perl -pi.bak -e 's/ip-compute-[\d.]{7,15}-internal/ip-compute-10.25.25.25-internal/g' test.txt #### $ cat test.txt text.txt yoda yoda yoda ip-compute-10.10.10.1-internal yadda yadda yadda some more stuff $ perl -pi.bak -e 's/ip-compute-[\d.]{7,15}-internal/ip-compute-10.25.25.25-internal/g' test.txt $ cat test.txt text.txt yoda yoda yoda ip-compute-10.25.25.25-internal yadda yadda yadda some more stuff