My program looks like this.
ALL=`cat $1 | grep -v '^#' | wc -l`
FINISHED="0"
for i in `cat $1 | grep -v '^#'`; do
echo "PROBE $i"
I will be doing some operation
FINISHED=`echo $FINISHED"+1"|bc`
I will run this script by giving a file name as parameter where a list of probes will be present.
I have 2 questions
What does grep -v '^#' mean. I learnt that '^ is usually used to matching a particular string. But in the file name which I give there is no #. Moreover I am getting the total number of probes for cat $1 | grep -v '^#' | wc -l.
echo $FINISHED"+1"|bc. Here any idea as to why the developer as added |bc?
^ means "start of line"
# is the literal character #
-v means "invert the match" in grep, in other words, return all non matching lines.
Put those together, and your expression is "select all lines that do not begin with #"
| is the pipe character, it takes the output of the command on the left hand side, and uses it as the input of the command on the right hand side. bc is like a command line calculator (to do basic math).
I would use this to exclude comments from the code I'm reading. So all comment lines start with # and I don't want to see them if there are too many of them.
grep -v '^#'
We have different ways for calculation. Pick the one which you like.
a=`echo 1+1 | bc`; echo $a
b=$((1+1)); echo $b
c=`expr 1 + 1`; echo $c
let d=1+1; echo $d
Related
How can I remove all text after a character, in this case a colon (":"), in bash? Can I remove the colon, too? I have no idea how to.
In Bash (and ksh, zsh, dash, etc.), you can use parameter expansion with % which will remove characters from the end of the string or # which will remove characters from the beginning of the string. If you use a single one of those characters, the smallest matching string will be removed. If you double the character, the longest will be removed.
$ a='hello:world'
$ b=${a%:*}
$ echo "$b"
hello
$ a='hello:world:of:tomorrow'
$ echo "${a%:*}"
hello:world:of
$ echo "${a%%:*}"
hello
$ echo "${a#*:}"
world:of:tomorrow
$ echo "${a##*:}"
tomorrow
An example might have been useful, but if I understood you correctly, this would work:
echo "Hello: world" | cut -f1 -d":"
This will convert Hello: world into Hello.
$ echo 'hello:world:again' |sed 's/:.*//'
hello
I know some solutions:
# Our mock data:
A=user:mail:password
With awk and pipe:
$ echo $A | awk -v FS=':' '{print $1}'
user
Via bash variables:
$ echo ${A%%:*}
user
With pipe and sed:
$ echo $A | sed 's#:.*##g'
user
With pipe and grep:
$ echo $A | egrep -o '^[^:]+'
user
With pipe and cut:
$ echo $A | cut -f1 -d\:
user
egrep -o '^[^:]*:'
trim off everything after the last instance of ":"
grep -o '^.*:' fileListingPathsAndFiles.txt
and if you wanted to drop that last ":"
grep -o '^.*:' file.txt | sed 's/:$//'
#kp123: you'd want to replace : with / (where the sed colon should be \/)
Let's say you have a path with a file in this format:
/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file
Now you only want the path which includes four "/". Type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-4 -d"/"
and your output will be
/dirA/dirB/dirC
The advantage of using cut is that you can also cut out the uppest directory as well as the file (in this example), so if you type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-3 -d"/"
your output would be
/dirA/dirB
Though you can do the same from the other side of the string, it would not make that much sense in this case as typing
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f2-4 -d"/"
results in
dirA/dirB/dirC
In some other cases the last case might also be helpful. Mind that there is no "/" at the beginning of the last output.
How can I remove all text after a character, in this case a colon (":"), in bash? Can I remove the colon, too? I have no idea how to.
In Bash (and ksh, zsh, dash, etc.), you can use parameter expansion with % which will remove characters from the end of the string or # which will remove characters from the beginning of the string. If you use a single one of those characters, the smallest matching string will be removed. If you double the character, the longest will be removed.
$ a='hello:world'
$ b=${a%:*}
$ echo "$b"
hello
$ a='hello:world:of:tomorrow'
$ echo "${a%:*}"
hello:world:of
$ echo "${a%%:*}"
hello
$ echo "${a#*:}"
world:of:tomorrow
$ echo "${a##*:}"
tomorrow
An example might have been useful, but if I understood you correctly, this would work:
echo "Hello: world" | cut -f1 -d":"
This will convert Hello: world into Hello.
