How to execute command with partial result from another command?

Question

I have:

$ module avail firefox --latest
---------------------------------------------------------- /env/common/modules -----------------------------------------------------------
firefox/83.0

I would like to extract the firefox/83.0 part of the above result into a new command:

$ module load firefox/83.0

This is what I have so far, but it does not seem like I can pipe the result from the grep onto the next command:

$ module avail firefox --latest | grep firefox | echo module load

Note: this is on a version of Modules which does not have the module load app/latest ability.

And what package provides this `module avail` command? Give all necessary reproduction details _in your question_ so we can give the best answer. (With respect, you should know how to form a good question by now!) — Asteroids With Wings, Dec 07 '20 at 14:52
Yeah, hehe, you are right, I added some details in the original post. I figured this was more of a piping-related question. — fredrik, Dec 07 '20 at 14:56

0stone0 · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-07T13:13:04.770

1

Use a regex to capture only firefox/83.0, then use command substitution to use that result in the next command;

module load $(module avail firefox --latest | sed -nre 's/^firefox\/[^0-9]*(([0-9]+\.)*[0-9]+).*/\0/p'

More info on the regex: How to extract a version number using sed?

Using xargs;

module avail firefox --latest | sed -nre 's/^firefox\/[^0-9]*(([0-9]+\.)*[0-9]+).*/\0/p' | xargs module load

edited Dec 07 '20 at 13:13

answered Dec 07 '20 at 13:08

0stone0

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 07 '20 at 13:07

0

module load "$(module avail firefox --latest | grep -Eo 'firefox\/[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+')"

Use the output of the module avail command and then search for firefix, followed by a / and then a digit one or more times, a full stop and then a digit one or more times. use this output as part of the module load command

answered Dec 07 '20 at 13:07

Raman Sailopal

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Passing `--json` would be much more robust than all this fragile text matching. Though then you need a JSON parser. – Asteroids With Wings Dec 07 '20 at 13:09

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 07 '20 at 13:11

0

it does not seem like I can pipe the result from the grep onto the next command:

You can, but you need to use other command, that will read from the pipe and add it as command arguments. As simple as:

$ module avail firefox --latest | grep firefox | xargs module load

answered Dec 07 '20 at 13:11

KamilCuk

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I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I tried this, and it gives me: `xargs: module: No such file or directory ` – fredrik Dec 07 '20 at 14:35
So it looks like `module` is either an alias or a bash function. – KamilCuk Dec 07 '20 at 14:49

How to execute command with partial result from another command?

3 Answers3