Variables

Variables are "words" that hold a value. The shell enables you to create, assign, and
delete variables.

Syntax: name=value

$ FRUIT=peach

defines the variable FRUIT and assigns it the value peach. Variables of this type are
called scalar variables.

Variable Names

The name of a variable can contain only letters ( a to z or A to Z), numbers ( 0 to 9) or the
underscore character ( _). In addition, a variable's name can start only with a letter or an
underscore.

Values

$ FRUIT=peach
$ FRUIT=2apples
$ FRUIT=apple+pear+kiwi

$ FRUIT=apple orange plum is WRONG

$ FRUIT="apple orange plum"

$ FRUIT='apple orange plum'

Accessing Values

To access the value stored in a variable, prefix its name with the dollar sign ( $). For
example, the command
$ echo $FRUIT
Peach

Array Variables

The Bourne shell, sh, supports only scalar variables, which are the type of variables you
have seen so far. The Korn shell, ksh, extends this to include array variables.

The simplest method of creating an array variable is to assign a value to one of its
indices. This is expressed as follows:
Syntax: name[index]=value

Here name is the name of the array, index is the index of the item in the array that you
want to set, and value is the value you want to set for that item.
As an example, the following commands

$ FRUIT[0]=apple
$ FRUIT[1]=banana
$ FRUIT[2]=orange

We set the array indices in sequence, but this is not necessary. For example, if you issue
the command

$ FRUIT[10]=plum

the value of the item at index 10 in the array FRUIT is set to plum. One thing to note here
is that the shell does not create a bunch of blank array items to fill the space between
index 2 and index 10. Instead, it keeps track of only those array indices that contain
values.

Caution - In ksh, numerical indices for arrays must be between 0 and 1,023

The second form of array initialization is used to set multiple elements at once. In ksh,
this is done as
follows:

Syntax: set -A name value1 value2 ... valuen

$ set -A fruit peach apple orange guava

or

$ fruit=(peach apple orange guava)

Accessing Array Values

Syntax: ${name[index]}

$ echo ${FRUIT[2]}

For all

${name[*]}
${name[@]}
$ echo ${FRUIT[*]}

produces the following output:

apple banana orange

If any of the array items hold values with spaces, this form of array access will not work
and will need to use the second form. The second form quotes all the array entries so that
embedded spaces are preserved.
For example, define the following array item:

$ FRUIT[3]="passion fruit"

Assuming that FRUIT is defined as given previously, accessing the entire array using the
following
Command $ echo ${FRUIT[*]}

results in five items, not four:

apple banana orange passion fruit

Commands accessing FRUIT using this form of array access get five values, with passion
and fruit treated as separate items.

To get only four items, you have to use the following form:

$ echo ${FRUIT[@]}

The output from this command looks similar to the previous commands:
apple banana orange passion fruit

but the commands see only four items because the shell quotes the last item as passion
fruit.

Read-only Variables

The shell provides a way to mark variables as read-only by using the read only command.
After a variable is marked read-only, its value cannot be changed.

Consider the following commands:

$ FRUIT=kiwi
$ readonly FRUIT
$ echo $FRUIT
kiwi
$ FRUIT=cantaloupe
The last command results in an error message:

Unsetting Variables

Unsetting a variable tells the shell to remove the variable from the list of variables that it
tracks.
This is like asking the shell to forget a piece of information because it is no longer
required.

Both scalar and array variables are unset using the unset command:

Syntax: $ unset name

Here name is the name of the variable to unset. For example,

$ unset FRUIT
unsets the variable FRUIT.

You cannot use the unset command to unset variables that are marked readonly.

Filename substitution (called globbing)

Filename substitution is the process by which the shell expands a string containing
wildcards into a list of filenames.

* Matches zero or more occurrences of any character

? Matches one occurrence of any character
[characters] Matches one occurrence of any of the given characters

$ ls *

lists every file and the contents of every directory in the current directory. If there are any
invisible files or directories, they are not listed.

$ ls ch1*

matches all the files and directories in the current directory that start with the letters ch1.

$ ls *.doc

matches all the files and directories in the current directory that end with .doc
Matching Suffixes and Prefixes

You can match both the suffix and the prefix of files using the * character as follows:

Synatx: command prefix*suffix

Here, command is the name of a command, such as ls, prefix is the filename prefix, and
suffix is the filename suffix you want to match. For example, the command

$ ls Backup*.doc

matches all the files in the current directory that start with the letters Backup and end with
.doc

$ ls C*st*j

matches all the files in the current directory that start with the letter C and end with j
containing characters st.

