Split XML line in bash ignoring spaces in quotes

Asked Jan 23 '18 at 16:03

Active Jan 23 '18 at 19:44

Viewed 36 times

I've seen some suggestions to use eval, but that assumes the quoted text is an entire string in itself, and not part of one.

Simple example:

Split the string

<SERVICETYPE Name="Two words">

So that we get

<SERVICETYPE
Name="Two words">

Is this possible? Ideally in a statement that I can then use to loop through the values. (Yes, I know perl or something would be easier, but I don't have anything more useful than bash availale, so I have to get this working).

I'm currently splitting into an array with the following

IFS=" " read -ra xmlfield <<< ${xmlline}
for i in "${xmlfield[@]}"; do

But then of course that gives me:

<SERVICETYPE
Name="Two 
words">

Which is a pain.

asked Jan 23 '18 at 16:03

michjnich

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what is the real benefit of split an xml tag? I see no benefits. ... homework? – RomanPerekhrest Jan 23 '18 at 16:11
Is sed available? – amasmiller Jan 23 '18 at 16:20
This sounds like an XY question for "how do I get values from an XML document", for which the answer is to use a cli xml parser like `xmlstarlet`, `xpath` or `xidel`. – that other guy Jan 23 '18 at 16:51
@thatotherguy Unfortunately there is no cli xml parser installed, nor do I have the possibility to get one installed. I wish I did. – michjnich Jan 23 '18 at 18:31
@amasmiller Yes – michjnich Jan 23 '18 at 18:31
@RomanPerekhrest It's for feeding into another system, where I haven't set , or had any say in, the format requirements. – michjnich Jan 23 '18 at 18:32

Split XML line in bash ignoring spaces in quotes

0 Answers0