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I am using tail -F to monitor a severe weather alert server log file and awk to filter and execute a command if the conditions for an alert are met. I need to execute the bash command(an ssh command sent to a Pi to trigger an alert LED) in system only once, not one time for every match. Everything is working except the system command is running once for every line matched. Here is what I have so far:

tail -F /home/user/test.txt | stdbuf -oL awk '/ZZZ029/{getline; if (/SV.W/) print system("command")}'

Current output(number of lines could vary):

/O.NEW.KBMX.SV.W.0028.190314T2350Z-190315T0030Z/
/O.CON.KFFC.SV.W.0021.000000T0000Z-190315T0015Z/
/O.NEW.KBMX.SV.W.0028.190314T2350Z-190315T0030Z/
/O.CON.KFFC.SV.W.0021.000000T0000Z-190315T0015Z/
/O.NEW.KBMX.SV.W.0028.190314T2350Z-190315T0030Z/
/O.CON.KFFC.SV.W.0021.000000T0000Z-190315T0015Z/

Expected output:

/O.NEW.KBMX.SV.W.0028.190314T2350Z-190315T0030Z/

I need just one line of output so the system command will run only once. Or just a way to run the command once regardless of number of lines of output.

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    after you calll system("command") you want the whole pipeline to stop, or you want the pipeline to continue but for awk to never call system again?
    – Jeff Schaller
    Mar 23, 2019 at 14:08
  • Note that system() runs sh to interpret the command not bash. If you want to start bash to interpret bash specific code, you'll need to construct sh code that runs bash -c bash-specific-code-here where that bash-specific code will have to be quoted as per sh rules. Mar 23, 2019 at 17:28
  • @JeffSchaller I want the tail -F to continue watching the file but to run the system() command only once for each time matches are found, regardless of how many matches there are.
    – Jake
    Mar 24, 2019 at 13:56
  • I'm having trouble putting together these two phrases: "run the system() command once" -- and -- "each time matches are found, regardless of how many matches there are". Do you want the command run for the first match, and that first match only?
    – Jeff Schaller
    Mar 24, 2019 at 14:02
  • Yes, for the first match only.
    – Jake
    Mar 24, 2019 at 14:27

1 Answer 1

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From current output what you provided from my understanding you want to remove duplicates

pipeline_previous_command|awk '{if(!seen[$1]++)print $1}'

/O.NEW.KBMX.SV.W.0028.190314T2350Z-190315T0030Z/
/O.CON.KFFC.SV.W.0021.000000T0000Z-190315T0015Z/

Suppose if you want ouput as output which mentioned above

raveen:~$ pipeline_previous_command |  awk '/W.0028/{if(!seen[$1]++)print $1}'

/O.NEW.KBMX.SV.W.0028.190314T2350Z-190315T0030Z/
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  • Yes, remove duplicates of SV.W match. I'm not understanding how to work this into my current script, however. Does it go after the getline; if (/SV.W/) command?
    – Jake
    Mar 24, 2019 at 16:40
  • tail -F /home/user/test.txt | stdbuf -oL awk '/ZZZ029/{getline; if (/SV.W/) print system("command")}'|awk '{if(!seen[$1]++)print $1}' use this command Mar 25, 2019 at 6:37

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