bash script, special charaters stopping cp

zebrapositions · 09-19-2009, 10:55 PM

sorry im a newb to linux scripting. i made a script for nautilus to make a dir on a external hdd and copy a avi over, pretty simple task. works fine but i started altering it to make it work with file that are named with special characters and white spaces ex: (this movie (2009) [eng].avi). i somehow managed to get the mkdir to work properly but cannot work the cp command. any help?

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#cp_xvid

BASEFILE=`basename "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS"`
BASEDIR=$(echo $PWD | sed "s/.*\///")
NEWDIR=$(echo "/media/XViD/"$BASEDIR)
CPDIR=""$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS""

if [ -e /media/XViD ]; then
	mkdir "$NEWDIR";
	(
	echo "pulsate!";
	cp "$CPDIR" "$NEWDIR";
	) | zenity --window-icon=/home/amd64/xvid.png --width=600 --progress --pulsate --title "$BASEDIR" --text "Moving ""$BASEFILE"" to XViD" --auto-kill --auto-close
else
	zenity --error --title "Not Mounted" --text "Please mount /media/XViD"
fi

ive tried something like this

Code:

CPDIR=$(echo "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | sed "s/ /\\\ /g" | sed "s/(/\\\(/g" | sed "s/)/\\\)/g" \
	| sed "s/\[/\\\\[/g" | sed "s/\]/\\\\]/g")

smeezekitty · 09-19-2009, 10:59 PM

all i know as anything that has spaces needs to be surrounded by ""
for example

Quote:

hello world.jpg

is interpretted as hello and world.jpg
but

Quote:

"hello world.jpg"

is interpetted as hello world.jpg
so cp "hi there.dat" .\somedir is ok
cp hi there.dat .\somedir is not
if that didnt help someone elze will come along

slakmagik · 09-20-2009, 12:34 AM

Just a couple of notes: using the shell's internal parameter expansion is usually better than calling on sed and the like:

BASEDIR=${PWD##*/}

and you don't need to 'echo' things in $(command expansion) - you can just directly assign the strings, as above and for:

NEWDIR=/media/XViD/$BASEDIR

Also, what's the value of $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS? Where's it coming from?

On topic, could you give a literal example and the error output. You should be able to copy 'this movie (2009) [eng].avi' simply be quoting it, as smeezekitty says, though you may be better off renaming it.

As far as that goes, you generally only need to invoke sed the once - it can take a complex regular expression and, if you really need several expressions, you can run one sed with semi-colon separated args - sed 's/foo/bar;s/baz/mu/'.

zebrapositions · 09-20-2009, 01:00 AM

like i said im a newb so the echoing was my way to make it work for now... lol.

Code:

$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS

is the selected file in gnome (running ubuntu 9.04) (right-click > scripts > your_script). my problem is i cant understand how to get the quotes to work with a variable. i tried

Code:

\"$BASEDIR\"

and other various methods i could think of. when i try to "debug" by running commands in terminal (cause i dont recieve output the way this script is run) i get errors like

Code:

cp: target `[Eng]\'' is not a directory
or
cp: target `[Eng]"' is not a directory

or something similar.
this is all i need it to do(the rest is unnecessary for now)

Code:

target /home/amd64/this movie directory/this movie (2009) [eng].avi
mkdir /media/somewhere_else/this movie directory
mv /home/amd64/this movie directory/this movie (2009) [eng].avi /media/somewhere_else/this movie directory

just need to make it work with set variables

zebrapositions · 09-20-2009, 01:13 AM

think i may have found a pro, maybe my main one. think

Code:

$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS

needs to be stripped down, seems it may have a return (\n) @the end. This is what my code looks like now and it works still with files without whitespace and special characters but thats it.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#cp_xvid

BASEFILE=`basename "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS"`
BASEDIR=${PWD##*/}
NEWDIR=/home/amd64/test/$BASEDIR

if [ -e /home/amd64/test ]; then
	zenity --error --text "cp $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS $NEWDIR"
	mkdir "$NEWDIR";
	(
	echo "pulsate!";
	cp $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS "$NEWDIR";
	) | zenity --window-icon=/home/amd64/Convertxtodvd.png \
		--width=600 --progress --pulsate --title "$BASEDIR" \
		--text "Moving ""$BASEFILE"" to XViD" --auto-kill #--auto-close
else
	zenity --error --title "Not Mounted" --text "Please mount /media/XViD"
fi

ive tried quotes around $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS in all formats i know and nothing works.

zebrapositions · 09-20-2009, 01:47 AM

Code:

CPDIR=$(echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS | sed "s/\n//g")

yup damn newline in the variable. thnx for the help on the other stuff guys. better way to do this?

