how to process text with quotes and backslashes

I wrote a noscript to turn a .csv file into a list of Powershell commands to add user accounts to a PC.
Let me say right up front that I know very little about the Windows command line.
And also that my noscripting skills are self-taught so please be merciful.

_______________________

Here's the (anonymized) noscript:

#!/bin/sh

## run this noscript with the input file as argument
## requires csvkit

csvcut=/opt/homebrew/bin/csvcut ;
tmpfile=/tmp/laserUsers.txt ;
myDate=$(date '+%Y.%m.%d%k.%M.%S') ;
outputfile=$HOME/Documents/laser-users-add-batch-"$myDate".txt ;

backslash='\' ;
quote='"' ;

: > $tmpfile ;

## extract emails from downloaded .csv file, delete domain name & convert to lowercase
$csvcut -c "Email Address" "$1" | tail -n+2 | sed 's/@soul.com//g' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' >> $tmpfile ;

## build userlist
while read thisuser ; do
echo "net.exe localgroup "$quote""lasercutterlogin""$quote" "$quote""MS"\\"$thisuser""$quote" /add" >> $outputfile ;

done < $tmpfile ;

\______________________

And here's a sample input .csv file:

Badge Identity,Email Address
George Clinton,gclinton@soul.com
Ndea Davenport,ndavenport@soul.com
Aretha Franklin,afranklin@soul.com
Bootsy Collins,bcollins@soul.com
Ray Charles,rcharles@soul.com
Tina Turner,tturner@soul.com

_______________________

When I run it, output file looks like:

net.exe localgroup "lasercutterlogin" "MS\gclinton" /add
net.exe localgroup "lasercutterlogin" "MS
davenport" /add
net.exe localgroup "lasercutterlogin" "MS<0x07>franklin" /add
net.exe localgroup "lasercutterlogin" "MS <0x08>collins" /add
net.exe localgroup "lasercutterlogin" "MS
charles" /add
net.exe localgroup "lasercutterlogin" "MSturner" /add

The first line (gclinton) is processed correctly. That's what they should all look like.

The rest of the lines are malformed because (for example) "backslash - rcharles" is rendered as "newline charles".

I get why this is happening but haven't figured out how to fix it! There must be a better way to write line 17, ideally without creating variables called "backslash" and "quote".

Humbly awaiting any quidance .... thanks!

https://redd.it/1nzroy2
@r_bash

Script Evaluation

I wrote a shell noscript for Fedora optimization after a fresh install. Please can someone go over it and tell me where I can improve on it.

The noscript: https://github.com/somniasum/crimsonhat/blob/main/crimsonhat.sh
Thank you in advance.

https://redd.it/1o0b8yb
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An agentic terminal notepad running bash that's integral to your docs
https://visr.sh/

https://redd.it/1o0ketk
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rofi, mpc music noscripts with "&" always play #1 in position

my noscript is a bit of a mess, as i was trying different ways to do it, but couldn't wrap my head around it.

the problem was without $escaped\_list, rofi wouldn't display any music containing "&". now it displays them, BUT whenever I select one with that character, it always plays the song with #1 in %position%. for other songs it works perfectly, though

#!/usr/bin/zsh

current=$(mpc current)

songs=$(mpc playlist --format "%position% - %artist% - %noscript%")

positionless_list=$(echo "$songs" | sed 's/^[0-9]* - //')

escaped_list=$(echo "$positionless_list" | sed -e 's/&/\&amp;/g' -e 's/</\&lt;/g' -e 's/>/\&gt;/g' -e 's/"/\&quot;/g' -e "s/'/\&apos;/g")

shuffled=$(echo "$escaped_list" | shuf)

selection=$(echo "$shuffled" | rofi -dmenu -i -p "$current" -markup-rows)

if [ -n "$selection" ]; then

original_line=$(echo "$positionless_list" | grep -F "$selection" | head -n1)

pos=$(echo "$songs" | grep -F "$original_line" | head -n1 | awk '{print $1}')

mpc play "$pos"

fi

https://redd.it/1o0jby1
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Bandit Level 6 → Level 7 plz help bro .. . .. . . .. . .
https://redd.it/1o0jj9f
@r_bash

why?

