Introduction

Making decision is important part in ONCE life as well as in computers logical

driven program. In fact
logic is not LOGIC until you use decision making. This chapter introduces to the
bash's structured
language constructs such as:
Decision making
Loops
Is there any difference making decision in Real life and with Computers? Well real
life decision are quite
complicated to all of us and computers even don't have that much power to
understand our real life
decisions. What computer know is 0 (zero) and 1 that is Yes or No. To make this
idea clear, lets play
some game (WOW!) with bc - Linux calculator program.
$ bc
After this command bc is started and waiting for your commands, i.e. give it some
calculation as follows
type 5 + 2 as:
5 + 2
7
7 is response of bc i.e. addition of 5 + 2 you can even try
5 - 2
5 / 2
See what happened if you type 5 > 2 as follows
5 > 2
1
1 (One?) is response of bc, How? bc compare 5 with 2 as, Is 5 is greater then 2,
(If I ask same question to
you, your answer will be YES), bc gives this 'YES' answer by showing 1 value. Now
try
5 < 2
0
0 (Zero) indicates the false i.e. Is 5 is less than 2?, Your answer will be no
which is indicated by bc by
showing 0 (Zero). Remember in bc, relational expression always returns true (1) or
false (0 - zero).
Try following in bc to clear your Idea and not down bc's response
5 > 12
5 == 10
5 != 2
5 == 5
12 < 2
Expression Meaning to us Your Answer BC's Response
5 > 12 Is 5 greater than 12 NO 0
5 == 10 Is 5 is equal to 10 NO 0
5 != 2 Is 5 is NOT equal to 2 YES 1
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5 == 5 Is 5 is equal to 5 YES 1
1 < 2 Is 1 is less than 2 Yes 1
It means when ever there is any type of comparison in Linux Shell It gives only two
answer one is YES
and NO is other.
In Linux Shell Value Meaning Example
Zero Value (0) Yes/True 0
NON-ZERO Value No/False
-1, 32, 55 anything but
not zero
Remember both bc and Linux Shell uses different ways to show True/False values
Value Shown in bc as Shown in Linux Shell as
True/Yes 1 0
False/No 0 Non - zero value
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Linux Command(s) Related with Process Up if condition
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if condition
if condition which is used for decision making in shell script, If given condition
is true then command1 is
executed.
Syntax:
Condition is defined as:
"Condition is nothing but comparison between two values."
For compression you can use test or [ expr ] statements or even exist status can be
also used.
Expreession is defined as:
"An expression is nothing but combination of values, relational operator (such as
>,<, <> etc) and
mathematical operators (such as +, -, / etc )."
Following are all examples of expression:
5 > 2
3 + 6
3 * 65
a < b
c > 5
c > 5 + 30 -1
Type following commands (assumes you have file called foo)
$ cat foo
$ echo $?
The cat command return zero(0) i.e. exit status, on successful, this can be used,
in if condition as follows,
Write shell script as
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Run above script as:
$ chmod 755 showfile
$./showfile foo
Shell script name is showfile ($0) and foo is argument (which is $1).Then shell
compare it as follows:
if cat $1 which is expanded to if cat foo.
Detailed explanation
if cat command finds foo file and if its successfully shown on screen, it means our
cat command is
successful and its exist status is 0 (indicates success), So our if condition is
also true and hence statement
echo -e "\n\nFile $1, found and successfully echoed" is proceed by shell. Now if
cat command is not
successful then it returns non-zero value (indicates some sort of failure) and this
statement echo -e
"\n\nFile $1, found and successfully echoed" is skipped by our shell.
Exercise
Write shell script as follows:
Press Ctrl + d to save
$ chmod 755 trmif
Answer the following question in referance to above script:
(A) foo file exists on your disk and you give command, $ ./trmfi foo what will be
output?
(B) If bar file not present on your disk and you give command, $ ./trmfi bar what
will be output?
(C) And if you type $ ./trmfi What will be output?
For Answer click here.
