103.2. Process text streams using filters

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to apply filters to text streams.

Objectives

  • Send text files and output streams through text utility filters to modify the output using standard UNIX commands found in the GNU textutils package.
  • cat
  • cut
  • expand
  • fmt
  • head
  • od
  • join
  • nl
  • paste
  • pr
  • sed
  • sort
  • split
  • tail
  • tr
  • unexpand
  • uniq
  • wc

Streams

In UNIX world a lot of data is in TEXT form. Log files, configurations, user inputs, list of files, ... . Filtering this data means taking an input stream of text and performing some conversion on the text before sending it to an output stream. In this context, a streams is nothing more than "a sequence of bytes that can be read or written using library functions that hide the details of an underlying device from the application".

In simple words, a text stream is an input of text from keyboard, a file, a network device, .. and filtering it is automatically changing it.

As you saw in previous section, modern programming environments and shells (including bash) use three standard I/O streams:

  • stdin is the standard input stream, which provides input to commands.
  • stdout is the standard output stream, which displays output from commands.
  • stderr is the standard error stream, which displays error output from commands

Piping ( | )

In normal cases, you give input from keyboard and output to the monitor. But in real life of a system admin, most inputs come from another commands. If you want to give the output of command1 as the input of command2, you should PIPE them as command1 | command2.

this | looks like a pipe!

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ ls -1 | sort
12
62
amir
jadi
neda
you
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ ls -1 | sort -r
you
neda
jadi
amir
62
12

UNIX philosophy is building small, strong tools and combine them

Redirection ( > )

Another useful way of controlling the streams is >. This help you to redirect your output (mostly to a file).

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ ls -ltrh 
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 12
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 62
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 neda
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 jadi
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 you
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:34 amir
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ ls -ltrh > directory_data
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat directory_data 
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 12
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 62
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 neda
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 jadi
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 you
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:34 amir
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:37 directory_data

cat

this command simply outputs its input stream (or the filename you give it). As you saw in previous section. As most commands, if you do not give an input to it, it will read the data from the keyboard.

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat > mydata
test
this is the second line
bye
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat mydata 
test
this is the second line
bye

When inputting data, ctrl+d will end the stream.

it is also possible to add files to each other using cat:

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat mydata directory_data 
test
this is the second line
bye
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 12
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 62
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 neda
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 jadi
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:33 you
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:34 amir
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jadi jadi 0 Jan  4 17:37 directory_data

od

This command dumps files (shows files in formats other than text). Normal behaviour is OctalDump (base 8):

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ od mydata 
0000000 062564 072163 072012 064550 020163 071551 072040 062550
0000020 071440 061545 067543 062156 066040 067151 005145 074542
0000040 005145
0000042

Not good.. lets use two switches:

  • -t will tell what format to print (-t a for showing only named characters or -t c for showing escaped chars)
  • -A for choosing how to show offsets (-A``` Decimal,Octal,Hex orN````one)

od is very useful to find problems in your text files - say finding out if you are using tabs or correct line endings

split

Will split files. It is very useful for transferring HUGE files on smaller media (say splitting a 3TB file to 8GB parts and moving them to another machine with a USB Disk). 

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat mydata 
hello
this is second line
but as you can see we are
still writing
and this is getting longer
.
.
and longer
and longer!
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ ls
mydata
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ split -l 2 mydata 
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ ls
mydata    xaa  xab  xac  xad  xae
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat xab
but as you can see we are
still writing
  • on normal case, split uses xaa, xab, xac, .. for output files. If can be changed with split -l 2 mydata output which will lead to outputaa, outputab, ..
  • the -l 2``` switch told the split to put 2 lines in output files. It is possible to use-b 42to split every 42 bytes or even-n 5```` to force 5 output files.
  • if you want numeric output (x00, x01, ..) use -d

need to join these files? cat them with cat x* > originalfile.

wc

wc is word count. It counts the characters, lines and bytes in the input stream.

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ wc mydata 
  9  25 121 mydata

It is very normal to count the line numbers with -l switch.

head & tail

Shows the head (top) of a file or its tail (bottom). The default lines to show is 10 but you can specify with -n20 or -20.

tali -f will continue showing the new lines which are being written at the eng of the file. Very useful.

expand & unexpand & tr

Expand will replace the tabs in a stream with spaces (normally 8 but can be defined with -n12 for 12):

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat howcool 
jadi    5
sina    6
rubic    2
you     12
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ od -tc howcool 
0000000   j   a   d   i  \t   5  \n   s   i   n   a  \t   6  \n   r   u
0000020   b   i   c  \t   2  \n   y   o   u      \t   1   2  \n
0000036
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ expand howcool | od -tc
0000000   j   a   d   i                   5  \n   s   i   n   a        
0000020           6  \n   r   u   b   i   c               2  \n   y   o
0000040   u                       1   2  \n
0000051

Unexpand will do the reverse. The default is converting only the initial blanks but his can be overrided by using -a.

unexpand needs at least two spaces.

The tr command translates A to 1, B to 2 and C to 3 in a stream you have to tr 'ABC' '123'. It is a pure filter so if you need to give it file to work on, you have to use cat:

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat mydata 
hello
this is second line
but as you can see we are
still writing
and this is getting longer
.
.
and longer
and longer!
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat mydata | tr 'and' 'AND'
hello
this is second liNe
but As you cAN see we Are
still writiNg
AND this is gettiNg loNger
.
.
AND loNger
AND loNger!

