sed - pass match to external command

Question

I have written a little script using sed to transform this:

kaefert@Ultrablech ~ $ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/uevent
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Full
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7400000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=8370000
POWER_SUPPLY_POWER_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_FULL_DESIGN=45640000
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_FULL=44541000
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_NOW=44541000
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=UX32-65
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=ASUSTeK
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER= 

into a csv file format like this:

kaefert@Ultrablech ~ $ Documents/Asus\ Zenbook\ UX32VD/power_to_csv.sh 
"date";"status";"voltage µV";"power µW";"energy full µWh";"energy now µWh"
2012-07-30 11:29:01;"Full";8369000;0;44541000;44541000 
2012-07-30 11:29:02;"Full";8369000;0;44541000;44541000 
2012-07-30 11:29:04;"Full";8369000;0;44541000;44541000
... (in a loop)

What I would like now is to divide each of those numbers by 1.000.000 so that they don't represent µV but V and W instead of µW, so that they are easily interpretable on a quick glance. Of course I could do this manually afterwards once I've opened this csv inside libre office calc, but I would like to automatize it.

So what I found is, that I can call external programs in between sed, like this:

...
s/\nPOWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1\nPOWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion\nPOWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0\nPOWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7400000\nPOWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=\([0-9]\{1,\}\)/";'`echo 0`'\1/

and that I could get values like I want by something like this:

echo "scale=6;3094030/1000000" | bc | sed 's/0\{1,\}$//'

But the problem now is, how do I pass my match "\1" into the external command?

If you are interested in looking at the full script, you'll find it there: http://koega.no-ip.org/mediawiki/index.php/Battery_info_to_csv

Answer 1

if your sed is GNU sed. you can use 'e' to pass matched group to external command/tools within sed command.

an example might be helpful to make it clear:

say, you have a problem:
you have a string "120+20foobar" now you want to get the calculation result of 120+20 part, and replace "oo" to "xx" in "foobar" part.

Note that this example is not for solving the problem above, just for showing the sed 'e' usage

so you could make 120+20 in the first match group, and rest in 2nd group, then pass two groups to different command/tools and then get the result. like:

   kent$  echo "100+20foobar"|sed -r 's#([0-9+]*)(.*)#echo  \1 \|bc\;echo \2 \| sed "s/oo/xx/g"#ge'
    120
    fxxbar

in this way, you could nest many seds one in another one, till you get lost. :D