Directory and string i bash script

Question

I`m new to bash scripting and need some help with a strange problem.

Here is my lines of code:

#!/bin/ash -x  
echo  Variabel \$1='\t'$1  
TARGET_DIR=/volume1/video/Transcoded/  
echo "Variabel\$TARGET_DIR=$TARGET_DIR"  
fbname=$(basename "$1")  
echo  Variabel \$fbname=$fbname  
out="${fbname}""${TARGET_DIR}"  
echo  $out  
read -p "Press [Enter] key to start next Transcode..."

This outputs:

Variabel $1=\t/volume1/video/Movies/Thor (2011)/Thor (2011).mkv  
Variabel$TARGET_DIR=/volume1/video/Transcoded/  
Variabel $fbname=Thor (2011).mkv  
/volume1/video/Transcoded/  
Press [Enter] key to start next Transcode...

in the the last echo $out shoulde be path and file name combined.. but it is broken. what could be wrong?

Thanks for any anwer:)

`ash` is not `bash`, not that that appears to be relevant to what you've used so far. — geekosaur, Apr 15 '12 at 08:54
you are correct it is on a Synology wich has buid inn ash... — MadMonkeyMan, Apr 15 '12 at 15:43
please edit your question to include your required output. Also I don't get why you want the filename to precede a pathname? When I used "xxx/Thor (2011).mkv" as the value for `$1`, my output was `Thor (2011).mkv/volume1/video/Transcoded/`, which is what I would have predicted. Good luck! — shellter, Apr 15 '12 at 17:45
It works for me too, and identically in both dash and bash. The irreproducible results are probably a result of something funny in $1; please rewrite with $1 replaced by a variable set within the script. — DigitalRoss, Apr 15 '12 at 22:14

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 15 '12 at 08:55

1

try this:

out="${fbname}${TARGET_DIR}"  
echo  $out

answered Apr 15 '12 at 08:55

Gavriel

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

It looks to me like either $1 or some of the lines of the script end with a carriage return (sometimes written \r) -- this character is generally invisible, but can cause weird behavior and output. For instance, if we start with TARGET_DIR="/volume1/video/Transcoded/" and fbname=$'Thor (2011).mkv\r' (note: $'...' is bash notation for a string with escape sequences like \r interpreted), then you'll wind up with out=$'Thor (2011).mkv\r/volume1/video/Transcoded/', and when you echo $out, it prints:

Thor (2011).mkv
/volume1/video/Transcoded/

... with the second "line" printed on top of the first, so you never actually see the first part.

Stray carriage returns are usually a result of using DOS/Windows text editors -- don't use them for unix text files (incl. scripts). To remove them, see the previous questions here and here.

BTW, I second @shellter's confusion about why the filename is before the path...

Directory and string i bash script

2 Answers2