Questions tagged [arguments]
An argument is usually defined as the actual value passed to a function, procedure, or command line program.
396
questions
0
votes
0answers
46 views
ls --help doesn't work in terminal, why? [duplicate]
Whenever I type a command to get information on, for example:
ls --help
I get an error: "ls: illegal option -- -"
"usage: ls [-ABCDEF...]"
Can anyone help me on why my --help isn't working?
-3
votes
1answer
77 views
“Assume that the file name is given as command line argument”, what is meant by that?
I need to write a shell script for displaying the total number of words, characters, and lines in a file, but the filename is "given as command line argument". What is meant by that and how do I use ...
0
votes
2answers
58 views
What’s the difference between providing input to a command via an argument to that command and providing input through a shell redirection operator?
When I use my shell’s redirection operator to provide a (non-existent)
filename to the grep command, the error message about that file not
existing is displayed by my shell. But when I provide that ...
0
votes
0answers
23 views
How to pass a folder as argument to the executing script? [duplicate]
I would like to execute a script(h.ksh) with the passing argument kim (which is a folder),
so when I run the command
h.ksh kim
the folder "kim" will be used as a variable in the h.ksh
Do I need ...
3
votes
3answers
97 views
Find exec sh: Shell variable not getting passed to subshell
Here is a simplified code that prints the name of Directory if it contains a Filename with same name as the parent directory and .md extension.
FIND(){
find . -type d -exec sh -c '
for d ...
17
votes
5answers
1k views
How can I conditionally pass an argument from a POSIX shell script?
#!/bin/sh
echo "Noise $1"
echo "Enhancement $2"
for snr in 0 5 10 15 20 25
do
python evaluate.py --noise $1 --snr 25 --iterations 1250 --enhancement $2
done
If $2 is not specified, I don't want to ...
1
vote
3answers
84 views
Changing argv[0] from the command line
I remember many years (decades) ago using a system where one could say something like:
$ realname:newname A B C
and the program would be invoked with argv = { "newname", "A", "B", "C" }.
I don't ...
0
votes
3answers
25 views
Nested shell script doesn't work with list variable
I have created the following two minimal shell scripts...
test1
#!/usr/bin/env bash
letterList=$1
for letter in $letterList
do
echo $letter
done
and a second
test2
#!/usr/bin/env bash
...
1
vote
2answers
64 views
Passing options to cmake in bash script
I am trying to write a script that will build multiple cppUtes lib.a files for different sanitizers with a bash script.
When trying to pass the compiler flags as variables to cmake I am unable to ...
0
votes
1answer
99 views
How to xargs multiple string arguments to one command
like this:
echo $USER $PASSWORD $RESOURCE_MACHINE $SELECT_SQL $TARGET_MACHINE $INSERT_SQL | xargs -n6 bash -c '/usr/bin/clickhouse-client -u $1 --password $2 -h $3 -q $4 | /usr/bin/clickhouse-client ...
12
votes
3answers
1k views
Is passing a different $0 to a child bash script possible?
I know that this may sound as "not as intended by designer" but I have real life situation where a bash script I am modifying needs to call another bash script that I am not allowed to modify.
That "...
0
votes
0answers
28 views
How can I safely pass an argument containing '{{}}' to a bash script? [duplicate]
The following arguments are valid for docker command:
docker ps -f"status=exited" --format 'table {{.Names}}'
#output:
# jovial_hellman
# modest_blackwell
So I have created this script
docker-ps-...
3
votes
1answer
126 views
Get and set the script arguments from within a function in bash
Context:
I have an old bash script with a big section parsing its arguments. It happens now that I need to call this section twice, so I plan to move it to a function to avoid code duplication.
...
2
votes
1answer
31 views
Temporary display full name of argument instead of short name/abbrev
After an command, where the user should give an output location with -o, I wondered if there is an (standard) command that temporary displays the full name of the given argument, like the -o, that ...
1
vote
1answer
75 views
problem escaping quotes in script
I'm constructing a command line for use with the 'mogrify' tool [part of imagemagick]. the finalised command line looks something like this :
mogrify -stroke yellow -draw 'line 0,0 0,319' -draw 'line ...
24
votes
2answers
4k views
Why does rm manual say that we can run it without any argument, when this is not true?
We can see that the synopsis of rm command is:
rm [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Doesn't it mean that we can use only rm command without any option or argument?
