Using sed to remove all console.log from javascript file

Question

I'm trying to remove all my console.log, console.dir etc. from my JS file before minifying it with YUI (on osx).

The regex I got for the console statements looks like this:

console.(log|debug|info|warn|error|assert|dir|dirxml|trace|group|groupEnd|time|timeEnd|profile|profileEnd|count)\((.*)\);?

and it works if I test it with the RegExr. But it won't work with sed.

What do I have to change to get this working?

sed 's/___???___//g' <$RESULT >$RESULT_STRIPPED

update

After getting the first answer I tried

sed 's/console.log(.*)\;//g' <test.js >result.js

and this works, but when I add an OR

sed 's/console.\(log\|dir\)(.*)\;//g' <test.js >result.js

it doesn't replace the "logs":

Answer 1

Your original expression looks fine. You just need to pass the -E flag to sed, for extended regular expressions:

sed -E 's/console.(log|debug|info|...|count)\((.*)\);?//g'

The difference between these types of regular expressions is explained in man re_format. To be honest I have never read that page, but instead simply tack on an -E when things don't work as expected. =)

Answer 2

You must escape ( (for grouping) and | (for oring) in sed's regex syntax. E.g.:

sed 's/console.\(log\|debug\|info\|warn\|error\|assert\|dir\|dirxml\|trace\|group\|groupEnd\|time\|timeEnd\|profile\|profileEnd\|count\)(.*);\?//g'

UPDATE example:

$ sed 's/console.\(log\|debug\|info\|warn\|error\|assert\|dir\|dirxml\|trace\|group\|groupEnd\|time\|timeEnd\|profile\|profileEnd\|count\)(.*);\?//g'
console.log # <- input line, not matches, no replacement printed on next line
console.log
console.log() # <- input line, matches, no printing

console.log(blabla); # <- input line, matches, no printing

console.log(blabla) # <- input line, matches, no printing

console.debug();  # <- input line, matches, no printing

console.debug(BAZINGA)  # <- input line, matches, no printing

DATA console.info(ditto); DATA2 # <- input line, matches, printing of expected data
DATA  DATA2

HTH