UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Hi All,
I did a review of some threads to see if someone had come across this problem.

My system is an oracle virtual box solaris 10 installed on a windows 10 system.

Right now I am learning scripting and am just playing with the env variables.

I am trying to update the PATH to read from the oratab file and use it.

My problem: The result I get is not quite right in the little bash statement I had written. My new exported $PATH is echo'd and a space appears between the root path and the oracle path.

My oratab in /var/opt/oracle/oratab reads the following:

Code:

  
 SGCD:/export/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_2:N

Since my oracle profile reads ..../dbhome_1 I changed the "1" to a "2" in the oratab file here so as not to get both confused and to see which one is
actually getting copied. I am just learning this bash scripting.

The oracle env path is the following at the env cmd:

Code:

  
 PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/export/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/b

in and I am using the following command to cut it from the oratab file:

Code:

 
 ORACLE_HOME=`cat /var/opt/oracle/oratab|grep -v "^#"|cut -d ':' -f2`

output:

Code:

 /export/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_2

The result I get is not quite right in the little bash statement I had written.

My new exported $PATH (PATH=/usr/sbin/usr/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin) is echo'd and a space appears between the root path and the oracle path right afterthe colon.

output:

Code:

 
 echo $PATH

 /usr/bin:/usr/sbin: /export/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_2/bin

For the life of me I cannot figure out why this space appears above because it does not allow for other sql commands to be found and executed in my script.

Eventually i will add this to a loop statement to go thru the entire oratab file.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

What editor are you using?
I tested your code on a AIX ( sorry that is all I have at the moment...) with ksh and cant recreate your issue... So to me nothing is wrong with your code unless there are some unprintable char ( which is often the case with files from windows... )

I am using the vi editor. thanks for your response.

What output do you get from the command:

Code:

grep -v "^#" /var/opt/oracle/oratab|od -bc

?

Not ignoring what Don has said (because that is very important), would you not be better using the IFS variable? The Input Field Separator (I think) is a way to chop up input in a more meaningful way to you, so you could perhaps:-

Code:

IFS=: read SID ORACLE_HOME YorN < <(grep -E "^SGCD:" /etc/oratab)

This should work in bash, but sadly I don't have a true ksh any more. The IFS setting as a colon : means that the output from the grep will be split up and you can read them into three variables, so you get the SID, the ORACLE_HOME that you really want and the Y or N value for it being auto-started. The variables you read are positional and the last variable gets everything to the end of the line, so if you miss out the YorN one, then $ORACLE_HOME
will be /export/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_2:N which I assume you do not want.

In ksh, you might have to do this instead (untested) to get a similar result:-

Code:

grep -E "^SGCD:" /etc/oratab | read SID ORACLE_HOME YorN

I hope that this helps,
Robin

Good Morning Don,

Hope you had a nice 4th of July.

Here is the output that I found. It is a bit unusual.

Code:

 $ grep -v "^#" /var/opt/oracle/oratab|od -bc
0000000 012 012 012 012 104 103 107 123 072 057 145 170 160 157 162 164
          \n  \n  \n  \n   D   C   G   S   :   /   e   x   p   o   r   t
0000020 057 150 157 155 145 057 157 162 141 143 154 145 057 141 160 160
           /   h   o   m   e   /   o   r   a   c   l   e   /   a   p   p
0000040 057 157 162 141 143 154 145 057 160 162 157 144 165 143 164 057
           /   o   r   a   c   l   e   /   p   r   o   d   u   c   t   /
0000060 061 062 056 061 056 060 057 144 142 150 157 155 145 137 062 072
           1   2   .   1   .   0   /   d   b   h   o   m   e   _   2   :
0000100 116 040 040 040 040 040 012
           N                      \n
0000107

Regards

al

Moderator's Comments:

edit by bakunin: please use CODE-tags as requested by the forum rules. The rule is there because it enhances readability. Thank you.

Now I see:
your grep -v "^#" finds the empty lines!
Use grep '^[^#]' instead, or even more precise, grep '^DCGS:'
And without the useless cat

Code:

ORACLE_HOME=`grep '^DCGS:' /var/opt/oracle/oratab | cut -d ':' -f2`