Shell Scripts From Hackster on Raspberry Pi

When a Hackster.io project includes a shell script as a code attachment, the file name gets munged and it adds CR/NL to each file. The resulting file cannot be run on a raspberry pi. There is a fairly easy fix to this and it can be done on either the Mac or on your Raspberry Pi.

Another oddity I noticed while writing this story - uploading seems to strip out quotes ("). Check your uploads!

File Name Munging

When you download a file (see myTestScript.sh in Code section here) from Hackster.io (Chrome and Safari tested), the resulting file is renamed, converting ".sh" to "_sh.txt" and the text has added CR/NL added. (eg mytestscript_sh.txt). The dos2unix tool is an effective work around.

Dos2Unix on a Mac

On a Mac, retrieve the code from GitHub (https://github.com/dataf3l/dos2unix-for-mac-osx ) and copy the dos2unix file to your /usr/local/bin folder (in a terminal window execute:

sudo cp dos2unix /usr/local/bin

Then you can use the tool as

dos2unix mytestscript_sh.txt

Note that this is a simple script that does NOT rename the file. You will need to

mv mystestscript_sh.txt myTestScript.sh 

you can then scp the shell script to your Pi and it will work as intended.

For example when downloaded try this on your mac:

$ bash ./mytestscript_sh.txt 
This is a simple test bash shell script
: command not foundxt: line 6: date
It should demonstrate the issue with name munging
and crnl when downloading and copy to mac/raspberry pi
: command not foundxt: line 9: ls
the dos2unix tool fixes it

note that the "echo" commands work but the regular commands like "date" and "ls" fail.

the corrected output is:

$ bash myTestScript.sh
This is a simple test bash shell script
Sun Dec 3 11:07:08 HST 2017
It should demonstrate the issue with name munging
and crnl when downloading and copy to mac/raspberry pi
myTestScript.sh  mytestscript_sh.txt
the dos2unix tool fixes it

Dos2Unix on a Raspberry Pi

If your files are already transferred to the Pi, you can apt-get dos2unix and convert locally...

sudo apt-get install dos2unix

Then you can use the tool as above with one file name, or (since this is a more advanced version) you can use the -n flag to create a new file from the output

dos2unix -n mytestscript_sh.txt 

For example...

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bash ./mytestscript_sh.txt
This is a simple test bash shell script
./mytestscript_sh.txt: line 6: $'date\r': command not found
It should demonstrate the issue with name munging
and crnl when downloading and copy to mac/raspberry pi
./mytestscript_sh.txt: line 9: $'ls\r': command not found
the dos2unix tool fixes it
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ 

Running dos2unix and then bash gives ...

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ dos2unix -n mytestscript_sh.txt myTestScript.sh
dos2unix: converting file mytestscript_sh.txt to file myTestScript.sh in Unix format ...
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bash ./myTestScript.sh 
This is a simple test bash shell script
Sun 3 Dec 21:13:11 UTC 2017
It should demonstrate the issue with name munging
and crnl when downloading and copy to mac/raspberry pi
Desktop myTestScript.sh python_games  testNew.sh
Documents mytestscript_sh.txt setupPiImage.sh test.sh
Downloads Pictures  Templates  Videos
Music   Public  test1.sh  wpa_supplicant.conf
the dos2unix tool fixes it
pi@raspberrypi:~ $