UNIX Shell Scripting

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Course Prerequisites
Familiarity with the fundamentals of the UNIX
operating system

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Learning objectives

1. Introducing Shells entering commands, history, wild cards

2. Introducing Shell scripts alternatives, tools, input/output, variables,
comments, continuation of lines, magic line
3. Shell script constructs using variables, for, while, if, test, case
4. Interaction with the Environment3 environment variables
5. Best practices comments, error messages, debugging
6. Why write scripts? complicated commands, data management,
automation

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The Unix Shell

The shell is your interface with the Unix system.

Is an interpreter of commands

Commands
Built in subroutines 4(do not require the kernel to
start another process to run them)
Non built in commands (require the kernel to create
a new child process to perform the command). The
shell waits until the child process finishes before
accepting the next command.

The exit procedure built in command. True/False TCS Confidential

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The Unix Shell

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Shells Entering Commands

1. Introducing Shells entering commands, history, wild cards

2. Introducing Shell scripts alternatives, tools, input/output, variables,
comments, continuation of lines, magic line
3. Shell script constructs using variables, for, while, if, test, case
4. Interaction with the Environment6 environment variables
5. Best practices comments, error messages, debugging
6. Why write scripts? complicated commands, data management,
automation

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Shell Script What & Why?
1. What is Shell Script?
Shell Script is series of command written in plain text file. Shell script
is just like batch file in MS-DOS but have more power than the MS-
DOS batch file
2. Why Shell Script?
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Automate frequently run tasks
Remember complicated command/command-line options
Filter through data and logs

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Shell Script 3 simple steps
1. Use any editor like vi to write shell script.
2. After writing shell script set execute permission for your script.
Syntax: chmod <permission> <your-script-name>
Example:
$chmod +x your-script-name
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$chmod 755 your-script-name
3. Execute your script
Syntax:
bash <your-script-name>
sh <your-script-name>
./<your-script-name>
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Shell Script Wild cards
1. * - Matches any string or group of characters.
ls ut*.c will show all files having extension .c but file name must
begin with ut.
2. ? - Matches any single character.
ls fo? - will show all files whose names are 3 character long and
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file name begin with fo
3. [] - Matches any one of the enclosed characters
ls [abc]* - will show all files beginning with letters a,b,c
4. [..-..] Matches range of character
ls [a-d]* - will show all files beginning with letters a,b,c,d
ls [^a-c]* - will show all files beginning with letters other than a,b,c
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Shell Script Echo Command
1. Use echo command to display text or value of variable.
2. echo [options] [string, variables...]
Options
-n Do not output the trailing new line.
-e Enable interpretation of the following backslash escaped characters in
the strings: 10
Examples
\b backspace
1. Output Hello World.
\c suppress trailing new line
echo Hello World
\n new line
2. Output Hello World with no new line
\t horizontal tab
echo n Hello World
\\ backslash
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Shell Script User Defined Variables
1. To define user defined variable (UDV) use following syntax
Syntax: variable_name=value
Example:
To define variable called 'vehicle' having value Bus
vehicle1=Bus
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vehicle2=A Bus
echo The value of vehicle1 and 2 is :$vehicle1:$vehicle2:
To define variable called n having value 10
n=10
echo The value of n is $n
Note: Syntax for accessing/printing UDV is $variable_name
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Shell Script Evaluation of UDV
$var value of var; nothing if var undefined
${var} same; useful if alphanumerics follow
variable name
${var-str} value of var if defined; else str; $var unchanged.
${var=str} value of var if defined; else
str; if undefined, $var set to str.
${var?str} 12 print
if defined, $var; else,
str and exit shell; if str empty, print:
var:parameter not set
${var+str} str if $var defined, else null.

