I'm trying to extract the first string starting with // to the first space. So far I have ^(\A\w ) but it only gives me the first word and I cant figure out how to tell it to also match starting with //

For example:

#Sample text
//AnyNumberORLetter notthis <-- only want to match //AnyNumberORLetter  
//HELLO WORLD

Edit typo

Edit 2: sorry I am using Ansible with regex

    - name: "replace job name"
      ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
        path: "{{jcl_path}}"
        regexp: '^(\A\w )'
        line: '{{job_name}}'
        group: dart
        mode: g rw
      delegate_to: localhost

CodePudding user response：

To also start with // you can make the // optional:

^(?://)?\w 

Regex demo

To only start with //

^//\w 

Regex demo

CodePudding user response：

This captures your target as group 1:

(//\S )([\s\S]*)

and remove line: and add replace: '\1 {{job_name}}'\2

See live demo.

regex breakdown:

• ^ means start
• \S means a non-whitespace character
• means one or more of the preceding expression
• [\s\S]* means the rest of the input (works with any flavour of regex)