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Diff output, unwanted characters

 
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# 1  
Old 10-16-2007
Diff output, unwanted characters
I've got a diff command running in a shell script that writes the ouput to a new file. In the new file there is a ">" at the beginning of each line. The output file is going to be used by another program and that character makes the file useless.

What I'm getting in the new file:
> 2007-09-27 20:23:33.47 EXEC 0B21800A 0A080231 8A000505 00000000 00000000

What it should look like: (absence of the > and a space)
2007-09-27 20:23:33.47 EXEC 0B21800A 0A080231 8A000505 00000000 00000000

Is there a way to avoid this going into the new file from the beginning or will I have to parse out the characters?

Thanks in advance,
# 2  
Old 10-16-2007
I strip it out as follows:

Code:
	diff $STDERR $SUPPRESS_FILE | while read STRING
	do
		case "$STRING" in
		\<* )
			if test "$STRING" = "<"
			then
				echo 1>&2
			else
				echo "$STRING" | sed "s/< //" 1>&2
			fi
			;;
		* )
			;;
		esac
	done

# 3  
Old 10-16-2007
Hi.

If you have GNU diff of a certain age, you can do something like:
Code:
#!/usr/bin/env sh

# @(#) s1       Demonstrate diff formatting.

set -o nounset
echo

debug=":"
debug="echo"

## Use local command version for the commands in this demonstration.

echo "(Versions displayed with local utility "version")"
version bash diff

echo

echo " Data files data1 data2:"
cat data1
echo
cat data2

echo
echo " Standard diff output:"
diff data1 data2

echo
echo " Suppress old and unchanged lines, output changed plain:"
diff --changed-group-format="%>" --unchanged-group-format="" data1 data2

exit 0

Producing:
Code:
% ./s1

(Versions displayed with local utility version)
GNU bash, version 2.05b.0(1)-release (i386-pc-linux-gnu)
diff (GNU diffutils) 2.8.1

 Data files data1 data2:
a
b
c
e

a
b
d
e

 Standard diff output:
3c3
< c
---
> d

 Suppress old and unchanged lines, output changed plain:
d

If you have a diff that does not recognize those options, you can filter the output:
Code:
#!/usr/bin/env sh

# @(#) s2       Demonstrate diff filtering.

set -o nounset
echo

debug=":"
debug="echo"

## Use local command version for the commands in this demonstration.

echo "(Versions displayed with local utility "version")"
version bash diff grep sed

echo

echo " Data files data1 data2:"
cat data1
echo
cat data2

echo
echo " Filtered diff output:"
diff data1 data2 |
grep "^>" |
sed 's/^> //'

exit 0

Which produces:
Code:
% ./s2

(Versions displayed with local utility version)
GNU bash, version 2.05b.0(1)-release (i386-pc-linux-gnu)
diff (GNU diffutils) 2.8.1
grep (GNU grep) 2.5.1
GNU sed version 4.1.2

 Data files data1 data2:
a
b
c
e

a
b
d
e

 Filtered diff output:
d

See man diff for details ... cheers, drl
# 4  
Old 10-17-2007
Code:
diff file1 file2 | sed 's/^> //g' > filename

# 5  
Old 10-17-2007
With diff on IRIX, if the line is blank then only ">" is printed, not "> ".
# 6  
Old 10-17-2007
Hi, porter.

Thanks for that. So my 2nd sequence would be more general as:
Code:
diff data1 data2 |
grep "^>" |
sed 's/^> *//'

but that would cause trouble for lines that actually started with a space on IRIX and other systems, so that suggests that on IRIX, one would need a separate version, like:
Code:
diff data1 data2 |
grep "^>" |
sed 's/^>//'

Another reason why it's useful to post the flavor of one's OS (and to have someone who has access to a variety of systems) ... cheers, drl
Last edited by drl; 10-17-2007 at 06:29 PM..
 
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