bash output in columns

[Adunaic]

I have a bash script that does some checks and out puts pass / fail I would like the output to appear as two separate columns.

The code is:

#
installedPackages(){
    echo "python\.i[0-9]86";
    echo "python\.x86_64";
    echo "bash";
    echo "gcc";
    echo "gnome";
    echo "gnome-shell";
}


yum list installed > installed.tmp;

echo "Checking that requested packages are installed..."
for i in $(installedPackages);
do
    checkForTrailingDot=`echo $i | grep '\.'`
 if [[ -z $checkForTrailingDot ]]
    then 
	isInstalled=`grep ^$i'\.' installed.tmp`
    else
	isInstalled=`grep ^$i installed.tmp`
    fi;
#echo $isInstalled
    if [[ -z $isInstalled ]]
    then
	echo -e $i "\t \t \t \t \t \t \t \t" "[\033[31m FAILED \033[0m]";
    else
	echo -e $i "\t \t \t \t \t \t \t \t" "[\033[32m PASSED \033[0m]";
    fi;
done;

and it outputs:

python\.i[0-9]86 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 [ PASSED ]
python\.x86_64 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 [ FAILED ]
bash 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 [ PASSED ]
gcc 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 [ PASSED ]
gnome 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 [ FAILED ]
gnome-shell 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 [ PASSED ]

which is not in nice pretty columns. any suggestions?

[DBelton]

You can have it put it into a specific column

To put it into column 60:

echo -e $i "[\033[60G\033[31m[ FAILED \033[0m]"

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by DBelton

To put it into column 60:

echo -e $i "[\033[60G\033[31m[ FAILED \033[0m]"

Cool, I didn't know about the ESC[60G sequence. I used printf to go to column 60:

if [[ -z $isInstalled ]]; then
   printf "%60s[ $(echo -en "\033[1;31m")FAILED$(echo -en "\033[0m") ]\r$i\n"
else
   printf "%60s[ $(echo -en "\033[1;32m")PASSED$(echo -en "\033[0m") ]\r$i\n"
fi

If you redirect the output to a file then the color escape sequences are in there but the spaces do show up. So that may make it easier to put an option in the script to turn off color if redirecting to a file.

Here's the output on my system:

[php1ic]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

Cool, I didn't know about the ESC[60G sequence.

In that case tput will blow your mind (as long as you don't output to a file). Try resizing the terminal and re-running the script.

column=`tput cols`
column=$(($column-10))
.
.
.
if [[ -z $isInstalled ]]; then
	printf "%${column}s[ $(echo -en "\033[1;31m")FAILED$(echo -en "\033[0m") ]\r$i\n"
else
	printf "%${column}s[ $(echo -en "\033[1;32m")PASSED$(echo -en "\033[0m") ]\r$i\n"
fi

[jpollard]

Though if the output is redirected to a disk file for other use it will no longer be in a prittyprint form - it will have embeded escape sequences...

Better try something like:

name="beginning"
value="[ PASSED ]"
blanks="                                                                    "

echo "${name}${blanks:${#name}} ${value}"

Where the "blanks" has as many blanks (60 in your case) to get to the columne you want the "[ FAILED ]" (or passed...) text to come out.

The slightly arcane "${blanks:${#name}}" is used to expand the "blanks" string minus the length of the value of the "name" parameter. So the ${#name} evaulates to the number of characters in the name string. Using this length for the offset (ie number of characters to skip) in the blanks string should always put the output in a fixed format that doesn't have escape characters, and is suitable for including in other documents.

Another thing - embedding specific escape sequences in output will not always work. It depends entirely on what terminal emulator you are using as to whether it will be correct or not. It is better to get the appropriate escape sequence by using the tput utility to translate what you want.

[DBelton]

True. If you redirected it to a file, then echo would put the escape sequences in the file instead of expanding them out.

However, if you then used cat to display the file, it would interpret the escape sequences and display it properly, but other methods may or may not interpret them.

[jpollard]

Originally Posted by DBelton

True. If you redirected it to a file, then echo would put the escape sequences in the file instead of expanding them out.

However, if you then used cat to display the file, it would interpret the escape sequences and display it properly, but other methods may or may not interpret them.

Only if it goes to the same type of terminal as the one used when the escape sequences are generated.