Using at to schedule a systems message. I need to run it in a script, so the first option which requires ctrl+d is not viable. Also note, in the first option, the pipe fails UNLESS I add a nonsense echo statement below it.
first option, works but cannot use:
$ at now
> cat file.txt | write user pts/0
> echo "nonsense"
>[ctrl+d]
second option, which needs to work:
$ at now << 'END_AT'
> cat file.txt | write user pts/0
> END_AT
Please note that with or without the nonsense echo in the second option, it fails to cat the contents of the text file. I need this second option to properly display, what am I doing wrong here??
Related
I want to save a command to a file (for example I want to save the string "cat /etc/passwd" to a file) but I can't use the echo command.
How can I create and save string to a file directly without using echo command?
You can redirect cat to a file, type the text, and press Control-D when you're done, like this:
cat > file.txt
some text
some more text
^D
By ^D I mean to press Control-D at the end. The line must be empty.
It will not be part of the file, it is just to terminate the input.
Are you avoiding ECHO for security purposes (e.g. you're using a shared terminal and you don't want to leave trace in the shell history of what you've written inside your files) or you're just curious for an alternative method?
Simple alternative to echo:
As someone said, redirecting cat is probably the simpler way to go.
I'd suggest you to manually type your end-of-file, like this:
cat <<EOF > outputfile
> type here
> your
> text
> and finish it with
> EOF
Here's the string you're asking for, as an example:
cat <<EOF > myscript.sh
cat /etc/passwd
EOF
You probably don't want everyone to know you've peeked into that file, but if that's your purpose please notice that wrapping it inside an executable file won't make it more private, as that lines will be logged anyway...
Security - Avoiding history logs etc..
In modern shell, just try adding a space at the beginning of every command and use freely whatever you want.
BTW, my best hint is to avoid using that terminal at all, if you can. If you got two shells (another machine or even just another secure user in the same machine), I'd recommend you using netcat. See here: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2012/04/nc-command-examples/?utm_source=feedburner
{ { command ls $(dirname $(which cat)) |
grep ^ca't$'; ls /etc/passwd; } |
tr \\n ' '; printf '\n'; } > output-file
But it's probably a lot simpler to just do : printf 'cat /etc/passwd\n'
To be clear, this is a tongue-in-cheek solution. The initial command is an extraordinarily convoluted way to get what you want, and this is intended to be a humorous answer. Perhaps instructive to understand.
I am not sure I understood you correctly but
cat /etc/passwd > target.file
use the > operator to write it to file without echoing
If you need to use it, inside a program :
cat <<EOF >file.txt
some text
some more text
EOF
I would imagine that you are probably trying to print the content of a string to a file, hence you mentioned echo.
You are avoiding this:
echo "cat /etc/passwd" > target.file
You can use a here string combined with cat.
cat > target.file <<< "cat /etc/passwd"
Now the file target.file will contain a string cat /etc/passwd.
$ cat target.file
cat /etc/passwd
$
To create string:
var1=your command
to save a file or variable in a file without echo use:
cat $FILE/VAR1 > /new/file/path
I want to ask if is possible to combine linux command and <
sendmail -S "lalalal" -f "dailaakak" -au "kakakak" <<EOF
>lalal:lalal
>opp:ttt
>ggg:zzz
EOF
I want to have something like that sendmail -S "lalalal" -f "dailaakak" -au "kakakak" <<EOF; lalal:lalal; opp:ttt; ggg:zzz; EOF
I need to use that not in bash script
If it has to be in one line without newlines use that:
echo -e "lalal:lalal\nopp:ttt\nggg:zzz" | sendmail -S "lalalal" -f "dailaakak" -au "kakakak"
echo -n interpretes escapes characters such as \n as a newline.
If you are asking whether you can use the << EOF in an interactive shell then the answer is yes, you can.
Note this functionality is called here document and that there can be any word instead of EOF. For example:
$ cat - << someword
> Here you
> can
> write text with as many
> newlines as you want.
> someword
Here you
can
write text with as many
newlines as you want.
(cat - prints whatever it receives on stdin)
For more information on here documents you can read for example this: http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/here-docs.html
I have tried and succeeded but it's messy. EOF simply does not like to accept substituted new lines for some reason so it needs to be put in another format. Now I'm sure this could be achieved with an expect script one one line but the below is what I have made and works.
echo "ssh localhost `printf "<< EOF\necho "Working!" >> /tmp/myfile \nEOF\n"`" > file.sh; chmod770 file.sh; ./file.sh
printf "<< EOF\necho Test! >> /tmp/myfile \nEOF\n" | xargs ssh localhost
Please ensure chmod file permissions are suitable for your own work case! Putting it into an environment variable instead of a file is also likely to work.
