Store multiline eval output in variable bash - bash

Can someone help me to store multiline output in variable in bash. I have the following code:
# FILES[1] contents:
# age people.csv
# ...data...
FILE="${FILES[1]}"
cmd=$(head -n 1 "$FILE")
cmd="./corona $cmd"
echo "Command to run: ${cmd[*]}"
output=$(eval "$cmd")
echo "$output"
I'm trying to store the output of corona script in output variable. But it doesn't seem to work. The output stucks at
Command to run: ./corona age people.csv
And on the second line I can see only the blinking cursor. But when I press Ctrl+D it suddenly prints all the output from corona script and stops. So, probably, the echo command works just after pressing the shortcut.
Also, I'd like to mention, that variable FILES is an array of filenames. So the FILE variable is a name of the file. It has command arguments to run on the first line and other data starting from the second line.

Here is a sample script I developed to read the output of ls into a variable. You could use the same technique.
#!/bin/bash
my_array=()
while IFS= read -r line; do
my_array+=( "$line" )
done < <( ls )
echo ${#my_array[#]}
printf '%s\n' "${my_array[#]}"

Related

This loop will only ever run once. Bad quoting or missing glob/expansion?

Im working on a bash script that recive a list of processes and do a bunch of things with them, however when I want to analyze them with a loop this error happens.
Here is some code:
#! /bin/bash
ls /proc | grep ^9 > processes.txt
cat processes.txt
for line in $processes.txt
do
echo "$line"
done
PD: Im preatty new to bash
$ does parameter expansion; it does not expand a file name to the contents of the file.
Use a while read loop instead.
while IFS= read -r line; do
echo "$line"
done < processes.txt

How can I log/read a string in a bash script without executing it?

I'm starting to learn how to write shell scripts. I have them all placed in a folder 'personal-scripts' in my home directory. They are starting to add up though. To solve this, I am attempting to create a script that loops over the directory and gives me a brief sentence about what each script does.
For now I can only output the script location and names via:
scriptsinfo
#!/bin/bash
for filename in ~/personal-scripts/*
do
echo $filename
done
Since I don't want to go back and update this file manually, I want to place the about sentence inside each other script either as a comment or string variable that can be evaluated.
How can I read the contents of each other script in the folder and output their string/info about what they do in this script?
You can do that using head command, which prints the first n lines of a file.
test.sh
# this is about line
# date is 14-9-2017
script data
..
..
~# head -n 2 test.sh
# this is about line
# date is 14-9-2017
If you add the description on each second line of your script, (after #!/bin/bash then let use sed -n "2p" $filenamein your script. You can also add a separator between each script:
#!/bin/bash
for filename in ~/personal-scripts/*
do
echo "---------------------"
echo $filename
echo "---------------------"
sed -n "2p" $filename
done
The alternative is to put the description anywhere, in a line starting by e.g # about: then you can grep it:
#!/bin/bash
for filename in ~/personal-scripts/*
do
echo "---------------------"
echo $filename
echo "---------------------"
grep "# about:" $filename | sed 's/# about://'
done
The | sed 's/# about://' is there to keep the description only.
If you have a comment inside all your scripts with a specific pattern such as
#info : This script runs daily
Then you can simply grep for the pattern and append to the name of the script in each line.
for filename in ~/personal-scripts/*
do
echo "$i : $(grep '#info' $i)"
done

Appending output from a command to a variable in Bash

I'm trying to append an output of a command to a variable in Bash. My code is
#!/bin/bash
for file in *
do
lineInfo=`wc -l $file`
echo "$lineInfo"
done
I understand how to "capture" the output of a command to a variable as I have done in this line by the use of backquotes.
lineInfo=`wc -l $file`
Is there a clean cut way I can place the output of that entire for loop into a variable in Bash? Or in each iteration of the for loop append the output of the wc command to linesInfo ? (Without redirecting anything to files) Thanks.
This stores all the line infos (separated by commas) into one variable and prints that variable:
#!/bin/bash
total=""
for file in *
do
lineInfo=`wc -l $file`
total="$total$lineInfo, " # or total+="$lineInfo, "
done
echo $total

