[clug] copy/paste of commands, tabs & bash's $'\t'. Any better solutions?
steve jenkin
sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au
Tue Jun 18 04:57:12 UTC 2019
One of the problems I have with copy/paste between terminal screens or file is losing tabs.
They get converted to spaces, which is rarely good.
sort & other programs take a “-t” option as the field separator.
sort -t’ ‘ xxx (field sep is tab)
transforms after it’s journey through the copy/paste buffer into:
sort -t ' ‘ xxx (field sep is multiple blanks)
Which is an error.
I’ve lately read the man page and $’\t’ expands to a tab.
Can’t, AFAICS, be enclosed in soft-quotes:
“$’\t’” doesn’t work
This version will survive a journey through the copy/paste buffer.
sort -t $’\t’ xxx (tab as field sep)
It’s slightly cumbersome, but at least it works.
Anyone got a better solution.
--
Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA
mailto:sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin
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