34.7. Assorted Tips

• To keep a record of which user scripts have run during a particular sesssion or over a number of sessions, add the following lines to each script you want to keep track of. This will keep a continuing file record of the script names and invocation times.

  # Append (>>) following to end of each script tracked. date>> $SAVE_FILE #Date and time. echo $0>> $SAVE_FILE #Script name. echo>> $SAVE_FILE #Blank line as separator. # Of course, SAVE_FILE defined and exported as environmental variable in ~/.bashrc # (something like ~/.scripts-run)

• The >> operator appends lines to a file. What if you wish to prepend a line to an existing file, that is, to paste it in at the beginning?

  file=data.txt title="***This is the title line of data text file***" echo $title | cat - $file >$file.new # "cat -" concatenates stdout to $file. # End result is #+ to write a new file with $title appended at *beginning*.

  This is a simplified variant of the Example 17-13 script given earlier. And, of course, sed can also do this.

• A shell script may act as an embedded command inside another shell script, a Tcl or wish script, or even a Makefile. It can be invoked as an external shell command in a C program using the system() call, i.e., system("script_name");.

• Put together files containing your favorite and most useful definitions and functions. As necessary, "include" one or more of these "library files" in scripts with either the dot (.) or source command.

  # SCRIPT LIBRARY # ------ ------- # Note: # No "#!" here. # No "live code" either. # Useful variable definitions ROOT_UID=0 # Root has $UID 0. E_NOTROOT=101 # Not root user error. MAXRETVAL=255 # Maximum (positive) return value of a function. SUCCESS=0 FAILURE=-1 # Functions Usage () # "Usage:" message. { if [ -z "$1" ] # No arg passed. then msg=filename else msg=$@ fi echo "Usage: `basename $0` "$msg"" } Check_if_root () # Check if root running script. { # From "ex39.sh" example. if [ "$UID" -ne "$ROOT_UID" ] then echo "Must be root to run this script." exit $E_NOTROOT fi } CreateTempfileName () # Creates a "unique" temp filename. { # From "ex51.sh" example. prefix=temp suffix=`eval date +%s` Tempfilename=$prefix.$suffix } isalpha2 () # Tests whether *entire string* is alphabetic. { # From "isalpha.sh" example. [ $# -eq 1 ] || return $FAILURE case $1 in *[!a-zA-Z]*|"") return $FAILURE;; *) return $SUCCESS;; esac # Thanks, S.C. } abs () # Absolute value. { # Caution: Max return value = 255. E_ARGERR=-999999 if [ -z "$1" ] # Need arg passed. then return $E_ARGERR # Obvious error value returned. fi if [ "$1" -ge 0 ] # If non-negative, then # absval=$1 # stays as-is. else # Otherwise, let "absval = (( 0 - $1 ))" # change sign. fi return $absval } tolower () # Converts string(s) passed as argument(s) { #+ to lowercase. if [ -z "$1" ] # If no argument(s) passed, then #+ send error message echo "(null)" #+ (C-style void-pointer error message) return #+ and return from function. fi echo "$@" | tr A-Z a-z # Translate all passed arguments ($@). return # Use command substitution to set a variable to function output. # For example: # oldvar="A seT of miXed-caSe LEtTerS" # newvar=`tolower "$oldvar"` # echo "$newvar" # a set of mixed-case letters # # Exercise: Rewrite this function to change lowercase passed argument(s) # to uppercase ... toupper() [easy]. }

• Use special-purpose comment headers to increase clarity and legibility in scripts.

  ## Caution. rm -rf *.zzy ## The "-rf" options to "rm" are very dangerous, ##+ especially with wildcards. #+ Line continuation. # This is line 1 #+ of a multi-line comment, #+ and this is the final line. #* Note. #o List item. #> Another point of view. while [ "$var1" != "end" ] #> while test "$var1" != "end"

• A particularly clever use of if-test constructs is commenting out blocks of code.

  #!/bin/bash COMMENT_BLOCK= # Try setting the above variable to something or other #+ for an unpleasant surprise. if [ $COMMENT_BLOCK ]; then Comment block -- ================================= This is a comment line. This is another comment line. This is yet another comment line. ================================= echo "This will not echo." Comment blocks are error-free! Whee! fi echo "No more comments, please." exit 0

  Compare this with using here documents to comment out code blocks.

• Using the $? exit status variable, a script may test if a parameter contains only digits, so it can be treated as an integer.

