Sometimes I want to grab a text from a file and save it in an env var but I do not know how to do it. I can save it to any file with ">" operator to RAM: or other places but that's not what I want. I tried to fiddle with "$myname" which is possible to set via the SETENV command, but how can I do something like:
search filename string >$myvar

correctly? I tried to concatenate "search filename string" with "|" operator to then set the env var but that also did not work. Can someone give me a hint?

Or is there something like local variables inside the Shell like in MS-DOS that can be reused instantly?

env variables are stored as normal files, so you can redirect output into them too.
search filename string > ENV:myvar
search filename string > ENVARC:myvar
ENV: is what's in use in current session and ENVARC: is stored for permanent use after reboot...

So.. do you really need some other option or could that just do? :)

Hi Connor,

Within scripts you can use Set (rather than setenv) for local variables.

To store search results within an env-var you could use:
search >env:myvar filename string
or
search >env:myvar filename PATTERN string
(to use pattern matching functions)

Search will return (or store into myvar in the example above) the full line of text on which the string is found, rather than just the string searched for.

Subsequently, you use "env:myvar" to reference the file itself, and "$myvar" to reference the contents (ie the stored string).
eg:
Quote:
(Does stuff if myvar exists
or
Quote:
(Does stuff if the contents of myvar equal "1"

NB - Unlike setenv (which will always create/write-to the file in env:), redirecting output using the ">" operator can go to any file, (defaulting to the current directory from which the script is run), so you may want to redirect to an explicit path (eg ">env:myvar" rather than just ">myfile".

The Amigados manual may be useful.
There's also a document on back2roots.org summarising pattern matching quite well, but it's in doc format. Just serach "Amigados pattern matching" in google to find it.

Best regards


Rich

@ jpv

Best would be to redirect the output immediately or reuse it as a Shell parameter. But I do not know how to do it with AmigaDOS.

@ boot_wb

I usse this book from time to time but I could not succeed yet in what I was trying.


I did this:
Code:
The 4th last line allows me to start the program that was found by SEARCH command. But this way I have to use two commands. So I combined them on 3rd last line to one line using ";". From what I know this is to apply several commands one after another. But it does not work and I get no output and the command is not started. Wrong usage? Also the last two lines did not do what I want. But I did not expect them to do what I want to achieve. I tried them to find out what the mistake may be. So how can I redirect the out put of the command directly to a command that is executed?

And can someone please erase this spam idiot and his comments?

Type is almost certainly not what you want, since this just outputs text similar to echo in this context.
I'd forgotten about the nonum switch of search, useful for your needs.

; seperates commands form comments, so everythihg after this is ignored.
I'm not sure how (or if its possible) to concatenate command lines in Amigados, scsripting would be my first approach. Since only the filename searched for will change, you could save the following as ram:foosearch :
Quote:

The call it from the cli with:
execute foosearch [filename]
(replacing [filename] with your search string.)

Regards


Rich

[ Edited by boot_wb 19.03.2013 - 19:58 ]

Hi,

if you just want to run the search result, you can do this:
Run `search MOSSYS:textfile app NONUM`

You have to put the search command in backticks, so the command gets replaced with the result.

Thanks for the answers.

@ boot_wb

This is not what I want but it may help me anytime later.

@ igracki

Yes, this does what I want.

Okay, running these commands works. but what if I want to use them as arguments for other commands? Say I want to give the search term to ED, MULTIVIEW, FILENOTE, MPLAYER or whatever. Then the backtick quoting does not work. Does it only work for the RUN command? What do I have use for other commands? Tried again single and double quote (normal) but did not succeed yet.

Here it works with Ed, MultiView, Filenote, MPlayer, etc.
I just tried it!

Are you sure you did it right?

Here is what I tried:

Ed `search MOSSYS:textfile app NONUM`
MultiView `search MOSSYS:textfile app NONUM`
Filenote `search MOSSYS:textfile app NONUM` TestComment
MPlayer `search MOSSYS:textfile app NONUM`

I just replaced the command and not the arguments, same as you did, so I
guess I am right.