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Shell Script User Defined Variables
1. Rules for naming variable name
Variable name must begin with Alphanumeric character or
underscore character (_), followed by one or more Alphanumeric
character ( eg. HOME, SYSTEM_VERSION )
Don't put spaces on either side of the equal sign when assigning
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value to variable. ( number=10 )
Variables are case-sensitive, just like filename in Linux. (no, No,
NO, nO are all different variable names)
You can define NULL variable as follows
vech= (or) vech=
Do not use ?, * etc. for naming variables.
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Shell Script Referencing Variables
1. Variable is referenced by placing dollar sign in front of variable name
Syntax: $variablename
2. Variable can be referenced using curly braces.
Syntax: ${variablename}

#set initial value

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myvar=unix
Echo $myvar #unix
Echo ${myvar} #unix
Echo {$myvar} #{unix}
Echo ${myvar}class #unixclass

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Shell Script More
1. Exit Status of command or shell script?
echo $? ( zero return value indicates success, else failure )
2. Read statement
Use to get input (data from user) from keyboard and store (data) to
variable. Example
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Syntax: echo n Please enter your name:
read variable1 read NAME
echo Welcome! $NAME !
3. To run two command with one command line.
Syntax: Example

command1;command2 date;who
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Shell Script More
1. Commenting your script
Start each line with a sharp sign (#) #This is a comment line

2. Continuing Lines
Type a backslash, \, at the end of line to continue command on the next
line. name=Raghu
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echo Value of name is: \
2. Magic Lines $name
First line of scripts and starts with #!
Tells the shell which program should interpret the script.
#!/bin/sh First line of the script
This line tells the shell to launch sh to run the script
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Shell Script Shell Arithmetic
1. Use to perform arithmetic operations.
2. Syntax:
expr op1 math-operator op2
Examples:
$expr 1 + 3
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$expr 2 - 1
$expr 10 / 2
$expr 20 % 3
$expr 10 \* 3
$echo `expr 6 + 3`
$echo `date`
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Shell Script Command Line Arg.
1. Tells the command/utility which option to use.
2. Informs the utility/command which file or group of files to process
(reading/writing of files).
$ myshell foo bar

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1 Shell Script name i.e. myshell ($0)

2 First command line argument i.e. foo ($1)

3 Second command line argument i.e. bar ($2)

$# - No. of Arguments (Here, 2) $* - Expands all argument

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Input/Output Redirection

There are three types of file descriptors

Standard Input (0)

Standard Output (1)
Standard Error (2)
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Input/Output redirection connects processes with files.

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Shell Script Input/Output redirection
1. > - To output result (output of command or shell script) to file
Note: If file already exists, it will be overwritten else new file is
created

2. >> - To output result to END of file

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Note: If file exists , it will be opened and new information/data
will be written to END of file, without losing previous
information/data
If file does not exist, then new file is created

3. < - To take input from file instead of key-board

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Input/Output Redirection

Redirect input using the less-than sign.

$more < /etc/passwd

Redirect output using the greater-than sign.

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$ls tmp > ls.out

Redirecting error using the symbol 2>

$sort < /etc/passwd > results 2>errors

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Structured Language Construct - Loops

1. For Loop
2. While Loop
3. For each and every loop
First, the variable used in loop condition must be initialized, then
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execution of the loop begins.
A test (condition) is made at the beginning of each iteration.
The body of loop ends with a statement that modifies the value of
the test (condition) variable.

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Structured Language Construct For Loop

Syntax:
for { variable name } in { list } Example
do #print welcome 5 times
command1 for i in 1 2 3 4 5
command2
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echo "Welcome $i times
last command done
done

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Structured Language Construct For Loop
Looping over files

# Example to look at files in a directory and print out file names

for filename in *
do
echo $filename
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done
# print out the file names ending in .doc
for filename in *.doc
do
echo $filename
done
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Structured Language Construct For Loop
Nested for loops for fixed number of iterations
# Nested for loop
for i in 1 2 3 4 5
do
echo n Row $i:
for j in 1 2 3 4 5
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do
sleep 1 # sleep for a second
echo n $j
done
echo # output new line
done TCS Confidential

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Structured Language Construct While Loop

Example:
Syntax:
#print multiplication table for given number
while [ condition ]
if [ $# -eq 0 ] then
do echo "Syntax : $0 <positive number>"
command1 exit 1
fi
command2 26
n=$1
done
i=1
while [ $i -le 10 ]
Note: do
echo "$n * $i = `expr $i \* $n`"
Loop is executed as long as
i=`expr $i + 1`
given condition is true
done
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Shell Script Structured Language Construct - if
1. If condition is used for decision making
if (condition1) then
Example
command1
#Testing commands
command2 if (ls) then
elif (condition2) then echo ls is true
command3 27
else
command4 echo ls is false
else fi
command4
last_command
fi
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Structured Language Construct - test
1. test expression OR [ expression ] is used to see if an expression is true
or false.
2. If it is true it returns zero(0)
3. If the expression tests false then a non-zero value (1) is returned.
4. If test encounters an error, it returns number greater than 1
Example 28
#check if first argument passed to the script is a positive number
if (test $1 -gt 0) then
echo "$1 number is positive
else
echo "$1 number is negative
fi TCS Confidential

