Simple string searching in a text file

I'm sure this is dead simple, but I haven't found a good example yet. I have an XML file that is created by a Garmin GPS watch that I wear when I'm running or biking. I'd like to automate the process of archiving these files by workout type whenever they are downloaded from my watch.

Here's what the top part of one of these .TCX files looks like:

Code: Select all: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?> <TrainingCenterDatabase xmlns="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrainingCenterDatabase/v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrainingCenterDatabase/v2 http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrainingCenterDatabasev2.xsd"> <Activities> <Activity Sport="Biking"> <Id>2012-08-04T21:03:31Z</Id> . . . many more lines of XML text

Notice the

Code: Select all: <Activity Sport="Biking">

line which indicates the workout type.

These .TCX files are not indexed by Spotlight, so I can't use a simple "Contents contains…" condition. It seems like a simple embedded script would be just right here.

What would that script look like?

To sum up, I have two conditions...
1. Extension is TCX
2. File contains the text "Biking"

It's #2 that's giving me grief.

Any suggestions?

What happens if you change the extension to txt?
Maybe you could copy the file, change the extension to txt, find the string, sort accordingly then change the extension back to TCX.

Use this shell script to match (return 0) only if the file contains the case-insensitive string biking once:

Code: Select all: [ $(grep -ci biking $1) -gt 0 ]

To be clear, copy this line to a passes shell script condition.

No need to change the file extension.

That's an interesting approach, and it makes perfect sense. Sadly, it doesn't work for me. It produces the desired result when I run that grep from the terminal

Code: Select all: $ grep -ci biking 2012-08-05-144902.TCX 1

Is the exit status not being set correctly?

Last edited by a_freyer on Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DBCooper wrote:That's an interesting approach, and it makes perfect sense. Sadly, it doesn't work for me. It produces the desired result when I run that grep from the terminal

Code: Select all
$ grep -ci biking 2012-08-05-144902.TCX 1

Is the exit status not being set correctly?

Silly me - I didn't include the exit status: EDIT - actually, the following is redundant.

Code: Select all: exit $([ $(grep -ci biking $1) -gt 0 ])

Ah, that makes sense. But wouldn't that set the exit status to be non-zero in the event that the text is found?

I tested your newest suggestion and it too fails to trigger. I know the rest of the rule is working.

DBCooper wrote:Ah, that makes sense. But wouldn't that set the exit status to be non-zero in the event that the text is found?

I tested your newest suggestion and it too fails to trigger. I know the rest of the rule is working.

This should work just fine. I've confirmed with a few test files.Have you tried this rule addition as a separate rule?

Here's my setup with just this one rule in place. It's still not working.

Anything look fishy?

Ack. Im debugging this from my iPad now, so I can't test.

Either of these should be working just fine. When the greater than if statement matches, it will return an exit status of zero. When it does not match, it will return an exit status of zero. Therefore the exit statement is redundant.

Either of these should be working. Are you sure that the file you're testing on has biking within it?

PM sent.

DBCooper wrote:That's an interesting approach, and it makes perfect sense. Sadly, it doesn't work for me. It produces the desired result when I run that grep from the terminal

Code: Select all
$ grep -ci biking 2012-08-05-144902.TCX 1

Is the exit status not being set correctly?

If you run the bracketed statement in terminal, and then run an echo $? to retrieve the exit status. What does terminal return for you?

Which bracketed statement?

hmmmm... this is working for me.

DBCooper wrote:Which bracketed statement?

Code: Select all: [ $(grep -ci biking $1) -gt 0 ]

Like this?

Code: Select all: $ [ $(grep -ci biking $1) -gt 0 ] ^C $ echo $? 1 $ echo $? 0

I'm not sure how the $1 plays in that.