sed/grep/have no idea

have been trying to find a solution where I can set paths in one file i.e. :

Directory.file
[Directory]
PATH=/u/data/tape
etc.
[EOF]


for my customers so that all they have to do is edit the text following the = and then I read that out with a script with several lines. For instance:

Script.file
f=grep PATH directory.file|cut -d= -f2
etc..
[EOF]

problem is $f isnt then = /u/data/tape... I need to make this variable in my script tho. I first of all dont know which would be better grep or sed ( I am guessing you guys are gonna say sed) and secondly have no idea how to go about it since someone ate our sed and awk booklet.

the .files and [EOF]s are just for better understanding.

VARIABLE_NAME=`command`
These are back tics (to the left of number 1 on the main keyboard)

e.g.
f=`grep PATH directory.file|cut -d= -f2`

What will happen if PATH appears more than once in directory.file though?

try backticks

yep jim ...we got it figured out yesterday with your solution too. Our two problems were no ` and we had left a space between the equals and the backtick. took us three days for that one. Thanks guys..good to see helpful folks out here. (Almost makes me feel like in eve.)

grep|cut
unix can it better
sed -n '.*PATH=\(.*\)/\1/p' filename
assumed this is a shell and shell have no spaces aroud '='
else
sed -n '.*PATH[SP]*=[SP]*\(.*\)/\1/p' filename
substitue SP by a SPACE and TAB char
if you want put the result in a VAR follow jim's
post, i mean
XXX=`sed -n '.*PATH[SP]*=[SP]*\(.*\)/\1/p' filename`
echo $XXX

XXX=`sed -n '.*PATH[SP]*=[SP]*\(.*\)/\1/p' filename`
echo $XXX


guggach we are trying this and it isnt working for us. we always get an error .*PATH[SP]*=[SP]*\(.*\)/\1/p' filename` isnt recognized as a function.

yes a typo
sed -n 's/and-the-the-rest....
dont forget SP is a SPACE followed by a TAB char LITTERALLY
MUST WORK!

we got lucky friday and got a visit from a unix savvy customer on friday and showed him what we wanted. Inside of two minutes this is what he came up with :


XXX=`sed -n ' s/^PATH[SP]*=[SP]*\(.*\)$/\1/p' <filename
echo $xxx


not that I understand what everything does but it works. He did it so fast by looking at the example I had carried over from guggach (thanks again) and modifying it slightly.

it's not really hard

remarques:
- the .* before TERM means: don't expect TERM is at line begin,
you are reading a file, a space before TERM and the sedcmd
no longer works. it's very easy to unintentionally put spaces|tabs editing files.
- with the substitute cmd, / (slashes) are a little capricious, if
you use|expect a / try an other trailer like , (comma).
SUB=/usr/bin/xxx
sed -n "s/$SUB//p" will give an error
sed -n "s,$SUB,,p" works.
- sed is able to open files, the redirect < in this case is superfluos.