How do I get rid of the whitespace in this script?

linuxuser371038 · 06-21-2024, 05:19 AM

I just read up that xargs should get rid of it but it doesn't have any effect.

I bought an american keyboard but in the UK so often want to use the £ sign.

Code:

echo £|xargs|xclip -selection clipboard

The result still gives a space afterwards and maybe also a carriage return too.

How to get only the pound sign?

Turbocapitalist · 06-21-2024, 05:31 AM

There are several ways, but one would be to use the -n option with echo. The -e option might come in handy sometime also. As usual see, "man echo", or more likely "man bash" and scroll down to the section on echo.

linuxuser371038 · 06-21-2024, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbocapitalist

There are several ways, but one would be to use the -n option with echo. The -e option might come in handy sometime also. As usual see, "man echo", or more likely "man bash" and scroll down to the section on echo.

Oh that is embarrassing as the answer is right there on the first page of the echo man! However I would have not thought to look at echo for the answer unless you said, even though I do quite often check man pages.

pan64 · 06-21-2024, 06:19 AM

and what is even more annoying, this "man echo" is actually wrong, you need to inspect the man page of the shell (bash) and check how this echo command was implemented inside. (echo is a builtin, but available as an external command too). It is almost the same.

Turbocapitalist · 06-21-2024, 06:35 AM

Kind of and kind of not. The default is probably the one built in to the shell and the default shell is Bash but the manual page for that is a monster. It takes time and effort to learn to navigate the Bash manual page.

pan64 · 06-21-2024, 06:54 AM

they are not the same, not identical, and that may lead to confusion. Suggesting an almost correct documentation is almost a good idea.

MadeInGermany · 06-21-2024, 06:57 AM

Also possible here:

Code:

printf £|xclip -selection clipboard

While in general there should be a format string for the printf:

Code:

printf "%s" 'any text here' | xclip -selection clipboard

Again, there is a shell-builtin and an external /usr/bin/printf tool.

Turbocapitalist · 06-21-2024, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

they are not the same, not identical, and that may lead to confusion. Suggesting an almost correct documentation is almost a good idea.

Yes, there are a lot of built-in commands that are have stand-alone utilities with the same name, that is enough to cause confusion on its own. time is one I've recently noticed and for certain capabilities have to invoke the external tool with a backslash or the full path.

Code:

\time -f '%E %C' somescript