Shell Scripting

Pepper
(Help from Dr. Robert Siegfried)
 Steps in Writing a Shell Script
• Write a script file using vi:
– The first line identifies the file as a bash script.
#!/bin/bash
– Comments begin with a # and end at the end of the line.
• give the user (and others, if (s)he wishes) permission
to execute it.
– chmod +x filename
• Run from local dir
– ./filename
• Run with a trace – echo commands after expansion
– bash –x ./filename
 Variables
• Create a variable
– Variablename=value (no spaces, no $)
– read variablename (no $)
• Access a variable's value
– $variablename
• Set a variable
– Variablename=value (no spaces, no $ before variablename)
• Sample:
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/play
withvar
 Positional Parameters
Positional Parameter What It References
$0 References the name of the script
$# Holds the value of the number of positional parameters
$* Lists all of the positional parameters
$@ Means the same as $@, except when enclosed in double
quotes
"$*" Expands to a single argument (e.g., "$1 $2 $3")
"$@" Expands to separate arguments (e.g., "$1" "$2" "$3")
$1 .. ${10} References individual positional parameters

set Command to reset the script arguments

wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/not
e/scripts/envvar
 Environment Variables
• set | more – shows all the environment variables that
exist
• Change
– PS1='\u>'
– PATH=$PATH:/home/pe16132/bin1
– IFS=':'
– IFS is Internal Field Separator
• Sample
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/envva
r
 $* and $@

• $* and $@ can be used as part of the list in a

for loop or can be used as par of it.
• When expanded $@ and $* are the same
unless enclosed in double quotes.
– $* is evaluated to a single string while $@ is
evaluated to a list of separate word.
 Variable Scope & Processes
• Variables are shared only with their own process,
unless exported
• x=Hi – define x in current process
• sh – launch a new process
• echo $x – cannot see x from parent process
• x=bye
• <ctrl d> -- exit new process
• echo $x -- see x in old process did not change
• demoShare – cannot see x
• . demoShare – run with dot space runs in current shell
• export x – exports the variable to make available to its children
• demoShare – now it can see x
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/demoS
hare
 The read Command (continued)
Read from stdin (screen)
Read until new line
Format Meaning
read answer Reads a line from stdin into the variable answer

read first last Reads a line from stdin up to the whitespace, putting the
first word in first and the rest of the of line into last
read Reads a line from stdin and assigns it to REPLY
read –a Reads a list of word into an array called arrayname
arrayname
read –p prompt Prints a prompt, waits for input and stores input in REPLY

read –r line Allows the input to contain a backslash.

wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/
nosy
 Shortcut to Display Lots of Words
• Here file:
– You give it the end token at the start
– Type a list
– Type the end token to end
– cat << Here
words
Here
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/
nosy
 Numbers
• Assumes variables are strings
• Math operations on strings are essentially
ignored
– Normalvar=1
– 3+$normalvar yields 3+1
• Must force consideration as number
– Create variable with declare - i
– Surround your mathematical statement with (( ))
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/
numbers
 Different Base Nums: Octal, Hex
• Leading 0 in a number makes it be interpreted
as octal so 017 represents the decimal # 15
• Leading 0x in a number makes it be
interpreted as hex.
• Leading <Base># in a number makes it be
interpreted as that base.
 Floating Point Arithmetic
• Bash does not support floating point
arithmetic but bc, awk and nawk utilities all
do.
SIEGFRIE@panther:~$ n=`echo "scale=3; 13 / 2" | bc`
SIEGFRIE@panther:~$ echo $n
6.500
SIEGFRIE@panther:~$ product=`nawk -v x=2.45 -v
y=3.123 'BEGIN{printf "%.2f\n", x*y}'`
SIEGFRIE@panther:~$ echo $product
7.65
 Test Command
• Command to test true or false:
– test
– [ the comparison ]
• [ means 'test'
• Spaces around [
• ] for looks only
– Logical
• -o for OR
• -a for AND

wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/i
fscript
 Using test For Numbers And Strings – Old
Format
if test expression
then
command
fi
or
if [ string/numeric expression]
then
command
wget
fi http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/n
ote/scripts/ifscript
 Using test For Strings – New Format
if [[ string expression ]] ; then
command
elif
fi
or
if (( numeric expression ))
NOTE: new line for then or ; then

wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/sc
ripts/ifscript
 Testing Strings vs Numbers
Comparing numbers
• remember (( ))
• -eq , -ne, -gt, -ge, -lt, -le
Comparing strings
• Remember [[ ]]
• Remember space after [
• =
• !=
• Unary string tests
– [ string ] (not null)
– -z (0 length)
– -n (some length)
– wget
-l returns the length of the string

http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/sc
ripts/ifscriptnum
test Command Operators – String Test
Test Operator Tests True if

[ string1 = string2 ] String1 is equal to String2 (space

surrounding = is necessary
[ string1 != string2 ] String1 is not equal to String2 (space
surrounding != is not necessary
[ string ] String is not null.
[ -z string ] Length of string is zero.
[ -n string ] Length of string is nonzero.
[ -l string ] Length of string (number of character)

[[ ]] gives some pattern matching

[[ $name == [Tt]om ]] matches if $name contains Tom or tom
[[ $name == [^t]om ]] matches if $name contains any character but t followed by om
[[ $name == ?o* ]] matches if $name contains any character followed by o and then
whatever number of characters after that.
Just shell patterns, not regex
 test Command Operators – Logical Tests
Test Operator Test True If
[ string1 –a string2 ] Both string1 and string 2 are true.
[ string1 –o string2 ] Both string1 or string 2 are true.
[ ! string ] Not a string1 match

