Help with scanning a file for a string

[cajunlibra]

I am looking to scan a file for particular strings to add to a command to be executed.

The string will always be after a certain group of characters and between : and ).

The string to be used in the command shows up multiple times in the file.

I'm new to scripting.

for instance:

a;sdlkfjas;dlfksdj (fsfd: 1111111)
asdasf
ewrwea
qawerws
aswerwea (asf: 594830)

I want 1111111 and 594830 to be added to the command. I'm sorry for not using correct terminology but I have forgotten many of the terms that I learned in Computer Science.

just an example: sudo gedit 11111111

I can't remember if you call them arguments but they are variables inside the function.


Thanks

[muzicman0]

Re: Help with scanning a file for a string

not at my PC right now, but I wonder if you could use

| grep ":*)"

... I would have to look it up, but I know that you can read the file, and use grep to look for specific items in the file, and grep does support wildcards...

I assume you are going to put this in a script.

mm0

[muzicman0]

Re: Help with scanning a file for a string

I'm on a little bit of brain overload, but read this on grep.

[kubicle]

Re: Help with scanning a file for a string

awk usually excels in these kind of tasks, but depending on the details you may get away with grep (and cut)

EDIT:
Here's a quick (and really ugly) grep method that should work provided that:
1. the lines that your arguments are in end in '(*:*)' pattern (and other lines don't)
2. there's only one colon ':' on those lines
3. there's only one ')' after the colon on those lines

grep -e "(*:*)$" FILE_NAME | cut -d':' -f2 | cut -d')' -f1 | xargs sudo gedit

(replace FILE_NAME with the actual file you wish to 'process'

It's rather hard to give definite examples without knowing the exact details, so you may need to figure it out yourself...if you wish to have a look at awk (which is more elegant and powerful...but also comes with a learning curve. Definitely worth the time, though)
These should get you started:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.html
http://www.softpanorama.org/Tools/awk.shtml

EDIT2: toad's link is good too

EDIT3: Improved grepping a bit

[toad]

Re: Help with scanning a file for a string

and here is the best intro to awk you could possibly imagine...

http://www.vectorsite.net/tsawk_1.html#m1

[cajunlibra]

Re: Help with scanning a file for a string

Wow. Thanks so much for the help.

I found http://blog.3v1n0.net/lista-reposito...kubuntu-linux/. Which is a list of repositories for Hardy, which I am running on a Desktop. In the list, he offers some keys that need to be installed. I'm trying to create a script to install the GPG keys quickly.

So, read the GPG key, eg # Ubuntu supported packages (GPG key: 437D05B5)
then using the key to run the commands to install them.

This is the commands he says to use
gpg –keyserver subkeys.pgp.net –recv KEY
gpg –export –armor KEY | sudo apt-key add -

THanks

[kubicle]

Re: Help with scanning a file for a string

I'd rather recommend against that...with a repository list like that I can almost guarantee things will break sooner or later (leaning towards sooner). The repository list includes a lot of 3rd party repos, including repos for other distributions...which means there will be package conflicts.

My general instruction would be to keep the repository list to a minimum, basically sticking to the ubuntu repos, and possibly the PPA repos for packages not yet available through main ubuntu repositories (you can of course cherry pick extra repositories that you really need or want, but resist the urge to enable everything under the stars).

There are also some security concerns when using 3rd party repositories.