BASH copy specific lines from terminal

Question

Let's say currently my terminal looks like the following:

neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ echo "lala nana"
lala nana
neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ l
entrypoint.js  helpers/  node_modules/  package.json  package-lock.json
neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$

I want to copy the fourth line from the bottom (the one that contains "lala nana").

I can obviously write a script that uses tput to save the cursor position, switch my cursor's position to a specific line, copy it, and then return to the previous cursor position.

Is there an existent solution or an easier way to accomplish this though?

related: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5130968/how-can-i-copy-the-output-of-a-command-directly-into-my-clipboard — kvantour, Jul 31 '18 at 09:03
Hmm not really. I already use xclip, but what I want to do is to copy a line that was in my stdout, not from a file or command. — Neekoy, Jul 31 '18 at 09:06
It is related, not a duplicate at all. I understand your question. — kvantour, Jul 31 '18 at 09:09
related: https://askubuntu.com/questions/758991/bash-shell-output-history-file-location — kvantour, Jul 31 '18 at 09:14
If you want to perform actions like this, you might want to do `bash | tee bash_output.log` and then use `awk` to extract the lines you want. — kvantour, Jul 31 '18 at 09:16

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 31 '18 at 11:06

I'm not sure I understand your problem. I would solve it this way, though.

I would put the command into a variable to access it again later. (http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/varassignment.html)

Here is an example:

neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ c=$(echo "lala nana")
neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ echo $c
lala nana

Or like in your example:

neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ echo "lala nana"
lala nana
neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ l
entrypoint.js  helpers/  node_modules/  package.json  package-lock.json

neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ c=$(!-2) #related to https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/33552
neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ echo $c
lala nana

Or save the output as text in a file.

neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ echo "lala nana"
lala nana
neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ l
entrypoint.js  helpers/  node_modules/  package.json  package-lock.json

neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ !-2 > test.txt
echo "lala nana" > test.txt
neekoy@mypc:~/some/folder$ cat test.txt
lala nana

While this is a nice idea, imagine now that you want to have the output of a 1h lasting cmd. — kvantour, Jul 31 '18 at 12:15

BASH copy specific lines from terminal

1 Answers1