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Shells (bash) structured Language
Constructs
Up test command or [ expr ]
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test command or [ expr ]
test command or [ expr ] is used to see if an expression is true, and if it is true
it return zero(0), otherwise
returns nonzero for false.
Syntax:
test expression OR [ expression ]
Example:
Following script determine whether given argument number is positive.
Run it as follows
$ chmod 755 ispostive
$ ispostive 5
5 number is positive
$ispostive -45
Nothing is printed
$ispostive
./ispostive: test: -gt: unary operator expected
Detailed explanation
The line, if test $1 -gt 0 , test to see if first command line argument($1) is
greater than 0. If it is true(0)
then test will return 0 and output will printed as 5 number is positive but for -45
argument there is no
output because our condition is not true(0) (no -45 is not greater than 0) hence
echo statement is skipped.
And for last statement we have not supplied any argument hence error ./ispostive:
test: -gt: unary
operator expected, is generated by shell , to avoid such error we can test whether
command line argument
is supplied or not.
test or [ expr ] works with
1.Integer ( Number without decimal point)
2.File types
3.Character strings
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For Mathematics, use following operator in Shell Script
Mathematical
Operator in Shell
Script
Meaning
Normal Arithmetical/
Mathematical
Statements
But in Shell
For test
statement with
if command
For [ expr ]
statement with
if command
-eq is equal to 5 == 6 if test 5 -eq 6 if [ 5 -eq 6 ]
-ne is not equal to 5 != 6 if test 5 -ne 6 if [ 5 -ne 6 ]
-lt is less than 5 < 6 if test 5 -lt 6 if [ 5 -lt 6 ]
-le
is less than or
equal to
5 <= 6 if test 5 -le 6 if [ 5 -le 6 ]
-gt is greater than 5 > 6 if test 5 -gt 6 if [ 5 -gt 6 ]
-ge
is greater than
or equal to
5 >= 6 if test 5 -ge 6 if [ 5 -ge 6 ]
NOTE: == is equal, != is not equal.
For string Comparisons use
Operator Meaning
string1 = string2 string1 is equal to string2
string1 != string2 string1 is NOT equal to string2
string1 string1 is NOT NULL or not defined
-n string1 string1 is NOT NULL and does exist
-z string1 string1 is NULL and does exist
Shell also test for file and directory types
Test Meaning
-s file Non empty file
-f file Is File exist or normal file and not a directory
-d dir Is Directory exist and not a file
-w file Is writeable file
-r file Is read-only file
-x file Is file is executable
Logical Operators
Logical operators are used to combine two or more condition at a time
Operator Meaning
! expression Logical NOT
expression1 -a expression2 Logical AND
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expression1 -o expression2 Logical OR
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Decision making in shell script ( i.e. if
command)
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if...else...fi
If given condition is true then command1 is executed otherwise command2 is
executed.
Syntax:
For e.g. Write Script as follows:
Try it as follows:
$ chmod 755 isnump_n
$ isnump_n 5
5 number is positive
$ isnump_n -45
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-45 number is negative
$ isnump_n
./ispos_n : You must give/supply one integers
$ isnump_n 0
0 number is negative
Detailed explanation
First script checks whether command line argument is given or not, if not given
then it print error
message as "./ispos_n : You must give/supply one integers". if statement checks
whether number of
argument ($#) passed to script is not equal (-eq) to 0, if we passed any argument
to script then this if
statement is false and if no command line argument is given then this if statement
is true. The echo
command i.e.
echo "$0 : You must give/supply one integers"
| |
| |
1 2
1 will print Name of script
2 will print this error message
And finally statement exit 1 causes normal program termination with exit status 1
(nonzero means script
is not successfully run).
The last sample run $ isnump_n 0 , gives output as "0 number is negative", because
given argument is
not > 0, hence condition is false and it's taken as negative number. To avoid this
replace second if
statement with if test $1 -ge 0.
Nested if-else-fi
You can write the entire if-else construct within either the body of the if
statement of the body of an else
statement. This is called the nesting of ifs.
