(c) 2005-2012 Evan Moran http://github.com/evanmoran/repeat
Repeat is freely distributable under the MIT license. http://opensource.org/licenses/mit
Repeat allows commands to be automated with automagic substitution.
Imagine you have a comma separated file called data.csv:
Evan, 3.14, Batman
Laura, 19, James Bond
Sarah, 42, Wolverine
Here is a simple example:
repeat '#1 loves #3' data.csv --comma
output:
Evan loves Batman
Laura loves James Bond
Sarah loves Wolverine
Repeat can handle any type of separator: --tab, --whitespace, --comma
or you can provide your own type of separator with a regular expression.
Now let's craft a more complex command:
repeat 'echo "#1 loves #3" > #1.txt ' data.csv --comma
output:
echo "Evan loves Batman" > Evan.txt
echo "Laura loves James Bond" > Laura.txt
echo "Sarah loves Wolverine" > Sarah.txt
By default repeat simply prints the commands and does not run them.
To execute the commands use the execute option with -x or --execute:
repeat 'echo "#1 loves #3" > #1.txt ' data.csv --execute --comma
This outputs nothing but creates three files:
Evan.txt
Laura.txt
Sarah.txt
Use verbose mode (-v or --verbose) to print commands as they are being run:
repeat 'cat #1.txt' data.csv --execute --verbose --comma
output:
[cat Evan.txt]
Evan loves Batman
[cat Laura.txt]
Laura loves James Bond
[cat Sarah.txt]
Sarah loves Wolverine
Finally clean everything up:
repeat 'rm #1.txt' data.csv --execute --verbose --comma
output:
[rm Evan.txt]
[rm Laura.txt]
[rm Sarah.txt]
format The format string of the command to execute
Arguments are passed with the dollar sign:
#1 First argument
#2 Second argument
(and so on...)
options
-h, --help Help on usage with examples
-x, --execute Execute the command instead of printing it
-c, --comment <c> Regexp to detect comment line (default: '(//|\#)')
-s, --separator <c> Regexp to split content on (default: '\t')
-m, --marker <c> Regexp to find argument in the format (default: '\#')
Note: Initially `$` seemed a better choice for the marker
but in practice it required too much character escaping.
--comma Alias for --separator ','
--tab Alias for --separator '\t'
--tabs Alias for --separator '\t+'
--spaces Alias for --separator ' +'
--whitespace Alias for --separator '\s+'
--strict Prevent commands from running if any #args are missing
This is useful if your data is irregular and missing
arguments could lead to bad commands (default: off)
files List of files to use as arguments to the format string
Each line corresponds to a single format execution.
The --separator defines what the file is split on,
where the first part becomes #1, the second #2, etc.
Format strings act much like regular expression and printf formats. They can reorder items and place them around other characters.
#1 First argument
#2 Second argument
... ...
Format strings can also come with printf-like formatting. The first argument is the argument number as shown above. The second part after the command is the printf format:
#{1,i} Convert to an integer (truncated precision)
#{1,b} Convert to a binary number
#{1,o} Convert to an octal number
#{1,c} Convert to an ascii character
#{1,d} Convert to a signed integer
#{1,u} Convert to an unsigned integer
#{1,e} Convert to floating point in scientific notation
#{1,x} Convert to hex
#{1,X} Convert to hex with CAPITAL LETTERS
#{1,6s} Convert to a string with six spaces or more
('hi' => ' hi')
#{1,-6s} Convert to a string with six spaces left justified
('hi' => 'hi ')
#{1,6i} Convert to an integer with six spaces
('3.14159' => ' 3')
#{1,0.4f} Convert to a float rounded to 4 decimal places
('3.14159' => '3.1416')
#{1,6.4i} Float with minimum of six spaces and 4 decimal places
('3.14159' => ' 3.1416')