Getting the folder name, when im not in it

[chrispepper1989]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to linux so i apologize if this is a stupid question. basically im trying to be a little lazy.

im wondering if its possible to get the name of the first folder in a directory so basically when i go to usr/src/kernels i can grab the name of whatever folder is in there e.g. "2.6.37.2-8.27" without knowing what its called in the first place.

details:
the reason for this i currently have a bashrc function where i go:

"ensettar 2.6.37.2-8.27"

what this does is it set up a bunch of environment variables including one that is the kernel directory and kernel version of a remote computer.

im basically trying to eliminate the need to put the version number. Especially as my targets will usually only have one folder in the src/kernels directory. So whereas now i have:

ensettar()
{
...
export KERNELDIR=/target/usr/src/kernels/$1;
export KERNELVER=$1;
...
}

i would like something like:

ensettar()
{
cd /target/usr/src/kernels/

*magic*
...
export KERNELDIR=/target/usr/src/kernels/$FOLDER_1;
export KERNELVER=$FOLDER_1;
...
}

again i apologize if this is actually completely impossible and silly

I appreciate any help

[chrispepper1989]

Hi guys,

I've written a script that does what i want, but its a bit...messy:

FILES=/target/usr/src/kernels/*

#cycle through all "files" in that folder
for f in $FILES
do
  echo "getting $f file..."
 
 #change to dir
  pushd $f
 
 #set using reg expre
  ensettar ${PWD##*/}    
 
#ensure we return to original dir
 popd

 #break out of loop...ugly
  break 

done

as you can see the for loop seems really unnecessary

[atreyu]

i think this might give you what you want. it will find all dirs in /usr/src/kernels/ that start with the name of the currently running kernel on target system:

find /usr/src/kernels -maxdepth 1 -type d -name $(uname -r)* -printf '%f\n'|head -n1

The 'head -n1' portion ensures that just the first matching directory name is returned, if multiple kernel dirs match the output of the 'uname -r' command - but if that is the case, you might want the 2nd one, etc.

[Micha_Silver]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to linux so i apologize if this is a stupid question. basically im trying to be a little lazy.

im wondering if its possible to get the name of the first folder in a directory so basically when i go to usr/src/kernels i can grab the name of whatever folder is in there e.g. "2.6.37.2-8.27" without knowing what its called in the first place.

Maybe try using

uname -r