Bash scripting help

[TnT]

Running this command on the command line works:

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --list | egrep '! (MacOSXUpdate|Xcode|QuickTime|iTunes)' | awk '{print $2}' | tr '\n' ' '

But I can't get the output into a variable in my script:

search_updates='MacOSXUpdate|Xcode|QuickTime|iTunes'

updates=`/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --list | egrep '! ($search_updates)' | awk '{print $2}' | tr '\n' ' '`

Don't know why the post has a return during iTunes

[TnT]

Hmm... seems it doesn't like have the $search_updates variable. Works if I just put the stuff directly in there.

[spadnos]

Which shell? (not like it'll help me much )

You may need to export the value:

export search_updates=MacOSXUpdate|Xcode|QuickTime|iTunes
etc.

This may be necessary if /usr/sbin/softwareupdate is a shell script, since it would create its own environment.

- Steve

[Ribbit]

Since search_updates has strange characters in it, you may want to surround its reference in double quotes, like this: "$search_updates"

Maybe, I'm just guessing...