  #!/bin/bash SUCCESS=0 E_BADINPUT=65 test "$1" -ne 0 -o "$1" -eq 0 2>/dev/null # An integer is either equal to 0 or not equal to 0. # 2>/dev/null suppresses error message. if [ $? -ne "$SUCCESS" ] then echo "Usage: `basename $0` integer-input" exit $E_BADINPUT fi let "sum = $1 + 25" # Would give error if $1 not integer. echo "Sum = $sum" # Any variable, not just a command line parameter, can be tested this way. exit 0

• The 0 - 255 range for function return values is a severe limitation. Global variables and other workarounds are often problematic. An alternative method for a function to communicate a value back to the main body of the script is to have the function write to stdout (usually with echo) the "return value," and assign this to a variable. This is actually a variant of command substitution.

  Example 34-12. Return value trickery

  #!/bin/bash # multiplication.sh multiply () # Multiplies params passed. { # Will accept a variable number of args. local product=1 until [ -z "$1" ] # Until uses up arguments passed... do let "product *= $1" shift done echo $product # Will not echo to stdout, } #+ since this will be assigned to a variable. mult1=15383; mult2=25211 val1=`multiply $mult1 $mult2` echo "$mult1 X $mult2 = $val1" # 387820813 mult1=25; mult2=5; mult3=20 val2=`multiply $mult1 $mult2 $mult3` echo "$mult1 X $mult2 X $mult3 = $val2" # 2500 mult1=188; mult2=37; mult3=25; mult4=47 val3=`multiply $mult1 $mult2 $mult3 $mult4` echo "$mult1 X $mult2 X $mult3 X $mult4 = $val3" # 8173300 exit 0

  The same technique also works for alphanumeric strings. This means that a function can "return" a non-numeric value.

  capitalize_ichar () # Capitalizes initial character { #+ of argument string(s) passed. string0="$@" # Accepts multiple arguments. firstchar=${string0:0:1} # First character. string1=${string0:1} # Rest of string(s). FirstChar=`echo "$firstchar" | tr a-z A-Z` # Capitalize first character. echo "$FirstChar$string1" # Output to stdout. } newstring=`capitalize_ichar "each sentence should start with a capital letter."` echo "$newstring" # Each sentence should start with a capital letter.

  It is even possible for a function to "return" multiple values with this method.

  Example 34-13. Even more return value trickery

  #!/bin/bash # sum-product.sh # A function may "return" more than one value. sum_and_product () # Calculates both sum and product of passed args. { echo $(( $1 + $2 )) $(( $1 * $2 )) # Echoes to stdout each calculated value, separated by space. } echo echo "Enter first number " read first echo echo "Enter second number " read second echo retval=`sum_and_product $first $second` # Assigns output of function. sum=`echo "$retval" | awk '{print $1}'` # Assigns first field. product=`echo "$retval" | awk '{print $2}'` # Assigns second field. echo "$first + $second = $sum" echo "$first * $second = $product" echo exit 0

• Next in our bag of trick are techniques for passing an array to a function, then "returning" an array back to the main body of the script.

  Passing an array involves loading the space-separated elements of the array into a variable with command substitution. Getting an array back as the "return value" from a function uses the previously mentioned strategem of echoing the array in the function, then invoking command substitution and the ( ... ) operator to assign it to an array.

  Example 34-14. Passing and returning arrays

  #!/bin/bash # array-function.sh: Passing an array to a function and... # "returning" an array from a function Pass_Array () { local passed_array # Local variable. passed_array=( `echo "$1"` ) echo "${passed_array[@]}" # List all the elements of the new array #+ declared and set within the function. } original_array=( element1 element2 element3 element4 element5 ) echo echo "original_array = ${original_array[@]}" # List all elements of original array. # This is the trick that permits passing an array to a function. # ********************************** argument=`echo ${original_array[@]}` # ********************************** # Pack a variable #+ with all the space-separated elements of the original array. # # Note that attempting to just pass the array itself will not work. # This is the trick that allows grabbing an array as a "return value". # ***************************************** returned_array=( `Pass_Array "$argument"` ) # ***************************************** # Assign 'echoed' output of function to array variable. echo "returned_array = ${returned_array[@]}" echo "=============================================================" # Now, try it again, #+ attempting to access (list) the array from outside the function. Pass_Array "$argument" # The function itself lists the array, but... #+ accessing the array from outside the function is forbidden. echo "Passed array (within function) = ${passed_array[@]}" # NULL VALUE since this is a variable local to the function. echo exit 0

  For a more elaborate example of passing arrays to functions, see Example A-11.

• Using the double parentheses construct, it is possible to use C-like syntax for setting and incrementing variables and in for and while loops. See Example 10-12 and Example 10-17.

• Setting the path and umask at the beginning of a script makes it more "portable" -- more likely to run on a "foreign" machine whose user may have bollixed up the $PATH and umask.

  #!/bin/bash PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin ; export PATH umask 022 # Thanks to Ian D. Allen, for this tip.

• A useful scripting technique is to repeatedly feed the output of a filter (by piping) back to the same filter, but with a different set of arguments and/or options. Especially suitable for this are tr and grep.

