Update phpmyadmin config.inc.php file in bash

Question

When you download and extract latest phpMyAdmin, it comes with a config.sample.inc.php file. I would like to set a random blowfish_secret value on this line:

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ''; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH! */

So, what I have tried so far is:

#!/bin/bash
cp config.sample.inc.php config.inc.php;
search="\$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = '';"; 
replace="\$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = '1234';"; 
sed -i -e 's/$search/$replace/g' config.inc.php; 
# debug
echo $search;
echo $replace;
cat config.inc.php;

When I tested this script, the copied config.inc.php file does not appear to have been updated. Any ideas why? the search & replace fields are correctly getting set:

Answer 1

Try this instead :

sed -i "s/\$cfg\[.blowfish_secret.\]\s*=.*/$replace/" file

If you put single-quotes around variables, the variables can't be expanded