How can I match a string with a regex in Bash?
To match regexes you need to use the =~
operator.
Try this:
[[ sed-4.2.2.tar.bz2 =~ tar.bz2$ ]] && echo matched
Alternatively, you can use wildcards (instead of regexes) with the ==
operator:
[[ sed-4.2.2.tar.bz2 == *tar.bz2 ]] && echo matched
If portability is not a concern, I recommend using [[
instead of [
or test
as it is safer and more powerful. See What is the difference between test, [ and [[ ? for details.
I don't have enough rep to comment here, so I'm submitting a new answer to improve on dogbane's answer. The dot . in the regexp
[[ sed-4.2.2.tar.bz2 =~ tar.bz2$ ]] && echo matched
will actually match any character, not only the literal dot between 'tar.bz2', for example
[[ sed-4.2.2.tar4bz2 =~ tar.bz2$ ]] && echo matched
[[ sed-4.2.2.tar§bz2 =~ tar.bz2$ ]] && echo matched
or anything that doesn't require escaping with '\'. The strict syntax should then be
[[ sed-4.2.2.tar.bz2 =~ tar\.bz2$ ]] && echo matched
or you can go even stricter and also include the previous dot in the regex:
[[ sed-4.2.2.tar.bz2 =~ \.tar\.bz2$ ]] && echo matched
A Function To Do This
extract () {
if [ -f $1 ] ; then
case $1 in
*.tar.bz2) tar xvjf $1 ;;
*.tar.gz) tar xvzf $1 ;;
*.bz2) bunzip2 $1 ;;
*.rar) rar x $1 ;;
*.gz) gunzip $1 ;;
*.tar) tar xvf $1 ;;
*.tbz2) tar xvjf $1 ;;
*.tgz) tar xvzf $1 ;;
*.zip) unzip $1 ;;
*.Z) uncompress $1 ;;
*.7z) 7z x $1 ;;
*) echo "don't know '$1'..." ;;
esac
else
echo "'$1' is not a valid file!"
fi
}
Other Note
In response to Aquarius Power in the comment above, We need to store the regex on a var
The variable BASH_REMATCH is set after you match the expression, and ${BASH_REMATCH[n]} will match the nth group wrapped in parentheses ie in the following ${BASH_REMATCH[1]} = "compressed"
and ${BASH_REMATCH[2]} = ".gz"
if [[ "compressed.gz" =~ ^(.*)(\.[a-z]{1,5})$ ]];
then
echo ${BASH_REMATCH[2]} ;
else
echo "Not proper format";
fi
(The regex above isn't meant to be a valid one for file naming and extensions, but it works for the example)