So I'm new bash scripting, and what I want to do is write a script that allows me to rip subtitles from various .mkv files using mkvextract(if there is a better tool let me know).

I don't have a good idea about how to go about this, so I'm hoping to be nudged in the right direction, I want to learn this after all. Would I be better off doing this in another language?

My thinking is you run either: or just in a terminal to do all files in a directory.

I want to say the contents would look like But I don't think that works. Also, any scripting exercise websites?

Just try this and let us know if it works for you
#! /usr/bin/ksh

for mkv_files in `ls *.mkv`
do
mkvextract tracks ${mkv_files} 3:${mkv_files}
done

Note: I am not very much clear about your requirement. I am also not familiar with mkvextract tool. Execute this script in the directory where all your .mkv files are present.

for, do, and done, are a step in the right direction, but I'm getting nothing but parsing errors. I think I should take a step back.

What do I do if I want to run a script on a file? Say:
where the script contents are What variable would I use to replace filename?

You have to use $1 in place of filename in your approach.

But I would like to know what kind of parsing error you are getting? Is it due to for...do..done or is it coming from mkvextract?

1 members found this post helpful.

The error is coming from mkvextract, it is misinterpreting filenames with spaces as multiple files. file1.mkv works, but not file 1.mkv.

[CODE]#! /usr/bin/ksh

for mkv_files in `ls *.mkv`
do
mkvextract tracks ${mkv_files} 3:${mkv_files}
done[CODE]

Any idea on getting whatever ls brings up as "file 1.mkv" instead of just file 1.mkv?

If your file names are having spaces in between, then you can try while loop instead of for loop.

Here is the code:

ls *.mkv | while read line ; do mkvextract tracks ${line} 3:${line}; done

Note: Output of "ls *.mkv" is given as input to while loop and the read command will read one line at a time and store the value in "line" variable which is you file name with/without spaces.

Hope this helps.

the previous script doesn't work for me. From what I can tell, it should, but I think it has to do with how linux does filenames. Files without spaces work, but those that do have them don't.

I am guessing that 'while read line' reports filenames as "foo bar 10.mkv" instead of "foo\ bar\ 10.mkv"

Is there a way to append quotation marks to each line, or retain name formatting that uses \. Quotation marks seem like it would be easier.

This works with filename-spaces:

ls *.mkv | while read line ; do mkvextract tracks "${line}" 3:"${line}"; done

But there's one obvious problem, and it's telling mkvextract to give the extracted track the same filename as the source file. This worked great for me instead:

ls *.mkv | while read line ; do mkvextract tracks "${line}" 3:"${line}.ac3"; done

I was extracting all the ac3 audio tracks, use whatever extension is appropriate for your situation.

I don't think using ls with the wildcard * is a good idea:
http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls
pitfall no1. "for i in *" does just the same.
You will also find some good info in general (in the FAQ of the same site).

1 members found this post helpful.

This works great too, thanks for the tip j1alu (and sanjayadash for that matter!):

for mkv_files in *.mkv; do mkvextract tracks "${mkv_files}" 2:"${mkv_files}.ac3"; done