Note: all as are replaced with A.

-

You should know that if you put - instead of a filename, the data will be replaced from the pipe (or keyboard stdin). 

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ wc -l mydata | cat mydata - mydata  
hello
this is second line
but as you can see we are
still writing
and this is getting longer
.
.
and longer
and longer!
9 mydata
hello
this is second line
but as you can see we are
still writing
and this is getting longer
.
.
and longer
and longer!

pr

this formats text for classic printers. The default header includes the filename and file creation date and time, along with a page number and two lines of blank footer.

pr mydata 


2015-01-04 17:58                      mydata                      Page 1


hello
this is second line
but as you can see we are
still writing
and this is getting longer
.
.
and longer
and longer!

It is possible to print in two or more columns and other outdated fun stuff.

When output is created from multiple files or the standard input stream, the current date and time are used instead of the filename and creation date.

nl

Simply numbers lines. 

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ nl mydata  | head -3
     1    hello
     2    this is second line
     3    but as you can see we are

cat -n will also number lines.

fmt

Will reformat a text file within margins (say 80 columns width or 60 if you use -w60). 

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ fmt mydata 
hello this is second line but as you can see we are still writing and
this is getting longer .  .  and longer and longer!

sort & uniq

Will sorts its input(s). 

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat uses 
you fedora
jadi ubuntu
rubic windows
neda mac
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat howcool 
jadi    5
sina    6
rubic    2
you     12
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sort howcool uses 
jadi    5
jadi ubuntu
neda mac
rubic    2
rubic windows
sina    6
you     12

if you want to sort NUMERICALLY (so 9 is lower than 19), use -n -r will reverse the search

and the uniq removes duplicate entries from its input. Normal behaviour is removing only the duplicated lines but you can change the behaviour for example by giving -f1 to force it to not check fist field.

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ uniq what_i_have.txt 
laptop
socks
tshirt
ball
socks
glasses
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sort what_i_have.txt | uniq 
ball
glasses
laptop
socks
tshirt
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$

As you can see, the input HAVE TO BE sorted for uniq to work

uniq has great switches:

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat what_i_have.txt 
laptop
socks
tshirt
ball
socks
glasses
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sort what_i_have.txt  | uniq -c  #show count of each item
      1 ball
      1 glasses
      1 laptop
      2 socks
      1 tshirt
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sort what_i_have.txt  | uniq -u #show only non-repeated items
ball
glasses
laptop
tshirt
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sort what_i_have.txt  | uniq -d #show only repeated items
socks

how many things I have? wc -l what_i_have.txt :)

cut

cut command will cut a column of one file. Good for separating fields:

Lets cut the first field of a file. 

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat howcool 
jadi    5
sina    6
rubic    2
you     12
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cut -f1 howcool 
jadi
sina
rubic
you

normal delimiter is TAB. use -dx to change it to "x" or use | tr ' ' '\t' | to convert spaces in your stream to TABs.

It is also possible to cut fields 1, 2, 3 with -f1-3 or only characters 4,5,7,8 with -c4,5,7,8.

paste

The paste command pastes lines from two or more files side-by-side! You can not do this in a normal text editor.

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat howcool 
jadi    5
sina    6
rubic    2
you     12
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat uses 
you fedora
jadi ubuntu
rubic windows
neda mac
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ paste howcool uses 
jadi    5    you fedora
sina    6    jadi ubuntu
rubic    2    rubic windows
you     12    neda mac

join

Our final field-manipulating command is join, which joins files based on a matching field. The files should be sorted on the join field.

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat howcool 
jadi    5
sina    6
rubic    2
you     12
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat uses 
you fedora
jadi ubuntu
rubic windows
neda mac
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sort howcool > howcool.sorted
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sort uses  > uses.sorted
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ join howcool.sorted uses.sorted 
jadi 5 ubuntu
rubic 2 windows
you 12 fedora

join does not work on numeric fields unless the fields are all the same length. It default delimiter is any white space (TAB, space) and it joins on first field. check man join for more info.

sed

sed is stream editor. It is POWERFUL and can do magic! Just like most of the tools we saw, sed can work as a filter or take its input from a file. It uses regular expressions and is a great tool for replacing text. If you need to replace A with B only once in each line in a stream you have to say sed 's/A/B/':

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat uses
you fedora
jadi ubuntu
rubic windows
neda mac
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sed 's/ubuntu/debian/' uses
you fedora
jadi debian
rubic windows
neda mac
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$

the pattern for changing EVERY occurrence of A to B in a line is sed 's/A/B/g'.

Remember escape characters? They also work here and this will remove every new line from a file and will replace it with a space:

jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat mydata
hello
this is second line
but as you can see we are
still writing
and this is getting longer
.
.
and longer
and longer!
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ sed 's/ /\t/g' mydata > mydata.tab
jadi@funlife:~/w/lpic/101$ cat mydata.tab 
hello
this    is    second    line
but    as    you    can    see    we    are
still    writing
and    this    is    getting    longer
.
.
and    longer
and    longer!

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