Ruby-style data blob implemented in bash

Ruby DATA

Ruby has a nice feature where if place the string __END__ after the end of your scripts functionality, the text after that delimeter is loaded into a DATA File object.

For example the following script:

puts DATA.read

__END__
Hello Data World

Contain the following output:

$ ruby data.rb
Hello Data World

Bash Variant

Someone wanted to have this functionality in bash so here is my attemped solution to this problem:

f_data(){
 tail -n $(expr $(wc -l $BASH_SOURCE | cut -d " " -f 1) - $(grep -ne '#\s__END__' $BASH_SOURCE|cut -d ":" -f 1)) $BASH_SOURCE | sed -r 's/^#\s//g'
}

f_data

# __END__
# Hello Bash Data
# Foo
# Bar

Results in the following output:

$ bash bash_data.sh
Hello Bash Data
Foo
Bar

Readable variant

Here is what is really going on, its not particularly complicated when you break it apart:

f_data(){
  local current_file=$BASH_SOURCE
  echo "[+] Current File: $current_file"

  local total_line_count=$(wc -l $current_file | cut -d " " -f 1)
  echo "[+] Line Count: $total_line_count"

  local delimiter_line_number=$(grep -ne '#\s__END__' $current_file | cut -d ":" -f 1)
  echo "[+] Delimiter found on line $delimiter_line_number"

  local lines_to_print=$(expr $total_line_count - $delimiter_line_number)
  echo "[+] Printing $lines_to_print lines"
  echo

  tail -n $lines_to_print $current_file | sed -r 's/^#\s//g'
}

f_data

# __END__
# Hello Bash Data
# Foo
# Bar

The output of this is as follows:

$ bash bash_data2.sh
[+] Current File: /home/gabe/bash_data.sh
[+] Line Count: 27
[+] Delimiter found on line 24
[+] Printing 3 lines

Hello Bash Data
Foo
Bar