Run a string as a command within a Bash script

Question

I have a Bash script that builds a string to run as a command

Script:

#! /bin/bash

matchdir=\"/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/mat         


        

Answer 1

To see all commands that are being executed by the script, add the -x flag to your shabang line, and execute the command normally:

#! /bin/bash -x

matchdir="/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/matches/testmatch/"

teamAComm="`pwd`/a.sh"
teamBComm="`pwd`/b.sh"
include="`pwd`/server_official.conf"
serverbin='/usr/local/bin/rcssserver'

cd $matchdir
$serverbin include="$include" server::team_l_start="${teamAComm}" server::team_r_start="${teamBComm}" CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename='out.csv'

Then if you sometimes want to ignore the debug output, redirect stderr somewhere.

Answer 2

./me casts raise_dead()

I was looking for something like this, but I also needed to reuse the same string minus two parameters so I ended up with something like:

my_exe ()
{
    mysql -sN -e "select $1 from heat.stack where heat.stack.name=\"$2\";"
}

This is something I use to monitor openstack heat stack creation. In this case I expect two conditions, an action 'CREATE' and a status 'COMPLETE' on a stack named "Somestack"

To get those variables I can do something like:

ACTION=$(my_exe action Somestack)
STATUS=$(my_exe status Somestack)
if [[ "$ACTION" == "CREATE" ]] && [[ "$STATUS" == "COMPLETE" ]]
...

Answer 3

Here is my gradle build script that executes strings stored in heredocs:

current_directory=$( realpath "." )
GENERATED=${current_directory}/"GENERATED"
build_gradle=$( realpath build.gradle )

## touch because .gitignore ignores this folder:
touch $GENERATED

COPY_BUILD_FILE=$( cat <<COPY_BUILD_FILE_HEREDOC

    cp 
        $build_gradle 
        $GENERATED/build.gradle

COPY_BUILD_FILE_HEREDOC
)
$COPY_BUILD_FILE

GRADLE_COMMAND=$( cat <<GRADLE_COMMAND_HEREDOC

    gradle run

        --build-file       
            $GENERATED/build.gradle

        --gradle-user-home 
            $GENERATED  

        --no-daemon

GRADLE_COMMAND_HEREDOC
)
$GRADLE_COMMAND

The lone ")" are kind of ugly. But I have no clue how to fix that asthetic aspect.

Answer 4

your_command_string="..."
output=$(eval "$your_command_string")
echo "$output"

Answer 5

don't put your commands in variables, just run it

matchdir="/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/matches/testmatch/"
PWD=$(pwd)
teamAComm="$PWD/a.sh"
teamBComm="$PWD/b.sh"
include="$PWD/server_official.conf"
serverbin='/usr/local/bin/rcssserver'    
cd $matchdir
$serverbin include=$include server::team_l_start = ${teamAComm} server::team_r_start=${teamBComm} CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv'

Answer 6

You can use eval to execute a string:

eval $illcommando