Bash: Error when storing result of unix command to variable in while loop

I have the following script called test.sh:
echo "file path is : $1"
path=$1
while read -r line
do
num=$($line | tr -cd [:digit:])
echo num
done < $path
exit 0
I am attempting to grab the digit at the start of each line of the file stored as $path. the end result will be to loop over each line, grab the digit and remove it from the file if it is less than 2.
Every time i run this loop i get the error "./test.sh: line 5: : command not found. What part of the while loop am I doing wrong? Or is it something to do with the tr command?
I can spot a few things wrong with your script:
#!/bin/bash
echo "file path is : $1"
path=$1
while read -r line
do
num=$(tr -cd '[:digit:]' <<<"$line") # use here string to "echo" variable to tr
echo "$num" # added quotes and $
done < "$path" # added quotes, changed $dest to $path
In summary:
cmd <<<"$var" (here string) is a bash built-in designed as a replacement for echo "$var" | cmd. I added #!/bin/bash to the top of the script, as I am using this bash-only feature.
I have quoted your variables to prevent problems with word splitting and glob expansion.
I made the assumption that you really meant to use $path on the last line (though I may be wrong).
Finally, there's no need to exit 0 at the end of your script.

Reusing output from last command in Bash

Is the output of a Bash command stored in any register? E.g. something similar to $? capturing the output instead of the exit status.
I could assign the output to a variable with:
output=$(command)
but that's more typing...
You can use $(!!)
to recompute (not re-use) the output of the last command.
The !! on its own executes the last command.
$ echo pierre
pierre
$ echo my name is $(!!)
echo my name is $(echo pierre)
my name is pierre
The answer is no. Bash doesn't allocate any output to any parameter or any block on its memory. Also, you are only allowed to access Bash by its allowed interface operations. Bash's private data is not accessible unless you hack it.
Very Simple Solution
One that I've used for years.
Script (add to your .bashrc or .bash_profile)
# capture the output of a command so it can be retrieved with ret
cap () { tee /tmp/capture.out; }
# return the output of the most recent command that was captured by cap
ret () { cat /tmp/capture.out; }
Usage
$ find . -name 'filename' | cap
/path/to/filename
$ ret
/path/to/filename
I tend to add | cap to the end of all of my commands. This way when I find I want to do text processing on the output of a slow running command I can always retrieve it with ret.
If you are on mac, and don't mind storing your output in the clipboard instead of writing to a variable, you can use pbcopy and pbpaste as a workaround.
For example, instead of doing this to find a file and diff its contents with another file:
$ find app -name 'one.php'
/var/bar/app/one.php
$ diff /var/bar/app/one.php /var/bar/two.php
You could do this:
$ find app -name 'one.php' | pbcopy
$ diff $(pbpaste) /var/bar/two.php
The string /var/bar/app/one.php is in the clipboard when you run the first command.
By the way, pb in pbcopy and pbpaste stand for pasteboard, a synonym for clipboard.
One way of doing that is by using trap DEBUG:
f() { bash -c "$BASH_COMMAND" >& /tmp/out.log; }
trap 'f' DEBUG
Now most recently executed command's stdout and stderr will be available in /tmp/out.log
Only downside is that it will execute a command twice: once to redirect output and error to /tmp/out.log and once normally. Probably there is some way to prevent this behavior as well.
Inspired by anubhava's answer, which I think is not actually acceptable as it runs each command twice.
save_output() {
exec 1>&3
{ [ -f /tmp/current ] && mv /tmp/current /tmp/last; }
exec > >(tee /tmp/current)
}
exec 3>&1
trap save_output DEBUG
This way the output of last command is in /tmp/last and the command is not called twice.
Yeah, why type extra lines each time; agreed.
You can redirect the returned from a command to input by pipeline, but redirecting printed output to input (1>&0) is nope, at least not for multiple line outputs.