I want a linux cmd to write the value of a variable into a file. Heres what i have,
x=$(cat /home/kate/Documents/Desktop/New-ACE-Deploy/deploy/ace/deploysetup/ConfFiles/online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf)
echo $x
cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled
cat > online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf
echo "$x" >> "/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf"
But i have to press Ctrl +D to end. I dont want to do it. Any alternatives.
Remove the cat > online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf line and you should be fine with regards to pressing Ctrl+D. If the file may exist before you run the script, you want to additionally replace >> (appending) on the last line with > (overwriting).
If you really need to explicitly make sure the file exists and is empty, use echo -n > online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf.
Your cat command on the 4th line is incorrect. It is missing a file parameter. Without this parameter is copies stdin to stdout. This goes on until stdin is closed, hence you need to use CTRL-D
In order to fix your problem, change the line it to:
cat online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf
(Note the > is gone)
If you want to create an empty (new) file, use touch instead of cat:
touch online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf
or directly echo to the file:
echo "$x" > "/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/online_ace_stable-m4.5.conf"
as it it not require to first create it and make sure that old contents are not kept. (Note the single > instead of the double >>)
I'm trying to write a pretty basic script in Linux shell but I'm still learning. Basically, everything is good to go except one part. I direct two outputs into the same file, e.g.:
echo `losetup -a` > partitionfile
echo "p1" >> partition final
Basically, I need to add the letter/number "p1" to the end of whatever is written in the file.
The problem is, it ends up being read (cat partitionfile) as:
/dev/loop0
p1
I need it on the same line to it reads out as:
/dev/loop0p1
There has to be a way to fix this, I just don't know it. Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
I would go for:
echo "$(losetup -a)p1" > partitionfile
For an example, see the following transcript:
pax> echo "$(echo xyzzy_)p1"
xyzzy_p1
The xyzzy_ is the output of the inner echo command (which in your case would be losetup) and the outer echo command appends p1.
Hi Actually the correct option of echo to achieve this is "\c"
\c Keeps the cursor on the same line.
However you cannot use \c unless you have enabled it with
-e
Thus your code should be something like this ...
echo -e "`losetup -a` \c" > partitionfile
echo "p1" >> partition final
this will write in partitionfile as
< output of losetup -a > p1
everything on same line.
You can pass -n flag to the first echo statement to not print the trailing new line.
Ref: http://linux.die.net/man/1/echo
Normally when one wants to look at specific output lines from running something, one can do something like:
./a.out | grep IHaveThisString
but what if IHaveThisString is something which changes every time so you need to first run it, watch the output to catch what IHaveThisString is on that particular run, and then grep it out? I can just dump to file and later grep but is it possible to do something like background it and then bring it to foreground and bringing it back but now piped to some grep? Something akin to:
./a.out
Ctrl-Z
fg | grep NowIKnowThisString
just wondering..
No, it is only in your screen buffer if you didn't save it in some other way.
Short form: You can do this, but you need to know that you need to do it ahead-of-time; it's not something that can be put into place interactively after-the-fact.
Write your script to determine what the string is. We'd need a more detailed example of the output format to give a better example of usage, but here's one for the trivial case where the entire first line is the filter target:
run_my_command | { read string_to_filter_for; fgrep -e "$string_to_filter_for" }
Replace the read string_to_filter_for with as many commands as necessary to read enough input to determine what the target string is; this could be a loop if necessary.
For instance, let's say that the output contains the following:
Session id: foobar
and thereafter, you want to grep for lines containing foobar.
...then you can pipe through the following script:
re='Session id: (.*)'
while read; do
if [[ $REPLY =~ $re ]] ; then
target=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}
break
else
# if you want to print the preamble; leave this out otherwise
printf '%s\n' "$REPLY"
fi
done
[[ $target ]] && grep -F -e "$target"
If you want to manually specify the filter target, this can be done by having the loop check for a file being created with filter contents, and using that when starting up grep afterwards.
That is a little bit strange what you need, but you can do it tis way:
you must go into script session first;
then you use shell how usually;
then you start and interrupt you program;
then run grep over typescript file.
Example:
$ script
$ ./a.out
Ctrl-Z
$ fg
$ grep NowIKnowThisString typescript
You could use a stream editor such as sed instead of grep. Here's an example of what I mean:
$ cat list
Name to look for: Mike
Dora 1
John 2
Mike 3
Helen 4
Here we find the name to look for in the fist line and want to grep for it. Now piping the command to sed:
$ cat list | sed -ne '1{s/Name to look for: //;h}' \
> -e ':r;n;G;/^.*\(.\+\).*\n\1$/P;s/\n.*//;br'
Mike 3
Note: sed itself can take file as a parameter, but you're not working with text files, so that's how you'd use it.
Of course, you'd need to modify the command for your case.