Bash: Store Output of Command to Array with \n as delimiter

Question

I have Output like that:

dn: CN=XXX XXX,OU=XXX,OU=XXX,O=XXX
cn: XXX XXX
telephonenumber: 1234

dn: CN=XXX XXX,OU=XXX,OU=XXX,O=XXX
cn: XXX XXX
telephonenumber: 1090

dn: CN=XXX XXX,OU=XXX,OU=XXX,O=XXX
cn: XXX XXX
telephonenumber: 1012

I get this output from a simple ldapsearch command. I want to store this output in an array so that i can echo an index and get one ldap entry like

echo ${ldaparray[1]}

dn: CN=XXX XXX,OU=XXX,OU=XXX,O=XXX
cn: XXX XXX
telephonenumber: 1090

So I to array delimiter would be an empty new line I guess.

Possible duplicate of How do I assign the output of a command into an array? — Julien Lopez
– Julien Lopez, Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 11:56
@JulienLopez looks good. But how is the IFS for an empty new line? with $='\n' he splits every new line to an index — JMAD2016
– JMAD2016, Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 12:02
Whoops, you're right, sorry. You may need to use awk or a loop on this one. — Julien Lopez
– Julien Lopez, Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 12:22

Tom Fenech · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-05 15:49:06Z

1

Here's one way to build your array, with some help from awk:

ldaparray=()
while IFS='' read -d '' -r record; do
    ldaparray+=( "$record" )
done < <(awk -v RS= -v ORS='\0' '1' file)

Setting RS to the empty string makes awk treat each block of text as a separate record. 1 is always true, so each record is printed, separated by the ORS, a null byte.

The loop reads each of these records and adds a value to the array.

Change <(awk ... file) to <(command | awk ...), if you want to work with the output of a command, rather than the contents of a file.

edited Dec 5, 2016 at 15:49

answered Dec 5, 2016 at 14:23

Tom Fenech

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Comments

Alexei - check Codidact · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-05 12:45:47Z

0

You do not have to store it in an array but can use the below script to get the i'th entry.

Usage:

./print_index.sh filename index

Example, to print the second entry from file sample.txt use

 
./print_index.sh sample.txt 2

FILE=$1
INDEX=$2

LINE_NUMBER=`cat $FILE| grep -n "telephonenumber"| awk -F':' {'print $1'}| head -$INDEX| tail -1`

head -$LINE_NUMBER $FILE| tail -3

edited Dec 5, 2016 at 12:45

Alexei - check Codidact

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answered Dec 5, 2016 at 12:30

Sh00nya

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Comments

Julien Lopez · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-05 15:19:51Z

0

You can construct your array by iterating on the lines, for example:

# Current index of the array
i=0

# For every line of input (so ignoring '\n's)
while read line; do
    # If the line is empty, then we write in the next array spot
    if test "$line" = ""; then
        i=$(($i+1))
        continue
    fi
    # If this spot already contains some lines,
    # then we concatenate a '\n' then our current line to the array spot
    if test "${ldaparray[$i]}" != ""; then
        ldaparray[$i]="${ldaparray[$i]}\n$line"
    # else no need for a '\n'
    else
        ldaparray[$i]="$line"
    fi
done < <(ldapsearch ...)

answered Dec 5, 2016 at 15:19

Julien Lopez

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2 Comments

JMAD2016 Over a year ago

How do I actually read the output of the command? like do I need to put a cat ldapsearch .... before your script !?

Julien Lopez Over a year ago

@JMAD2016 The command is in the last line: done < <(ldapsearch ...).

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