CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashshellsh
Edward
Edward

Reputation: 567

echo output not pipeing

I am trying to write a shell script which will take various non-human readable files and convert them to something human readable.

I have the following code

#!/usr/bin/sh

# Used to convert annoying files to plaintext

case $1 in
  *.pdf) 
    tmp_file=$(mktemp);
    pdftotext "$1" "$tmp_file";
    echo "$tmp_file";
    ;;
  *) 
    echo "$1";
    ;;
esac

When I run this like totext some.pdf I get a temporary file printed as expected and running cat on said file gives me the expected text.

However, when I do totext some.pdf | cat I still get the temporary file printed and I do not see its contents.

How do I make the script have it's arguments be taken up by the pipe and passed to the next program. In this case, cat.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 74

Answers (1)

Edward
Edward

Reputation: 567

The problem was solved through using xargs: totext some.pdf | xargs cat

Upvotes: 1

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