[Exist-open] command-line client behaviour in 1.4

[Wilo <wi...@gm...>]

Hi everyone,

I've recently upgraded a development server to eXist version 1.4, and am now 
struggling to rewrite all my admin shell scripts, which have broken as a
result.  In particular, I'm trying to work around the change in the output
format.

With version 1.2, I could use the command:

[code]
echo "xmldb:get-child-collections('/db')" | bin/client.sh -u admin -P password
-x 2>/dev/null | tail -n +6
[/code]

to get a list of the collections in eXist.  These would be returned separated
by line breaks, and I could simply:

[code]
collections=$(echo "xmldb:get-child-collections('/db')" | bin/client.sh -u
admin -P password -x 2>/dev/null | tail -n +6)

for i in $collections; do
 echo $i
done
[/code]

[output]
collection1
collection2
system
[/output]

However, eXist 1.4 returns all the collections on one line, all run together
and with no means of separating them (same command):

[output]
collection1collection2system
[/output]

The best work-around I've come up with this morning is:

[code]
collections=`echo -e "for \$item in xmldb:get-child-collections('/db')\n return 
concat(\$item,'|')" | bin/client.sh -u admin -P password -x`

for i in $(echo $collections | sed 's/|/\n/g'); do
 echo $i
done
[/code]

but it's pretty ugly.  As a sysadmin I'm only really concerned with making sure 
the contents of the server are dumped cleanly and reliably, so that I can back 
them up remotely.

Is there any chance the original behaviour could be restored?  My eXist-related 
scripts are already the most difficult of all my server scripts to maintain.  
What do other sysadmins who have to struggle with eXist do?

Grateful for any input,

Wilo