How to Get Stock Quote on Linux using Google ,Curl, Grep, Awk

If you are a Stock Market Addict and a Techie; normally working on Linux(es); this post will interest you as you still can get quote of your stock on your Linux prompt.

Consider, we have Google Finance url for Tata Consultancy Services Stock: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NSE:TCS

So, how do you get above stock price while you’re on Linux / Unix server?
It’s a sinlge line command and you get your stock’s current price. 🙂

curl --silent -X Get "http://www.google.com/finance?q=NSE:TCS" > /tmp/ChangeIsInevitable && cat /tmp/ChangeIsInevitable | grep -m1 -E 'span id="ref_' | awk -F ">" '{print $2}' | awk -F "<" '{print $1}'

This work for other Stock Exchanges like NYSE as well:

curl --silent -X Get "http://www.google.com/finance?q=nyse:goog" > /tmp/bgz && cat /tmp/bgz | grep -m1 -E 'span id="ref_' | awk -F ">" '{print $2}' | awk -F "<" '{print $1}' && date
617.19
Fri Nov 12 17:07:52 IST 2010

and that’s it. Well, I’m thinking thinking more about further extensions of this.
Special thanks goes to: Jignesh Bhai, Google, Curl, Grep, Awk.