[bash script] What does this mean? -- FILE=${LIST##*/}

thomas2004ch · 03-05-2012, 07:12 AM

I read a script wrote from one of my former colleague and it looks as follow:

Code:

...
    for LIST in $(find $OUTPUTPATH -type f); do
      FILE=${LIST##*/}
...

I wonder what does here the LIST##* mean.

Someone knows?

acid_kewpie · 03-05-2012, 07:21 AM

Return a copy of the string, having deleted everything up to the last slash. Whilst it's "clever" doing that in pure bash, i'd personally have used the "basename" command, which is so much clearer.

Quote:

Substring Removal

${string#substring}
Deletes shortest match of $substring from front of $string.

${string##substring}
Deletes longest match of $substring from front of $string.

stringZ=abcABC123ABCabc
# |----| shortest
# |----------| longest

echo ${stringZ#a*C} # 123ABCabc
# Strip out shortest match between 'a' and 'C'.

echo ${stringZ##a*C} # abc
# Strip out longest match between 'a' and 'C'.

# You can parameterize the substrings.

X='a*C'

echo ${stringZ#$X} # 123ABCabc
echo ${stringZ##$X} # abc
# As above.

http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/string-manipulation.html