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Run the above shell script as follows:
$ chmod +x nestedif.sh
$ ./nestedif.sh
1. Unix (Sun Os)
2. Linux (Red Hat)
Select you os choice [1 or 2]? 1
You Pick up Unix (Sun Os)
$ ./nestedif.sh
1. Unix (Sun Os)
2. Linux (Red Hat)
Select you os choice [1 or 2]? 2
You Pick up Linux (Red Hat)
$ ./nestedif.sh
1. Unix (Sun Os)
2. Linux (Red Hat)
Select you os choice [1 or 2]? 3
What you don't like Unix/Linux OS.
Note that Second if-else constuct is nested in the first else statement. If the
condition in the first if
statement is false the the condition in the second if statement is checked. If it
is false as well the final else
statement is executed.
You can use the nested ifs as follows also:
Syntax:
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Multilevel if-then-else
Syntax:
For multilevel if-then-else statement try the following script:
Try above script as follows:
$ chmod 755 elf
$ ./elf 1
$ ./elf -2
$ ./elf 0
$ ./elf a
Here o/p for last sample run:
./elf: [: -gt: unary operator expected
./elf: [: -lt: unary operator expected
./elf: [: -eq: unary operator expected
Opps! a is not number, give number
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Above program gives error for last run, here integer comparison is expected
therefore error like "./elf: [: -gt: unary operator
expected" occurs, but still our program notify this error to user by providing
message "Opps! a is not number, give number".
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Loops in Shell Scripts
Loop defined as:
"Computer can repeat particular instruction again and again, until particular
condition satisfies. A
group of instruction that is executed repeatedly is called a loop."
Bash supports:
for loop
while loop
Note that in each and every loop,
(a) First, the variable used in loop condition must be initialized, then execution
of the loop begins.
(b) A test (condition) is made at the beginning of each iteration.
(c) The body of loop ends with a statement that modifies the value of the test
(condition) variable.
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for Loop
Syntax:
Before try to understand above syntax try the following script:
Run it above script as follows:
$ chmod +x testfor
$ ./testfor
The for loop first creates i variable and assigned a number to i from the list of
number from 1 to 5, The shell execute
echo statement for each assignment of i. (This is usually know as iteration) This
process will continue until all the items
in the list were not finished, because of this it will repeat 5 echo statements. To
make you idea more clear try following
script:
Save above script and run it as:
$ chmod 755 mtable
$ ./mtable 7
$ ./mtable
For first run, above script print multiplication table of given number where i =
1,2 ... 10 is multiply by given n (here
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command line argument 7) in order to produce multiplication table as
7 * 1 = 7
7 * 2 = 14
...
..
7 * 10 = 70
And for second test run, it will print message -
Error - Number missing form command line argument
Syntax : ./mtable number
Use to print multiplication table for given number
This happened because we have not supplied given number for which we want
multiplication table, Hence script is
showing Error message, Syntax and usage of our script. This is good idea if our
program takes some argument, let the
user know what is use of the script and how to used the script.
Note that to terminate our script we used 'exit 1' command which takes 1 as
argument (1 indicates error and therefore
script is terminated)
Even you can use following syntax:
Syntax:
In above syntax BEFORE the first iteration, expr1 is evaluated. This is usually
used to initialize variables for the loop.
All the statements between do and done is executed repeatedly UNTIL the value of
expr2 is TRUE.
AFTER each iteration of the loop, expr3 is evaluated. This is usually use to
increment a loop counter.
$ cat > for2
for (( i = 0 ; i <= 5; i++ ))
do
echo "Welcome $i times"
done
Run the above script as follows:
$ chmod +x for2
$ ./for2
Welcome 0 times
Welcome 1 times
Welcome 2 times
Welcome 3 times
Welcome 4 times
Welcome 5 times
In above example, first expression (i = 0), is used to set the value variable i to
zero.
Second expression is condition i.e. all statements between do and done executed as
long as expression 2 (i.e continue as
long as the value of variable i is less than or equel to 5) is TRUE.
Last expression i++ increments the value of i by 1 i.e. it's equivalent to i = i +
1 statement.