$ echo 'hello:world:again' |sed 's/:.*//'
hello
I know some solutions:
# Our mock data:
A=user:mail:password
With awk and pipe:
$ echo $A | awk -v FS=':' '{print $1}'
user
Via bash variables:
$ echo ${A%%:*}
user
With pipe and sed:
$ echo $A | sed 's#:.*##g'
user
With pipe and grep:
$ echo $A | egrep -o '^[^:]+'
user
With pipe and cut:
$ echo $A | cut -f1 -d\:
user
egrep -o '^[^:]*:'
trim off everything after the last instance of ":"
grep -o '^.*:' fileListingPathsAndFiles.txt
and if you wanted to drop that last ":"
grep -o '^.*:' file.txt | sed 's/:$//'
#kp123: you'd want to replace : with / (where the sed colon should be \/)
Let's say you have a path with a file in this format:
/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file
Now you only want the path which includes four "/". Type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-4 -d"/"
and your output will be
/dirA/dirB/dirC
The advantage of using cut is that you can also cut out the uppest directory as well as the file (in this example), so if you type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-3 -d"/"
your output would be
/dirA/dirB
Though you can do the same from the other side of the string, it would not make that much sense in this case as typing
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f2-4 -d"/"
results in
dirA/dirB/dirC
In some other cases the last case might also be helpful. Mind that there is no "/" at the beginning of the last output.
How can I remove all text after a character, in this case a colon (":"), in bash? Can I remove the colon, too? I have no idea how to.
In Bash (and ksh, zsh, dash, etc.), you can use parameter expansion with % which will remove characters from the end of the string or # which will remove characters from the beginning of the string. If you use a single one of those characters, the smallest matching string will be removed. If you double the character, the longest will be removed.
$ a='hello:world'
$ b=${a%:*}
$ echo "$b"
hello
$ a='hello:world:of:tomorrow'
$ echo "${a%:*}"
hello:world:of
$ echo "${a%%:*}"
hello
$ echo "${a#*:}"
world:of:tomorrow
$ echo "${a##*:}"
tomorrow
An example might have been useful, but if I understood you correctly, this would work:
echo "Hello: world" | cut -f1 -d":"
This will convert Hello: world into Hello.
$ echo 'hello:world:again' |sed 's/:.*//'
hello
I know some solutions:
# Our mock data:
A=user:mail:password
With awk and pipe:
$ echo $A | awk -v FS=':' '{print $1}'
user
Via bash variables:
$ echo ${A%%:*}
user
With pipe and sed:
$ echo $A | sed 's#:.*##g'
user
With pipe and grep:
$ echo $A | egrep -o '^[^:]+'
user
With pipe and cut:
$ echo $A | cut -f1 -d\:
user
egrep -o '^[^:]*:'
trim off everything after the last instance of ":"
grep -o '^.*:' fileListingPathsAndFiles.txt
and if you wanted to drop that last ":"
grep -o '^.*:' file.txt | sed 's/:$//'
#kp123: you'd want to replace : with / (where the sed colon should be \/)
Let's say you have a path with a file in this format:
/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file
Now you only want the path which includes four "/". Type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-4 -d"/"
and your output will be
/dirA/dirB/dirC
The advantage of using cut is that you can also cut out the uppest directory as well as the file (in this example), so if you type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-3 -d"/"
your output would be
/dirA/dirB
Though you can do the same from the other side of the string, it would not make that much sense in this case as typing
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f2-4 -d"/"
results in
dirA/dirB/dirC
In some other cases the last case might also be helpful. Mind that there is no "/" at the beginning of the last output.
I have the following three constructs in a bash script:
NUMOFLINES=$(wc -l $JAVA_TAGS_FILE)
echo $NUMOFLINES" lines"
echo $(wc -l $JAVA_TAGS_FILE)" lines"
echo "$(wc -l $JAVA_TAGS_FILE) lines"
And they both produce identical output when the script is run:
121711 /home/slash/.java_base.tag lines
121711 /home/slash/.java_base.tag lines
121711 /home/slash/.java_base.tag lines
I.e. the name of the file is also echoed (which I don't want to). Why do these scriplets fail and how should I output a clean:
121711 lines
?