Code:

 CPDIR=$(NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS//\n/}

someting like that? i have no clue on the syntax. i would like to know, please leave a link if you have something i can read slakmagik

slakmagik · 09-20-2009, 01:52 AM

Okay, sorry if I'm not following along, but if I only had gxmessage and I wanted to copy an oddly titled avi to /tmp, this would work for me:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS="$HOME/this movie (2009) [eng].avi"

BASEFILE=${NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS##*/}
BASEDIR=${NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS%/*}
TARGETDIR=/tmp

if [[ -d $TARGETDIR ]]; then
    gxmessage "Copy $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS to $TARGETDIR?"
    if (( $? == 0 )); then
        cp "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" "$TARGETDIR"
    fi
else
    gxmessage "$TARGETDIR not mounted."
fi

I set the variable that nautilus is supposed to give you to a full path and quote it. I split that path into its directory and file components. I define the target directory. I use a new-style test to see if it exists as a directory - if it doesn't, the user gets the "unmounted message'. Otherwise it pops up a gxmessage to show what's going to happen and get input from the user about whether they want to go ahead. If they decline, nothing happens. If they accept, it performs the action exactly as it showed the user. And it Works for Me.

If it's not, try to redirect output to a file, such as doing a dummy script that just does 'echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS > mydebugfile' or put 'bash -x' in the shebang of the script you're using and redirect stderr to a file and interpret the whole thing. Because, yeah, it must be nautilus that's doing you wrong.

slakmagik · 09-20-2009, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zebrapositions

[CODE]yup damn newline in the variable

That's insane on nautilus' part. Ordinarily, I'd say to use the variable without quotes, which would collapse the newline, but you have whitespace and special chars, so that won't work. Let me think a bit.

As far as reading, there's the bash scripting guides at TLDP but I don't get a whole lot from them. There's #bash on freenode, but it can be an evil place. comp.unix.shell is good on usenet if you have a good killfile. The bash manual is actually very good if you sort of get a basic handle on stuff so that it actually makes sense. It's not the first thing I'd plunge into heavily, but the second.

slakmagik · 09-20-2009, 02:09 AM

Try this:

Code:

SENSIBLE_VAR="$(printf "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS")"

That's very similar to the assignment by echoing you were doing in the first place, but with a different purpose.

zebrapositions · 09-20-2009, 02:21 AM

sorry if i confused you slakmagik. just wondering if something like this would work

Code:

BASEFILE=${NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS%\n}

and also do you have a link to a webpage that explains the syntax of ${VARIABLE%/*} and etc or what thats called?

slakmagik · 09-20-2009, 02:41 AM

No problem - it's easy to do.

That snippet wouldn't. You could keep trying variations if you wanted to, but the printf should be okay.

As far as a link, no, not off hand. The bash manual explains it under parameter expansion - just type '/Parameter E' in less and it should take you right to it.

catkin · 09-20-2009, 03:04 AM

How about adding some degug statements so you cane see what's going on inside your script? Something like

Code:

#!/bin/bash
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS="$HOME/this movie (2009) [eng].avi"
echo "DEBUG: NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS is '$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS'"

BASEFILE=${NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS##*/}
echo "DEBUG: BASEFILE is '$BASEFILE'"
BASEDIR=${NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS%/*}
echo "DEBUG: BASEDIR is '$BASEDIR'"
TARGETDIR=/tmp

if [[ -d "$TARGETDIR" ]]; then  # double quotes added in case $TARGETDIRcontains whitespace characters
    gxmessage "Copy $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS to $TARGETDIR?"
    #if (( $? == 0 )); then
    if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then  
        cp "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" "$TARGETDIR"
    fi
else
    gxmessage "$TARGETDIR not mounted."
fi