Question

I have a Bash script that builds a string to run as a command

Script:

#! /bin/bash

matchdir="/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/matches/testmatch/"

teamAComm="`pwd`/a.sh"
teamBComm="`pwd`/b.sh"
include="`pwd`/server_official.conf"
serverbin='/usr/local/bin/rcssserver'

cd $matchdir
illcommando="$serverbin include='$include' server::team_l_start = '${teamAComm}' server::team_r_start = '${teamBComm}' CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv'"

echo "running: $illcommando"
# $illcommando > server-output.log 2> server-error.log
$illcommando

which does not seem to supply the arguments correctly to the $serverbin.

Script output:

running: /usr/local/bin/rcssserver include='/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/server_official.conf' server::team_l_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/a.sh' server::team_r_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/b.sh' CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv'
rcssserver-14.0.1

Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Electrotechnical Laboratory.
2000 - 2009 RoboCup Soccer Simulator Maintenance Group.


Usage: /usr/local/bin/rcssserver [[-[-]]namespace::option=value]
                                 [[-[-]][namespace::]help]
                                 [[-[-]]include=file]
Options:
    help
        display generic help

    include=file
        parse the specified configuration file.  Configuration files
        have the same format as the command line options. The
        configuration file specified will be parsed before all
        subsequent options.

    server::help
        display detailed help for the "server" module

    player::help
        display detailed help for the "player" module

    CSVSaver::help
        display detailed help for the "CSVSaver" module

CSVSaver Options:
    CSVSaver::save=<on|off|true|false|1|0|>
        If save is on/true, then the saver will attempt to save the
        results to the database.  Otherwise it will do nothing.

        current value: false

    CSVSaver::filename='<STRING>'
        The file to save the results to.  If this file does not
        exist it will be created.  If the file does exist, the results
        will be appended to the end.

        current value: 'out.csv'

if I just paste the command /usr/local/bin/rcssserver include='/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/server_official.conf' server::team_l_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/a.sh' server::team_r_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/b.sh' CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv' (in the output after “runnning: “) it works fine.

Answer 1

You can use eval to execute a string:

eval $illcommando

If your command string needs to be evaluated itself before it is ran – wrap in quotes:

eval "$yourcommand"
# e.g. eval "command argument  --your-option='$(date -d "$date" +%Y-%m-%d)'"