bash

Type 📒 Lecture
Date @February 22, 2022

Lecture # ?

Lecture
URL

Notion https://21f1003586.notion.site/bash-
URL 60e8a6fdb5394c4385d7ac79f7c7b902

Week # 5

bash 1
 Script location
Use absolute path or relative path while executing the script

Keep the script in the folder listed in $PATH

Watch out for the sequence of directories in $PATH

bash environment
When you are already logged in to a system and using the GNOME environment
to open a terminal, then the shell we are opening is not asking for a login and is
called a Non-login shell

When we ssh into a remote machine, then the shell we are logging into would
have checked for the login credentials and then opened up the command line
environment for us, therefore that shell is called a Login shell

Output from the shell scripts

bash 2
 echo

Terminates with a newline if -n flag is not given

echo My home is $HOME

printf

Supports format specifiers like in C

printf “My home is %s\n” $HOME

Input to shell scripts

read var

String read from command line is stored in $var

Shell script arguments

./myscript.sh -l arg2 -v arg4

$0 → name of the shell program

$# → number of arguments passed

$1 or ${1} → first argument

${11} → eleventh argument

$* or $@ → all arguments at once

“$*” → all arguments as a single string

“$@” → all arguments as separate strings

Command substitution

var=`command`
var=$(command)

command is executed and the output is substituted

Here, the variable var will be assigned with that output

for do loop

for var in list

do

bash 3
 commands
done

commands are executed once for each item in the list

space is the field delimiters

set IFS if required

case statement

case var in
pattern1)
commands
;;
pattern2)
commands
;;
esac

commands are executed

each pattern matched

for var in the options

if loop

if condition
then
commands
fi

if condition; then
commands
fi

commands are executed only if condition returns true

conditions in if

test -e file or any text expression

True, if the file exists in the current directory of the shell script

else False

bash 4
 [ -e file ] or any [ expression ]

Same as the above one, just a different syntax

[[ expression ]] like [[ $ver == 5.* ]]

If we intend to use regex or other complex operations

(( expression )) like (( $v ** 2 > 10 ))

To perform complex arithmetic operations for the test conditions

Or just use a command like wc -l file

If the command returns True, i.e. upon successful execution, this means the
condition is satisfied

else False

pipeline like who | grep "joy" > /dev/null

A set of commands which can be combined with other commands and

redirection of output and combination of logical expressions using the && or
||

These can be put as the condition

For negation, use ! before the condition

test numeric comparisons

$n1 -eq $n2

Check if n1 is equal to n2

$n1 -ge $n2

Check if n1 is greater than or equal to n2

$n1 -gt $n2

Check if n1 is greater than n2

$n1 -le $n2

Check if n1 is less than or equal to n2

$n1 -lt $n2

Check if n1 is less than n2

$n1 -ne $n2

bash 5
 Check if n1 is not equal to n2

test string comparisons

$str1 = $str2

Check if str1 is the same as str2

$str1 != $str2

Check if str1 is not the same as str2

$str1 < $str2

Check if str1 is less than str2

Compares based on lexicographical (alphabetical) order

$str1 > $str2

Check if str1 is greater than str2

Compares based on lexicographical (alphabetical) order

-n $str1

Check if str1 has length greater than zero

-z $str1

Check if str1 has the length zero

Unary file comparisons

-e file

Check if the file exists

-d file

Check if the file exists and is a directory

-f file

Check if the file exists and is a file

-r file

Check if the file exists and is readable

-s file

Check if the file exists and is not empty

bash 6
 -w file

Check if the file exists and is writable

-x file

Check if the file exists and is executable

-O file

Check if the file exists and is owned by the current user

-G file

Check if the file exists and the default group is the same as that of the
current user

Binary file comparisons

file1 -nt file2

Check if file1 is newer than file2

file1 -ot file2

Check if file1 is older than file2

while do loop

while condition
do
commands
done

commands are executed only if the condition returns true

until do loop

until condition
do
commands
done

commands are executed only if the condition returns false

functions

bash 7
 definition

myfunc()
{
commands
}

call

myfunc

commands are executed each time myfunc is called

Definitions must be before the calls

Debugging

set -x
./myscript.sh

Prints the command before executing it

Place the set -x inside the script

bash -x ./myscript.sh

Combining conditions
[ $a -gt 3 ] && [ $a -lt 7 ]

[ $a -le 3 ] || [ $a -ge 7 ]

Shell arithmetic

bash 8
 expr command operators

bash 9
 #!/bin/bash

if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
echo "Use 2 natural numbers as arguments";
exit 1;
fi;

regex='^[0-9]+$'
if ! [[ $1 =~ $regex ]]; then
echo "$1 is not a natural number";
exit 1;
fi;

if ! [[ $2 =~ $regex ]]; then

echo "$2 is not a natural number";
exit 1;
fi;

let a=$1*$2;
echo "Product a is $a";
(( a++ ));
echo "Product a incremented is $a";

let b=$1**$2;
echo "Power is $b";

c=$[ $1 + $2 + 10 ];
echo "sum + 10 is $c";

d=$(expr $1 + $2 + 20);
echo "sum + 20 is $d";

f=$(( $1 * $2 * 2 ));
echo "Product times 2 is $f";

bash 10
 #!/bin/bash
# The following line is for debugging
# set -x;

