"trim"函数删除所有水平空白:

ltrim () {
    if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then cat; else printf -- '%s\n' "$@"; fi | perl -pe 's/^\h+//g'
    return $?
}

rtrim () {
    if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then cat; else printf -- '%s\n' "$@"; fi | perl -pe 's/\h+$//g'
    return $?
}

trim () {
    ltrim "$@" | rtrim
    return $?
}

当IFS变量被设置为其他变量时，我需要从脚本中删除空白。依赖Perl实现了这个目的:

# trim() { echo $1; } # This doesn't seem to work, as it's affected by IFS

trim() { echo "$1" | perl -p -e 's/^\s+|\s+$//g'; }

strings="after --> , <-- before,  <-- both -->  "

OLD_IFS=$IFS
IFS=","
for str in ${strings}; do
  str=$(trim "${str}")
  echo "str= '${str}'"
done
IFS=$OLD_IFS

我见过脚本只是使用变量赋值来完成工作:

$ xyz=`echo -e 'foo \n bar'`
$ echo $xyz
foo bar

空格会自动合并和修剪。必须小心shell元字符(潜在的注入风险)。

我还建议在shell条件句中使用双引号变量替换:

if [ -n "$var" ]; then

因为变量中的-o或其他内容可能会修改测试参数。

你可以使用tr删除换行符:

var=`hg st -R "$path" | tr -d '\n'`
if [ -n $var ]; then
    echo $var
done

#!/bin/bash

function trim
{
    typeset trimVar
    eval trimVar="\${$1}"
    read trimVar << EOTtrim
    $trimVar
EOTtrim
    eval $1=\$trimVar
}

# Note that the parameter to the function is the NAME of the variable to trim, 
# not the variable contents.  However, the contents are trimmed.


# Example of use:
while read aLine
do
    trim aline
    echo "[${aline}]"
done < info.txt



# File info.txt contents:
# ------------------------------
# ok  hello there    $
#    another  line   here     $
#and yet another   $
#  only at the front$
#$



# Output:
#[ok  hello there]
#[another  line   here]
#[and yet another]
#[only at the front]
#[]

使用AWK:

echo $var | awk '{gsub(/^ +| +$/,"")}1'