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Full Discussion: Help with passing multiple variables into SED
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Help with passing multiple variables into SED Post 302617543 by agama on Monday 2nd of April 2012 11:37:17 PM
Old 04-03-2012
You don't need to cat the file and pipe it to sed, sed can read the file directly. The problem seems to me to be the quotes. I believe this is what you need; double quotes round the expressions that you wish to have shell variables expanded in.

Code:
sed -e '/./{H;$!d;}'  -e "x;/$string1/!d;"  -e "x;/$string2/!d" filename >output-file

---------- Post updated at 23:22 ---------- Previous update was at 23:13 ----------

You might also consider logic like the sample below, so the sed is executed with the correct number of expressions when the user does not enter 'yes' at the prompt:

Code:
printf "enter search string: "
read string1
printf "Another search string [yes|no] "
read ans
if [ "$ans" == "yes" ]
then
    printf "enter 2nd search string: "
    read string2
    p2="-e x;/$string2/!d"
fi

/usr/bin/sed -e '/./{H;$!d;}' -e "x;/$string1/!d;"  $p2  filename >output-file


Note that $p2 is purposely not in quotes on the sed command.

---------- Post updated at 23:37 ---------- Previous update was at 23:22 ----------

And one last thing....
I'm not quite sure what your sed is trying to accomplish. If I had to guess, I would say that you are trying to use sed to print all lines in the file that contain either string1 or string2. At least when I run it, with that assumption, it isn't doing that.

If that is what you are trying to accomplish, I'd suggest the following:

Code:
printf "enter search string: "
read string1

printf "Another search string [yes|no] "
read ans
if [ "$ans" == "yes" ]
then
    printf "enter 2nd search string: "
    read string2
    p2="/$string2/!d;"
else
    p2="d"
fi

sed -e "/$string1/b" -e "$p2" input-file >output-file

Last edited by agama; 04-03-2012 at 12:41 AM.. Reason: grammar; compatable with BSD style seds
 

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LEARN ABOUT SUNOS

ssastringcpy

SSAStringCpy(3SNMP)					      SNMP Library Functions					       SSAStringCpy(3SNMP)

NAME

       SSAStringCpy, SSAStringInit, SSAStringToChar, SSAStringZero - Sun Solstice Enterprise Agent string helper functions

SYNOPSIS

       cc [ flag ... ] file ... -lssasnmp [ library .. ]
       #include <impl.h>

       void *SSAStringZero(String *string);

       int SSAStringInit(String *string, uchar_t *chars, int len, char *error_label);

       int SSAStringCpy(String *string1, String *string2, char *error_label);

       char *SSAStringToChar(String string);

DESCRIPTION

       The  SSAStringCpy()  function  makes  a deep copy of string2 to string1. This function assumes that string1 has been processed by the SSAS-
       tringZero() function. Memory is allocated inside the string1 and the contents of string2, not just the pointer, is copied to  the  string1.
       If an error is encountered,  an error message is stored in the error_label buffer.

       The  SSAStringInit() function copies the char array from chars to the string  instance with the specified length len. This function assumes
       that the string instance has been processed by the SSAStringZero() function or no memory is allocated inside the  string  instance.  If	an
       error is encountered,  an error message is stored in the error_label buffer.

       The SSAStringToChar() function returns a temporary char array buffer for printing purposes.

       The SSAStringZero() function frees the memory inside of the String instance,  but not the string object itself.

RETURN VALUES

       The  SSAStringInit() and  SSAStringCpy() functions return 0 if successful and -1 if error.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |Unsafe			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       attributes(5)

SunOS 5.10							    17 Dec 1996 					       SSAStringCpy(3SNMP)
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