export with grep

[Stephen Badgett]

When doing a export with an imbedded “grep” I seem to lose a space within the grep command…

here> export now="/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep \"May 9\""
here> echo $now
/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep "May 9"

What do I need to do to fix this? – I get the same response on HP-UX and

[Steven E. Protter]

As far as grep goes, I use it like this:

netstat -an | grep ":80 "

No special characters needed.

SEP

[Stephen Badgett]

I am not sure I am following what you stated ...

Here is the example why I use "\" ...

$ export now=/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep "May 9"
$ echo $now
/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep May
$ export now="/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep \"May 9\""
$ echo $now
/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep "May 9"

It just seems like I loose all the spaces between May and 9 -- The reason I am doing this is that the date is right justified and I need one imbedded space between the month and day if the day is lees then a 2 digit number


Example:

-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 750 May 3 17:33 /orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/drx_s000_29419.trc
-rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 1431 May 19 02:07 /orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/drx_s000_32267.trc
I might be going at this wrong but it does seem to be something simple that is not working the way I would like.

[Gregory Fruth]

In the examples you provided it looks like
there *is* a space between May and 9. What
exactly are you going to do with $now besides
echo it? This is probably a shell quoting
problem, not a problem with grep itself.

[Volker Borowski · Accepted solution]

Hi,

since you escaped the inner double quotes, the expansion eliminates the multiple whitespaces. Use single quotes without escaping them inside:
export now="/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep 'May 9'"

Hope this fixes it (no system to check available now)
Volker

[Stephen Badgett]

here is the sh script I am trying to create/test ... attached too


#export now="/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep \"`date '+%b %e'`\""
export now="/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep \"May 9\""

echo $now
ls -l $now
if test -r '$now'
then
echo "TRC FILE ON DEVLOAD - " > /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
# ls -l /orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep "$now" >> /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
ls -l /orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep "May 9" >> /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
echo "end of report" >> /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
mail -s "!!! DEVLOAD trc file is there !!!" sbadgett@pharmcomp.com < /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
fi

[Stephen Badgett]

I have tried ...
export now="/orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep 'May 9'"

I still get the same results

[Volker Borowski]

Hi,

what is your OS and what is your shell ?

I just verified this behavior on Linux with bash, but the environment Variable HAS stored the additional blanks! They are just not re printed, when the variable is expanded, no idea why !
I have used variable with blanks in content on Solaris today (!), this is why I suggested it this way, but now on Linux ....

Check, after "now" is set to content with several Blanks with

env | grep now

...should show the blanks !

Verify with
if [ "$now" = "your_content" ] ; then echo true; fi

with single blanks and correct number of blanks.

Looks like the forum does the same elimination !

I am confused
Volker

[Robert Salter]

Looks like you're trying to capture the full path to the trc file with a certain time stamp. Try
export now=`ll /orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep "May 9"|awk '{print $9}'`

[Stephen Badgett]

Volker Borowski -- Yes I did see spaces -- so the test condition should work. I was wondering why the spaces would be removed with in " "'s. Well as long as the test condition works I am fine

[Volker Borowski]

Steve,

if the variable has the blanks,
try
..... | grep -e "$now"

Volker

[Volker Borowski]

OK, and

echo -E "$now"

does the trick on Linux at least :-)

Nice nut to crack
Volker

[Stephen Badgett]

Ok - got it to work ...

export x="`date '+%b %e'`"
export now="`/bin/ls -l /orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep \"$x\"|cut -b 50-`"

echo "test"
echo $now
if test -e $now
then
echo "TRC FILE ON DEVLOAD - " > /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
/bin/cat $now >> /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
echo "end of report" >> /home/sbadgett/data/trc-list
mail -s "!!! DEVLOAD trc file is there !!!" sbadgett@pharmcomp.com < $now
else
echo none today
fi

[Stephen Badgett]

The final copy ...

export x="`date '+%b %e'`"
export now="`/bin/ls -l /orca/oracle/admin/DRX/bdump/*.trc|grep \"$x\"|cut -b 50-`"

if test -e $now
then
mail -s "!!! DEVLOAD trc file is there !!!" sbadgett@pharmcomp.com < $now
else
echo none today
fi

[Stephen Badgett]

Thanks for all your help -- I mean ALL you help


Stephen