Make shell output HTML ready

Question

I work with a system wherein we can use a shell script to produce output for a web interface. It works pretty well, but in the case of an issue today, I need to be able to insert a break tag where a newline stop would normally go. My script looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
users=`decl . -read /Groups/admin | grep GroupMembers | tr ' ' '\n'`
echo "<result>"$users"</result>"

I'm looking for a way for the \n to be a <br />, which does not work by just replacing it in the command. The script works, meaning it effectively grabs the data and displays it in our web interface, but the users are all on one line, which is not the desired result.

ruakh · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 20:16:16Z

3

tr only replaces a single character with a single character (or with nothing, if using -d). To replace a single character with multiple characters, you need to use something else.

The option that's most similar to your current code is to use sed instead of tr:

#!/bin/bash
users=`decl . -read /Groups/admin | grep GroupMembers | sed 's# #<br />#g'`
echo "<result>"$users"</result>"

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 20:16

ruakh

185k29 gold badges292 silver badges324 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Carlton Brumbelow Over a year ago

Thank's for this as well. I haven't tried it yet, but if it works, it seems like a "more correct" way.

glenn jackman Over a year ago

From the description, it sounds like sed 's#$#<br />#' would be more apropriate.

Dave Jarvis Over a year ago

Good use of # to avoid having to escape the /.

ruakh Over a year ago

@glennjackman: You may be right. To me, the OP sounded confident that his current script was correct aside from its producing \n rather than <br />, so I gave a script that made only that one change; but judging from his reply to sampson-chen's answer, it seems that this was not actually the change he needed.

sampson-chen · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 20:16:43Z

1

Include $users into the quotes for your echo command. i.e. update your script to:

#!/bin/bash
users=`decl . -read /Groups/admin | grep GroupMembers | tr ' ' '\n'`
echo "<result>$users</result>"

And that should solve the "users are all on one line" problem

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 20:16

sampson-chen

47.6k13 gold badges87 silver badges81 bronze badges

3 Comments

Barmar Over a year ago

But it doesn't convert the newlines to HTML <br>.

Carlton Brumbelow Over a year ago

No, but it produces the desired result.

sampson-chen Over a year ago

@CarltonBrumbelow glad you got what you are looking for =)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Make shell output HTML ready

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related