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Nesting of for Loop
As you see the if statement can nested, similarly loop statement can be nested. You
can nest the for loop. To understand
the nesting of for loop see the following shell script.
Run the above script as follows:
$ chmod +x nestedfor.sh
$ ./nestefor.sh
1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4
5 5 5 5 5
Here, for each value of i the inner loop is cycled through 5 times, with the
varible j taking values from 1 to 5. The inner
for loop terminates when the value of j exceeds 5, and the outer loop terminets
when the value of i exceeds 5.
Following script is quite intresting, it prints the chess board on screen.
Run the above script as follows:
$ chmod +x chessboard
$ ./chessboard
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On my terminal above script produec the output as follows:
Above shell script cab be explained as follows:
Command(s)/Statements Explanation
for (( i = 1; i <= 9; i++ ))
do
Begin the outer loop which runs 9 times., and the outer
loop terminets when the value of i exceeds 9
for (( j = 1 ; j <= 9; j++ ))
do
Begins the inner loop, for each value of i the inner loop is
cycled through 9 times, with the varible j taking values
from 1 to 9. The inner for loop terminates when the value
of j exceeds 9.
tot=`expr $i + $j`
tmp=`expr $tot % 2`
See for even and odd number positions using these
statements.
if [ $tmp -eq 0 ]; then
echo -e -n "\033[47m "
else
echo -e -n "\033[40m "
fi
If even number posiotion print the white colour block
(using echo -e -n "\033[47m " statement); otherwise for
odd postion print the black colour box (using echo -e -n
"\033[40m " statement). This statements are responsible to
print entier chess board on screen with alternet colours.
done End of inner loop
echo -e -n "\033[40m"
Make sure its black background as we always have on our
terminals.
echo "" Print the blank line
done
End of outer loop and shell scripts get terminted by printing
the chess board.
Exercise
Try to understand the shell scripts (for loops) shown in exercise chapter.
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while loop
Syntax:
Loop is executed as long as given condition is true. For e.g.. Above for loop
program (shown in last
section of for loop) can be written using while loop as:
Save it and try as
$ chmod 755 nt1
$./nt1 7
Above loop can be explained as follows:
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n=$1
Set the value of command line argument to
variable n. (Here it's set to 7 )
i=1 Set variable i to 1
while [ $i -le 10 ]
This is our loop condition, here if value of i is less
than 10 then, shell execute all statements between
do and done
do Start loop
echo "$n * $i = `expr $i \* $n`"
Print multiplication table as
7 * 1 = 7
7 * 2 = 14
....
7 * 10 = 70, Here each time value of variable n is
multiply be i.
i=`expr $i + 1`
Increment i by 1 and store result to i. ( i.e. i=i+1)
Caution: If you ignore (remove) this statement
than our loop become infinite loop because value
of variable i always remain less than 10 and
program will only output
7 * 1 = 7
...
...
E (infinite times)
done
Loop stops here if i is not less than 10 i.e.
condition of loop is not true. Hence
loop is terminated.
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The case Statement
The case statement is good alternative to Multilevel if-then-else-fi statement. It
enable you to match
several values against one variable. Its easier to read and write.
Syntax:
The $variable-name is compared against the patterns until a match is found. The
shell then executes all
the statements up to the two semicolons that are next to each other. The default is
*) and its executed if
no match is found. For e.g. write script as follows:
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Save it by pressing CTRL+D and run it as follows:
$ chmod +x car
$ car van
$ car car
$ car Maruti-800
First script will check, that if $1(first command line argument) is given or not,
if NOT given set value of
rental variable to "*** Unknown vehicle ***",if command line arg is supplied/given
set value of rental
variable to given value (command line arg). The $rental is compared against the
patterns until a match is
found.
For first test run its match with van and it will show output "For van Rs.10 per
k/m."
For second test run it print, "For car Rs.20 per k/m".
And for last run, there is no match for Maruti-800, hence default i.e. *) is
executed and it prints, "Sorry, I
can not gat a Maruti-800 for you".
Note that esac is always required to indicate end of case statement.
See the one more example of case statement in chapter 4 of section shift command.
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