sed adding a blank line


 
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# 1  
Old 09-10-2011
sed adding a blank line

I use the following as part of a script to correct for a faulty hostname file.

Code:
# get the domain name
read -r thehostname < /etc/hostname
dom="$(echo $thehostname | cut -d'.' -f2)"
numchar=${#dom}
if [ "$numchar" -le 5 ]
then
echo "It appears as though the hostname is not correctly set."
echo "Hostname has $thehostname as your hostname." 
echo "Please enter the domain name"
read realdom
dom=$realdom
thehostname="svr.$realdom.com"
sed -i 1c"$thehostname" /etc/hostname
fi

The code works fine, but it always adds a blank line at the end of the hostname file. (the extra is noticed by an additional byte as well as in notepad++.)

It does not appear to be a real problem, since it doesnt actually affect anything else. But I would like the script to be more precise and not add anything.

Am I using sed incorrectly? Is there a switch that would prevent it from adding the newline?
# 2  
Old 09-10-2011
Hi,

Your 'sed' command seems ok. What are the contents of /etc/hostname and $thehostname just before it?

Regards,
Birei
# 3  
Old 09-10-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by birei
Hi,

Your 'sed' command seems ok. What are the contents of /etc/hostname and $thehostname just before it?

Regards,
Birei
Thanks for the response.

/etc/hostname contains "domain.com" only with no trailing space or line.

This is the top of the script, so $thehostname is only declared and filled here.

I have manually edited /etc/hostname many times in testing this. As soon as I run this script, it fixes the incorrect hostname, but always adds a trailing newline.
# 4  
Old 09-11-2011
Sorry, but I can not reproduce your problem. See:
Code:
$ echo "domain.com" >hostname
$ cat hostname 
domain.com
$ cat script.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash

thehostname="svr.domain.com"
sed -i 1c"$thehostname" ./hostname
$ bash script.sh
$ cat hostname 
svr.domain.com
$

Regards,
Birei
# 5  
Old 09-11-2011
Quote:
the extra is noticed by an additional byte as well as in notepad++
Cygwin? And '/etc/hostname' was edited in notepad++ too?
# 6  
Old 09-11-2011
Thanks guys. I think it may just be the way that linux does things. When I edit in nano, it shows the line, but nothing changes when I delete it.

Cat does not show the extra line at all anyway.

If I edit it in windows in notepad++, then it shows and can be deleted resulting in the lowering of the file size by one byte.

Thank you all.

---------- Post updated at 11:10 PM ---------- Previous update was at 11:08 PM ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by yazu
Cygwin? And '/etc/hostname' was edited in notepad++ too?
No, I dont use cygwin. I use windows at home and modify a remote vps server using winscp, putty, notepad++, nano etc.
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