Using the ? Wildcard

$ ls ch0?.doc

list all files that have names of the form ch0X.doc, where X is a single number or letter.

Matching Sets of Characters

Two potential problems with the ? and * wildcards are

 They match any character, including special characters such as hyphens ( -) or
underlines ( _).
 You have no way to indicate that you want to match only letters or only numbers
to these operators.
Sometimes you need more control over the exact characters that you match. Consider the
situation where you want to match filenames of the form ch0X, where X is a number
between 0 and 9. Neither the * or the ? operator is cut out for this job.

Fortunately, the shell provides you with the capability to match sets of characters

Syntax: command [characters]

Here command is the name of a command, such as ls, and characters represents the
characters you want to match. For example, the following command fulfills the previous
requirements:
$ ls ch0[0123456789].doc
$ ls ch0[0-9].doc

Try

$ ls [a-z]*
$ ls [a-zA-Z]*
$ ls *[a-zA-Z0-9]
$ ls a[bs]*
$ ls a?c

Negating a Set

Consider a situation where you need a list of all files except those that contain the letter a.
You have two approaches to solving this problem:

1. Specify all the characters you want a filename to contain.

2. Specify that the filename should not include the letter a.

If you choose the first approach, you need to construct a set of all the characters that your
filename can contain. You can start with: [b-zA-Z0-9]. This set does not include the
special characters that are allowed in filenames. Attempting to include all these characters
creates a huge set that requires complicated quoting. An approximation of this set is [b-
zA-Z0-9\-_\+\=\\\'\"\{\[\}\]
Compared to this, the second approach is much better because you only need to specify
the list of characters that you don't want.

The [ wildcard provides you the capability to match all characters except those that are
specified as the set. This is called negating the set, which you can accomplish by
specifying the ! operator as the first character in a set.

Syntax: command [!characters]

Here, command is the name of a command, such as ls, and characters is the set of
characters that you do not want to be matched. For example, to list all files except those
that start with the letter a, you can use the command

$ ls [!a]*
Reading a value

Syntax: read <variable>

$ echo “Enter your first name”

$ read name
$ echo “Hi $name”

$echo “Enter two numbers”

$ read a b
$echo $a $b

Special Characters used by shell

$ substitute the value of a variable

\ removes special meaning of the character that immediately follows
` execute the command contained
& execute the command as background process

C –like escape conventions

\c print line without newline

\n new line
\t tab
\v vertical tab

Using expr

The expr command is used to evaluate an arithmetic expression.

Syntax: expr arguments

$ a=`expr 5+7`
$b=`expr $a+8`
Echo $b
Flow Control

 The if statement
 The case statement

The basic if statement syntax follows:

if list1
then
list2
elif list3
then
list4
else
list5
fi

Both the elif and the else statements are optional. An if statement can be written with any
number of elif statements.

The flow control for the general if statement follows:

1. list1 is evaluated.
2. If the exit code of list1 is 0, indicating a true condition, list2 is evaluated and the if
statement exits.
3. Otherwise, list3 is executed and its exit code is checked.
4. If list3 returns 0, list4 executes and the if statement exits.
5. If list3 does not return 0, list5 executes.

Because the shell considers an if statement to be a list, you can write it all in one line as
follows:

if list1 ; then list2 ; elif list3 ; then list4 ; else list5 ; fi ;

Usually this form is used only for short if statements.

Compare String variables

= to check if the values are equal

!= to check if the values are not equal
-z tests to see if the string is null
-n tests to see if the string is not null

if [ $FRUIT = apple ]
then
echo "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
else
echo "You must like doctors, your fruit $FRUIT is not an apple."
fi

capital= Delhi
echo “The capital of India is: \c”
read cap

if [ -z $cap ]
then
echo ”string cannot be blank”
elif [ $cap != $capital ]
then
echo “You have made a mistake”
fi

Numeric Tests

-eq numbers are equal

-ne numbers are not equal
-lt the first number is less than the second
-le the first number is less than or equal to the second
-gt the first number is greater than the second
-ge the first number is greater than or equal to the second

echo “Enter your weight: \c”

read wt

if [ $wt –lt 50]

then
echo “Sorry you don’t qualify”;
else
banner Welcome
fi

Using AND/OR/NOT
! binary not operator ! expr
-a binary and operator expr1 –a expr2
-o binary or operator expr1 -o expr2

Using Test

The test command is used to check for conditions other than the success or failure of an
operation. The command succeeds or fails, based on whether the condition is true or
false.