Also you won't want to write a function again and again in each file for the same. So let's try something else.
A simple workaround would be to use printf function to store values in a variable.
printf -v myoutput "`cmd`"
such as
printf -v var "`echo ok;
echo fine;
echo thankyou`"
echo "$var" # don't forget the backquotes and quotes in either command.
Another customizable general solution (I myself use) for running the desired command only once and getting multi-line printed output of the command in an array variable line-by-line.
If you are not exporting the files anywhere and intend to use it locally only, you can have Terminal set-up the function declaration. You have to add the function in ~/.bashrc file or in ~/.profile file. In second case, you need to enable Run command as login shell from Edit>Preferences>yourProfile>Command.
Make a simple function, say:
get_prev() # preferably pass the commands in quotes. Single commands might still work without.
{
# option 1: create an executable with the command(s) and run it
#echo $* > /tmp/exe
#bash /tmp/exe > /tmp/out
# option 2: if your command is single command (no-pipe, no semi-colons), still it may not run correct in some exceptions.
#echo `"$*"` > /tmp/out
# option 3: (I actually used below)
eval "$*" > /tmp/out # or simply "$*" > /tmp/out
# return the command(s) outputs line by line
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
arr=()
exec 3</tmp/out
while read -u 3 -r line
do
arr+=($line)
echo $line
done
exec 3<&-
}
So what we did in option 1 was print the whole command to a temporary file /tmp/exe and run it and save the output to another file /tmp/out and then read the contents of the /tmp/out file line-by-line to an array.
Similar in options 2 and 3, except that the commands were exectuted as such, without writing to an executable to be run.
In main script:
#run your command:
cmd="echo hey ya; echo hey hi; printf `expr 10 + 10`'\n' ; printf $((10 + 20))'\n'"
get_prev $cmd
#or simply
get_prev "echo hey ya; echo hey hi; printf `expr 10 + 10`'\n' ; printf $((10 + 20))'\n'"
Now, bash saves the variable even outside previous scope, so the arr variable created in get_prev function is accessible even outside the function in the main script:
#get previous command outputs in arr
for((i=0; i<${#arr[#]}; i++))
do
echo ${arr[i]}
done
#if you're sure that your output won't have escape sequences you bother about, you may simply print the array
printf "${arr[*]}\n"
Edit:
I use the following code in my implementation:
get_prev()
{
usage()
{
echo "Usage: alphabet [ -h | --help ]
[ -s | --sep SEP ]
[ -v | --var VAR ] \"command\""
}
ARGS=$(getopt -a -n alphabet -o hs:v: --long help,sep:,var: -- "$#")
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then usage; return 2; fi
eval set -- $ARGS
local var="arr"
IFS=$(echo -en '\n\b')
for arg in $*
do
case $arg in
-h|--help)
usage
echo " -h, --help : opens this help"
echo " -s, --sep : specify the separator, newline by default"
echo " -v, --var : variable name to put result into, arr by default"
echo " command : command to execute. Enclose in quotes if multiple lines or pipelines are used."
shift
return 0
;;
-s|--sep)
shift
IFS=$(echo -en $1)
shift
;;
-v|--var)
shift
var=$1
shift
;;
-|--)
shift
;;
*)
cmd=$option
;;
esac
done
if [ ${#} -eq 0 ]; then usage; return 1; fi
ERROR=$( { eval "$*" > /tmp/out; } 2>&1 )
if [ $ERROR ]; then echo $ERROR; return 1; fi
local a=()
exec 3</tmp/out
while read -u 3 -r line
do
a+=($line)
done
exec 3<&-
eval $var=\(\${a[#]}\)
print_arr $var # comment this to suppress output
}
print()
{
eval echo \${$1[#]}
}
print_arr()
{
eval printf "%s\\\n" "\${$1[#]}"
}
Ive been using this to print space-separated outputs of multiple/pipelined/both commands as line separated:
get_prev -s " " -v myarr "cmd1 | cmd2; cmd3 | cmd4"
For example:
get_prev -s ' ' -v myarr whereis python # or "whereis python"
# can also be achieved (in this case) by
whereis python | tr ' ' '\n'
Now tr command is useful at other places as well, such as
echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n'
