BASH: Output everything between two strings

systemparadox · 12-13-2004, 03:28 PM

Hi. im sure this sort of question is probably asked a lot, but I can't seem to find any helpful info.
I am writing a bash script. What I want is something which will search a file and output everything between two strings. e.g. if the file contains something like this:
<HTML>

<BODY>

blahblahblahdablah
</BODY>
</HTML>

i want to put in something like: from "" and get:
this is a random example page

I did try using grep, but I havent the faintest idea how to use it, and the man page didnt make it look like it was capable of this.

Thanks in advance
Simon

Tinkster · 12-13-2004, 05:43 PM

Just a first shot ...

Code:

grep "<!--" temp.html | sed 's/<!--\(.*\)-->/\1/g'

Gives

Cheers,
Tink

Code:

 grep '<!--' temp.html | sed 's/<!--\(.*\)-->/\1/g'
Description="this is a random example page"
Heres some content

with your snippet as temp.html

systemparadox · 12-18-2004, 10:26 AM

Thanks!
I didn't actually want it to output the "Here's some content" bit, I put that in there because I wanted it to destinguish between <!--Description and other comments. Anyways that doesn't matter because I managed to modify your example to do that.

It now looks like this:

Code:

grep '<!--Description' temp.html | sed 's/<!--Description="\(.*\)"-->/\1/g'

and gives:

Code:

this is a random example page

Thanks for the help!
Simon