How to show a script without comments?

[Joel Roth]

Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> how can I display a shell script without comments and empty lines, but
> also without cutting commands?
> 
> This is an example text file:
> 
>   [weremouse at moonstudio tmp]$ cat test.txt 
>   ## test file.
>   test # test
>   test 2
>   echo "Hello #"
>   echo "Hello #" # Oops
> 
> A simple egrep line, doesn't remove all comments:
> 
>   [weremouse at moonstudio tmp]$ egrep -v "^#|^$" test.txt 
>   test # test
>   test 2
>   echo "Hello #"
>   echo "Hello #" # Oops
> 
> A simple sed line, does remove all comments, but cuts commands:
> 
>   [weremouse at moonstudio tmp]$ sed "s/#.*$//g" test.txt | grep -v ^$
>   test 
>   test 2
>   echo "Hello 
>   echo "Hello

Hi Ralf,

This works for double quotes. Removes blank lines.

cat test.txt | perl -nlE 's/#[^"]*$//g; say unless /^\s*$/'

This won't work because of shell quoting rules.
 
cat test.txt | perl -nlE 's/#[^'"]*$//g; say'

In this case, you'll need a stand-alone script, I think.

cheers,

-- 
Joel Roth