Curl as variable, assign output to variable

Question

I have problem with assigning curl as variable and assign curl's output to variable:

#get results url, format json
URL=$(curl https://api.apifier.com/xy)
#jq is a cli json interpreter
#resultUrl contains the final URL which we want download
OK= "$URL" | jq '.resultsUrl'
#api probably is running
sleep 5
curl "$OK"

Maybe it is trivial, but I don't know where is the problem.

Change OK= "$URL" | jq '.resultsUrl' to OK=$(echo $URL | jq '.resultsUrl'). You should probably check that OK isn't null before you attempt to curl it. — Elliott Frisch
– Elliott Frisch, Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 23:01
How can you know the correct syntax to set URL, but not use that same syntax to set OK? — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 23:11

Ctx · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25 23:27:30Z

3

My guess is:

jq '.resultsUrl'

outputs the field resultsUrl with quotes, so curl does not process it correctly. Furthermore, $URL | ... does not work, you would have to use echo or curl directly.

Try

OK=$(curl -s https://api.apifier.com/v1/xHbBnrZ9rxF4CdKjo/crawlers/Example_Alcatraz_Cruises/execute?token=nJ9ohCHZPaJRFEb7nFqtzm76u | jq -r '.resultsUrl')
curl -s "$OK"

which results for me in

[{   "id": 2,   "url": "https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/SearchEventDaySpan.aspx?date=02-25-2016&selected=", "loadedUrl": "https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/SearchEventDaySpan.aspx?date=02-25-2016&selected=", "requestedAt": "2016-02-25T23:24:52.611Z",   "loadingStartedAt": "2016-02-25T23:24:54.663Z",   "loadingFinishedAt": "2016-02-25T23:24:55.642Z",   "loadErrorCode": null,   "pageFunctionStartedAt": "2016-02-25T23:24:55.839Z",   "pageFunctionFinishedAt": "2016-02-25T23:24:55.841Z",   "uniqueKey": "https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/SearchEventDaySpan.aspx?date=02-25-2016&selected=", "type": "UserEnqueued", ...

This should be what you expect.

However, sometimes the first API call yields an error:

{
  "type": "ALREADY_RUNNING",
  "message": "The act is already running and concurrent execution is not allowed"
}

so resultsURL will be null, you will have to handle this error case.

edited Feb 25, 2016 at 23:27

answered Feb 25, 2016 at 23:05

Ctx

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7 Comments

Adrian Over a year ago

You are right, I forgot to mention that resultUrl contains quotes. It is still not workin, the current result is: []. If it helps I can post here a sample link.

Ctx Over a year ago

Yes, do that please ;)

Adrian Over a year ago

api.myjson.com/bins/4g7q7 - hmm with this json it's working. I think maybe that's the problem, that $OK variable contains URL with parameters?

Ctx Over a year ago

@Adrian showed you my input and output, what is different on your side?

Ctx Over a year ago

I do not see any parameters in the resultUrl: https://api.apifier.com/v1/execs/yxcxycxycycx/results

|

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25 23:13:53Z

1

Your line

OK= "$URL" | jq '.resultsURL'

sets the environment variable OK to an empty string, then tries to execute "$URL" as a command and pipe its output to jq. If you want to setOK to the result of a command, you have to use $OK=(...), just like you did when setting URL. The correct syntax is:

OK=$(echo "$URL" | jq '.resultsURL')

And to remove the quotes from the output of .jq, you can do:

OK=$(echo "$URL" | jq '.resultsURL' | tr -d '"')

answered Feb 25, 2016 at 23:13

Barmar

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1 Comment

Trentium Over a year ago

For whomever finds their way to this cranny of the internet, in Jun 2020, the jq -r option removes quotes from strings, obviating the need for tr -d '"'.

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