When I run the command rm on its own, the ...
0
votes
1answer
109 views
curl: Argument list too long
I got an error for this line:
curl -X POST "http://${AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API}/2018-06-01/runtime/invocation/$REQUEST_ID/response" -d "$RESPONSE"
curl: Argument list too long
How I could fix it?
2
votes
2answers
60 views
“--numeric-suffixes” does not allow an argument with “split”
I'm trying to use the split command for a shell script I'm writing and I want to use the --numeric-suffixes flag in order to start my file count from 1. I try:
split -a 1 -l 2 --numeric-suffixes=1 ...
-1
votes
2answers
39 views
Stop executables and built-ins from interpreting a string argument starting with - as a switch? [duplicate]
Let's say I want to search a file for a string that begins with a dash, say "-something":
grep "-something" filename.txt
This throws an error, however, because grep and other executables, as well as ...
0
votes
1answer
52 views
Why do these rsync filter args fail in bash when passed in array?
Why does this rsync command work when I give it literally but not when I create it from variables?
Here are the variables - first the options I'm passing to rysnc, as an array:
$ echo "${options[@]}"...
0
votes
1answer
56 views
Using loop in script for command line arguments
So I am trying to sort files with specific extensions into specific folder (ones that have been chosen by user by command line arguments)
Lets say $1 (.jpg) $2 (.docx) etc
The script is all working ...
0
votes
1answer
29 views
Shell can't resolve argument [duplicate]
I am passing arguments to the shell script below ./script.sh pan.tgz 192.168.3.1 ABCXYZ
#!/bin/sh
echo $1 $2 $3
file=$1
host=$2
key=$3
curl -kv -o ${file} 'https://${host}/api/?type=export&...
0
votes
0answers
17 views
How is it possible to call CwRsync.exe via a Bash Script with variables and arguments?
This is the commandline currently used to call Rsync that's part of Cygwin 64 install.
rsync -aqHPR $CygSrcRoot/./$FolA1 $CygSrcRoot/./iMazing.Versions/Versions/$FolA1 $CygDstRoot/$DstCountFol --...
1
vote
2answers
83 views
Parsing script arguments after getopts
I have a script where I've implemented switches using getopts. However, I'm having trouble referencing the next argument.
My script is for backporting a backup of our website on a local development ...
0
votes
1answer
82 views
Why arguments which passed to .sh file are missing after sudo su?
I need to run .sh file on my server from my local machine.
I could do it using below command.
ssh -p my_port_no -i path_to_key user@ip_address "bash -s" < testOnServer.sh
Now I need to pass some ...
3
votes
1answer
48 views
Is it possible to pass commands as variables to a --dialog script?
Currently I have the below dialog function that I am trying to make into a reusable yes/no prompt where I will be able to call it using YesNoPrompt followed by variables it will be needing.
The ...
1
vote
1answer
258 views
awk argument $1,$2 conflict with bash input arguments
I would like to add some awk commands to a bash script. The bash script takes a few inputs, and inputs are passed by $1, $2 and etc. When I call awk, I also want to use $1 to define a position in ...
0
votes
1answer
102 views
How many arguments are in `ls -isw 40 /usr`?
How many arguments are in this command line?
[me@localhost]$ ls -isw 40 /usr
Some say just one, the /usr because 40 is the argument to the w switch
not the command and some say two, because ...
1
vote
5answers
104 views
Applying commands to lists
Very often I need to apply a certain simple function to a list (or more precisely to a string where substrings that I want to treat as separate items are delimited by a new line). Say I need to ...
0
votes
1answer
47 views
Confusing with passing multi-word arguments [closed]
I'm missing some basic idea about bash, and I don't know what to google!
I'm trying to do the following:
File future.sh:
START_DATE="$1"
NEXT=`date "$START_DATE +3 days"`
echo $NEXT
Then
> ./...
0
votes
2answers
59 views
How to add 1st / 2nd argument to bash script being sourced from stdin
I have this:
bash <(
curl_url='https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oresoftware/run-tsc-if/master/run.sh'
curl -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' --silent "$curl_url"
)
the bash script at that url, ...
1
vote
1answer
29 views
Loop function with arguments in another loop function with arguments
# Print $1 $2 times
function foo() {
for (( i=0; i<$2; i++ )); do
echo -n $1
done
echo
}
# Print $1 $2x$3 times
function bar() {
for (( i=0; i<$3; i++ )); do
foo ...
