bash: Printf splitting output of `uptime` into multiple lines

Asked Jul 08 '22 at 15:57

Active Jul 08 '22 at 15:57

Viewed 15 times

I have a very simple script that tries to get the uptime of the local device and print it out as a string. Here is my script:

#!/usr/bin/bash
UPTIME=$(uptime -p)
printf "Uptime: %s\n" $UPTIME

The output is:

meatcram@digest01:~$ bash test.sh 
Uptime: up
Uptime: 1
Uptime: week,
Uptime: 3
Uptime: days,
Uptime: 1
Uptime: hour,
Uptime: 13
Uptime: minutes

If I run the uptime -p command from the command line, the output looks like a normal text string:

meatcram@digest01:~$ uptime -p
up 1 week, 3 days, 1 hour, 17 minutes

What gives?

asked Jul 08 '22 at 15:57

Frank Smitten

3

Quote your variable – anubhava Jul 08 '22 at 15:58
wow. that was it, thanks. I should just walk away from the keyboard now. do you want to post as an answer so I can mark solved? – Frank Smitten Jul 08 '22 at 16:03
`printf "Uptime: %s\n" $UPTIME` invokes `printf` with many more than 2 arguments. `printf "Uptime: %s\n" "$UPTIME"` runs `printf` with exactly 2 arguments. – William Pursell Jul 08 '22 at 16:03
[Shellcheck](https://www.shellcheck.net/) identifies the problem. – pjh Jul 08 '22 at 18:01

0 Answers0