how to get only the first alphabet pattern from a input?
 

I have some files with below names:

xen-scripts-org-4.999.9-0.3.beta.20021004git.blahblah.x86_64

xx-yyyy-zzzz-4.999.9-0.3.beta.20021007git.8.amzn1.x86_64

I'd like use some command or a small script to get the first letters(not numbers) from those file names.

output should look like: xen-scripts-org


Please help.

Is this what you want

hi chrism01,

but if the input is something like this "xx-yyyy-4.999.9-0.3.beta.20021007git.8.amzn1.x86_64"

i won't be getting the desired output ..right?

I need to ignore the numbers from the input and get the first name.

Thanks for your reply.

That's what it does; you get the leading xx-yyyy-zzzz; just try it.
If unless you wanted something else, please show a before and after example to clarify.

Could you post examples of input and required output.

If you see my second post particulalry.. i changed the input. it doesn't contain zzzz.
If i use your command.. it gives the following out put...
[user@mc ~]$ echo xx-yyyy-4.999.9-0.3.beta.20021007git.8.amzn1.x86_64|cut -d'-' -f1,2,3
xx-yyyy-4.999.9

Which is wrong.

If input is xx-4.999.9-0.3.beta.20021007git.8.amzn1.x86_64 should get xx
& xx-4.99 should get xx
& abcd-2.555.6666.8885 should get abcd
& xx-yyyyy-zzzz-wwww-20021007git.8 should get xx-yyyyy-zzzz-wwww

Ok, so a variable num of 'fields' before the 4.999 etc.
IF the 4.99 is a constant ie where you want to grab the prefix
You need to delineate the rules exactly; what can change, what can vary and which part you want extracted.


Edit: so had that open while you posted above. Here's the amended sed
Basically remove pattern that starts with '-', followed by a digit, followed by anything...

thanks Chris.