Linux Bash Scripting Tutorial

Control Statements

Bash supports following control statements

• if
• case
• select

if statement

if/then construct tests whether the exit status of the list of commands is 0 (0 means "success"). If stament controls the execution of the commands

If statement syntax:

		if condition;
		then
		  comand(s)
		fi
	

if condition returns exit status 0, then command(s) will be executed.otherwise they're skipped.

if condition test can be done following ways,condition evaluates to true then exit status will be 0.commands between "then" and "fi" keywords will be executed, otherwise skipped.

if test 10 > 0; then 
echo "10 is greater" 
fi
						

if [ 10 > 0 ]; 
then 
	echo "10 is greater"; 
fi

if [[ 10 > 0 ]]; 
	then 
		echo "10 is greater" 
	fi

[[ expression ]]
[[]] is same as test and [expression], except that additional operators are allowed. word splitting and file name exansion disabled.
but there is command substitution and parameter substitution
using [[]] can prevent may logical errors in program

If-else conditional Statement

if condition is true and exit status is 0 then commands following then keyword gets executed. otherwise else block gets executed.

If-else statement syntax:

		if condition;
		then
			command(s)
		else 
			command(s)
		fi
	

if-else example: using compound condition in if statement, to test whether numbers are negative(-ve) or positive(+ve).

		a=10;
		b=-1;
		if [[ "$a" -gt 0 && "$b" -gt 0 ]];
			then 
				echo "$a and $b are +ve numbers";
			else
				echo  "either  or both number (is/are) -ve ";

		fi;
	

If-elif conditional Statement

Multi level conditional check done using if-elif statement

If-elif statement syntax:

		if condition;
		then
			command(s)
		elif 
			command(s)
		else
			command(s)
		fi
	

if-elif example: using compound condition in if statement, to find maximum of three numbers

		a=10;
		b=-1;
		c=20;
		echo "Numbers are $a $b $c";
		if [[ "$a" -gt "$b" && "$a" -gt "$c" ]];
			then 
				echo "$a is maximum number";
			elif [[ $b -gt $c ]];
				then
				echo  "$b is maximum number";
			else
				echo  "$c is maximum number";

		fi;
	

Bash Comparing String Variables

Bash case statement

Case Statement Syntax:

	case Expression in

		case1)  command(s);;
		case2)  command(s);;
		....
		caseN) command(s);;
	esac	
	

Bash Case Statement Example:

#!/usr/bin/bash


day=`date +"%a"`
echo $day

case "${day}" in
        Mon) echo "Today is Monday pokers day";;
        Tue) echo "Today is Tuesday funday";;
        Wed) echo "Today is Wednesday pool game";;
        Thu) echo "Today is Thursday Gym workouts";;
        Fri) echo "Today is Friday Dreaming about Weekend";;
        Sat) echo "Today is Saturday weekend";;
        Sun) echo "Today is Sunday weekend";;
esac
	

#!/usr/bin/bash

        echo -e "Please enter [Yy]es [Nn]o [Aa]ll:"
        option=;
        read -n3 option;

        option=`echo "$option" | tr [:upper:] [:lower:]`

        case "$option" in

                y|yes) echo "You have selected Yes";;

                n|no)  echo  "You have selected No";;

                a|all) echo  "you have selected all";;

                *) echo "Invalid option";;
        esac

	

Bash select statement

select command is used to display menu style data

Syntax:

		select arg [in LIST];
		do
			respective-command;
		done
	

select command example:

#!/usr/bin/bash

select i;
do
	echo "You have selected : $i"
done

	

execute the script:

nirvana ~>bash sel2.sh  1 2 3
1) 1
2) 2
3) 3
#? 1
You have selected : 1
#? 2
You have selected : 2
#? 3
You have selected : 3
----------------------------------
nirvana ~>bash sel2.sh  "samsung"  "redme" "iphone"
1) samsung
2) redme
3) iphone
#? 1
You have selected : samsung
#? 2   
You have selected : redme
#? 3
You have selected : iphone
#? ^C

select command example: count number of files modified or created in a given month

select m in Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec exit
do
        case "${m}"
        in
		Jan) echo "${m} month files being  modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Feb) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Mar) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Apr) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		May) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Jun) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Jul) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Aug) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Sep) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Oct) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Nov) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		Dec) echo "${m} month files being modified  count:`ls -lt * | grep ${m}|wc -l` ";;
		exit) exit;;
        esac
done