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parse a file for a special character

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# 1  
Old 10-08-2008
parse a file for a special character
hello,


How to parse a file to see if a specific line is commented by '#' character?

filename: file1

cat file1

...
# /usr/bin/whatever
...


thank you
# 2  
Old 10-08-2008
What do you want if it's commented out? The line itself? The line number?...

I'd suggest
Code:
man grep

or maybe have a look into awk, if you need more features.
# 3  
Old 10-08-2008
I am looking for this:

when /usr/bin/whatever is commented, echo something
if it is not commented, echo something else.

thanks
# 4  
Old 10-08-2008
Could you please be more specific about your question ?

Something like this ?

Code:
awk '{ if ( match($0, "^#") ) { print "line is commented" } else { print "line is not commented" } }' filename

# 5  
Old 10-08-2008
Quote:
Originally Posted by matrixmadhan
Could you please be more specific about your question ?

Something like this ?

Code:
awk '{ if ( match($0, "^#") ) { print "line is commented" } else { print "line is not commented" } }' filename

Or, if you want to test only the lines containing /usr/bin/whatever, you can modify the very good suggestion above:

Code:
awk '$0 ~ /\/usr/bin\/whatever/ { if ( match($0, "^#") ) { print "line is commented" } else { print "line is not commented" } }' filename

Awk is pretty fantastic for this sort of thing.
# 6  
Old 10-08-2008
Quote:
when /usr/bin/whatever is commented
I think OP gave the above as an example.

But still, what you gave is a good suggestion Smilie
# 7  
Old 10-09-2008
Check some entry commented not or not
grep -n "$entry_name" "$file_name" | awk '$2~/^#/{print $2, "Line", $1"is commented"}'
Check some line commented or not
awk '$0 ~/^#/{if( NR == "$line_num" ) printf("commented: 5d\n", NR);}
Last edited by a2156z; 10-09-2008 at 05:34 AM..
a2156z
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