Eek! Forget
sed and awk unless you really need regexp - moderns shells are powerful enough:
Code:
#! /bin/bash
line='echo "###Usage: $0 <database1> <database2>"'
line=${line#*<}
DB1=${line%%>*}
line=${line#*<}
DB2=${line%%>*}
printf "\$DB1=$DB1 \$DB2=$DB2\n"
