Bash shell script question

yao_man · 05-16-2008, 06:25 PM

GOTIT. I replaced both block1 and block2 with a single block1

Code:

#start of block 1
	for file in $arg/* $arg/.*;do
		if [[ ${file:(${#file}-1):1} == "." || ${file:(${#file}-2):2} == ".." ]];then
			continue
		elif [ -d "$file" ];then
			delete "$file"
		elif [ -r "$file" ];then
			echo "/bin/rm \"$file\"" >> delete_tmp
		fi
	done
#end of block1

konsolebox · 05-18-2008, 08:09 AM

hmm.. another mistake of mine.. since you already got it.. please ignore this message

--------

i love squeezing logics in a single for loop but i can't explain how to do it anyway
..so perhaps make it simpler like a for ((;;)) statement..
make a few lines that processes the first arg then do the other processes that appends arg with the old arg in the for loop like:

Code:

arg=$1
...
shift
oldarg=$arg
for arg in "$@"; do
   arg=$arg/$oldarg
   ...
   $oldarg=$arg
done

some suggestions:

you can make arg not parse spaces by doing:

Code:

while [ $# -eq 1 ]; do
   arg=$1
   ...
   shift
done

or

Code:

for arg in "$@"; do
   ...
done

it's also simpler to do IFS=$'\n' in newer shells like bash

calraith · 05-19-2008, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yao_man

I aliased rm and rmdir so that they move the files to the trash instead of removing them completely by using a "trash" function I wrote. I am trying to create a delete function that checks for approval before completely removing the given file and anything within that file (even if it is a directory) so I can easily remove files and directories when I need to.
Both of those have troubles if the file has a space in it.
BTW, this is more of an attempt to teach myself programming problem solving and logic as well as overall programming ability then an attempt at efficiency.

If you're using find, you don't need a loop. Just use xargs, and it should handle spaces just fine while still being efficient.

Code:

find -maxdepth 1 -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -i -t mv {} /tmp/Trash

from the "find" man page:

Quote:

-print0
True; print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a null character (instead of the newline character that `-print' uses). This allows file names that contain newlines or other types of white space to be correctly interpreted by programs that process the find output. This option corresponds to the `-0' option of xargs.

(:

i92guboj · 05-19-2008, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

You could either use
for file in $(ls -A)
or
for file in $(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f)

The latter will return only files.

Rather than aliasing rm and rmdir you might want to name the command something like "trash" so that the name describes what you want to do. You might also might want to only "trash" the files that you give in arguments instead of all of the contents in the current directory.

This is your original problem: when you have a file name (or any other argument for that matter) which has an space or any other character that has any special meaning for your shell, then you need to quote or scape it.

So, if

Code:

file="my file"

Then,

Code:

rm $file

Will be substituted as

Code:

rm my file

And it will search for two different files, called "my" and "file".

But if you quote the thing adequately, then the thing is much different.

Code:

rm "$file"

Remember to quote the things adequately if you don't know what a given variable is going to hold.

I'm in a hurry now, if I can I will review the rest of the thread later just in case.

cheers.