# Code starts here

a=256;
b=4;
c=3;

ans=$( expr $a + $b );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a - $b );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a \* $b );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a / $b );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a % $c );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a \> $b );

echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a \>= $b );

echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a \< $b );

echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a \<= $b );

echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a = $b );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a != $b );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a \| $b );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr $a \& $b );

echo $ans;

str="octavio version as in Jan 2022 is 6.4.0";

reg="[oO]ctav[aeiou]*";
ans=$( expr "$str" : $reg );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr substr "$str" 1 6 );

echo $ans;

bash 11
 ans=$( expr index "$str" "vw" );
echo $ans;

ans=$( expr length "$str" );

echo $ans;

heredoc feature
When writing shell scripts you may be in a situation where you need to pass a
multiline block of text or code to an interactive command, such as tee , cat , or sftp

In bash and other shells like zsh , a Here document ( heredoc ) is a type of redirection
that allows you to pass multiple lines of input to a command.

This is what a general syntax looks like

[COMMAND] <<[-] 'DELIMITER'

HERE-DOCUMENT
DELIMITER

Notice no-indent (left) vs indentation (right) in the above example

#!/bin/bash

# set -x;
echo "path is set as $PATH";
i=0;
IFS=:;

for n in $PATH; do
echo "$i $n";
(( i++ ));
done;

bash 12
 if-elif-else-fi loop

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -gt 2 ]; then
echo "More than 2 arguments";
elif [ $# -gt 1 ]; then
echo "More than 1 argument";
elif [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
echo "Not enough arguments";
else
echo "Arguments required";
fi;

case statement options

bash 13
 #!/bin/bash

echo "What is your favourite image processor?";

read pname;

case $pname in
[gG]imp | inkscape)
echo "Good choice";
;;
[aA]dobe*)
echo "Absolutely proprietary and costs a lot";
;;
imagej)
echo "Measuring things on the image?";
;;
*)
echo "$pname is a new find for me";
;;
esac;

When you enter “adobe”

C-style for loop → one variable

bash 14
 #!/bin/bash

begin=1;
finish=10;

for (( a = $begin; a < $finish; a++ )); do

b=$(( a**2 ));
echo $b;
done;

C-style for loop → two variables

NOTE: only one condition to close out the for loop

#!/bin/bash

begin1=1;
begin2=20;
finish=10;

for (( a = $begin1, b = $begin2; a < $finish; a++, b-- )); do

c=$(( a**2 ));
d=$(( b**2 ));
echo $c $d;
done;

Processing output of a loop

bash 15
 NOTE: Output of the loop is re-directed to the tmp file

#!/bin/bash

filename=largefile.txt;
if [ -e $filename ]; then
echo "file $filename exists";
exit 1;
fi;

i=1;
while [ $i -lt 10 ]; do
echo "$i $[$i+1]";
(( i++ ));
done > $filename;

echo "file $filename written";

ls -l $filename;

break

To break out of a loop

bash 16
 break 2 refers to the outer loop as seen from the nesting

continue

Opposite of break

bash 17
 shift

It keeps on shifting (read: delete/destroy) the arguments to the left

#!/bin/bash

echo "Number of args: ";

echo $#;
i=1;

while [ -n "$1" ]; do
echo "arg $i is $1";
shift;
(( i++ ));
done;

echo "Number of args now: ";

echo $#;

exec
exec ./my-executable --my-options --my-args

bash 18
 To replace shell with a new program or to change i/o settings

If new program is launched successfully, it will not return control back to the shell

If new program fails to launch, the shell continues

#!/bin/bash
echo "PID of shell running this command: $$";
echo "Leaving bash and opening xterm if available";
exec xterm;
echo "Looks like xterm is not available or failed to start";

eval
eval my-arg

Executes argument as a shell command

Combines arguments into a single string

Returns control to the shell with exit status

#!/bin/bash
cmd="date";
fmt="+%d-%B-%Y";
eval $cmd $fmt;

Functions in bash

#!/bin/bash

usage() {
echo "usage $1 str1 str2";
}

swap() {
echo "$2 $1";
}

if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
usage $0;
exit 1;
fi;

swap $1 $2;

getopts

bash 19
 #!/bin/bash
while getopts "ab:c:" options; do
case "${options}" in
b)
barg=${OPTARG};
echo "accepted: -b $barg";
;;
c)
carg=${OPTARG};
echo "accepted: -c $carg";
;;
a)
echo "accepted: -b";
;;
*)
echo "Usage: -a -b barg -c carg";
;;
esac;
done;

Usage

bash 20
 select loop

#!/bin/bash

echo "select a middle one";

select i in {1..10}; do
case $i in
1 | 2 | 3)
echo "you picked a small one";
;;
8 | 9 | 10)
echo "you picked a big one";
;;
4 | 5 | 6 | 7)
echo "you picked the right one";
break;
;;

bash 21
 esac;
done;

echo "selection completed with $i";

bash 22