[SOLVED] What's wrong with this bash script

L_Carver · 09-29-2016, 06:58 AM

This ran fine in Ubuntu 11.04. It uses exiftool to add captions/XMP descriptions to image files with metadata containers, mainly and mostly JPEGs.

Code:

#!/bin/bash -i
SAVEIFS=$IFS
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")

function gettext () {
echo -e "What text will I be using?"
read -e item
#Allowing for, and correcting, the trailing space in interactive mode
if [[ "$item" =~ " " ]]; then
	capfile=${item% *}
else
	capfile=$item
fi
#echo $capfile
}
gettext
while IFS=^ read file cap
do
exiftool -fast5 -overwrite_original_in_place -q -Caption-Abstract="$cap" -XMP-xmp:Description="$cap" $file
echo -e "Captions applied to $file"

done<$item

IFS=$SAVEIFS

The error I keep getting has to do with the shell seeing the caption text as a file it can't find.

My bash version is 4.3.30. I'm using Trinity R14.03 on a Q4OS (can't recall the specific version #), in case any of that matters.

Llewellyn

pan64 · 09-29-2016, 07:07 AM

Next time please post the real error message.
https://bash.cyberciti.biz/guide/Here_strings

L_Carver · 09-29-2016, 08:01 AM

I'll do so in future. It's only a courtesy, after all.

L_Carver · 09-29-2016, 08:22 AM

Here are the errors:

Code:

File not found: Caption-Abstract=Her name is Marie. A month ago, she had a pregnancy...
File not found: XMP-xmp:Description=Her name is Marie. A month ago, she had a pregnancy...

pan64 · 09-29-2016, 08:37 AM

insert set -xv at the beginning of your script, that will help you to understand what's happening. Especially check the variables file and cap.
Why did you use IFS=^ ?

Dave Lerner · 09-29-2016, 04:09 PM

You can also pass the debugging options to the script via the command line:

Code:

bash -xv SCRIPTNAME

ondoho · 09-30-2016, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L_Carver

It's only a courtesy, after all.

no it's not.
it's the most important info to provide.
it is your system trying to talk to you.

anyhow, maybe exiftool's command line options have changed with a new version?
that's my first idea, really off the top of my head.

pan64 · 09-30-2016, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

it's the most important info to provide.
it is your system trying to talk to you.

Do you know the message you posted means: something is completely wrong with that exiftool command. I mean the parameters/arguments are not really understood or handled properly.
That cannot be seen in your original post.
set -xv will print a lot of debugging information and you will see the variables, commands as they used by the shell. And that may help you to understand what's happening. Or you can try to post the output and we will try to give you a solution (or just go forward one step)

L_Carver · 10-03-2016, 12:01 AM

Whichever one of you suggested i re-think the variables (file and cap), I changed them and the script worked as it did when I used Ubuntu. Thanks for the help.
Carver

ondoho · 10-03-2016, 01:07 AM

please share your solution, so others can benefit from this in the future.
Life is a two-way street.

L_Carver · 10-03-2016, 06:40 AM

The revised, probably slightly extended, script code looks like this:

Code:

#!/bin/bash -i
SAVEIFS=$IFS
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
set -xv
function gettext () {
echo -e "What text will I be using?"
read -e item
#Allowing for, and correcting, the trailing space in interactive mode
if [[ "$item" =~ " " ]]; then
	capfile=${item% *}
else
	capfile=$item
fi
#echo $capfile
}
gettext
while IFS=^ read file1 caption
do
exiftool -fast5 -overwrite_original_in_place -q Caption-Abstract="$caption" XMP-xmp:Description="$caption" $file1
echo -e "Captions applied to $file1"

done<$item

IFS=$SAVEIFS

You'll notice "file" is now "file1" and "cap" is now "caption." That little difference was enough to make it work. I guess it's because 'file' and 'cap' are reserved words (in fact one is a command) in bash; I'd forgotten asmuch.

Carver

pan64 · 10-03-2016, 07:04 AM

Code:

if [[ "$item" =~ " " ]]; then
	capfile=${item% *}
else
	capfile=$item
fi

capfile is not used anywhere, so this part is useless
still don't know what is IFS=^ good for.
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b") was copied from here: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...bash-scripting (or a similar page) and again I do not really understand. IFS=$'\n' would be probably better.

L_Carver · 10-03-2016, 09:30 AM

You're right. I've been told the "IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")" was too much w/re other scripts I've written. It worked in Cygwin (in fact it worked BEST in Cygwin when anything less didn't [ymmv]), so it's a habit of mine. BASH 4 doesn't seem to need it -- in Linuxes I've used, at any rate -- so I'll try to break the habit going forward.

Carver

L_Carver · 11-04-2016, 05:08 AM

In another thread (since closed) you asked:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

2) what's all this messing about with IFS?

5) what 'while IFS=^ ' supposed to mean?

I just added the SAVEIFS & IFS= lines to a script that kept returning "File not found" errors on files with spaces in their names. So bash 4 handles that without specifying file separators, does it? It has yet to do so for me.

Carver

pan64 · 11-04-2016, 05:25 AM

this thread is continued here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...in-4175592861/
The script posted in this thread is now modified, IFS was removed....
please do not run several threads discussing the same script (and posting/using different versions of it).
by the way the actual state is still not ok,

Code:

 echo "Uses exiftool."
 while read line; do
	file0=$line

here " should be used if you have problems with spaces:

Code:

 file0="$line"