Replace backward slash '\' with forward slash '/' in vim

Question

I have some scripts(linux) which are generating the o/p with respect to Windows. I expect it to be /home/manty/... it generates \home\manty\... It is very annoying when I try to change one by one all the time. So just for this purpose, I am leaving vim and going to gedit to perform "find and replace". How can I do it in vim?

I tried with following :

:%s/\\/\/

It changed only in the two places. I tried several other combinations as well nothing is working out.

possible duplicate of [How to include forward slash in vi search & replace](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11823616/how-to-include-forward-slash-in-vi-search-replace) — kenorb, Mar 15 '15 at 13:39
Or: [How does one escape backslashes and forward slashes in VIM find/search?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/2465156/55075) — kenorb, Mar 15 '15 at 13:41

Sandeep · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-05T23:54:48.337

28

Ah. I missed the g thing.

:%s/\\/\//g

This command does the trick. g stands for global and will make the change globally (complete file).

Also, you can add an extra option of c if you want to monitor each change. If you want to use c option the command would be :%s/\\/\//gc and then select y or n for each change.

I will wait for better answers from vim geeks. I am sure there must be a better way.

edited Jun 05 '18 at 23:54

answered Oct 25 '13 at 08:35

Sandeep

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If you use `g` you can avoid `%`: `:s/\\/\//g` makes it. – fedorqui Oct 25 '13 at 08:37
Thank you. Ok so then at first place only %s why didnt it work? – Sandeep Oct 25 '13 at 08:40
with out %, it is replacing only for one line. I wanted throught the file – Sandeep Oct 25 '13 at 08:41
It may depend on your `vi` version perhaps? In http://www.linfo.org/vi/search.html they suggest it, so I was also confused because my attempts only replaced once as well. – fedorqui Oct 25 '13 at 08:41
3

By using a different separator (e.g. `#`), you can avoid the escaping of the forward slash: `:%s#\\#/#g` – Ingo Karkat Oct 25 '13 at 08:50

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 15 '15 at 13:22

7

You can use another delimiter like this:

 :%s,\\,/,g

edited Mar 15 '15 at 13:22

kenorb

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answered Oct 25 '13 at 15:03

SergioAraujo

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What you posted here is identical to `:%s@,/@g`. Backslash escapes *any* separator, there is no way to omit two backslashes. – ZyX Oct 26 '13 at 07:04
Thanks, worked a treat, but with `:%s,//,,g` to remove double Forwardslashes. – Coffee and Code Mar 19 '22 at 21:27

Replace backward slash '\' with forward slash '/' in vim

2 Answers2