change variable output in bash

Question

I have a bash script that contains the following text:

LOAD=`/usr/bin/w |grep "load average"`
echo $LOAD

when I execute the script it searches for load average in the files inthe directory that is given. After it's executed the output is the following:

10:06:40 up 7 days, 17:21, 3 users, load average: 0.08, 0.06, 0.09

What I want is the $LOAD variable to give the following output:

10:06:40 up 7 days, 17:21, 3 users, load averages: 0.08, 0.06, 0.09

I can't recompile the files in the directory that is given so that is not an option. Any ideas how I am able to achieve this output?

Thanks in advance

Interesting. What OS are you using? It already says 'load averages' on OSX. — Darragh Enright
– Darragh Enright, Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 9:18
You think it's a good idea to have your script change the output of a system command in a subtle way? — DevSolar
– DevSolar, Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 9:18
@Darragh Interesting, load average with w from procps 3.2.8 on Ubuntu. Same on Gentoo from procps-ng 3.3.2. — Adrian Frühwirth
– Adrian Frühwirth, Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 9:20
@AdrianFrühwirth: Still, I'd rather go with whatever the system generates than modifying it in such ways. Imagine what happens when someone has written a follow-up script that does grep "load average:" because that's what worked with w before... but not with OP's script because he tinkered with the output. Ta-daaa... — DevSolar
– DevSolar, Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 9:31
here is the source code for Apple's w, it does print averages. This is stone-old BSD code, for what it's worth. — Adrian Frühwirth
– Adrian Frühwirth, Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 9:33

Josh Jolly · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-25 09:16:22Z

4

So you just want to change "average" to "averages"?

echo "$LOAD" | sed 's/average/averages/'

answered Mar 25, 2014 at 9:16

Josh Jolly

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Comments

Adrian Frühwirth · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-25 09:21:44Z

1

See parameter expansion. This replaces the first occurance of average with averages:

echo "${LOAD/average/averages}"

answered Mar 25, 2014 at 9:21

Adrian Frühwirth

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