My question may seem fairly simple, I'm a beginner at bash scripting still, but I'm trying to format my ls output without using a tab when I print with awk.
Here is my current command that I'm running:
ls -al | sed 1d | awk '{print $1" ",$6" ", $7"\t", $9}'
and it prints out the following
drwx------ Feb 13 .
drwxr-xr-x Feb 5 ..
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .alias
-rw-r--r-- Feb 13 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- Jan 29 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .bash_profile~
-rw-r--r-- Feb 13 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .bashrc~
drwxr-xr-x Jan 3 csc135
drwxr-xr-x Aug 13 csc136
drwxr-xr-x Feb 9 csc235
drwxr-xr-x Oct 19 csc237
drwxr-xr-x Feb 18 csc310
drwxr-xr-x Feb 6 csc325
I have also attempted using a space:
ls -al | sed 1d | awk '{print $1" ",$6" ", $7" ", $9}'
which prints the following (quite bothersome):
drwx------ Feb 13 .
drwxr-xr-x Feb 5 ..
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .alias
-rw-r--r-- Feb 13 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- Jan 29 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .bash_profile~
-rw-r--r-- Feb 13 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .bashrc~
drwxr-xr-x Jan 3 csc135
drwxr-xr-x Aug 13 csc136
drwxr-xr-x Feb 9 csc235
drwxr-xr-x Oct 19 csc237
drwxr-xr-x Feb 18 csc310
drwxr-xr-x Feb 6 csc325
Is there any way to make it nicer looking like this?
drwx------ Feb 13 .
drwxr-xr-x Feb 5 ..
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .alias
-rw-r--r-- Feb 13 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- Jan 29 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .bash_profile~
-rw-r--r-- Feb 13 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- Jan 21 .bashrc~
drwxr-xr-x Jan 3 csc135
drwxr-xr-x Aug 13 csc136
drwxr-xr-x Feb 9 csc235
drwxr-xr-x Oct 19 csc237
drwxr-xr-x Feb 18 csc310
drwxr-xr-x Feb 6 csc325
One automatic option that comes to mind is column:
$ ls -al | sed 1d | awk '{print $1,$6,$7,$9}' | column -t
drwxr-xr-x+ Feb 3 .
drwxrwxrwt+ Oct 9 ..
-rw------- Feb 12 .bash_history
-rwxr-xr-x Oct 9 .bash_profile
-rwxr-xr-x Feb 3 .bashrc
drwx------+ Feb 2 .cache
-rwxr-xr-x Oct 9 .inputrc
-rwxr-xr-x Feb 14 .mkshrc
-rwxr-xr-x Oct 9 .profile
drwxrwx---+ Dec 13 .ssh
Note the -t flag used for column:
-t, --table Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table. Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters supplied using the --output-separator option. Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
Another way would be to used fixed lengths:
$ ls -al | sed 1d | awk '{printf "%-12s %-3s %-2s %s\n", $1,$6,$7,$9}'
drwxr-xr-x+ Feb 3 .
drwxrwxrwt+ Oct 9 ..
-rw------- Feb 12 .bash_history
-rwxr-xr-x Oct 9 .bash_profile
-rwxr-xr-x Feb 3 .bashrc
drwx------+ Feb 2 .cache
-rwxr-xr-x Oct 9 .inputrc
-rwxr-xr-x Feb 14 .mkshrc
-rwxr-xr-x Oct 9 .profile
drwxrwx---+ Dec 13 .ssh
There is another example of this in the GNU Awk User's guide.