First git pull --rebase and then git push. Why use rebase instead of a normal merge? What are the risks if there are conflicts?

https://redd.it/1o0vvm1
@r_bash

Rename files with inconsistent field separators

Scenario: directories containing untagged audio files, all files per dir follow the same pattern:

artist - album with spaces - 2-digit-tracknum noscript with spaces

The use of " " instead of " - " for the final separator opens my rudimentary ability to errors.

Will someone point me towards learning how to process these files in a way that avoids falses? I.E. how to differentiate [the space that immediately follows a two-digit track number] from [other spaces [including any other possible two-digits in other fields]].

This is as far as I have gotten:

for file in *.mp3
do
art=$(echo "$file" | sed 's,\ \-\ ,\n,g' | sed -n '1p')
alb=$(echo "$file" | sed 's,\ \-\ ,\n,g' | sed -n '2p')
tn=$(echo "$file" | sed 's,\ \-\ ,\n,g' | sed -n '3p' | sed 's,\ ,\n,' | sed -n '1p')
titl=$(echo "$file" | sed 's,\ \-\ ,\n,g' | sed -n '3p' | sed 's,\ ,\n,' | sed -n '2p')
echo mv "$file" "$art"_"$alb"_"$tn"_"$titl"
done

Thanks.

https://redd.it/1o10dff
@r_bash

Check my timestamp check please

Hi,

I need to check how dumb I am.

I have files arriving every day and I have some checks running on those files named FILENAMEXYZ_timestamp.csv with the current date timestamp.

ls $DIR/FILE*$(date '+%y%m%d')*

I don't need the $ do I? I'm currently checking for a file containing a string contained in the variable named <timestamp>, aren't I?

https://redd.it/1o1bbg9
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Small function for faster directory navigation
https://redd.it/1o2guya
@r_bash

Is Bash programming?

Since I discovered termux I have been dealing with bash, I have learned variables, if else, elif while and looping in it, environment variables and I would like to know some things

1 bash is a programming language (I heard it is (sh + noscript)
----
Is 2 bash an interpreter? (And what would that be?)
----
3 What differentiates it from other languages?
----
Is 4 bash really very usable these days? (I know the question is a bit strange considering that there is always a bash somewhere but it would be more like: can I use bash just like I use python, C, Java etc?)
-------
5 Can I make my own bash libraries?
------
Bash is a low or high level language (I suspect it is low level due to factors that are in other languages ​​and not in bash)

https://redd.it/1o2le8n
@r_bash

Cool looking prompt. How to enable it?
https://redd.it/1o3cw68
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How do i setup bash LSP in neovim?

I wanted to learn some bash. Then i thought it would be nice to have some auto-completion along the way. I'm on lazy.nvim, so the lsp installation was easy. I think everything works fine, except for i cant autocomplete #!/usr/bin/env bash. Any fix?

https://redd.it/1o3oxue
@r_bash

Am I being inefficient with this copy function I made?

Sometimes I want to copy a file to a directory with a really long path. To save myself having to write out the path for cp, I wrote a copy function that will move the file or directory into a clipboard folder that I created, and a paste function that will move the file or directory from that clipboard directory to my current working directory. So, if I’m in that destination directory with the long path, I can pushd, cd to the file/directory, copy the file, popd, and paste the file. It’s a lot of operations, but they’re all short, and I don’t have to type out that long path. Am I being silly?

https://redd.it/1o4ao2u
@r_bash

posix arrays

posix_array_write(){ case "$1$2" in *[!0-9a-f\]* ) : ;; * ) eval "memory$1=$2" ;; esac;};

posix_array_read() { case "$1" in *[!0-9a-f\]* ) : ;; * ) eval "printf '%s' \\"\\$memory$1\\"" ;; esac;};

https://redd.it/1o4g8ra
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Struggling to import custom noscript into hummingbot

Whatever I try it does not recognise the file path



https://redd.it/1o4m44u
@r_bash

Having a lot of trouble with bash/cron

I have been trying for a few days now to do something very specific with my cron job. I want my Python code to be run from a venv every day at noon UTC. My system is not on GMT time, nor do I live there. I also want to code it in such a way that my .sh and .py files will run with pathing that is system agnostic, meaning I want to not have to rewrite all the pathing code every time I move the file. I've done a lot of research and just can't figure out what I'm still doing wrong. I realize this is a very all-over-the-place post, so please feel free to reach out for clarification on any of this.

