SECTION 5

LOGIC

SECTION CHEAT SHEET

CHAINING COMMANDS WITH LIST OPERATORS

KEY DEFINITIONS

LIST LIST OPERATORS

When you put one or Types of control

more commands on a operators that enable
given line us to create lists of
commands that
operate in different
ways

LIST OPERATORS

Operator Example Meaning

Sends command1 into a subshell to

run “asynchronously” in the
& command1 & command2
background, and continues to process
command2 in the current shell.

Runs command1 and command2, i.e.

; command1 ; command2
one after the other. The shell will wait
for command1 to complete before
starting command2.

The “and” operator. The shell will only

run command2 if command1 is
&& command1 && command2
successful (i.e. returns an exit code of
0).

The “or” operator. The shell will only run

command2 if command1 is
|| command1 || command2
unsuccessful (i.e. returns a non-zero
exit code).
TEST COMMANDS + CONDITIONAL OPERATORS:

TEST COMMANDS
“a command that can be used in bash to compare
different pieces of information”

Syntax:
[ EXPRESSION ]

Operators to use:

OPERATOR EXAMPLE MEANING

-eq [ 2 -eq 2 ] Successful if the two numbers are equal

Successful if the two numbers are not

-ne [ 2 -ne 2 ]
equal

Successful if the two strings are equal

= [ $a = $b ]

Successful if the two strings are not

!= [ $a != $b ]
equal

Successful if a string is empty

-z [ -z $c ]

-n Successful if a string is not empty

[ -n $c ]

Successful if a file system entry

-e [ -e /path/to/file ]
/path/to/file exists

Successful if a file system entry

-f [ -f /path/to/file ]
/path/to/file exists and is a regular file

Successful if a file system entry

-d [ -d /path/to/file ]
/path/to/file exists and is a directory

Successful if a file system entry

-x [ -x /path/to/file ] /path/to/file exists and is executable
by the current user
IF STATEMENTS:

check the exit status

start and end using of a command and
the reserved words only runs the
“if” and “fi” command if a certain
condition is true

Syntax for if statements:

if test1 ; then
Commands... # only run if test1 passes
elif test2 ; then
Commands... # only run if test1 fails and test2 passes
elif testN ; then
Commands... # only run if all previous tests fail, but testN passes
else
Commands... # only run if all tests fail
fi

Example Script:
#!/bin/bash

read -p "Please enter a number" number

if [ $number -gt 0 ] ; then

echo "Your number is greater than 0"
elif [ $number -lt 0 ] ; then
echo "Your number is less than 0"
else
echo "Your number is 0!"
fi
IF STATEMENTS - COMBINING CONDITIONS:

It is possible to chain together multiple test commands

using list operators to create more powerful conditions.

Script: If file1.txt equals file2.txt AND file3.txt, then delete file2.txt and file3.txt

#!/bin/bash

a=$(cat file1.txt) # "a" equals contents of file1.txt

b=$(cat file2.txt) # "b" equals contents of file2.txt
c=$(cat file3.txt) # "c" equals contents of file3.txt

if [ "$a" = "$b" ] && [ "$a" = "$c" ] ; then

rm file2.txt file3.txt
else
echo "File1.txt did not match both files"
fi

Script: If file1.txt equals file2.txt OR file3.txt, then delete file2.txt and file3.txt

#!/bin/bash

a=$(cat file1.txt) # "a" equals contents of file1.txt

b=$(cat file2.txt) # "b" equals contents of file2.txt
c=$(cat file3.txt) # "c" equals contents of file3.txt

if [ "$a" = "$b" ] || [ "$a" = "$c" ]; then

rm file2.txt file3.txt
else
echo "File1.txt did not match either file"
fi
CASE STATEMENTS:

Case statements provide us with an elegant way to

implement branching logic, and are often more
convenient than creating multiple “elif” statements.

The tradeoff, however, is that case statements can only

work with 1 variable.

Case statements start and end using the reserved words

“case” and “esac”

Syntax for case statements:

case "$variable" in # don't forget the $ and the double quotes!
pattern1)
Commands ...
;;
pattern2)
Commands ...
;;
patternN)
Commands ...
;;
*)
Commands ... # run these if no other pattern matches
;;
esac
Example Script:
#!/bin/bash

read -p "Please enter a number: " number

case "$number" in
"") echo "You didn't enter anything!"
[0-9]) echo "you have entered a single digit number" ;;
[0-9][0-9]) echo "you have entered a two digit number" ;;
[0-9][0-9][0-9]) echo "you have entered a three digit number" ;;
*) echo "you have entered a number that is more than three digits" ;;
esac

KEY POINTS ON CASE STATEMENTS:

1
It’s very important to remember to use a $ in front of
the variable name otherwise the case statement won't
work, as it cannot access the variable’s value

2
Remember to wrap the expansion of the variable
name in double quotes to avoid word splitting issues

3
Patterns follow the same rules as globbing patterns.

4
Patterns are evaluated from top to bottom , and only
the commands associated with the first pattern that
matches will be run.

5
*) is used as a “default” case, and is used to hold
commands that should run if no other cases match.