Extract filename and path from URL in bash script

Question

In my bash script I need to extract just the path from the given URL. For example, from the variable containing string:

http://login:password@example.com/one/more/dir/fi

Answer 1

There are built-in functions in bash to handle this, e.g., the string pattern-matching operators:

1. '#' remove minimal matching prefixes
2. '##' remove maximal matching prefixes
3. '%' remove minimal matching suffixes
4. '%%' remove maximal matching suffixes

For example:

FILE=/home/user/src/prog.c
echo ${FILE#/*/}  # ==> user/src/prog.c
echo ${FILE##/*/} # ==> prog.c
echo ${FILE%/*}   # ==> /home/user/src
echo ${FILE%%/*}  # ==> nil
echo ${FILE%.c}   # ==> /home/user/src/prog

All this from the excellent book: "A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming by Mark G. Sobell (http://www.sobell.com/)