[SOLVED] pass arguments to script using symbol

timl · 02-25-2017, 12:37 AM

Hi, there are several shows on BBC radio which I grab on Sunday using get_iplayer. My process is:

use a script to "get" the latest schedule and dump in a file
search the schedule for the latest episode of the show I want
use another script to record the show

As there are 4 or 5 I get on a Sunday I was thinking of automating the process. My knowledge of awk/sed is non-existent but I thought I would be able to cobble something together. The first step is to search the file and then drag out the show number to a symbol. This bit works and I can echo back the command successfully. However when I pass the symbol to the script I get an error. I get the feeling that the name of the symbol is being passed to the script however echo contradicts that thought. I would be interested to know the correct way to pass a parameter to a script when the parameter is in the form of a symbol?

Cheers

Quote:

[tim@Vampyre ~]$ cat Documents/dgett
#!/bin/bash
#
# get ID passed in $1 from iplayer
#
cd /home/tim
get_iplayer "$1" --get --aactomp3 --radiomode=better

[tim@Vampyre ~]$ grep -i "beat surrender" bbcr | tail -1 > abc

[tim@Vampyre ~]$ cat abc
13546: Beat Surrender - 18/02/2017, BBC Newcastle, p04rjqvc

[tim@Vampyre ~]$ xxx=$(awk '{print $1}' abc)

[tim@Vampyre ~]$ echo dgett $xxx
dgett 13546:

[tim@Vampyre ~]$ dgett $xxx
get_iplayer v2.97, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
conditions; use --conditions for details.

INFO: 0 Matching Programmes

[tim@Vampyre ~]$ dgett 13546
get_iplayer v2.97, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
conditions; use --conditions for details.

Matches:
13546: radio, Beat Surrender - 18/02/2017, BBC Newcastle, p04rjqvc

INFO: 1 Matching Programmes
INFO: Beat Surrender - 439. 18/02/2017 (p04rjqvc) Already in history (/home/tim/.get_iplayer/download_history) - use --force to override

Turbocapitalist · 02-25-2017, 01:28 AM

There are a lot of refinements you could make but I think the first one would be to make use of awk's ability to use patterns for field separators. If colons don't show up anywhere else, then you could do it like this:

Code:

awk -F '[ :]' '{print $1}'

Otherwise, you'll just have to trim the first field of any punctuation:

Code:

awk '{ sub(/[[:punct:]]/, "", $1); print $1 }'

Eventually you'll be able to put the equivalent of grep and tail in there too. But one change at a time for now.

ilainftw · 02-25-2017, 08:42 AM

You don't need to go to such lengths unless you're using this as an exercise to learn something about awk or scripting in general. get_iplayer can do all the work for you with its PVR capability.

timl · 02-26-2017, 03:36 AM

Hi guys and thanks for the feedback. As well as making my life easier this was an exercise in using awk and turbo has opened my eyes to some of the possibilities. I was not aware of the PVR options but I had a look at the man page and I have a better idea now. I shall start tinkering.

Thanks again

timl · 03-08-2017, 12:32 AM

thanks to all. I have now got a solution to my query albeit in a roundabout way. Thanks to turbo for putting my mind straight on how to think laterally and thanks to ilainftw for recommending the pvr options which I now understood and put to use.