Why doesn't this work?
rm $(gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri | awk '{gsub("file://","");print $0}')
rm: cannot remove `\'/home/foggy/obrazky/wallpapers/24/Dark_Oxygen_by_Falco101.png\'': No such file or directory
Perhaps there is some character that rm doesn't accept?
It looks like you have an extra pair of single quote characters around your filename that need to be stripped off.
Here, I have a file named "hello":
$ ls
hello
Trying to delete it with extra single quotes like this:
$ rm "'hello'"
gives exactly the error message you see:
rm: cannot remove `\'hello\'': No such file or directory
the \' before and after the name are single quotes you need to strip off.
EDIT:
In your case (as another answerer has noted) the output of
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
returns a result like:
'file:///usr/share/backgrounds/Tie_My_Boat_by_Ray_Garc%C3%ADa.jpg'
So you want to strip the leading 'file:// and the ending '. This can be done correctly using sed like this (using only one expression with a group)
sed -e "s|^'file://\(.*\)'$|\1|g"
or maybe easier to read (using two simple expressions)
sed -e "s|^'file://||g" -e "s|'$||"
Please note:
^ matches the beginning of the line $ matches the end of the line.sed to surround the search and replace expressions. Normally, you would use / but in this case it is easier to use something else, so I use |.
'character as suggested but only the ones surrounding your file name (in the rare event that your file name contains a single quote -- seldom but seen).
Look closely and you'll notice that it has embedded single quotes, which you will have to remove yourself. I would change the awk to a sed:
rm $(gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri |
sed -e "s/'//g" -e 's,file://,,g')
(Although actually I would look at exactly what the unmodified output of gsettings looks like first, so as to make something a bit more bulletproof.)
' chars correctly you should use see like this sed -e "s|^'file://\(.*\)'$|\1|g" or maybe easier to read sed -e "s|^'file://||g" -e "s|'$||". Note the ^ matches the beginning of the line and $ matches the end of the line. I will update my answer.
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri returns a result like:
'file:///usr/share/backgrounds/Tie_My_Boat_by_Ray_Garc%C3%ADa.jpg'
Those single-quotes at the ends are your undoing :-)
I'll assume you're using awk for a reason, and give you two simple solutions which strip the quotes before feeding the output of gsettings to awk:
cut -d "'" -f2tr "'" " "Stick them in the middle and you're done, e.g.:
rm $(gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri | `cut -d "'" -f2` | sed -e "s/'//g" -e 's,file://,,g') rm $(gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri | `tr "'" " "` | sed -e "s/'//g" -e 's,file://,,g')
cut -d "'" -f2 and tr "'" " " for? If they're intended, I'm not sure what those commands are supposed to do. Looking at the markdown of this answer, it looks like they may be typos--block code formatting is achieved in a somewhat unusual way. If they're not intended, then this answer makes sense but fails with a (presumably escaped) ' in the output of gsettings. Then text gets cut off there. See also the related flaw in the accepted answer.
Jan 5, 2017 at 2:42
This would work too (although not particularly secure):
eval rm $(gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri | awk '{gsub("file://","");print $0}')
