Template for formatting output as a dynamic table in bash

Question

I have a created a simple script which is using the ps aux command to give information for a process entered by a user, and presents the output in a table like format (something like the mysql shell is doing for table format).

This is working to some extent, the only problem is how to make the cells fit the content dynamically depending on the value's length. If a value is too long, it goes on a new line and breaks the table.

Is there some smarter way to wrap the value within its cell?

#!/bin/bash # Main function main() { read -p "Enter the name of the process: " process output=$(ps aux | awk -v process="$process" '$0 ~ process && !/awk/ {print}') if [ -n "$output" ]; then printf "+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+----------------------------+\n" printf "| %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-100s |\n" "USER" "PID" "%CPU" "%MEM" "START" "COMMAND" printf "+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+----------------------------+\n" echo "$output" | awk '{ printf "| %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-100s |\n", $1, $2, $3, $4, $9, substr($0, index($0,$11)) }' printf "+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+----------------------------+\n" else echo "No such process found: $process" fi } # Call the main function main 

Current output from above:

Enter the name of the process: bash +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+----------------------------+ | USER | PID | %CPU | %MEM | START | COMMAND | +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+----------------------------+ | userrt | 1072 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 09:04 | -bash | | userrt | 1438 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 09:04 | bash | | userrt | 1575 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 09:04 | /bin/bash --init-file /home/userrt/.vscode-server/bin/0ee08df0cf4527e40edc9aa28fdety5656bbff2b2/out/vs/workbench/contrib/terminal/browser/media/shellIntegration-bash.sh | | userrt | 3255 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11:59 | /bin/bash ./process_monitoring.sh | | userrt | 3286 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11:59 | /bin/bash ./process_monitoring.sh | +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+----------------------------+ 

Desired output on smaller screens, something like this:

Enter the name of the process: bash +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------------------------------+ | USER | PID | %CPU | %MEM | START | COMMAND | +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------------------------------+ | userrt | 1072 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 09:04 | -bash | | userrt | 1438 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 09:04 | bash | | userrt | 1575 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 09:04 | /bin/bash --init-file /home/ | | | | | | | userrt/.vscode-server/bin/ | | | | | | | 0ee08df0cf4527e40edc9aa28fdety | | | | | | | 5656bbff2b2/out/vs/workbench/ | | | | | | | contrib/terminal/browser/media/ | | | | | | | shellIntegrtion-bash.sh | | userrt | 3255 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11:59 | /bin/bash ./process_monitoring.sh | | userrt | 3286 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11:59 | /bin/bash ./process_monitoring.sh | +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------------------------------+ 

Answer 1

#!/bin/bash main() { read -p "Enter the name of the process: " process output=$(ps aux | awk -v process="$process" '$0 ~ process && !/awk/ {print}') if [ -n "$output" ]; then # Print header printf "| %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-80s |\n" "USER" "PID" "%CPU" "%MEM" "START" "COMMAND" # Print separator printf "|%s|\n" "-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------" # Print data, use column command for formatting echo "$output" | awk '{ printf "| %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-10s | %-80s |\n", $1, $2, $3, $4, $9, substr($0, index($0,$11)) }' | column -t -s "|" | fold -w 80 -s else echo "No such process found: $process" fi } main exit 0 

Output is passed through column, which automatically adjusts the column width. The -t specifies tabular, and the -s "|" option sets the delimiter.

Dynamic table layout based on the content length.