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Structured Language Construct - test
Comparing Numbers
Test Usage
$x eq $y Returns true if x equal y
$x ne $y Returns true if x does not equal y
$x gt $y Returns true if x is greater than y
$x ge $y Returns 29
true if x is greater than or equal to y
$x lt $y Returns true if x is less than y
$x le $y Returns true if x is less than or equal to y

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Structured Language Construct - test
Testing Numbers

# Number test # Number test

echo ***Equal Comparison*** echo ***Less than Comparison***
X=5 X=5
Y=10 Y=10
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if (test $X eq $Y) then if (test $X lt $Y) then
echo X = Y. echo X < Y.
else else
echo X != Y. echo X > Y.
fi fi

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Structured Language Construct - test
Comparing Strings
Test Usage
$s1 = $s2 Returns true if s1 equal s2
$s1 != $s2 Returns true if s1 does not equal s2
$s1 Returns true if s1 is not null
$s1 -z Returns 31
true if length of s1 is zero
$s1 -n Returns true if length of s1 is not zero

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Structured Language Construct - test
Comparing Strings

#String test #String test

echo ***Null Comparison***
String=Unix Class
if (test $String) then
echo We have non-null string
else
echo We have null string
fi
echo ***Length Check***
String=Unix Class
if (test z $String) then
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echo Length of string is zero
else
echo Length of string is NOT zero
fi

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Structured Language Construct - test
Testing Files
Test Usage
-d filename Returns true if filename exists and is a directory
-e filename Returns true if filename exists
-f filename Returns true if filename exists and is a regular file
-r filename 33
Returns true if filename exists with read permission
-s filename Returns true if filename exists and is not empty (Len>0)
-w filename Returns true if filename exists with write permission
-x filename Returns true if filename exists with execute permission

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Structured Language Construct - test
Using Binary and Not Operators
Test Usage
! Negates the test
-a Returns true if two tests are both true and
false otherwise. This is an AND operation.
# test negation 34
x=5
y=10
if (test ! $x eq $y ) then
echo x != y
else
echo x = y
fi TCS Confidential

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Structured Language Construct - test
Creating shorthand Tests with [

Example
# Test equality of numbers
x=5
y=10
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if [ $x -eq $y ] then
echo x = y
else
echo x != y
fi

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Structured Language Construct Case Stmt.
# operating system quiz
Syntax:
echo Please enter your favorite OS,
case $variable-name in
echo n linux, windows:
pattern1) command1... .. read os

command2;; case $os in

linux)
pattern2) command1 ... ..
echo Wow.. U like Linux!
command2;;
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patternN) command1 ... windows)

.. command2;; echo Time to check for virus..ha ha ha!

;;
*) command1... ..
*)
command2;;
echo Why did u choose this $os?
esac ;;
esac
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Shell Script Pipes & Filters
1. Pipes - A way to connect the output of one program to the input of
another program without any temporary file.
Syntax: command1 | command2
Example: $ ls -l | wc -l
Output of ls command is given as input to wc command So that it
will print number of files in current directory.
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2. Filter - performs some kind of process on the input and gives output
Example : tail +20 < hotel.txt | head -n30 > hlist
Here head command is filter which takes its input from tail
command and passes this lines as input to head, whose output is
redirected to 'hlist' file.

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Shell Script Environment variables
1. Environment variables are set by the operating system during the
startup of shell.
2. It is inherited by any program that is started.
3. It have a special meaning that applies to all scripts.
4. Special operation is required to set
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5. It is treated, in most respects, as normal shell variables.

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Shell Script Environment Variables
Commonly available environment variables
Variable Usage
USER User name
PWD Current directory
PATH List of directories searched for commands
HOME Users home
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HOSTNAME Computers host name

LANG Specifies user locale

Note: set command lists all the variables currently set

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References
Unix Shell Scripting Basics skillport course
Beginning Unix book by Paul Love et al.

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