Perl grep a multi line output for a pattern - regex

Question

I have the below code where I am trying to grep for a pattern in a variable. The variable has a multiline text in it.
Multiline text in $output looks like this
_skv_version=1
COMPONENTSEQUENCE=C1-
BEGIN_C1
COMPONENT=SecurityJNI
TOOLSEQUENCE=T1-
END_C1
CMD_ID=null
CMD_USES_ASSET_ENV=null_jdk1.7.0_80
CMD_USES_ASSET_ENV=null_ivy,null_jdk1.7.3_80
BEGIN_C1_T1
CMD_ID=msdotnet_VS2013_x64
CMD_ID=ant_1.7.1
CMD_FILE=path/to/abcI.vc12.sln
BEGIN_CMD_OPTIONS_RELEASE
-useideenv
The code I am using to grep for the pattern
use strict;
use warnings;
my $cmd_pattern = "CMD_ID=|CMD_USES_ASSET_ENV=";
my #matching_lines;
my $output = `cmd to get output` ;
print "output is : $output\n";
if ($output =~ /^$cmd_pattern(?:null_)?(\w+([\.]?\w+)*)/s ) {
print "1 is : $1\n";
push (#matching_lines, $1);
}
I am getting the multiline output as expected from $output but the regex pattern match which I am using on $output is not giving me any results.
Desired output
jdk1.7.0_80
ivy
jdk1.7.3_80
msdotnet_VS2013_x64
ant_1.7.1

Answer 1

Regarding your regular expression:
You need a while, not an if (otherwise you'll only be matching once); when you make this change you'll also need the /gc modifiers
You don't really need the /s modifier, as that one makes . match \n, which you're not making use of (see note at the end)
You want to use the /m modifier so that ^ matches the beginning of every new line, and not just the beginning of the string
You want to add \s* to your regular expression right after ^, because in at least one of your lines you have a leading space
You need parenthesis around $cmd_pattern; otherwise, you're getting two options, the first one being ^CMD_ID= and the second one being CMD_USES_ASSET_ENV= followed by the rest of your expression
You can also simplify the (\w+([\.]?\w+)*) bit down to (.+).
The result would be:
while ($output =~ /^\s*(?:$cmd_pattern)(?:null_)?(.+)/gcm ) {
print "1 is : $1\n";
push (#matching_lines, $1);
}
That being said, your regular expression still won't split ivy and jdk1.7.3_80 on its own; I would suggest adding a split and removing _null with something like:
while ($output =~ /^\s*(?:$cmd_pattern)(?:null_)?(.+)/gcm ) {
my $text = $1;
my #text;
if ($text =~ /,/) {
#text = split /,(?:null_)?/, $text;
}
else {
#text = $text;
}
for (#text) {
print "1 is : $_\n";
push (#matching_lines, $_);
}
}
The only problem you're left with is the lone line CMD_ID=null. I'm gonna leave that to you :-)
(I recently wrote a blog post on best practices for regular expressions - http://blog.codacy.com/2016/03/30/best-practices-for-regular-expressions/ - you'll find there a note to always require the /s in Perl; the reason I mention here that you don't need it is that you're not using the ones you actually need, and that might mean you weren't certain of the meaning of /s)