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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting BASH: how to launch a program with parameters Post 302175277 by TinCanFury on Thursday 13th of March 2008 02:18:41 PM
Old 03-13-2008
BASH: how to launch a program with parameters

Hi, I'm a pretty big fan of BASH scripting. I've got a bunch I use for random things and lately a couple issues have been plaguing me.

Both are somewhat related, in that they deal with filenames with spaces and "escaped" characters and with launching a program with command line arguements (which invariably include these filenames).

for instance. I have a bunch of MKV movies with embedded subtitles. I'd like to extract the subtitles into their own SRT file. so I've got this basic script written:

Code:
#!/bin/bash

MOVIE=$1
echo "Original Movie: $MOVIE"
SRTFILE=${MOVIE/%mkv/srt}
echo "srt File: $SRTFILE"

TRACK=`mkvinfo "$MOVIE" | grep subtitle -B3 | grep Track\ number\:\ | sed -e 's$
#echo "Track is $TRACK"

if [[ "$TRACK" -gt "0" ]]
then
        echo "Track is: $TRACK"
        mkvextract tracks $MOVIE ${TRACK}:$SRTFILE
else
        echo "No subtitle track!"
fi

which gives me
Quote:
$ ./subtitleextract.sh Ying\ Xiong\ \(Hero\).mkv
Original Movie: Ying Xiong (Hero).mkv
srt File: Ying Xiong (Hero).srt
Track is: 3

Error: Missing track ID in argument 'Xiong'.
it should be running
mkvextract tracks Ying\ Xiong\ \(Hero\).mkv 3:Ying\ Xiong\ \(Hero\).srt
but obviously isn't.

The other script I've got that I'd love to get working is one I wrote to combine a series of avi files using avidemux. to do this I wrote a script that takes the input files as the arguements, deduces the output file name and then because of avidemux's arguement procedure I have it create a set of strings that it needs to append to the call to avidemux for each file being added to the original. I have a similar problem with this script as well, but with many more arguements involved. What I've done with this one is have it echo the required command to run which I can then copy and paste and it works fine, but it would be much nicer if I could get it to actually *launch* said command.

phew, hopefully someone that knows how to solve this bothered to read through this long post, and to you sir, I thank and congratulate you, especially if you have an answer to my troubles!

thanks!
 

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echo(1B)					     SunOS/BSD Compatibility Package Commands						  echo(1B)

NAME
echo - echo arguments to standard output SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/echo [-n] [argument] DESCRIPTION
echo writes its arguments, separated by BLANKs and terminated by a NEWLINE, to the standard output. echo is useful for producing diagnostics in command files and for sending known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of envi- ronment variables. For example, you can use echo to determine how many subdirectories below the root directory (/) is your current directory, as follows: o echo your current-working-directory's full pathname o pipe the output through tr to translate the path's embedded slash-characters into space-characters o pipe that output through wc -w for a count of the names in your path. example% /usr/bin/echo "echo $PWD | tr '/' ' ' | wc -w" See tr(1) and wc(1) for their functionality. The shells csh(1), ksh(1), and sh(1), each have an echo built-in command, which, by default, will have precedence, and will be invoked if the user calls echo without a full pathname. /usr/ucb/echo and csh's echo() have an -n option, but do not understand back-slashed escape characters. sh's echo(), ksh's echo(), and /usr/bin/echo, on the other hand, understand the black-slashed escape characters, and ksh's echo() also understands a as the audible bell character; however, these commands do not have an -n option. OPTIONS
-n Do not add the NEWLINE to the output. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWscpu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
csh(1), echo(1), ksh(1), sh(1), tr(1), wc(1), attributes(5) NOTES
The -n option is a transition aid for BSD applications, and may not be supported in future releases. SunOS 5.10 3 Aug 1994 echo(1B)
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