  # From "wstrings.sh" example. wlist=`strings "$1" | tr A-Z a-z | tr '[:space:]' Z | \ tr -cs '[:alpha:]' Z | tr -s '\173-\377' Z | tr Z ' '`

  Example 34-15. Fun with anagrams

  #!/bin/bash # agram.sh: Playing games with anagrams. # Find anagrams of... LETTERSET=etaoinshrdlu anagram "$LETTERSET" | # Find all anagrams of the letterset... grep '.......' | # With at least 7 letters, grep '^is' | # starting with 'is' grep -v 's$' | # no plurals grep -v 'ed$' # no past tense verbs # Possible to add many combinations of conditions. # Uses "anagram" utility #+ that is part of the author's "yawl" word list package. # http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/libs/yawl-0.3.tar.gz exit 0 # End of code. bash$ sh agram.sh islander isolate isolead isotheral

  See also Example 28-3, Example 12-21, and Example A-10.

• Use "anonymous here documents" to comment out blocks of code, to save having to individually comment out each line with a #. See Example 17-11.

• Running a script on a machine that relies on a command that might not be installed is dangerous. Use whatis to avoid potential problems with this.

  CMD=command1 # First choice. PlanB=command2 # Fallback option. command_test=$(whatis "$CMD" | grep 'nothing appropriate') # If 'command1' not found on system , 'whatis' will return #+ "command1: nothing appropriate." if [[ -z "$command_test" ]] # Check whether command present. then $CMD option1 option2 # Run command1 with options. else # Otherwise, $PlanB #+ run command2. fi

• An if-grep test may not return expected results in an error case, when text is output to stderr, rather that stdout.

  if ls -l nonexistent_filename | grep -q 'No such file or directory' then echo "File \"nonexistent_filename\" does not exist." fi

  Redirecting stderr to stdout fixes this.

  if ls -l nonexistent_filename 2>&1 | grep -q 'No such file or directory' # ^^^^ then echo "File \"nonexistent_filename\" does not exist." fi # Thanks, Chris Martin, for pointing this out.

• The run-parts command is handy for running a set of command scripts in sequence, particularly in combination with cron or at.

• It would be nice to be able to invoke X-Windows widgets from a shell script. There happen to exist several packages that purport to do so, namely Xscript, Xmenu, and widtools. The first two of these no longer seem to be maintained. Fortunately, it is still possible to obtain widtools here.

  The widtools (widget tools) package requires the XForms library to be installed. Additionally, the Makefile needs some judicious editing before the package will build on a typical Linux system. Finally, three of the six widgets offered do not work (and, in fact, segfault).

  The dialog family of tools offers a method of calling "dialog" widgets from a shell script. The original dialog utility works in a text console, but its successors, gdialog, Xdialog, and kdialog use X-Windows-based widget sets.

  Example 34-16. Widgets invoked from a shell script

  #!/bin/bash # dialog.sh: Using 'gdialog' widgets. # Must have 'gdialog' installed on your system to run this script. # This script was inspired by the following article. # "Scripting for X Productivity," by Marco Fioretti, # LINUX JOURNAL, Issue 113, September 2003, pp. 86-9. # Thank you, all you good people at LJ. # Input error in dialog box. E_INPUT=65 # Dimensions of display, input widgets. HEIGHT=50 WIDTH=60 # Output file name (constructed out of script name). OUTFILE=$0.output # Display this script in a text widget. gdialog --title "Displaying: $0" --textbox $0 $HEIGHT $WIDTH # Now, we'll try saving input in a file. echo -n "VARIABLE=\"" > $OUTFILE # Quote it, in case of whitespace #+ in the input. gdialog --title "User Input" --inputbox "Enter variable, please:" \ $HEIGHT $WIDTH 2>> $OUTFILE if [ "$?" -eq 0 ] # It's good practice to check exit status. then echo "Executed \"dialog box\" without errors." else echo "Error(s) in \"dialog box\" execution." # Or, clicked on "Cancel", instead of "OK" button. rm $OUTFILE exit $E_INPUT fi echo -n "\"" >> $OUTFILE # End quotes on saved variable. # This command stuck down here in order not to mess up #+ exit status, above. # Now, we'll retrieve and display the saved variable. . $OUTFILE # 'Source' the saved file. echo "The variable input in the \"input box\" was: "$VARIABLE"" rm $OUTFILE # Clean up by removing the temp file. # Some applications may need to retain this file. exit 0

  For other methods of scripting with widgets, try Tk or wish (Tcl derivatives), PerlTk (Perl with Tk extensions), tksh (ksh with Tk extensions), XForms4Perl (Perl with XForms extensions), Gtk-Perl (Perl with Gtk extensions), or PyQt (Python with Qt extensions).