Test operator Tests True if

[[ pattern1 && Pattern2 ]] Both pattern1 and pattern2 are true
[[ pattern1 || Pattern2 ]] Either pattern1 or pattern2 is true
[[ !pattern ]] Not a pattern match

pattern1 and pattern2 can contain metacharacters.

 test Command Operators – Integer Tests
Test operator Tests True if
[ int1 –eq int2 ] int1 = int2
[ int1 –ne int2 ] int1 ≠ int2
[ int1 –gt int2 ] int1 > int2
[ int1 –ge int2 ] int1 ≥ int2
[ int1 –lt int2 ] int1 < int2
[ int1 –le int2 ] int1 ≤ int2
 test Command Operators – File Tests
Test Operator Test True If
[ file1 –nt file2 ] True if file1 is newer than file2*
[ file1 –ot file2 ] True if file1 is older than file2*
[ file1 –ef file2 ] True if file1 and file2 have the same
device and inode numbers.

* according to modfication date and time

 File Testing
Test Operator Test True if:
-b filename Block special file
-c filename Character special file
-d filename Directory existence
-e filename File existence
-f filename Regular file existence and not a directory
-G filename True if file exists and is owned nu the effective group id
-g filename Set-group-ID is set
-k filename Sticky bit is set
-L filename File is a symbolic link
 File Testing (continued)
Test Operator Test True if:
-p filename File is a named pipe
-O filename File exists and is owned by the effective user ID
-r filename file is readable
-S filename file is a socket
-s filename file is nonzero size
-t fd True if fd (file descriptor) is opened on a terminal
-u filename Set-user-id bit is set
-w filename File is writable
-x filename File is executable
 Exit Status
• Every process running in Linux has an exit
status code, where 0 indicates successful
conclusion of the process and nonzero values
indicates failure to terminate normally.
• Linux and UNIX provide ways of determining
an exit status and to use it in shell
programming.
• The ? in bash is a shell variable that contains a
numeric value representing the exit status.
 Exit Status Demo
• All commands return something
• Standard 0 = success and 1 = failure
– Backwards 0/1 from a true/false boolean
grep 'not there' myscript
echo $?
1= failure
grep 'a' myscript
echo $?
0 = success
exit Command and the ? Variable
• exit is used to terminate the script; it is
mainly to used to exit the script if some
condition is true.
• exit has one parameter – a number ranging
from 0 to 255, indicating if is ended
successfully (0) or unsuccessfully (nonzero).
• The argument given to the script is stored in
the variable ?
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/script
s/ifbigfiles
Looping in Bash – The for Command
• Loop through a list – like java for each loop (pg 37)
for variable in word_list
do
command(s)
done
• variable will take on the value of each of the words
in the list.
• To get a list, you can execute a subcommand that
returns a list inside $( ) ex $(ls)

wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/script
s/forscript
 while Command
• The while command evaluates the command
following it and, if its exit status is 0, the commands
in the body of the loop are execeuted.
• The loop continues until the exit status is nonzero.
• Format:
while command
do
command(s)
done

wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/script
s/numm
 The until Command
• until works like the while command, except it
execute the loop if the exit status is nonzero
(i.e., the command failed).
• Format:
until command
do
command(s)
done
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/script
s/hour
 The select Command
• The select command allows the user to create menus
in bash.
• A menu of numerically listed items is displayed to
stderr, with PS3 used to promp the user for input.
• Format:
select var in wordlist
do
command(s)
done

wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scrip
ts/runit
 Commands Used With select
• select will automatically repeat and has do
mechanism of its own to terminate. For this
reason, the exit command is used to
terminate.
• We use break to force an immediate exit from
a loop (but not the program).
• We use shift to shift the parameter list one
or more places to the left, removing the
displaced parameters.
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scrip
ts/dater
 SELECT for a menu
• – creates menus that don’t stop until you break
out of the loop
– Syntax:
• PS3=”Whatever you want your prompt to be for the menu “
• select var in options list (and use ‘ ‘ to surround 2 word
options)
• do
• Command(s)
• done
– Ex: select program in `ls –F` pwd date ‘some other
option’ exit
 File IO

• read command
– Reads from stdin unless directed with < or |
ls | while read line
do
echo The line is "$line"
done
• Write to a file using redirection >
ls | while read line
do
echo The line is "$line"
done > outputfile

• Write to a temp file that is unique – use pid $$

wget
done > tmp$$
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scrip
ts/numberit
 Functions
• Define function before use
• Define function using: functionname() { }
• Call function using: functionname parm1 parm2 …
• Function accesses parameters to it as $1, $2 ..
• Send back information with return statement
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/demofu
nction
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/demofu
nction2
wget
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scripts/demofu
nction3
 Trap an Interrupt
• Define the action that will happen when the
interrupt occurs using: trap ‘the action to do
when the interrupt occurs ‘ the signal:
– trap 'rm -f /tmp/my_tmp_file_$$' INT
• When the signal arrives, that command will
execute, and then it will continue with
whatever statement it was processing.
• You can use a function instead of just one
wget
command.
http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/scrip
ts/trapper
 Case
If/elif/else construct
• Syntax:
– case variable
• value1 )
– commands
– ;;
• value2 )
– commands
– ;;
• ) #default
– Commands
– ;;
– esac
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http://home.adelphi.edu/~pe16132/csc271/note/script
s/xcolors
 Summary
• Variables
• Decision - If / case / select (embedded while)
– Numbers vs Strings
– Unary tests
– File tests
• Loop – for/ while / until
– File IO
• Functions
• Trap