Run Script Outputting an extra New Line How to remove?

[alfredclough]

I have a strange problem I am trying to solve. I must be missing something because this should be quite simple. I have a script to check and see if the computer is online. Here is the script:

 

echo -e "GET http://google.com HTTP/1.0\n\n" | nc google.com 80 > /dev/null 2>&1

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "online"
else
    echo "offline"
fi

After this I have two filters. One filter checks if the value is online and the other checks if the value is offline. The problem is when I run the workflow it always stops at the filter and does not continue. I ran Alfred in debut and here is what I see:

[2019-01-10 07:38:49][action.script] Processing output of 'utility.filter' with arg 'online
'
[2019-01-10 07:38:49][action.script] Processing output of 'utility.filter' with arg 'online
'

It appears to me that there is an extra new line after "online" which would explain why the filter is not successfully completing. However, I cannot see any reason why an extra new line would be inserted? This seems like it should be something very simple so I must be missing something but I cannot see what it is.

[deanishe]

That's caused by echo. It adds a newline to its output so the next echo is on the next line.

 

Use echo -n "online" to suppress the additional newline.

 

Out of interest, is there a particular reason you're using netcat instead of cURL or ping to tell if you're online?

Edited January 10, 2019 by deanishe

[alfredclough]

Thank you!

10 minutes ago, deanishe said:

Out of interest, is there a particular reason you're using netcat instead of cURL or ping to tell if you're online?

 

It's a solution I found that seemed to work reasonable quickly. If there's a better option I'm open to it.

 

[deanishe]

That's a good way to test if a website is online. ping is a better choice for checking your own connection, imo.

ping -c 1 google.com should succeed much more quickly than loading a webpage. If you're offline, I suppose the speed would be determined by the command's timeout.

[nikivi]

@alfredclough WiFi tools workflow I wrote maybe of interest to you. It can check if you are online as well as stop/start wifi or restart it.

[alfredclough]

4 minutes ago, nikivi said:

@alfredclough WiFi tools workflow I wrote maybe of interest to you. It can check if you are online as well as stop/start wifi or restart it.

 

I will look at it--thank you

[vitor]

Since your main issue seems to be solved, I’ll offer some script suggestions.

1. Instead of 2>&1, use &>. Same thing, way less confusing. So instead of > /dev/null 2>&1 you do &> /dev/null.
2. Instead of $? use if command. So instead of

my_command
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then

do

if my_command; then

Check shellcheck (and possibly add it to your editor). It points out a lot of good shell scripting rules from your mistakes, and explains their reasoning.