Shells

 Five major shells

 Bourne (sh)
 C shell (csh)
 Korn (ksh)
 Bourne Again (bash)
 T shell (tcsh)

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Korn Shell
 Invented by David Korn of AT&T Bell Labs in mid
1980s
 Upwardly compatible with the Bourne shell
 Became a standard part of Unix Systems Labs
(USL) SVR4
 Two major versions exist, ksh88 and ksh93
 ksh88 is on clyde
 ksh93 is also available as /usr/dt/bin/dtksh

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Major Features
 .profile
 Command line editing
 History
 Environment file
 Random numbers
 Print
 Whence
 Built-in arithmetic
 Aliases

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 Job control
 Additional built-in variables
 Additional pattern matching
 Additional options for test
 Typeset
 Read
 Parameter Expansion

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.profile
 Kept in your home (login) directory
 Used for customizing the user interface of ksh
 Used to store
 Aliases
 Shell variables
 Options
 Location of environment file
 Only executed if ksh is a login shell

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Options
 Options alter the the shell's behavior
 Over 20 options available - common ones are:
 bgnice  noclobber
 emacs  noglob
 ignoreeof  trackall
 markdirs  vi
 monitor
 Options are set using "set -o optionname" and unset
using "set +o optionname"

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Command Line Editing
 Enabled in two different ways
 Using the shell variable VISUAL
 VISUAL=$(whence vi)

 Using set option

 set -o vi

 Two different editors are available

 vi and emacs
 Note: ksh does not use these editors, it has commands
that emulate the functionality built in to the shell

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Editing Commands in vi-mode
 CTRL-W - Erase previous word
 CTRL-V - "Quote" the next character
 ESC - Enter control mode (edit mode)
 Edit mode uses same movement commands as vi
 h, l, w,b 0,^,$, etc.
 Also uses same editing commands
 i, a, r, R, x, d(movement command)

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File Name Completion in vi-mode
 File name completion is also supported
 Type the command an the beginning of the file name
 Touch ESC and the \
 ksh will attempt to complete the file name for you
 If no name matches, shell beeps and nothing

happens
 If there is exactly one way to complete the name, the

shell does it, if it's a directory, it adds a /

 If there are more than one match, the shell

completes the longest common prefix

 Using * instead of \ lists all matches

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History
 This feature alone may make it worth moving to
Korn shell (when combined with command line
editing)
 History is stored in a file (normally .sh_history) in
your home directory
 Location can be changed by defining HISTFILE
 Note: if you want history kept for each subshell, you

can define HISTFILE=.sh_history$$

 Unfortunately, this leaves a bunch of history files

laying around your directory that need cleaning

 Size is set by HISTSIZE - default is 128
 Please set to 50 in your .profile to conserve disk space
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History Example
 Given the command find / -name ribblestaff* -print
 And assuming it was command 36
 C shell:
 %!36 (re-execute command 36 in history)
 %!f ( re-execute the most recent command beginning
with f)
 %!f:p (to print but not re-execute, makes it last in buffer)
 %^ri^ra^ (to change "ribble" to "rabble")

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Same Thing Using Korn
 Korn shell:
 $r 36 (to re-execute command 36 in history)
 $r f (to re-execute the most recent command
beginning with f)
 $fc f (to fix command that started with an f)
or $fc cmd_no.
 This will put you into the editor of your choice

(defined by FCEDIT - default is ed!)

 When you leave the editor, the command will be

executed
 $fc –l (lists history commands)
 ksh automatically aliases history to fc -l

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Moving Around the History File
 Again, the vi commands work here
 k - move backwards one line (command)
 j - move forward one command
 nG - move to command n
 ?string - search backwards for string
 /string - search forwards for string
 n - repeat search in same direction
 N - repeat search in opposite direction
 The first two can be preceded by repeat counts
 3k - move backwards 3 commands

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Environment File
 Although predefined environmental variables will
always be known to subshells, the shell must be
explicitly told which other variables, aliases, and
options should be communicated to subshells
 One way to do this is to put them in an
environment file
 Do this by placing
 export ENV=~/environmentfile in your .profile and then
putting your data in environmentfile

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Random Numbers
 The Korn shell provides a random number
generator
 To initialize it, you type RANDOM=$$ (or a
specific number if you want a repeatable
sequence)
 Each time you echo the RANDOM variable, you
will get anew random number in the range 0
-32767

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print
 In other shells, you usually use awk when you
want formatted printing
 ksh provides print. It doesn't allow as much
control over printing as awk but it does provide
more control than echo
 print has a variety of formatting options and
parameters

