strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) (10/27/87)
I have a problem: I'm writing a C-shell script which reads in arguments from the command line, shifts them around in a prearranged fashion, and spits them back out again. The problems is that some of these arguments have more than one word in them. Such arguments have quotes around them, i.e. "boo hoo". When the shell reads these arguments into the program it recognizes the quoted arguments as a single argument--but--it promptly removes the quotes, and the argument is thereafter handled as 2 arguments. My question, Mr. Anthony, is: How can I get the shell to handle these multi-word arguments all the way through to the output and dump them out with the quotes still around them, so that the next program will also recognize them as a single argument? Help! Norm (strong@fluke)
wagner@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Juergen Wagner) (10/28/87)
Why don't you use quotes in the output? Computing or selecting the values from $argv you want to keep can be done by building an index list $index. Later there is some output loop: foreach i ( $indices ) echo -n \"$argv[$i]\"" " end Juergen Wagner, (USENET) gandalf@portia.stanford.edu Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford CA
rwhite@nusdhub.UUCP (10/28/87)
In article <2100@sputnik.COM>, strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes: > My question, Mr. Anthony, is: How can I get the shell to handle these > multi-word arguments all the way through to the output and dump them out with > the quotes still around them, so that the next program will also recognize them > as a single argument? The simple way would be to use echo \"${ARG1}\" \"${ARG2}\" you get the idea.... "If you want the \"(s) you gotta \\ (quote) the quotes" Rob.
schaefer@ogcvax.UUCP (Barton E. Schaefer) (10/28/87)
In article <sputnik.2100> strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes: >I have a problem: > My question, Mr. Anthony, is: How can I get the shell to handle these >multi-word arguments all the way through to the output and dump them out with >the quotes still around them, so that the next program will also recognize them >as a single argument? > >Norm (strong@fluke) This is an EASY one! The csh supports a number of "colon modifiers" that can be applied to variables and history substitutions to either cause or prevent substitutions. The one you want is ":q" (for "quote"), which (among other things) prevents separation of a variable into words when it is referenced. To see how this works, try the following (remember that $#var is replaced by the number of words in var): % set one="This is one string" % echo $#one 1 % set four=($one) % echo $#four 4 % set onetoo=($one:q) % echo $#onetoo 1 % In a csh script, colon modifiers can be appended to any of the "positional" variables ($1, $2, $3, etc) EXCEPT $0 (the script file name). You must also remember to use :q whenever you reference any variable that is an aggregate of quoted variables. For example, # Separate option flags and other arguments set opts=() others=() while ($#argv) switch ($1) case -* : # note :q on ref to $opts set opts=($opts:q $1:q) breaksw default : # similarly for $others set others=($others:q $1:q) endsw shift end A quick summary of colon modifiers (from 4.3 BSD csh manual) Modifier Result Usable in substitution ------- ------ ---------------------- h Take head of path History or variable t Take tail of path History or variable r Take root of name History or variable e Take extension (.xxx) of name History or variable[*] s/p/r/ Substitute r for p History only & Repeat previous substitution History only gX Apply modifier X globally Where X is usable p Print but don't execute History only q Quote History or variable x Like q but make words History or variable [*] The csh manual omits this for variables, but it works on my system Only ONE colon modifier can currently be used on any substitution. -- Bart Schaefer CSNET: schaefer@cse.ogc.edu UUCP: ...{tektronix,verdix}!ogcvax!schaefer "It could have been worse. I could have woken up and been Robert Bork." -- Joe Garagiola, after his broadcast partner angered Twins fans