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Awk variables not printing to StdOutput

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Awk variables not printing to StdOutput
# 1  
Old 11-25-2011
Awk variables not printing to StdOutput
Hi guys, I'd be grateful if you could have a look at my code below and give me some feedback as to why the homedir and fullname variables aren't being printed to Standard Output when the script is run. Many thanks.

Code:
read -p "Please type in username you wish to get information from: " username

username="$1"

if grep "$username" information_file
then
   # use awk with -v option to pass in shell variable username to awk. Check if first field $1 is equal to username
   fullname=$(awk -v username="$username" 'BEGIN{FS=":"} $1==username {print $5}' /etc/passwd)

   homedir=$(awk -v username="$username" 'BEGIN{FS=":"} $1==username{print $6}' /etc/passwd)

   # pass the variables to awk. "found" is a toggle flag to signify if user is found. If it is 0, means not found
   awk -v username="$username"  -v homedir="$homedir" -v fullname="$fullname" 'BEGIN{FS=":"; found=0}$1==username
   {
        print "Full name: " fullname
        print "Address: " $2
        print "E-mail address: " $3
        print "Home Directory: " homedir
        print "Manager name: " $5
        found=1
   }' information_file


else
  echo "$username not found in Information File. Exiting.."
  exit 0
fi

# 2  
Old 11-25-2011
What output are you getting?
# 3  
Old 11-25-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarloM
What output are you getting?
None at all CarloM. Just for example "Fullname: ".

Variable values aren't being displayed.

Thanks.
# 4  
Old 11-25-2011
Any variable values? Just paste some of the output (and preferably some of the corresponding input).
# 5  
Old 11-25-2011
Assuming your information_file is /etc/passwd... Try this...
Code:
#!/bin/bash

read -p "Please type in username you wish to get information from: " username

#username="$1"

if grep "^$username" information_file >/dev/null
then
   # use awk with -v option to pass in shell variable username to awk. Check if first field $1 is equal to username
   fullname=$(awk -v username="$username" 'BEGIN{FS=":"} $1==username {print $5}' /etc/passwd)

   homedir=$(awk -v username="$username" 'BEGIN{FS=":"} $1==username{print $6}' /etc/passwd)

   # pass the variables to awk. "found" is a toggle flag to signify if user is found. If it is 0, means not found
   awk -v username="$username"  -v homedir="$homedir" -v fullname="$fullname" 'BEGIN{FS=":"; found=0}
   $1==username && found==0{
        print "Full name: " fullname
        print "Address: " $2
        print "E-mail address: " $3
        print "Home Directory: " homedir
        print "Manager name: " $5
        found=1
   }' information_file
else
  echo "$username not found in Information File. Exiting.."
  exit 0
fi

--ahamed
# 6  
Old 11-25-2011
hint
Why are you reading username when you are overiding that later with $1


advice
along with the question, put how did you execute the command, what output did you get like
./yourscript rakesh
./youscript
and the output
secondly, its a good practice to use the variable like this ${user}, becuase $u $us $use
can also have values, which will make it hard to judge the cause of problem

third point is not much important shall make mainitining and debuging the script easier, try to make more functions and call functions,
for example

main(){
user=$1;
infoFile="information_file";
getFullName ${user};
getFullPath ${user};
getUserDetails ${user} ${infoFile};
}

main $*

This would have benfit of the following
->You cannot make mistake of writing the filename incorrectly at differnt place
->debug if the problem was in getting username or path or whatever
->later if you need to perform similar funcitons, copy paste it or source it, provided
there is no main
->if you want to change the way the full path is derived, just modify the specific functions, and can be confident that rest is working as usual, very useful when working with files and patterns(where the field might change).
->and last but not the least, its looks beautiful(like other languages) and easily get intended when working with vim or other editor.
->further it gives more understanding of bash, and also you could exploit full bash feature like any other languages.

i sometimes deal with script more than 100 lines, and it becomes easier and i have less need to remember things, when i look back after many months.Its a boring in the beginning, but once you start, you cant resist writing like that.
This User Gave Thanks to uvrakesh For This Post:
jjb1989
# 7  
Old 11-25-2011
Thanks everyone. The problem was fixed. Uvrakesh, your hint made all the difference thanks. I removed the overriding username =$1 and everything now works normal. Thanks agaiN!
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