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print Formatting Options
 \a - announce, ring the bell
 \b - backspace
 \c - print line without newline (rest of args ignored)
 \f - formfeed
 \n - newline
 \r - carriage return
 \t - tab
 \v - vertical tab
 \Ox - the 8 bit ASCII character with octal value x
 \\ - backslash

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print Parameters
 - process anything that follows as an
argument if it begins with a -
 -R do not use the \ conventions, also anything
except -n that follows is processed as an
argument
 -n do not add trailing newlines to output
 -p send arguments via pipe to a co-process
 -r don't use the \ conventions
 -s direct the arguments to the history file
 -un redirect arguments to the file descriptor n
(default is 1 or stdout)
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whence
 Tells you where a command resides
 Two options, -p and -v, control the format of the
output
 whence alone prints the path to the command
 whence vi
 /bin/ucb/vi
 -v also lists the type of command
 whence -v vi
 vi is a tracked alias for /usr/ucb/vi
 -p does a path search even if the name is a
reserved word or alias
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Built-In Arithmetic
 In the Bourne shell, if you wanted to do math you
had to use eval and command substitution
 ksh lets you do arithmetic using either the let
command or (( ))
 (( )) good for True/False comparisons; $(( )) provides
value of computation
$ let a = 6+8
$ print $a
$ 14
 Note that there are no spaces in the expression. If you
want to use spaces, you must single quote the
expression

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 The (( )) is useful in as a conditional because it
returns a 1 or 0
if test (($min+$max>$top))
then
print "Ooh, a big one!"
else
print "Guess not"
fi
 ksh can also work with bases other than 10
 b#n is the same as n to the base b
 8#17 is an octal 17 (15 decimal)

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Aliases
 ksh has aliases very similar to the C shell
 It adds the concept of tracked aliases
 These translate faster than normal aliases
 When used, the shell searches the path the first time
and then remembers where the command was found
 Future uses of the alias go directly to the command
 You can also unalias in the Korn shell

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Job Control
 Korn shell supports job control almost the same as C
shell
 CTRL-Z places a job in the background, as does
command &
 fg brings a job back to the foreground
 Referring to background jobs is also similar
 %n job n
 %string job whose command begins with string
 ?string job whose command contains string
 %+ most recently invoked background job
 %% same as %+
 %- second-most recently invoked bg job
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Additional Built-In Variables
 PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 - prompt strings
 LOGNAME - your login name
 CDPATH - provides a path to use when
performing cd
 Normally, cd dirname looks for a directory in your
current working directory
 CDPATH provides a list of places to look for dirname
 EDITOR - pathname of your preferred editor,
various programs refer to this and it sets the
mode for command line editing

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 VISUAL - similar to EDITOR, used if EDITOR not
set
 FCEDIT - editor to use with fc to edit commands
in the history file
 OLDPWD - previous directory before last cd
 SECONDS - number of seconds since the current
shell was invoked

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Additional Pattern Matching
 Korn shell supports additional pattern matching
metacharacters
 ?(pattern[|pattern]…) matches zero or one
occurrence of any of the patterns
 phre?([drs]|xx) would match phred, phrer, phres, and
phrexx, ?(x) would match null and 'x'
 *(pattern[|pattern]…) matches zero or more
occurrences of any pattern
 phre*([0-9]) would match 'phre' or 'phre' followed by any
number of digits

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 +(pattern[|pattern]…) matches one or more
occurrences of any pattern
 phre+([0-9]) would match 'phre' followed by one or
more digits, +(x) would match 'x', 'xx', 'xxx' …
 @(pattern[|pattern]…) matches any occurrence of
any pattern
 Most useful when used as a logical OR. phre@(ddy|ds|
ak) would match phreddy or phreds or phreak. @(x|y|
z) matches 'x' or 'y' or 'z'

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 !(pattern[|pattern]…) matches zero or more
occurrences of any pattern
 Not really a regular expression but it is handy. It
matches any that is not a pattern.
 phre!(d|[0-5]) would match anything that started with
'phre' but did not end with a 'd' or the digits 0-5. !(x)
would match any ASCCI character except 'x'

