Shell Programming and Scripting

Code:

xargs mkdir < inputfile

works very well when text in file is

Code:

ms_ww_546 ms_rrL_99999 ms_nnn_67_756675

and not

Code:

ms_ww_546
ms_rrL_99999
ms_nnn_67_756675

Code:

mkdir $(paste -sd' ' file)

returns an error:

Code:

bash syntax error near unexpected token `('

Thanks a lot you both!

That's why it's always good to post OS and shell versions. Check your man bash for "command substitution".

It works perfectly fine with both. Try it.

Hi setub,

Welcome to the forum and the beautiful world of shell scripting.
It is always a nice idea, though, to try and provide a sample snippet from your code so that our fellow advisers and coaches can get a better understanding. Plus, if there are any more enhancements or better versions for your code, they can suggest that as well.

Do let us know if your problem was solved.

Cheers,
Adwait.

That is rather astonishing, because for me that works.

Anyway, you could always fall back to a basic loop. Not quite as elegant, but does the work:

Code:

while read DIR ; do
     mkdir "$DIR"
     # mkdir "/some/start/dir/${DIR}"    # eventually this instead
done < /your/input/file

Notice, though, that this will fail if you have several names on one line, because they will be treated as ONE name. A line of "one two three" will not create three directories "one", "two", "three" but one directory "one two three" (yes, with the blanks as part of the name).

I hope this helps.

bakunin

To bakunin and corona688:

My result when text in file is

Code:

ms_ww_546
ms_rrL_99999
ms_nnn_67_756675

is

Moderator's Comments:

Neo: here is the code in this attachment - this is spam which should be deleted

Code:

[IMG]https://www.unix.com/C:\Users\Fejoz\Desktop\ttt.jpg[/IMG]

I hope you can see the picture. There is like a "whitespace character" after 2 of the 3 created directories.

---------- Post updated at 03:47 AM ---------- Previous update was at 03:44 AM ----------

This is the picture:

Moderator's Comments:

Neo: deleted post of the spam below ...

Code:

[IMG]https://www.unix.com/data:image/png;base64,iVBORw .... (spam)

---------- Post updated at 03:55 AM ---------- Previous update was at 03:47 AM ----------

Sorry that the picture does not appear.
Anyway, the first text option

Code:

ms_ww_546 ms_rrL_99999 ms_nnn_67_756675

is ok for me. I can manage to get the text like this.
Very interested also in the loop option, but I think I need to learn the language first before being able to use it.
Thanks to all!

The internet does not work that way. Sending someone else a link to "c:\users\fejoz\desktop\ttt.jpg" does not make them see your computer. You can't dump it in 'image:' contents either, not on a bbpost, only a webpage. Look for the 'attachment' button next time you want to send an image here.

But given a c:\ link, I can guess what that "whitespace character" was. You've been editing scripts and data files in Microsoft Notepad, which fills them with garbage: carriage returns. Windows ends lines on \r\n, Linux just uses \n, so the \r becomes garbage at the end of every line. xargs did exactly what you told it to. So will most other methods unless you explicitly exclude carriage returns from names somehow. Garbage in, garbage out.

To remove carriage returns from your files:

Code:

tr -d '\r' < inputfile > outputfile

inputfile and outputfile must not be the same.