In the earlier post, we learned the basics of shell scripting and wrote our first shell script.
In this post, let's start with variables in a shell script
What are variables?
Variables are the storage locations that have a name.
Consider variables as a name-value pair.
VARIABLE_NAME="Value"
Variables' names are case sensitive and the general convention is to have them in all uppercase.
Now, how can I use these variables in my script?
Variables can be used by preceding variable names with $
.
$<VARIABLE_NAME>
Let's look at an example:
#!/bin/bash
SHELL_NAME="bash"
echo "I am using $SHELL_NAME scripting!"
Output:
>./VariablesDemo.sh
I am using bash scripting!
We can also enclose the name in curly braces
${<VARIABLE_NAME>}
In that case, the above example will look like this:
#!/bin/bash
SHELL_NAME="bash"
echo "I am using ${SHELL_NAME} scripting!"
Output:
>./VariablesDemo.sh
I am using bash scripting!
Is curly braces mandatory?
No, but in some cases, you need to. Let me show you when
In case you want to concatenate the variable with another string you have to use curly braces.
Say you have to write "I am scripting on my machine" and you have a variable "$SCRIPT="script" in that case you will write:
echo "I am ${SCRIPT}ing on my machine"
If you write $SCRIPTing
, in that case, the whole string SCRIPTing
will become the name and since we do not have a variable with that name, nothing will be put in that place.
Assigning output of a command to a variable
To assign the output of a command to a variable, just use $(command)
:
#!/bin/bash
SHELL_NAME="bash"
USER_NAME=$(whoami)
echo "$USER_NAME is using ${SHELL_NAME} scripting!"
Output
> ./VariablesExample.sh
twinklekailashlahariya is using bash scripting!
Variable naming conventions
don'ts
- Don't start with a number
- Don't use special characters. Only
_
is allowed and can be at any location
otherwise, go crazy and name that variable of yours as you want.
Tests in a shell script
Scripts are made to replace the effort to sit and scribble a series of commands. What if we want to perform certain actions based on conditional scenarios? If we are typing in the commands manually, we might check the status of the previous command and write the next command accordingly, right?
In shell scripts, we can achieve the same with tests.
To test a condition, simply place the condition within square brackets.
Syntax = [condition-to-test]
If the test passes, the expression exits with exit status 0, i.e. true, else it returns 1, i.e. false.
Let's look at this with an example:
#!/bin/bash
FILENAME=/etc/myFile.txt
if [ -f "$FILENAME" ]
then echo "File exist"
else echo "File does not exist"
fi
Output:
> ./TestsExample.sh
File does not exist
Let's see what we have done here:
FILENAME=/etc/myFile.txt
: Defined a variable with a file path.
if [ -f "#FILENAME" ]
: An if condition that checks if the file exists at the given path.
[ -f "#FILENAME" ]
: Our test condition where -f
is a flag that returns true if file exists and is a regular file.
then echo "File exist"
: if the file exists, the control flow goes into this condition and prints "File exist" message.
else echo "File does not exist"
: otherwise the control falls into this block and prints "File does not exist" message.
Like -f
, we have more such test conditions, some of the popular ones are listed below:
-n STRING
the length of STRING is nonzero
-z STRING
the length of STRING is zero
STRING1 = STRING2
the strings are equal
STRING1 != STRING2
the strings are not equal
INTEGER1 -eq INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -ge INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is greater than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -gt INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is greater than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -le INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is less than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -lt INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is less than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -ne INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is not equal to INTEGER2
FILE1 -ef FILE2
FILE1 and FILE2 have the same device and inode numbers
FILE1 -nt FILE2
FILE1 is newer (modification date) than FILE2
FILE1 -ot FILE2
FILE1 is older than FILE2
-b FILE
FILE exists and is block special
-c FILE
FILE exists and is character special
-d FILE
FILE exists and is a directory
-e FILE
FILE exists
-g FILE
FILE exists and is set-group-ID
-G FILE
FILE exists and is owned by the effective group ID
-h FILE
FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -L)
-k FILE
FILE exists and has its sticky bit set
-L FILE
FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -h)
-O FILE
FILE exists and is owned by the effective user ID
-p FILE
FILE exists and is a named pipe
-r FILE
FILE exists and read permission is granted
-s FILE
FILE exists and has a size greater than zero
-S FILE
FILE exists and is a socket
-w FILE
FILE exists and write permission is granted
-x FILE
FILE exists and execute (or search) permission is granted
We will look into more examples of these flags in our next post when we look into conditions and loops.
Control program flow with if statement in shell scripting
Twinkle lahariya ・ Apr 9 '22
Until next time... Peace ✌️
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