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Additional Options for test
 The Korn shell gives additional options for the test
command
 -a the file exists
 -G file has same group as test process
 -L file is symbolic (soft) link
 -O file has same owner as test process
 -o option true if shell option is on (set)
 -S file is a socket
 -z string is zero length
 f1 -ef f2 the two files are linked (same inode)
 f1 -nt f2 true if f1 is newer than f2
 f1 -ot f2 true if f1 is older than f2
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Typeset
 In the Korn shell, you can assign types to
variables
 typeset -i count
 makes count an integer, if you tried to assign a string to
it, the shell would give you an error message
 You can typeset with the following attributes
 -u make uppercase (forces string to uppercase)
 -l make lowercase
 -in require integers and store internally as integer;
n specifies the base
 -r make variable readonly
 -x export the variable
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  -Ln left justify to remove leading spaces; fill with
spaces or truncate on right to n bytes
 -Rn right justify to remove trailing spaces; fill with
spaces or truncate on left to n bytes
 -Zn same as -R except pad with leading 0's instead
of spaces
 typeset +o is used to turn the option off

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Read
 read functions much like it did in the Bourne shell
 However, it can be smart and send the prompt to
stderr without special processing

$ read variable?'prompt'

 Note the location of the ? and the tick marks.

These are critical!
 This will send prompt to stderr if the input device
is the terminal but if stdin has been redirected, no
prompt will be generated.
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Parameter Expansion
 ${var} - uses the value of var
 ${var:-value} - if var is set (non-null) return it,
otherwise return value
 ${var:=value} - if var has been set, return it,
otherwise set var to value and return it
 ${var:?message} - if var has been set, return it,
otherwise print var and message (default is
"parameter null or not set")
 ${var:+value} - if var has been set, return value,
otherwise return null

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Substrings
 ${variable#pattern} - if pattern matches the
beginning of variable's value, delete the shortest
part that matches and return the rest
 ${variable##pattern} - if pattern matches the
beginning of variable's value, delete the longest
part that matches and return the rest
 ${variable%pattern} - if pattern matches the end of
variable's value, delete the shortest part that
matches and return the rest
 ${variable%%pattern} - if pattern matches the end
of variable's value, delete the longest part that
matches and return the rest
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Command Substitution
 In the Korn shell, command substitution is done
with a different syntax
 The Bourne shell ` ` syntax is supported but
discouraged
 $(command arg1 arg2 …) is replaced with the
result of the command
 An example might be in your .profile file when you
set up your VISUAL or EDITOR variable
 EDITOR=$(whence vi)
 This would evaluate to
 EDITOR=/bin/ucb/vi

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Functions
 The Korn shell's function feature is an expanded
version of that found in the Bourne shell
 A function is similar to a script except it is kept in
the shell's memory. Because it is kept in memory, it
runs faster than loading a script
 Functions allow you to create your own groups of
commands, which can make shell programming
much easier since they can be used analogously to
subroutines
 Functions are not inherited by subshells unless you
define them in the environment file with the typeset
command: typeset -fx functname
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Syntax
function functname{
shell command
shell command
…
}

 You can delete a function using unset -f functname

 You can find out what functions are defined using
the command (actually an alias) "functions"
 The shell will print the names and definitions of all
functions

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 There are two important differences between functions
and scripts
 A functions does not run as a separate process
 It shares variables with the process that invoked it

 The present working directory is that of the caller

 If the function changes it, it will also be changed for the

caller
 If a function has the same name as a script or executable
program, the function takes precedence
 The return statement returns the exit status of the last
command executed
 Functions can be recursive but you need to be careful

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Autoloaded Functions
 The simplest place to define functions is in your
.profile or environment file
 However, if you have a lot of definitions, the delay in
reading these files each time you log in or invoking a
subshell can become unacceptably slow
 Autoload lets you tell the shell to only read the
function definition when it is invoked the first time
 "autoload functname" creates an undefined function,
functname, that won't be loaded until the first time it is
actually called

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Finding Autoload Definitions
 The FPATH variable tells the shell where to
search for autoload functions
 For example, if your .profile (or environment file)
contains the following
 FPATH=~/funcs
 autoload my_function
 When you invoke the function my_function the
first time, the shell will search the directories in
FPATH for a file called my_function which has a
definition of function my_function and load it into
the shell's memory space

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Example Functions
function increment {
typeset sum # sum is a local variable*
((sum = $1 + 1))
return $sum
}

print -n "The sum is "

increment 5
print $? # $? holds the return value of the
last command executed
print $sum # sum was local to function and
no longer is defined
* "typeset var" with no options makes var a local variable in a function
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function square {
((sq=$1*$1))
print "Number to be squared is $1."
print "The result is $sq."
}

$ square 10
Number to be squared is 10.
The result is 100.
$

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