0
votes
1answer
90 views
Bash: pass batches of files to python script
I have a python script that takes a path where a bunch of text files are located to process them somehow. Since there are too many files I want to use batches using a bash script to pass just some of ...
0
votes
1answer
35 views
Script Integer getting prefixed with "
I am running a jar file using a very basic shell script (I literally just need this to run on startup of a NAS). However, I am getting some rather unexpected behavior:
Script looks like this:
java -...
2
votes
1answer
116 views
zsh: reuse all arguments from previous command
In zsh, the key combination Alt+. is bound to insert-last-word, and it will insert the last argument from previous command on the current command line.
I am looking for a keybinding / shortcut that ...
2
votes
2answers
187 views
/usr/bin/truncate: Argument list too long
I want to use the truncate command to create a huge number of small files for testing. I tried the command with a small number of files (100) and it worked. When I changed the number to 1000000, it ...
0
votes
0answers
32 views
Can program arguments on unix contain null bytes?
I'm pretty sure as the array elements are null-ended I can optimize the check away, but is that always the case?
-1
votes
2answers
49 views
Passing txt file as an argument to a script while running
I have a script as below
for File in $(cat $IMPORT_PATH/*.txt); do
echo `date +'%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S'` "starting $File execute" > $Import_Success_Log
./cli.sh -a execute -i ...
2
votes
2answers
65 views
How to correctly identify the order of parameters?
This is my assignment. The task is to output n longest lines from the input file(s). If there is no argument for n, the the default of value n is 5. If there is no files in the parameter, the standard ...
0
votes
2answers
326 views
Check mandatory argument of parameters
I have script with several parameters that have required argument:
while [ "$1" != "" ]; do
case $1 in
-f | --first ) shift
first=$1
...
3
votes
0answers
58 views
Positional arguments when sourcing (.) a file in sh/bash [duplicate]
In bash, when you source a file with dot:
. /some/script
you can pass positional arguments to that script:
. /some/script hello world
and then access them in the script with $1, $2, ... etc as ...
1
vote
1answer
880 views
if condition in bash getting too many arguments
I am almost new with bash. I am sorry if this question has been answered somewhere else but I didn't find anything which I could understand.
I am making an if condition:
if [ $inputstring = $INPUT ]
...
5
votes
2answers
92 views
How do I add an arg to $@?
I like to be able to ... && add-arg 'something', and have 'something' be added to the positional arguments, kind of like an inverse shift.
I tried ... && set "$@ something", but this ...
0
votes
2answers
124 views
Can I pipe stdout to the middle of a command with emacs?
The command
emacs -nw foo -f org-mode
opens the file foo in emacs in org-mode.
Now, suppose that the filename foo is the output of a script. How could I pipe to my command?
So, I'm trying to get ...
0
votes
1answer
49 views
Start new shell with positional parameters
With Python, I can start a session with positional parameters:
$ python3 - aa
>>> import sys
>>> sys.argv[1]
'aa'
However it does not seem to be possible with shell:
$ sh - aa
sh: ...
2
votes
2answers
153 views
Print out argument value in for loop
This is the script
user@linux:~$ cat script.sh
#!/bin/bash
for i in `seq $#`
do
echo $i
done
user@linux:~$
Output
user@linux:~$ ./script.sh a b c
1
2
3
user@linux:~$
Desired Output
I would ...
0
votes
1answer
903 views
How to print out each command argument with echo? [duplicate]
According to this answer ...
A command is split into an array of strings named arguments. Argument
0 is (normally) the command name, argument 1, the first element
following the command, and so ...
1
vote
0answers
81 views
LFTP script file arguments
I've got an issue while using LFTP with some script files.
lftp -f download.lftp
the script looks something like that for now:
open -u someurl
mirror -i "somefile*.zip" --only-missing
...
somehow ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Bash echo $-1 prints hb1. Why? [duplicate]
If I ask bash to echo the -1th argument it prints hb1:
echo $-1
hb1
Why? What is it accessing?
2
votes
2answers
176 views
Regex to check arguments of command
I want to use grep to check if a command called cmd that was ran, contains the word name as an argument. (I know about about !* in Bash, I don't want to use it).
Let's say I have the command in a ...
