What is the simplest way to remove a trailing slash from each parameter?
BashShellArgumentsRsyncStripslashesBash Problem Overview
What is the simplest way to remove a trailing slash from each parameter in the '$@' array, so that rsync copies the directories by name?
rsync -a --exclude='*~' "$@" "$dir"
The title has been changed for clarification. To understand the comments and answer about multiple trailing slashes see the edit history.
Bash Solutions
Solution 1 - Bash
You can use the ${parameter%word} expansion that is detailed here. Here is a simple test script that demonstrates the behavior:
#!/bin/bash
# Call this as:
# ./test.sh one/ two/ three/
#
# Output:
# one two three
echo ${@%/}
Solution 2 - Bash
The accepted answer will trim ONE trailing slash.
One way to trim multiple trailing slashes is like this:
VALUE=/looks/like/a/path///
TRIMMED=$(echo $VALUE | sed 's:/*$::')
echo $VALUE $TRIMMED
Which outputs:
/looks/like/a/path/// /looks/like/a/path
Solution 3 - Bash
This works for me: ${VAR%%+(/)}
As described here http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/pattern
May need to set the shell option extglob. I can't see it enabled for me but it still works
Solution 4 - Bash
realpath resolves given path. Among other things it also removes trailing slashes. Use -s to prevent following simlinks
DIR=/tmp/a///
echo $(realpath -s $DIR)
# output: /tmp/a
Solution 5 - Bash
FYI, I added these two functions to my .bash_profile based on the answers found on SO. As Chris Johnson said, all answers using ${x%/} remove only one slash, these functions will do what they say, hope this is useful.
rem_trailing_slash() {
echo "$1" | sed 's/\/*$//g'
}
force_trailing_slash() {
echo "$(rem_trailing_slash "$1")/"
}
Solution 6 - Bash
In zsh you can use the :a modifier.
export DIRECTORY='/some//path/name//'
echo "${DIRECTORY:a}"
=> /some/path/name
This acts like realpath but doesn't fail with missing files/directories as argument.
Solution 7 - Bash
Not the most beautiful way, but quick and easy.
I just add a slash and remove all doubles. Assuming such a pattern will not be found elsewhere.
WORD="abc/"
WORD=$WORD'/'
WORD=`echo $WORD | sed s/'\/\/'/''/g`
echo $WORD
Solution 8 - Bash
Taking note of a couple comments in the accepted answer:
- Replace all repeated slashes
//[...]with a single slash/(per @Dave comment) - Remove trailing slash unless it is also the leading slash (i.e., the root filepath
/) (per @GordonDavisson comment)
trimSlash() { for s; do sed -E 's://*:/:g; s:(^/)?/*$:\1:' <<< "${s}"; done; }
Not as concise as the answers using parameter substitution, but I think its worth the diligence.
Some test cases:
$ trimSlash "/" "///" "a/" "a/a/" "a///a/" "a/a" "a///a" "a///" "/a/a/" "///a///"
/
/
a
a/a
a/a
a/a
a/a
a
/a/a
/a
Solution 9 - Bash
Approach I have used, when trimming directory arguments that are intended for rsync, here using dirname and basename to split the path and then recombining the parts without the trailing slash.
raw_dir=/a/b/c/
trim_dir=$(dirname "$raw_dir")"/"$(basename "$raw_dir")