simple regex question

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

Dwight E Chadbourne wrote:
> Hi all.  I want the 20 digit hash in this text.
> 
> d5:filesd20:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxd8:completei2e10:downloadedi0e10:incompletei4e
> 4:name12:xxxxxxxxxxxxee5:flagsd20:min_request_intervali3600eee
> 
> How do I get only the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and not the preceding 
> identifier?
> 
> filesd20:.{20} returns the "filesd20:" but I don't need that.  Is there a 
> way to do it only with regex?
> 
> Thanks for any tips or links.

set your field separator to ':', and take the first 20 digits of field 3.

Using awk:
 awk -F ':' '{ print $3 }'

(you're on your own to figure out the part that takes only the first 20 digits
of $3)

Matt

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