有一个解决方案只使用Bash内置的通配符:

var="    abc    "
# remove leading whitespace characters
var="${var#"${var%%[![:space:]]*}"}"
# remove trailing whitespace characters
var="${var%"${var##*[![:space:]]}"}"   
printf '%s' "===$var==="

下面是同样的包装在一个函数中:

trim() {
    local var="$*"
    # remove leading whitespace characters
    var="${var#"${var%%[![:space:]]*}"}"
    # remove trailing whitespace characters
    var="${var%"${var##*[![:space:]]}"}"
    printf '%s' "$var"
}

你传递要以引号形式修剪的字符串，例如:

trim "   abc   "

这个解决方案的一个优点是它可以与任何posix兼容的shell一起工作。

参考

从Bash变量中删除前导和尾随空格(原始源代码)

Read已经修整了空白，所以在bash中你可以这样做:

$ read foo <<< "   foo  bar   two spaces follow   "
$ echo ".$foo."
.foo  bar   two spaces follow.

POSIX兼容的版本稍长一些

$ read foo << END
   foo  bar   two spaces follow   
END
$ echo ".$foo."
.foo  bar   two spaces follow.

为了删除字符串开头和结尾的所有空格(包括行末字符):

echo $variable | xargs echo -n

这也将删除重复的空格:

echo "  this string has a lot       of spaces " | xargs echo -n

Produces: 'this string has a lot of spaces'

#!/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]
#[]

从Bash指南的通配符部分

在参数展开中使用extglob

 #Turn on extended globbing  
shopt -s extglob  
 #Trim leading and trailing whitespace from a variable  
x=${x##+([[:space:]])}; x=${x%%+([[:space:]])}  
 #Turn off extended globbing  
shopt -u extglob  

下面是相同的函数封装在函数中(注意:需要引用传递给函数的输入字符串):

trim() {
    # Determine if 'extglob' is currently on.
    local extglobWasOff=1
    shopt extglob >/dev/null && extglobWasOff=0 
    (( extglobWasOff )) && shopt -s extglob # Turn 'extglob' on, if currently turned off.
    # Trim leading and trailing whitespace
    local var=$1
    var=${var##+([[:space:]])}
    var=${var%%+([[:space:]])}
    (( extglobWasOff )) && shopt -u extglob # If 'extglob' was off before, turn it back off.
    echo -n "$var"  # Output trimmed string.
}

用法:

string="   abc def ghi  ";
#need to quote input-string to preserve internal white-space if any
trimmed=$(trim "$string");  
echo "$trimmed";

如果我们将函数更改为在subshell中执行，我们不必担心检查extglob的当前shell选项，我们可以只设置它而不影响当前shell。这极大地简化了函数。我还更新了位置参数“就地”，所以我甚至不需要一个局部变量

trim() {
    shopt -s extglob
    set -- "${1##+([[:space:]])}"
    printf "%s" "${1%%+([[:space:]])}" 
}

so:

$ s=$'\t\n \r\tfoo  '
$ shopt -u extglob
$ shopt extglob
extglob         off
$ printf ">%q<\n" "$s" "$(trim "$s")"
>$'\t\n \r\tfoo  '<
>foo<
$ shopt extglob
extglob         off

这就是我所做的，结果完美而简单:

the_string="        test"
the_string=`echo $the_string`
echo "$the_string"

输出:

test