I did a textfile SYS:commands.txt with some simple DOS commands:
Code:

I want to give the search term to a command and this does not work. For
ed `search sys:commands.txt nonum lha`
it opens an Ed window with the given name to be save. But what I want is to
give the search string to the content of the file, not to the name. So I
want the Ed window to open with the search term as content of it, not with
an empty window. Maybe it was not clearly said.
Same for Multiview but I guess this does not work because Multiview can only
handle files. It also says "Could not load files"
Giving a text string to MPlayer does not make sense, that's clear. I just
named it as an example for maybe another exercise.
RUN works but the others not.
Code:

Say I want to touch a new file with the command name and set this name also
as filenote (just for an exercise). then I need to do it like this:
Ram Disk:> touch lha | filenote `search sys:commands.txt nonum lha`
laberhannes
lha..done

That way I have two times the command "lha". Can I make a call to use only
one time this parameter?

Ah, and is it also possible to pick up older commands in the Shell history
by giving their beginning? Say I had the following commands in history:
dir, list, avail, list dates
and I want to just scroll through the commands which start with "l" letter.
I tried to enter "l" and then shift and some other ocmbinations but it did
not work out. Is it possible to filter the other entries out?


BTW: there is another funny thing: when I run "ed otr.log" then I get a long
line with "Progress: 1%Progress: 2%" and so on. When I "type otr.log" all I
get is "Progress: 100%". Seems to be a problem with oneliners as it prints
files like SYS:Docs/Booting MorphOS.txt correctly.

Hi,

the "problem" with ed or multiview is, the argument to them has to be located in the current directory or should be specified with full path, f.e. C:lha.

Unfortunately, the backticks can't be nested, so you can't do something like this:
Code:

Would be nice, if the MorphOS shell would support "$()" as an alternative to the backticks, which would simplify nesting such commands:
Code:

Quote:

Hmm, don't know, maybe a "for" command like csh has, could help here, then you could do something like this:
Code:

Quote:

Yes, the builtin shell, has this feature, the hotkey is "shift space"!

The thing with "otr.log" is, because there are no "linefeeds" after each line, only "carriage returns" which put the cursor to the beginning of the current line and then overwrites it. A "linefeed" writes the text to a new line.

Its the output of "otrdecoder", so it makes sence there, else you would see many "Progress: " lines.
BTW, I didn't know that someone else uses my otrMUI;)
If you like I could send you a updated version which can display 9 thumbnails of an otrkey as a little preview and has some fixes, its still beta, I want to also add cutlist support, so you could search for a cutlist and apply it from otrMUI.

igracki,
Quote:
Yes, something like that (no matter which notation) is what I would like to use. Just pass arguments from one command to another.
Quote:
There is no "for" command in Shell. Is it available in an other place? SDK also does not have it.
Quote:
Okay, shift + space works but only in one way and it is not intuitive to reach that. Should be placed on more obvious hotkeys and work in both directions.
Quote:
When I was running otrdecoder there were many progress lines, I remember. So I was surprised that it is only one line as a textfile.

Quote:

if you use SDK's sh, you can of course use for (as well as everything else).

Funny thing: execute not
Code:
but
Code:
and watch the result.
Then change to
Code:
and watch again. What's the problem with 'ass'?

Whats the contents of SYS:textfile?

It contains names of files like 'massstorage.class', 'Ambient', 'Multiview' etc. So searching for 'ass' should be doable. Or does it have to be from the beginning of the word?

Code:

Yes, searching works, but you cant run every file, only executables!
Try doing only the search command, to see which line was found.

When there is a matching file starting with 'mass' it gets executed. When I run/search for 'ass' it does not get start. It is the same executable. Let's call it 'massive.exe'. And in this case there is only one match. No other hit can come across. So does run/search require a search beginning with the first character of the command to execute what it has found? If yes: why? If not then this is a bug for me.

No. "Run" and "Search" are commands for their own.
If you execute only the search command, and put the result here, maybe I could tell you where is the problem.