Testing files

Syntax: test [option] filename

-b True if file exists and is a block special file.

-c True if file exists and is a character special file.
-d True if file exists and is a directory.
-e True if file exists.
-f True if file exists and is a regular file.
-g True if file exists and has its SGID bit set.
-h True if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-k True if file exists and has its "sticky" bit set.
-p True if file exists and is a named pipe.
-r True if file exists and is readable.
-s True if file exists and has a size greater than zero.
-u True if file exists and has its SUID bit set.
-w True if file exists and is writable.
-x True if file exists and is executable.
-O True if file exists and is owned by the effective user ID.

if test -d $1
then
echo "$1 is a directory"
else
if [ -f $1 ]
then
more $1
fi
fi

To check whether a file does not meet a specified condition, use ! as not.
if [ ! –r $1]
then
echo “File cannot be read”
fi

Case Construct

case word in
pattern1)
list1
;;
pattern2)
list2
;;
esac

Here the string word is compared against every pattern until a match is found. The list
following the matching pattern executes. If no matches are found, the case statement
exits without performing any action. There is no maximum number of patterns, but the
minimum is one.

When a list executes, the command ;; indicates that program flow should jump to the end
of the entire case statement. This is similar to break in the C programming language.

case word in
pattern1) list1 ;;
pattern2) list2 ;;
esac

This form should be used only if the list of commands to be executed is short.

FRUIT=kiwi
case $FRUIT in
apple) echo "Apple pie is quite tasty." ;;
banana) echo "I like banana nut bread." ;;
kiwi) echo "New Zealand is famous for kiwi." ;;
esac

The execution of the case statement is as follows:

1. The string contained in the variable FRUIT is expanded to kiwi.
2. The string kiwi is compared against the first pattern, apple. Because they don't match,
you go to the next pattern.
3. The string kiwi is compared against the next pattern, banana. Because they don't
match, you go to the next pattern.
4. The string kiwi is compared against the final pattern, kiwi. Because they match, the
following message is produced: New Zealand is famous for kiwi.

Using Patterns
In the previous example, you used fixed strings as the pattern. If used in this fashion the
case statement degenerates into an if statement. For example, the if statement

if [ "$FRUIT" = apple ] ; then

echo "Apple pie is quite tasty."
elif [ "$FRUIT" = banana ] ; then
echo "I like banana nut bread."
elif [ "$FRUIT" = kiwi ] ; then
echo "New Zealand is famous for kiwi."
Fi

is more verbose, but the real power of the case statement does not lie in simplifying if
statements. The power lies in the fact that it uses patterns to perform matching.
A pattern is a string that consists of regular characters and special wildcard characters.
The pattern determines whether a match is present.

FRUIT=kiwi
case $FRUIT in
apple) echo "Apple pie is quite tasty." ;;
banana) echo "I like banana nut bread." ;;
kiwi) echo "New Zealand is famous for kiwi." ;;
*) echo “no comments”;;
Esac

var=$1
case $var in
[0-9] | [a-z]*) echo "valid";;
*) echo "invalid"
esac
LOOPING

 The while loop

 The until loop
 The for Loop

The while loop enables you to execute a set of commands repeatedly until some
condition occurs. It is usually used when you need to manipulate the value of a variable
repeatedly.

The for loop enables you to execute a set of commands repeatedly for each item in a list.
One of its most common uses is in performing the same set of commands for a large
number of files.

Syntax:
while command
do
list
done

Here command is a single command to execute, whereas list is a set of one or more
commands to execute. Although command can be any valid UNIX command, it is usually
a test expression

The execution of a while loop proceeds according to the following steps:

1. Execute command.
2. If the exit status of command is nonzero, exit from the while loop.
3. If the exit status of command is zero, execute list.
4. When list finishes executing, return to Step 1.

If both command and list are short, the while loop is written in a single line as follows:

Syntax: while command ; do list ; done

i=1
while [ $i -le 10 ]
do
echo $i
i=` expr $i + 1 `
done

Nesting while Loops

It is possible to use a while loop as part of the body of another while loop as follows:

while command1 ; # this is loop1, the outer loop

do
list1
while command2 ; # this is loop2, the inner loop
do
list2
done
list3
done

There are no restrictions on how deeply nested loops can be, but you should try to avoid
nesting loops more deeply than four or five levels to avoid difficulties in finding and
fixing problems in your script.

i=1
while [ $i -le 10 ]
do
y=$i
while [ $y -ge 0 ]
do
echo "$y \c"
y=` expr $y - 1 `
done
echo
i=` expr $i + 1 `
done

The while loop is perfect for a situation where you need to execute a set of commands
while some
condition is true. Sometimes you need to execute a set of commands until a condition is
true.
The until operator executes the commands within the loop as long as the test condition is
false.

until command
do
list
done

Here command is a single command to execute, whereas list is a set of one or more
commands to execute. Although command can be any valid UNIX command, it is usually
a test expression.

If both command and list are short, the until loop can be written on a single line as
follows:

until command ; do list ; done

In most cases the until loop is identical to a while loop with list1 negated using the !
operator. For example, the following while loop

i=1
while [ ! $i -le 10 ]
do
echo $i
i=` expr $i + 1 `
done

is equivalent to the following until loop:

i=1;
until [ $i -ge 10 ]
do
echo $i
i=` expr $i + 1 `
done
The for Loop

The basic syntax is

for name in word1 word2 ... wordN

do
list
done

Here name is the name of a variable and word1 to wordN are sequences of characters
separated by spaces (words). Each time the for loop executes, the value of the variable
name is set to the next word in the list of words, word1 to wordN. The first time, name is
set to word1; the second time, it's set to word2; and so on.
This means that the number of times a for loop executes depends on the number of words
that are specified.

You can also write the entire loop on a single line as follows:

for name in word1 word2 ... wordN ; do list ; done

If list and the number of words are short, the single line form is often chosen; otherwise,
the multiple-line form is preferred.

A simple for loop example is

for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
do
echo $i
done

Note that although the output is identical to the while loop, the for loop does something
altogether different. In each iteration, $i is set to the next item in the list. When the list is
finished, the loop exits.

If you change the list slightly, notice how the output changes:

for i in 0 1 2 4 3 5 8 7 9
do
echo $i
done

take the value from shell script arguments

for i in $*

do
cat $i
done

The basic syntax of the select loop is

select name in word1 word2 ... wordN

do
list
done

Here name is the name of a variable and word1 to wordN are sequences of characters
separated by spaces (words). The set of commands to execute after the user has made a
selection is specified by list.
The execution process for a select loop is as follows:

1. Each item in list1 is displayed along with a number.

2. A prompt, usually #?, is displayed.
3. When the user enters a value, $REPLY is set to that value.
4. If $REPLY contains a number of a displayed item, the variable specified by name is set
to the itemin list1 that was selected. Otherwise, the items in list1 are displayed again.
5. When a valid selection is made, list2 executes.
6. If list2 does not exit from the select loop using one of the loop control mechanisms
such as break, the process starts over at step 1. If the user enters more than one valid
value, $REPLY contains all the user's choices. In this case, the variable specified by
name is not set.

An Example of the select Loop

echo “Enter Two Numbers”

read a b

select option in add subtract multiply divide quit

do
case $option in
add) result=’ expr $a+$b’ ;;
subtract) result=’ expr $a-$b’;;
multiply) result=’ expr $a\*$b’;;
divide) result=’ expr $a/$b’;;
quit) break;;
*) echo "ERROR: Invalid selection;;
esac
done

The menu presented by the select loop looks like the following:
1) add
2) subtract
3) multiply
4) divide
5) quit
#?

Loop Control

The break statement:

The break statement is used to terminate the execution of the entire loop, after
completing the execution of all of the lines of code up to the break statement. It then steps
down to the code following the end of the loop

a=0

while [ $a -lt 10 ]
do
echo $a
if [ $a -eq 5 ]
then
break
fi
a=`expr $a + 1`
done

This will produce following result:

0
1
2
3
4
5

The continue statement:

The continue statement is similar to the break command, except that it causes the current
iteration of the loop to exit, rather than the entire loop.

The following loop makes use of continue statement which returns from the continue
statement and start processing next statement:
for NUM in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
do
Q=`expr $NUM % 2`
if [ $Q -eq 0 ]
then
echo "Number is an even number!!"
continue
fi
echo "Found odd number"
done

This will produce following result:

Found odd number

Number is an even number!!
Found odd number
Number is an even number!!
Found odd number
Number is an even number!!
Found odd number