[SOLVED] script showing control sequences in list of filenames

danishgambit · 06-07-2011, 09:05 AM

Afternoon,

as part of a script to generate commands for a number of files, I'm using the basic command below:

-----------
for file in `ls -1 *.bd`
do
echo "proutil dbname -C load $file" >> $log
done

----------
Seems simple enough, but the script is inserting control sequences in the file
part of the command
i.e. a file called access.bd becomes

^[[0m^[[0maccess.bd^[[0m

Any suggestions as to how I can stop this happening would be appreciated.

TIA,

DG.

colucix · 06-07-2011, 09:14 AM

The control sequences are probably due to the ls command aliased to show colors. You can either escape the command to run the unaliased ls:

Code:

for file in `\ls -1 *.bd`
do
  echo "proutil dbname -C load $file" >> $log
done

or even better without the ls command at all:

Code:

for file in *.bd
do
  echo "proutil dbname -C load $file" >> $log
done

danishgambit · 06-07-2011, 09:18 AM

thanks for the response Colucix, but neither is preventing the control sequences appearing.

colucix · 06-07-2011, 09:21 AM

Really strange. Please, can you post the output of the following, to see what exactly are these control sequences?

Code:

for file in *.bd
do
  echo $file | od -c
  break
done

danishgambit · 06-07-2011, 09:30 AM

the results of the octal dump were
0000000

Hopefully this tells you more than it tells me :-)

colucix · 06-07-2011, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danishgambit

the results of the octal dump were
0000000

Hmmm... most likely you were not in the directory containing the *.bd files. The result of od is empty.

danishgambit · 06-07-2011, 09:43 AM

Just in case I was in the wrong directory, I've just double checked by running it again, and still getting the same output

0000000

Cheers,

DG.

grail · 06-07-2011, 10:19 AM

Just so we are on the same page, you are running this on some form of linux and the shell is either bash or sh?

Your output seems to be a bit bogus as even if I run the following:

Code:

$ echo | od -c
0000000  \n
0000001

So assuming you get in the loop and the variable has nothing in it, you should at least get the above.
If you are running colucix's code then you are also in a directory where there are no files or directories ending in '.bd'

danishgambit · 06-16-2011, 05:18 AM

thanks for the input chaps. Just realised that I may have been wasting your time. I'd assumed it was a linux box (as our boxes are always linux), but this one is apparently solaris, so I guess that might explain it.

Anyway, on the assumption that this is the reason, I'll mark this call as closed.

Thanks again.

ssrameez · 06-16-2011, 05:24 AM

for file in `ls *.bd`
do
echo "proutil dbname -C load $file" >> $log
done

could you please try this.. I have removed ls "-1" from it.. Just out of curiosity.

colucix · 06-16-2011, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danishgambit

thanks for the input chaps. Just realised that I may have been wasting your time. I'd assumed it was a linux box (as our boxes are always linux), but this one is apparently solaris, so I guess that might explain it.

Anyway, on the assumption that this is the reason, I'll mark this call as closed.

Thanks again.

I can move the thread to the Solaris/Opensolaris forum. But have you solved the problem? If not, please show us the output of

Code:

ls -l *.bd

does it show colored in the terminal?

jlliagre · 07-15-2011, 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danishgambit

thanks for the input chaps. Just realised that I may have been wasting your time. I'd assumed it was a linux box (as our boxes are always linux), but this one is apparently solaris, so I guess that might explain it.

There is no reason for Solaris to behave differently than Linux on this issue.

This should just work even with the legacy Solaris bourne shell:

Code:

for file in `ls *.bd`
do
      echo "proutil dbname -C load $file" >> $log
done