An Example Using Your Own Data
You can avoid having your filename embedded in the NUMOFLINES variable by using redirection from JAVA_TAGS_FILE, rather than passing the filename as an argument to wc. For example:
NUMOFLINES=$(wc -l < "$JAVA_TAGS_FILE")
Explanation: Use Pipes or Redirection to Avoid Filenames in Output
The wc utility will not print the name of the file in its output if input is taken from a pipe or redirection operator. Consider these various examples:
# wc shows filename when the file is an argument
$ wc -l /etc/passwd
41 /etc/passwd
# filename is ignored when piped in on standard input
$ cat /etc/passwd | wc -l
41
# unusual redirection, but wc still ignores the filename
$ < /etc/passwd wc -l
41
# typical redirection, taking standard input from a file
$ wc -l < /etc/passwd
41
As you can see, the only time wc will print the filename is when its passed as an argument, rather than as data on standard input. In some cases, you may want the filename to be printed, so it's useful to understand when it will be displayed.
wc can't get the filename if you don't give it one.
wc -l < "$JAVA_TAGS_FILE"
You can also use awk:
awk 'END {print NR,"lines"}' filename
Or
awk 'END {print NR}' filename
(apply on Mac, and probably other Unixes)
Actually there is a problem with the wc approach: it does not count the last line if it does not terminate with the end of line symbol.
Use this instead
nbLines=$(cat -n file.txt | tail -n 1 | cut -f1 | xargs)
or even better (thanks gniourf_gniourf):
nblines=$(grep -c '' file.txt)
Note: The awk approach by chilicuil also works.
It's a very simple:
NUMOFLINES=$(cat $JAVA_TAGS_FILE | wc -l )
or
NUMOFLINES=$(wc -l $JAVA_TAGS_FILE | awk '{print $1}')
I normally use the 'back tick' feature of bash
export NUM_LINES=`wc -l filename`
Note the 'tick' is the 'back tick' e.g. ` not the normal single quote
How can I remove all text after a character, in this case a colon (":"), in bash? Can I remove the colon, too? I have no idea how to.
In Bash (and ksh, zsh, dash, etc.), you can use parameter expansion with % which will remove characters from the end of the string or # which will remove characters from the beginning of the string. If you use a single one of those characters, the smallest matching string will be removed. If you double the character, the longest will be removed.
$ a='hello:world'
$ b=${a%:*}
$ echo "$b"
hello
$ a='hello:world:of:tomorrow'
$ echo "${a%:*}"
hello:world:of
$ echo "${a%%:*}"
hello
$ echo "${a#*:}"
world:of:tomorrow
$ echo "${a##*:}"
tomorrow
An example might have been useful, but if I understood you correctly, this would work:
echo "Hello: world" | cut -f1 -d":"
This will convert Hello: world into Hello.
$ echo 'hello:world:again' |sed 's/:.*//'
hello
I know some solutions:
# Our mock data:
A=user:mail:password
With awk and pipe:
$ echo $A | awk -v FS=':' '{print $1}'
user
Via bash variables:
$ echo ${A%%:*}
user
With pipe and sed:
$ echo $A | sed 's#:.*##g'
user
With pipe and grep:
$ echo $A | egrep -o '^[^:]+'
user
With pipe and cut:
$ echo $A | cut -f1 -d\:
user
egrep -o '^[^:]*:'
trim off everything after the last instance of ":"
grep -o '^.*:' fileListingPathsAndFiles.txt
and if you wanted to drop that last ":"
grep -o '^.*:' file.txt | sed 's/:$//'
#kp123: you'd want to replace : with / (where the sed colon should be \/)
Let's say you have a path with a file in this format:
/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file
Now you only want the path which includes four "/". Type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-4 -d"/"
and your output will be
/dirA/dirB/dirC
The advantage of using cut is that you can also cut out the uppest directory as well as the file (in this example), so if you type
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f1-3 -d"/"
your output would be
/dirA/dirB
Though you can do the same from the other side of the string, it would not make that much sense in this case as typing
$ echo "/dirA/dirB/dirC/filename.file" | cut -f2-4 -d"/"
results in
dirA/dirB/dirC
In some other cases the last case might also be helpful. Mind that there is no "/" at the beginning of the last output.