Hello, I have a bash script that I want to change all occurrences of jdk1.5.0_14 with jdk1.6.0_20 in a file I have the following piece of code : #!/bin/bash myvar="jdk1.6.0_20" sed "s/jdk1.*/$myvar/g" answer_file.1 > answer_file.2 However I have the following information in answer_file.1 (pasting the relevant part): JDKSelection.directory.JDK_LIST=/usr/jdk/jdk1.5.0_14 (v. 1.5.0_14 by Sun Microsystems Inc.) JDKSelection.directory.HIDDEN_JDK=/usr/jdk/jdk1.5.0_14 The code above changes the occurence of jdk1.5.0_14 to jdk1.6.0_20 but also removes the information contained in paranthesis in the first line. So after the change, I need the answer_file.2 file look like this: JDKSelection.directory.JDK_LIST=/usr/jdk/jdk1.6.0_20 (v. 1.6.0_20 by Sun Microsystems Inc.) JDKSelection.directory.HIDDEN_JDK=/usr/jdk/jdk1.6.0_20 How can I achieve this? Thanks for your answers....