My questions are as follows:

* Is it possible to pass the timezone variable "Etc/UTC" to crontab without using a .sh file?
* If not, how can I configure my shell file to properly handle variable paths like I would in python with \_\_file\_\_? I was previously just going straight from Python to cron with not a ton of issue with the variable venv paths, but I found that I needed an sh file to do timezones.
* What else am I doing wrong here? Never worked with cron before and honestly I have gone down way too many rabbit holes.


Cron job:

CRON_TZ=Etc/UTC
0 12 * * * bash '/path/to/folder/sotd.sh' >> '/path/to/folder/test.txt' 2>&1

.sh file

#!/usr/bin/env bash

export TZ="Etc/UTC"

source "$PWD/venvlin/bin/activate"

python "$PWD/sotd.py"#!/usr/bin/env bash

Python file:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os
from pathlib import Path

from dotenv import load_dotenv


pathdir = Path(__file__).parent


filename = Path.joinpath(pathdir.parent, 'test.txt')


with open(filename, "a") as myfile:
myfile.write("\n" + str(pathdir))#!/usr/bin/env python

# rest of code
.
.
.

https://redd.it/1o5z36x
@r_bash

Does anyone know what this tool is?

I saw a tool that makes any table like command outputs into an actual table (like in sql but more clean, smooth table.).

https://redd.it/1o6b39i
@r_bash

How env var inside single quotes

I have a command that looks like

mycommand --json-params '{"key", "value"}'

The value of the json-params flag is variable and so I render it into an environment variable:

JSON_PARAMS='{"key":"'$(getVal)'"}'

which renders as

{"key": "the dynamic value"}

I am unsure how to get that wrapped in single quotes in order to execute mycommand.

I've tried

mycommand --json-params "'"$JSON_PARAMS"'"

mycommand --json-params "\'"$JSON_PARAMS"\'"

mycommand --json-params '$JSON_PARAMS'

mycommand --json-params '\''$JSON_PARAMS'\''

mycommand --json-params \'$JSON_PARAMS\'

and a few other things, but the parameter isn't rendering properly in mycommand. How do I get the single quotes around it?


https://redd.it/1o6fvoi
@r_bash

Built a Docker-like container using only Bash — no Go, no Docker daemon!

Hey folks,
I’ve been experimenting with how far Bash noscripting can go when it comes to system-level automation — and ended up building a mini container runtime using just Bash commands.

It uses:
• chroot to isolate a root filesystem
• unshare and mount for namespace separation
• veth pairs to wire up basic container networking
• All glued together by Bash functions and noscripts

It’s surprisingly fun to see Linux primitives turn into something Docker-like, and Bash makes it feel super transparent — every line shows what’s happening under the hood.

If you enjoy seeing Bash push its limits, I recorded a short walkthrough of the implementation here →
https://youtu.be/FNfNxoOIZJs

https://redd.it/1o6z9bp
@r_bash

What is the cmd for get info of a program? ruby and asciidoctor PDF too...

Hi, I need to know the size, dependencies needed, etc of programs previously to do sudo apt -i (here ruby and asciidoctor-pdf).
What is the cmd to get info about them?
Thank you and Regards!

https://redd.it/1o7pugz
@r_bash

Why this sub shows #!/bin/bash in Google search result page instead of r/xxx

https://preview.redd.it/g347m3cztivf1.png?width=1624&format=png&auto=webp&s=0093e84553d2c9d9610ba46f67a246b4e79a0c8e



https://redd.it/1o8eyvy
@r_bash