How can I assign the match of my regular expression to a variable?

Question

I have a text file with various entries in it. Each entry is ended with line containing all asterisks.

I\'d like to use shell commands to parse this file and assign each

Answer 1

Splitting records in (ba)sh is not so easy, but can be done using IFS to split on single characters (simply set IFS='*' before your for loop, but this generates multiple empty records and is problematic if any record contains a '*'). The obvious solution is to use perl or awk and use RS to split your records, since those tools provide better mechanisms for splitting records. A hybrid solution is to use perl to do the record splitting, and have perl call your bash function with the record you want. For example:

#!/bin/bash

foo() {
    echo record start:
    echo "$@"
    echo record end
}
export -f foo

perl -e "$/='********'; while(<>){chomp;system( \"foo '\$_'\" )}" << 'EOF'
this is a 2-line
record
********
the 2nd record
is 3 lines
long
********
a 3rd * record
EOF

This gives the following output:

record start:
this is a 2-line
record

record end
record start:

the 2nd record
is 3 lines
long

record end
record start:

a 3rd * record

record end