from here.
/Other_Values/{ found="" } ##If line contains Other_Values then nullify found here.
found { $0=$0!~/^#/?"#"$0:$0 } ##If found is SET then check if line already has # then leave it as it is OR add # in starting to it.
/Some_Values/{ found=1 } ##If line contains Some_Values then set found here.
1 ##Printing current line here.
' Input_file ##Mentioning Input_file name here.