TIP Strip comments when posting config files

[jmbsvicetto]

Congratulations. Those are all very good scripts to strip comments.
All we need now is that users read this thread before posting their config files and remember to use the [ code ] and [ /code ] tags.

[Joe User]

This version strips out comment and blank lines:

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sed '/^[[:space:]]*\([#;].*\)*$/d'

[al]

Thanks for this tip with sed!

My version is this, which also deletes lines with ";", like the smb.conf

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sed -e 's/[#;].*//;/^\s*$/d'

It's also possible to add exactly this into the .bashrc as an alias.

Thanks brilliant!

I've been looking for something to strip the ";" comments out of my Asterisk files while i'm still setting it up.

Thanks.

[chrismortimore]

All these look very complex...

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grep -e "^[^#]"

works for me, and you can replace the "#" for something else if you need to. Althought it doesn't take account of whitespace, but I find 9 times out of 10 it's enough.

[tomk]

Just updated it (only two and a half years late ) so that it takes into account whitespace before a comment, lines that only contain whitespace and so that it uses just one grep process.

[bunkacid]

thanks, i only just found this useful "one liner" to include in my ~/bin

[hielvc]

Shortest

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 sed '/^#\|^$/d' /etc/make.conf.example

[nanafunk]

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[%] cat a
#comment1
 #comment2
[%] sed '/^#\|^$/d' a
 #comment2

[hielvc]

Ratsafrats I went back re-read the submissions, and for sed Eds " sed 's/#.*//;/^\s*$/d' "$@" " and x1jmp's sed 's/[#;].*//;/^\s*$/d' it is obvious that they new the great secret of the shortest sed for SIMPLE configs but hide it in supurfluous hyperbole and you fell for it

EDIT In a kind hearted effort, I remove the dangling "-e" form pooor old Eds and x1jmps ostentatious seds.

[thomasvk]

A lot of diffent ones,... but which one is the best?

[Sakkath]

Maybe `confcat` should go in baselayout

[timeBandit]

Maybe `confcat` should go in baselayout

Or perhaps gentoolkit. I named mine ecat for Gentoo-ishness and as a nod to Ed Catmur.

[Sakkath]

Maybe `confcat` should go in baselayout

Or perhaps gentoolkit. I named mine ecat for Gentoo-ishness and as a nod to Ed Catmur.

Yeah that's a better idea .

[carpman]

cheers very helpful

[VinzC]

Late jumping in, I recon - I've just followed the link from UberLord's signature...

I've been using an alias for purging comments from files. I've put the alias definition in .bash_profile as follows:

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alias purge="egrep -v '^[[:space:]]*#|^ *$|^$'"

It takes less than a script and is more convenient, IMHO. For now it works only on shell files but if you want to strip off comments à la Samba, just append "|^[[:space:]]*;".

As a suggestion, just put it in /etc/skel/.bash_profile ?

[Phredus]

I'm just starting to get deep into Gentoo, I love it!!!

Thank you