Run a string as a command within a Bash script

I have a Bash script that builds a string to run as a command

Script:

#! /bin/bash

matchdir="/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/matches/testmatch/"

teamAComm="`pwd`/a.sh"
teamBComm="`pwd`/b.sh"
include="`pwd`/server_official.conf"
serverbin='/usr/local/bin/rcssserver'

cd $matchdir
illcommando="$serverbin include='$include' server::team_l_start = '${teamAComm}' server::team_r_start = '${teamBComm}' CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv'"

echo "running: $illcommando"
# $illcommando > server-output.log 2> server-error.log
$illcommando

which does not seem to supply the arguments correctly to the $serverbin.

Script output:

running: /usr/local/bin/rcssserver include='/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/server_official.conf' server::team_l_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/a.sh' server::team_r_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/b.sh' CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv'
rcssserver-14.0.1

Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Electrotechnical Laboratory.
2000 - 2009 RoboCup Soccer Simulator Maintenance Group.


Usage: /usr/local/bin/rcssserver [[-[-]]namespace::option=value]
                                 [[-[-]][namespace::]help]
                                 [[-[-]]include=file]
Options:
    help
        display generic help

    include=file
        parse the specified configuration file.  Configuration files
        have the same format as the command line options. The
        configuration file specified will be parsed before all
        subsequent options.

    server::help
        display detailed help for the "server" module

    player::help
        display detailed help for the "player" module

    CSVSaver::help
        display detailed help for the "CSVSaver" module

CSVSaver Options:
    CSVSaver::save=<on|off|true|false|1|0|>
        If save is on/true, then the saver will attempt to save the
        results to the database.  Otherwise it will do nothing.

        current value: false

    CSVSaver::filename='<STRING>'
        The file to save the results to.  If this file does not
        exist it will be created.  If the file does exist, the results
        will be appended to the end.

        current value: 'out.csv'

if I just paste the command /usr/local/bin/rcssserver include='/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/server_official.conf' server::team_l_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/a.sh' server::team_r_start = '/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/b.sh' CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv' (in the output after "runnning: ") it works fine.


You can use eval to execute a string:

eval $illcommando

your_command_string="..."
output=$(eval "$your_command_string")
echo "$output"

I usually place commands in parentheses $(commandStr), if that doesn't help I find bash debug mode great, run the script as bash -x script


don't put your commands in variables, just run it

matchdir="/home/joao/robocup/runner_workdir/matches/testmatch/"
PWD=$(pwd)
teamAComm="$PWD/a.sh"
teamBComm="$PWD/b.sh"
include="$PWD/server_official.conf"
serverbin='/usr/local/bin/rcssserver'    
cd $matchdir
$serverbin include=$include server::team_l_start = ${teamAComm} server::team_r_start=${teamBComm} CSVSaver::save='true' CSVSaver::filename = 'out.csv'

./me casts raise_dead()

I was looking for something like this, but I also needed to reuse the same string minus two parameters so I ended up with something like:

my_exe ()
{
    mysql -sN -e "select $1 from heat.stack where heat.stack.name=\"$2\";"
}

This is something I use to monitor openstack heat stack creation. In this case I expect two conditions, an action 'CREATE' and a status 'COMPLETE' on a stack named "Somestack"

To get those variables I can do something like:

ACTION=$(my_exe action Somestack)
STATUS=$(my_exe status Somestack)
if [[ "$ACTION" == "CREATE" ]] && [[ "$STATUS" == "COMPLETE" ]]
...