bash string format resets in command use

Question

I'm trying to automate git cloning for a class and I'm having trouble with formatting the string in bash.

#!/bin/sh
students=()
while IFS=,  read -r lastname firstname; do
    #students+="$lastname$firstname"
    student=$lastname$firstname
    echo $student
    echo $lastname
    git clone "...$student/unit02.git" $student
done < studentNames.csv | tr -d '" '

The echo will produce the correct format, the names without quotation marks. When cloning, however, both uses of the $student variable returns back to unformatted.

tjm3772 · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-20 21:01:41Z

1

Perhaps try:

while IFS=,  read -r lastname firstname; do
<logic>
done < <( tr -d '" ' < studentNames.csv )

When you write < studentNames.csv | tr -d '" ' you aren't passing a filtered file into the while loop, you're passing an unfiltered file into the while loop and then filtering all the output. The echo statements print the right values because they're being filtered on the spot, but the values in the variables aren't correct.

answered Sep 20, 2022 at 21:01

tjm3772

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4 Comments

Aaron Limbat Over a year ago

Hi, thank you this makes a lot of sense. Do you know why this error happens? I've seen this syntax before in all of the websites I've seen but my bash doesn't seem to like it. $ ./gitclone.sh ./gitclone.sh: line 9: syntax error near unexpected token <' ./gitclone.sh: line 9: done < <( tr -d '" ' < studentNames.csv )'

tjm3772 Over a year ago

It's a process substitution. Your shebang is #!/bin/sh instead of #!/bin/bash, if you can switch it then it should work. If you have to use /bin/sh then I can edit the answer. See the manual page here: gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/…

Aaron Limbat Over a year ago

great thank you. I fixed that but running into other issues I can probably figure out. I really appreciate it.

torek Over a year ago

@AaronLimbat: side note: /bin/sh is not bash (well, on some systems it is, but on your system it isn't). Also (probably not important here) note that "Git bash" has nothing to do with Git, it's just a port of Bash for Windows systems.

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