Você pode converter todas as cadeias de texto relevantes em cadeias hexadecimais, executar a substituição em hexadecimal e, em seguida, converter o resultado novamente em texto. Aqui está o que isso pode parecer:
#!/bin/bash
# replace.sh
# Set the target string, i.e. the string to replace
read -r -d '' TARGET_STR <<'HEREDOC'
$N = "magic_quotes_gpc = <b>"._("On")."</b>";
$D = _("Increase your server security by setting magic_quotes_gpc to 'on'. PHP will escape all quotes in strings in this case.");
$S = _("Search for 'magic_quotes_gpc' in your php.ini and set it to 'On'.");
$R = ini_get('magic_quotes_gpc');
$M = TRUE;
$this->config_checks[] = array("NAME" => $N , "DESC" => $D , "RESULT" => $R , "SOLUTION" => $S , "MUST" => $M );
HEREDOC
# Set the replacement string, i.e. the string to replace the target string with
read -r -d '' REPLACE_STR <<'HEREDOC'
/* NOTE: "Magic_quotes_gpc" is no longer required. We taught GOsa2 to deal with it (see /usr/share/gosa/html/main.php). By Questor */
/* Automatic quoting must be turned on */
/* $D = _("Increase your server security by setting magic_quotes_gpc to 'on'. PHP will escape all quotes in strings in this case.");
$S = _("Search for 'magic_quotes_gpc' in your php.ini and set it to 'On'.");
$R = ini_get('magic_quotes_gpc');
$M = TRUE;
$this->config_checks[] = array("NAME" => $N , "DESC" => $D , "RESULT" => $R , "SOLUTION" => $S , "MUST" => $M ); */'
HEREDOC
# Set the path to the input file
PATH_TO_FILE="target-string.txt"
# Set file paths
PATH_TO_HEX_FILE="${PATH_TO_FILE}.hex"
PATH_TO_REPLACED_FILE="replaced-${PATH_TO_FILE}"
# Convert the two strings to hexadecimal
TARGET_STR_HEX="$(echo "${TARGET_STR}" | xxd -p | tr -d '\n')"
REPLACE_STR_HEX="$(echo "${REPLACE_STR}" | xxd -p | tr -d '\n')"
# Conver the input file to hexadecimal
xxd -p "${PATH_TO_FILE}" | tr -d '\n' > "${PATH_TO_HEX_FILE}"
# Perform the replacement using hexadecimal strings
sed -i'' "s/${TARGET_STR_HEX}/${REPLACE_STR_HEX}/g" "${PATH_TO_HEX_FILE}"
# Convert the result back to text
xxd -r -p "${PATH_TO_HEX_FILE}" "${PATH_TO_REPLACED_FILE}"
# Remove intermediate file
rm "${PATH_TO_HEX_FILE}"
Isso produz o resultado desejado para os dados de teste fornecidos por você.