Shell Programming
Lec-04
Shell
A shell or command interpreter in a Linux operating
system takes input from you in the form of commands,
processes it, and then gives an output.
It is the interface through which a user works on the
programs, commands, and scripts.
A shell is accessed by a terminal which runs it.
When you run the terminal, the Shell issues a
command prompt (usually $), where you can type
your input, which is then executed when you hit the
Enter key. The output or the result is thereafter
displayed on the terminal.
Types of Shell
There are two main shells in Linux:
1. The Bourne Shell: The prompt for this shell is $ and
its derivatives are listed below:
– Bourne shell also is known as sh
– Korn Shell also known as ksh
– Bourne Again SHell also known as bash (most popular)
2. The C shell: The prompt for this shell is %, and its
subcategories are:
– C shell also is known as csh
– Tops C shell also is known as tcsh
You can check your current shell using command
– echo $SHELL
Shell Scripts (1)
Basically, a shell script is a text file with Unix
commands in it.
Shell scripts usually begin with a #! and a shell
name (shebang)
– For example: #!/bin/sh
– If they do not, the user's current shell will be used
Any Linux command can go in a shell script
– Commands are executed in order or in the flow
determined by control statements.
Different shells have different control structures
– The #! line is very important
– We will write shell scripts with the Bourne shell (sh)
Shell Scripts (2)
Why write shell scripts?
– To avoid repetition:
If you do a sequence of steps with standard
Unix commands over and over, why not do
it all with just one command?
– To automate difficult tasks:
Many commands have subtle and difficult
options that you don’t want to figure out or
remember every time.
Assigning Command Output to a Variable
Using backquotes, we can assign the
output of a command to a variable:
#!/bin/sh
files=`ls`
echo $files
Very useful in numerical computation:
#!/bin/sh
value=`expr 12345 + 54321`
echo $value
Please keep space in mind
Using expr for Calculations
Variables as arguments:
count=5
count=`expr $count + 1`
echo $count
6
– Variables are replaced with their values by the shell!
expr supports the following operators:
– arithmetic operators: +,-,*,/,% \*
– comparison operators: <, <=, ==, !=, >=, >
– precedence is the same as C, Java
Control Statements
Without control statements, execution
within a shell script flows from one
statement to the next in succession.
Control statements control the flow of
execution in a programming language
The two most common types of control
statements:
– conditionals: if/then/else, case, ...
– loop statements: while, for, until, do, ...
Conditionals
Conditionals are used to “test” something.
– In Java or C, they test whether a Boolean variable is
true or false.
– In a Bourne shell script, the only thing you can test
is whether or not a command is “successful”
Every well behaved command returns back a
return code.
– 0 if it was successful
– Non-zero if it was unsuccessful (actually 1..255)
The if Statement
Simple form: if(cond)
if decision_command_1 { ggg }
then
command_set_1 grep returns 0 if it finds something
returns non-zero otherwise
fi
Example:
if grep unix myfile >/dev/null
then
echo "It's there"
fi redirect to /dev/null so that
"intermediate" results do not get
printed
if and else
if grep "UNIX" myfile >/dev/null
then
echo UNIX occurs in myfile
else
echo No!
echo UNIX does not occur in myfile
fi
if and elif
if grep "UNIX" myfile >/dev/null
then
echo "UNIX occurs in file"
elif grep "DOS" myfile >/dev/null
then
echo "Unix does not occur, but DOS does"
else
echo "Nobody is there"
fi
case Statement
You can use multiple if...elif statements to perform a
multiway branch. However, this is not always the best
solution, especially when all of the branches depend
on the value of a single variable.
Shell supports case...esac statement which handles
exactly this situation, and it does so more efficiently
than repeated if...elif statements.
Syntax case…esac
case string in
pattern1)
command_set_11
;;
pattern2)
command_set_2
;;
…
*)
default statement to be executed
esac
#!/bin/sh
FRUIT="kiwi"
case "$FRUIT" in
"apple") echo “Apple pie is quite tasty.”
;;
"banana") echo "I like banana nut bread."
;;
"kiwi") echo "New Zealand is famous for kiwi."
;;
esac
for Loops
for loops allow the repetition of a
command for a specific set of values
Syntax:
for var in value1 value2 ... for i in 0 1 2 3 4
do
command_set
done
– command_set is executed with each value of
var (value1, value2, ...) in sequence
for Loop Example (1)
#!/bin/sh
# timestable – print out a multiplication table
for i in 1 2 3
do
for j in 1 2 3
do
value=`expr $i \* $j`
//In shell, * represents all files in the current directory so use ‘\*’
echo -n "$value "
done
done
for Loop Example (2)
#!/bin/sh
files=`ls` echo *
for i in $files
do
echo -n "$i "
done
– Find filenames in files in current directory
for Loop Example (3)
#!/bin/sh
# file-poke – tell us stuff about files
for i in *
do
echo -n "$i "
done
– Same as previous slide, only a little
more condensed.
