Optimize bash script that concatenates output

Question

I am trying to optimize my script that loops through a folder and extracts only the part of a file name before a date and the header of the file and outputs it into a different file using a delimiter. I feel the script is robust and I want to refactor it. If there is also a better way, please tell me.

#!/bin/bash
# script variables
FOLDER=path/to/folder
LOG_FILE=path/to/logfile.csv

# Getting the pattern and  header of files from FOLDER
for file in `ls $FOLDER/*.csv`
do
    echo -n $(basename "$file") 2>&1 | sed -r 's/(.*)_[0-9]{8}_[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].csv/\1/'  | tee -a $LOG_FILE
    echo -n "|" | tee -a $LOG_FILE
    cat $file | head -1 | tee -a $LOG_FILE

done #> $LOG_FILE

Answer 1

• do ... done is a compound command; every subcommand shares the file descriptors; so teeing the the loop has the same effect as teeing each subcommand.

• Two subsequent invocations of echo can be combined together.

• cat $file is a dreaded UUOC.

• A basename invocation can be avoided by changing directory to $FOLDER.

• ls is absolutely unnecessary. The shell already globbed the *.csv.

Summing up,

    chdir "$FOLDER"
    for file in *.csv; do
        echo -n "$file" "|" | sed -r ...
        head -1 "$file"
    done | tee $LOGFILE

does the same job.

Answer 2

That sed pattern seems rather overly specific for a part of the filename you want to dump (unless there are other _#_#-#.#.csv filename endings that you do want to keep).

If you just want to dump from the second to last _ in the file then you can use

awk -F _ -v OFS=_ 'NF-=2' <<<"$file"

or

echo "$file" | awk -F _ -v OFS=_ 'NF-=2'

Alternatively I think one of these might do what is desired as well in a single command.

awk --re-interval '{len=split(FILENAME, f, "/"); sub(/_[0-9]{8}_[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].csv$/, "", f[len]); printf f[len] "|"; print; nextfile}' /path/to/folder/*.csv

Or if the regex is over-specified (as per my comment on the OP) then perhaps:

awk '{len=split(FILENAME, f, "/"); sub(/_[^_]+_[^_]+.csv$/, "", f[len]); printf f[len] "|"; print; nextfile}' /path/to/folder/*.csv