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From: Jonathan McKeown <jonathan+freebsd-questions@hst.org.za>
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Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:42:14 +0200
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Subject: Re: sh parameter substitution problem
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On Wednesday 11 February 2009 12:47:17 Ian Smith wrote:
> I'm getting nowhere trying to parse out IP addresses from strings of
> this form in /bin/sh, which have been awk'd out of 'tail named.run':
>
>  addr='195.68.176.4#1440:'
>  addr='195.68.176.4#16811:'
>  addr='195.68.176.4#276:'
>
> sh(1) in hand, I've tried:
>
>  ip=${addr:%#*}
>  ip=${addr:%%#*}
>  ip=${addr:%[#]*}
>  ip=${addr:%%[#]*}
>
> but all of these report './testbit: 7: Syntax error: Bad substitution'

Take out the : in the parameter expansion.

$ addr='195.68.176.4#1440:'; ip=${addr%#*}; echo $ip
195.68.176.4

: is for supplying default values or an error for unset variables.

Jonathan