Get mac address from xml and generate computer names for each mac

Parsing xml is pretty easy using grep. The benefit of sed/grep is that they are right there -- if you have cygwin, Linux or Mac.

Here is an example format:

<macs>

<string>00-00-00-00-00-01</string>
<string>00-00-00-00-00-02</string>
</macs>

This will parse the xml file formatted like above and generate a computer name for each mac address. A good application of sed/grep/bash. If you are installing a lot of new computers and need to associate new names with mac addresses, this is a good start.

grep All\ Computers.plist | sed -e 's/<\/*string>//g' | while read line; do ((i++)); echo "pc-$i $line"; done > macs.txt

Inserting a blank line with sed

#I found this to be a bit tricky

sed -e '/pattern/i\
\ # <-- this is the key
' input_file > output_file

Removing carriage returns with sed

sed -e s/$'\r'/\ /g input_file # remove carriage returns

sed -e 's/\n/ /g' input_file # remove newlines

Insert text before a pattern with sed

cat some_file | sed '/pattern/i\
text to insert
' > output_file