Shell Programming and Scripting

Hello Corona

Your command does not seem to work. I admit I'm pretty new to UNIX so I copied it as it is only substituting input file and output file.

Is there anything else that needs to be substituted?

Thanks again

Tony

You need to provide details - like the error message and/or output you're getting.

Hello Corona

Thank you for your reply. Here are more details:

Command used:

Code:

awk -F '{ for(N=1; N<=NF; N++) sub(/^[ \r\n\t]*$/, "", $N); } 1' OFS=";" file1 > file2

Output:

Code:

[admdecdev@IPLSID02 QUOT]$ awk -F '{ for(N=1; N<=NF; N++) sub(/^[ \r\n\t]*$/, "", $N); } 1' OFS=";" file1 > file2
awk: OFS=;
awk:     ^ syntax error
awk: cmd. ligne:1: Each rule must have a pattern or action component

There is a huge difference between what Corona688 suggested:

Code:

awk -F; '{ for(N=1; N<=NF; N++) sub(/^[ \r\n\t]*$/, "", $N); } 1' OFS=";" inputfile > outputfile

and what you showed above:

Code:

 awk -F '{ for(N=1; N<=NF; N++) sub(/^[ \r\n\t]*$/, "", $N); } 1' OFS=";" file1 > file2

Corona688's code uses semicolon as a field separator and specifies an awk script to read input from inputfile and write output to outputfile. Your version of his script uses his entire awk script as a field separator.

I think the semicolon must be escaped -F";"

That was exactly it. With just the semicolon the command failed and I thus though maybe Corona had left the semi colon after awk inadvertently.

Now that I've put the semicolon within quotes, it works like a charm.

Thanks Corona, Don & MadeInGermany.

I do have a last question though - is it possible to maintain the same filename with a single command? That is erase the file with the blanks trimmed and name it as the original file without having to go through multiple steps like delete original file and rename new file as original?