topic Passing two-word input to shell script in Operating System - HP-UX

Passing two-word input to shell script

Scott Downs — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:05:49 GMT

I have a personalized script that takes inputs using -p, -user, and -role. I am trying to pass a role called "Process Manager" (as in, script.sh -role "Process Manager"), but I only get the first word when I store $1 into a variable (after shifting to it). I have tried with quotes, and without, and each time I just get the first word.

Thank you for any advice!

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

Umapathy S — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:12:40 GMT

hi Scott,
You can use getopt in shell scripts. Check the man page for details.

cheers
Umapathy

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:12:47 GMT

Hi

get it as two variables :-

$1 and $2

then $1+$2 = $3

then pass the variable $3.

Paula

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

Darren Prior — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:17:30 GMT

Hi,

$* will give you all the arguments.

regards,

Darren.

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

Bill Hassell — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:17:53 GMT

text with whitespace is processed by the shell as separate words unless it is enclosed in quotes. This is true both for input as well as output. So if your script reads input from the command line, you must protect the whitespace to make it appear as a single string as in:

two strings "one string" one\ more\ string

In the above example, there are 4 strings. "one string" and one\ more\ string will each be assigned to a single variable.

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

Ralph Grothe — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:18:36 GMT

Just a hint, in case you haven't yet stumbled accross it.

Have a look at the getopt program (see its manpage).
It makes parsing of commandline switches so much easier.

Basically, quoting strings that contain whitespace (e.g. "Process Manager"), or quoting each whitespace (e.g. Process\ Mangare) should deliver the argument as one token.

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

Ramkumar Devanathan — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:22:56 GMT

hi,

if the script is called like this -

$ script.sh -p xxx -user yyy -role "hello world!"

then add this line to your script -

IFS='"' # IFS=internal field separator

works for me.

HTH.

- ramd.

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

Ramkumar Devanathan — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:26:52 GMT

that's a double quote (") within 2 single quotes (') btw.

- ramd.

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

John Meissner — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 12:23:39 GMT

script optionone optiontwo option three

optionvar1=$1
optionvar2=$2
optionvar3="$3 $4"

This should work as well
it sets a variable = to the command line options

Re: Passing two-word input to shell script

john korterman — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 16:41:29 GMT

Hi,
when you make the variable assignment of $1 in your script, is $1 qouted? It should be.

regards,
John K.