CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashshellawkgrep
vykend
vykend

Reputation: 25

Shell: Match exact string saved in variable

I have this file:

$ cat file.txt
/home/user/abc   test1   15-03-25
/home/user/abc   test2   15-03-25
/home/user   test3   15-03-25
/home/user   test4   15-03-25

and I need to match lines with exact path specified in variable ($pathtosearch = /home/user). I tried basic awk command:

$ awk "$pathtosearch" file.txt
/home/user/abc   test1   15-03-25
/home/user/abc   test2   15-03-25
/home/user   test3   15-03-25
/home/user   test4   15-03-25

but it doesn't match exact string.

I need output to look like this:

$ command?? file.txt
/home/user   test3   15-03-25
/home/user   test4   15-03-25

Any ideas?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 555

Answers (1)

Wintermute
Wintermute

Reputation: 44063

Do not substitute the variable directly into the awk code; it will be treated as code instead of data, and you'll run into problems with metacharacters (and open yourself to code injection vulnerabilities). Instead use -v to make the variable known to the awk code, and use an appropriate test to select the lines:

awk -v path="$pathtosearch" '$1 == path' file.txt

If the data is tab-separated (I have a hunch it might be), specify the field separator explicitly:

awk -F '\t' -v path="$pathtosearch" '$1 == path' file.txt

This will avoid problems with spaces in the search path.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions