PH434 Autumn 2022 – Class # 2

Working on a terminal
(Dated: 11 August 2022)

I. WORKING WITH BASH II – SCRIPTS

In the previous section, we learned how bash commmands can be used to execute
certain tasks via the terminal. An important point here is that each command was typed
in sequentially and executed from one to the next. However, it is also possible to bunch a
set of commands in a script (written in some text editor) and executing the script file on
the terminal.
In this section we look at some simple examples of bash scripts that can be run or
executed from the terminal. In the last notes, we created a file called “rhapsody.txt” in a
folder called “Newfolder”. For example:
username@comp:∼$ pwd
/home/username
username@comp:∼$ ls Newfolder/
rhapsody.txt
Suppose we want to now create a new folder called “Check” inside Newfolder/ and
copy the “rhapsody.txt” to the folder, and display its contents. Instead of writing all this
down as individual commands, we can write a script.
username@comp:∼$ cat > trial.sh
#! /bin/bash
mkdir Newfolder/Check
cp Newfolder/rhapsody.txt Newfolder/Check/
cd Newfolder/Check
cat rhapsody.txt (Ctrl+D) (green lines are input by the user)
Now we need to execute the script file “trial.sh”:
username@comp:∼$ chmod +x trial.sh (make the script file executable)
username@comp:∼$ ./trial.sh (execute the script)
Is this the real life?

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Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.
username@comp:∼$ ls Newfolder/Check/
rhapsody.txt

Let us create a script file called “out.sh” to understand variables:

#! /bin/bash
# Initializing a variable (anything after # is a comment)
vartext=”Physics” (no space between variable and assignment)
varnum=2022
echo ”This is the ” ${vartext} ”batch of” ${varnum}
username@comp:∼$ chmod +x out.sh
username@comp:∼$ ./out.sh
This is the Physics batch of 2022
Alternatively, one can have:
#! /bin/bash
# Initializing a variable (anything after # is a comment)
vartext=”Physics”
varnum=2022
greet=”This is the $vartext batch of $varnum”
echo $greet

Let us create another script file called “info.sh” that takes user input:
username@comp:∼$ cat > info.sh
#! /bin/bash
echo ”What is your name?”
read name
echo ”Which department are you in?”
read dept
echo ”***********************************”
echo ”Welcome to the $dept department, $name”

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username@comp:∼$ chmod +x info.sh
username@comp:∼$ ./info.sh
What is your name?
Saina
Which department are you in?
Physics
***********************************
Welcome to the Physics department, Saina

Let us create a script file called “mult.sh” to multiply two numbers:

username@comp:∼$ cat > mult.sh

#! /bin/bash
num0=2
num1=3
prod=$((num0 * num1))
echo ”Multiplying $num0 with $num1 is equal to $prod”
username@comp:∼$ chmod +x mult.sh
username@comp:∼$ ./mult.sh
Multiplying 2 with 3 is equal to 6

Let us create a script file called “file.sh” to copy data into a file:
username@comp:∼$ cat > file.sh
#! /bin/bash
name=”Uma”
add=”SH 34”
data = ”$name, $add”
echo $data >> file.txt
username@comp:∼$ chmod +x file.sh
username@comp:∼$ ./file.sh
username@comp:∼$ cat file.txt
Uma, SH 34

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II. WRITING SIMPLE PYTHON SCRIPTS

Similar to bash scripts, we can now write simple python scripts and execute them
on the terminal. Let us consider a code to add two numbers using Python (note other
alternatives include using IPython or notebook)

Let us create a python script file called “add.py” to add two numbers:
username@comp:∼$ cat > add.py (create a python file)
a=2
b=3
print (a+b) (# Ctrl + D to save the file)
username@comp:∼$ python3 add.py (command to execute the python file)
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With user input we have:
username@comp:∼$ cat > add.py
a = input(”enter a number:\n”) (# by default all inputs are string)
b=3
a = int(a) (# convert string to integer)
print (a+b)
username@comp:∼$ python3 add.py
enter a number:
57 (User input)
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Creating a simple text file:
username@comp:∼$ cat > text.py
a = ”Thierry”
b = ”Henry”
data = str(a + ” ”+ b )
file = open(”pytext.txt”,”a”) (# option ”a” is for append, ”w” write or overwrite)
file.write(data+ ”\n”)
file.close()
username@comp:∼$ python3 text.py

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username@comp:∼$ cat pytext.txt
Thierry Henry
username@comp:∼$ python3 text.py (# If you run it again, it appends the text)
username@comp:∼$ cat pytext.txt
Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry

III. EDITING A SCRIPT – WORKING WITH VIM, NANO AND GEDIT

An important aspect of working with bash and python scripts is editing. Once you
have created a file using the touch or cat command (and added some text), you can edit
the text using one of the above text editors.

• vim – vim is a screen based text editor and is designed for use as both a command
line interface, as well as a standalone application in a GUI. It is one of the most
popular text editors among programmers.

Creating a file on vim:

username@comp:∼$ vim trial.txt

will create a file called ‘trial.txt’ and open the vim interface (see the figure below).

FIG. 1. A snapshot of the vim interface showing a new unsaved file.

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The file can be closed with saving by pressing Esc, followed by q (which implies
quit). The interface closes without saving the file ‘trial.txt.’

One can also open an existing file, say ‘rhapsody.txt’, using the command:

username@comp:∼$ vim Dropbox/Trial/rhapsody.txt

which opens the following interface.

FIG. 2. A snapshot of the vim interface showing an existing text file.

To edit the text, press i (which takes you to insert mode), and move the cursor to edit
the relevant parts of the text. Once it is done, press Esc, followed by wq (implies
write and quit) to save the changes. The above command will also save a new file.
If you want to quit without saving the changes, press Esc, followed by q! (force
quit).

Note that Esc key takes you from insert mode to the normal mode and you will see
a colon (‘ : ’, call it prompt) at the bottom line before you type wq or q!.

Now pressing Esc, followed by 3 at prompt, takes you to line 3. Pressing $ takes
you to the last line. In the normal mode, simply pressing $ takes you to the end of
a line, and pressing 0 to the beginning of a line.

In fact, you can set the line number by pressing Esc, followed by set number. See
Figure 3.

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 FIG. 3. A snapshot of the vim interface showing line numbers on a text file.

You can also delete, undo, copy, paste and perform other interesting things while
editing a file on Vim. See the following webpage [1].

• nano – GNU nano is another text editor for Unix-like operating systems that uses a
command line interface.

Creating a file in nano:

username@comp:∼$ nano trial.txt

will create a file called ‘trial.txt’ and open the nano interface (see Fig. 4). Pressing
Ctrl + O, gives you the option to save the file with the above (or different) filename.
Most editing options are given in the bottom menu of the interface.

Similar to vim, one can open an existing file and edit it using nano.

username@comp:∼$ nano Dropbox/Trial/rhapsody.txt

This opens the interface below:

The bottom menu shows that Ctrl + X is to exit nano, Ctrl + K is to cut text, and Ctrl
+ U is to paste text. Other options include Alt + U for undo and Alt + E for redo.

Nano is a much simpler and user-friendly interface with no modes as in vim, and is
more of a WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) text editor. This allows users
to directly interact with the text much more easily.

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 FIG. 4. A snapshot of the nano interface along with editing menu at bottom.

FIG. 5. A snapshot of the nano interface opening an existing file.

To learn more about nano, see the webpage [2].

• gedit – (From Wikipedia) gedit is the default text editor of the GNOME desktop
environment and part of the GNOME Core Applications. Designed as a general-
purpose text editor, gedit emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, with a clean and

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 simple GUI, according to the philosophy of the GNOME project. It includes tools
for editing source code and structured text such as markup languages. The text
editor works very close to a basic word processor.

FIG. 6. A snapshot of the gedit interface opening an existing file.

So one can simply open gedit, from the terminal or by clicking a text file in file
manager, and directly edit the file (similar to how one would use Word).

IV. TASKS FOR THE DAY

1. Work out the commands and scripts in bash and script discussed in the notes till
you are comfortable with each one. Try not to go online and hunt for more compli-
cated commands. Assume these are the only syntax available to you.

2. Write a code in bash script and python that takes two values from the user say x
and y and solves the equation: f (x, y) = x2 + 5y. Save the output in a text file in the
form {“x = ”, x, “y = ”, y, “f (x, y) = ”, f (x, y)} for about 10 values of x and y.

3. Write a code in bash script and python that creates a file to input the names of people
and their birthdays (in ddmmyyyy format) and save it in a text file. Run the code 10

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 times such that the names and birthday of 10 of your friends is saved in the folder.

3. This is for those who are up for a more challenging task. There is gameshow called
Khulja Sim Sim with three doors, one of which contains a brand new car and the
other two doors have hay. It is unknown to the player what is behind any particular
door. The player has to choose a door. Depending on your choice, the host opens
a different door which is empty (leaving only two doors closed). He now asks you
whether you want to stick to your original choice, or do you want to change to the
other. Using python to simulate the game, try to show what is probabilistically the
best option for the player to win the car – should they stay with their original choice
or change to the other door?

The commands below create random integers between 0 and 2 (for the three doors).

import random
num = random.randint(0,2)

[1] Please see the link for more details on vim.

[2] Please see the link for more details on nano.

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