But for multiple/piped commands... you know now. :)
-Himanshu
Like konsolebox said, you'd have to hack into bash itself. Here is a quite good example on how one might achieve this. The stderred repository (actually meant for coloring stdout) gives instructions on how to build it.
I gave it a try: Defining some new file descriptor inside .bashrc like
exec 41>/tmp/my_console_log
(number is arbitrary) and modify stderred.c accordingly so that content also gets written to fd 41. It kind of worked, but contains loads of NUL bytes, weird formattings and is basically binary data, not readable. Maybe someone with good understandings of C could try that out.
If so, everything needed to get the last printed line is tail -n 1 [logfile].
Not sure exactly what you're needing this for, so this answer may not be relevant. You can always save the output of a command: netstat >> output.txt, but I don't think that's what you're looking for.
There are of course programming options though; you could simply get a program to read the text file above after that command is run and associate it with a variable, and in Ruby, my language of choice, you can create a variable out of command output using 'backticks':
output = `ls` #(this is a comment) create variable out of command
if output.include? "Downloads" #if statement to see if command includes 'Downloads' folder
print "there appears to be a folder named downloads in this directory."
else
print "there is no directory called downloads in this file."
end
Stick this in a .rb file and run it: ruby file.rb and it will create a variable out of the command and allow you to manipulate it.
If you don't want to recompute the previous command you can create a macro that scans the current terminal buffer, tries to guess the -supposed- output of the last command, copies it to the clipboard and finally types it to the terminal.
It can be used for simple commands that return a single line of output (tested on Ubuntu 18.04 with gnome-terminal).
Install the following tools: xdootool, xclip , ruby
In gnome-terminal go to Preferences -> Shortcuts -> Select all and set it to Ctrl+shift+a.
Create the following ruby script:
cat >${HOME}/parse.rb <<EOF
#!/usr/bin/ruby
stdin = STDIN.read
d = stdin.split(/\n/)
e = d.reverse
f = e.drop_while { |item| item == "" }
g = f.drop_while { |item| item.start_with? "${USER}#" }
h = g[0]
print h
EOF
In the keyboard settings add the following keyboard shortcut:
bash -c '/bin/sleep 0.3 ; xdotool key ctrl+shift+a ; xdotool key ctrl+shift+c ; ( (xclip -out | ${HOME}/parse.rb ) > /tmp/clipboard ) ; (cat /tmp/clipboard | xclip -sel clip ) ; xdotool key ctrl+shift+v '
The above shortcut:
copies the current terminal buffer to the clipboard
extracts the output of the last command (only one line)
types it into the current terminal
I have an idea that I don't have time to try to implement immediately.
But what if you do something like the following:
$ MY_HISTORY_FILE = `get_temp_filename`
$ MY_HISTORY_FILE=$MY_HISTORY_FILE bash -i 2>&1 | tee $MY_HISTORY_FILE
$ some_command
$ cat $MY_HISTORY_FILE
$ # ^You'll want to filter that down in practice!
There might be issues with IO buffering. Also the file might get too huge. One would have to come up with a solution to these problems.
I think using script command might help. Something like,
script -c bash -qf fifo_pid
Using bash features to set after parsing.
Demo for non-interactive commands only: http://asciinema.org/a/395092
For also supporting interactive commands, you'd have to hack the script binary from util-linux to ignore any screen-redrawing console codes, and run it from bashrc to save your login session's output to a file.
You can use -exec to run a command on the output of a command. So it will be a reuse of the output as an example given with a find command below:
find . -name anything.out -exec rm {} \;
you are saying here -> find a file called anything.out in the current folder, if found, remove it. If it is not found, the remaining after -exec will be skipped.

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