bash Tips
Basic
Example
#!/usr/bin/env bash
NAME="John"
echo "Hello $NAME!"
Variables
NAME="John"
echo $NAME
echo "$NAME"
echo "${NAME}!"
String quotes
NAME="John"
echo "Hi $NAME" #=> Hi John
echo 'Hi $NAME' #=> Hi $NAME
Shell execution
echo "I'm in $(pwd)"
echo "I'm in `pwd`"
# Same
Conditional execution
git commit && git push
git commit || echo "Commit failed"
Functions
get_name() {
echo "John"
}
echo "You are $(get_name)"
Conditionals
if [ -z "$string" ]; then
echo "String is empty"
elif [ -n "$string" ]; then
echo "String is not empty"
fi
Strict mode
set -euo pipefail
IFS=$'\n\t'
Brace expansion
echo {A,B}.js
{A,B} #Same as A B
{A,B}.js #Same as A.js B.js
{1..5} #Same as 1 2 3 4 5
Parameter expansions
Basics
name="John"
echo ${name}
echo ${name/J/j} #=> "john" (substitution)
echo ${name:0:2} #=> "Jo" (slicing)
echo ${name::2} #=> "Jo" (slicing)
echo ${name::-1} #=> "Joh" (slicing)
echo ${food:-Cake} #=> $food or "Cake"
length=2
echo ${name:0:length} #=> "Jo"
STR="/path/to/foo.cpp"
echo ${STR%.cpp} # /path/to/foo
echo ${STR%.cpp}.o # /path/to/foo.o
echo ${STR##*.} # cpp (extension)
echo ${STR##*/} # foo.cpp (basepath)
echo ${STR#*/} # path/to/foo.cpp
echo ${STR##*/} # foo.cpp
echo ${STR/foo/bar} # /path/to/bar.cpp
STR="Hello world"
echo ${STR:6:5} # "world"
echo ${STR:-5:5} # "world"
SRC="/path/to/foo.cpp"
BASE=${SRC##*/} #=> "foo.cpp" (basepath)
DIR=${SRC%$BASE} #=> "/path/to/" (dirpath)
Substitution
${FOO%suffix} #Remove suffix
${FOO#prefix} #Remove prefix
${FOO%%suffix} #Remove long suffix
${FOO##prefix} #Remove long prefix
${FOO/from/to} #Replace first match
${FOO//from/to} #Replace all
${FOO/%from/to} #Replace suffix
${FOO/#from/to} #Replace prefix
Comments
# Single line comment
: '
This is a
multi line
comment
'
Substrings
${FOO:0:3} #Substring (position, length)
${FOO:-3:3} #Substring from the right
Length
${#FOO} #Length of $FOO
Default values
${FOO:-val} #$FOO, or val if not set
${FOO:=val} #Set $FOO to val if not set
${FOO:+val} #val if $FOO is set
${FOO:?message} #Show error message and exit if $FOO is not set
#The : is optional (eg, ${FOO=word} works)
Loops
Basic for loop
for i in /etc/rc.*; do
echo $i
done
Ranges
for i in {1..5}; do
echo "Welcome $i"
done
# With step size
for i in {5..50..5}; do
echo "Welcome $i"
done
Reading lines
cat file.txt | while read line; do
echo $line
done
Forever
while true; do
···
done
Functions
Defining functions
myfunc() {
echo "hello $1"
}
# Same as above (alternate syntax)
function myfunc() {
echo "hello $1"
}
myfunc "John"
Returning values
myfunc() {
local myresult='some value'
echo $myresult
}
result=$(myfunc)
Raising errors
myfunc() {
return 1
}
if myfunc; then
echo "success"
else
echo "failure"
fi
Arguments
$# #Number of arguments
$* #All arguments
$@ #All arguments, starting from first
$1 #First argument
Conditionals
Conditions
[ STRING = STRING ] #Equal
[ STRING != STRING ] #Not Equal
[ -z STRING ] #Empty string
[ -n STRING ] #Not empty string
[ NUM -eq NUM ] #Equal
[ NUM -ne NUM ] #Not equal
[ NUM -lt NUM ] #Less than
[ NUM -le NUM ] #Less than or equal
[ NUM -gt NUM ] #Greater than
[ NUM -ge NUM ] #Greater than or equal
[[ STRING =~ STRING ]] #Regexp
(( NUM < NUM )) #Numeric conditions
[ -o noclobber ] #If OPTIONNAME is enabled
[ ! EXPR ] #Not
[ X ] && [ Y ] #And
[ X ] || [ Y ] #Or
File conditions
[ -e FILE ] #Exists
[ -r FILE ] #Readable
[ -h FILE ] #Symlink
[ -d FILE ] #Directory
[ -w FILE ] #Writable
[ -s FILE ] #Size is > 0 bytes
[ -f FILE ] #File
[ -x FILE ] #Executable
[ FILE1 -nt FILE2 ] #1 is more recent than 2
[ FILE1 -ot FILE2 ] #2 is more recent than 1
[ FILE1 -ef FILE2 ] #Same files
Example
# String
if [ -z "$string" ]; then
echo "String is empty"
elif [ -n "$string" ]; then
echo "String is not empty"
fi
# Combinations
if [ X ] && [ Y ]; then
...
fi
# Equal
if [[ "$A" == "$B" ]]
# Regex
if [[ "A" =~ "." ]]
if (( $a < $b ))
if [ -e "file.txt" ]; then
echo "file exists"
fi
Arrays
Defining arrays
Fruits=('Apple' 'Banana' 'Orange')
Fruits[0]="Apple"
Fruits[1]="Banana"
Fruits[2]="Orange"
Working with arrays
echo ${Fruits[0]} # Element #0
echo ${Fruits[@]} # All elements, space-separated
echo ${#Fruits[@]} # Number of elements
echo ${#Fruits} # String length of the 1st element
echo ${#Fruits[3]} # String length of the Nth element
echo ${Fruits[@]:3:2} # Range (from position 3, length 2)
Operations
Fruits=("${Fruits[@]}" "Watermelon") # Push
Fruits+=('Watermelon') # Also Push
Fruits=( ${Fruits[@]/Ap*/} ) # Remove by regex match
unset Fruits[2] # Remove one item
Fruits=("${Fruits[@]}") # Duplicate
Fruits=("${Fruits[@]}" "${Veggies[@]}") # Concatenate
lines=(`cat "logfile"`) # Read from file
Iteration
for i in "${arrayName[@]}"; do
echo $i
done
Options
Options
set -o noclobber # Avoid overlay files (echo "hi" > foo)
set -o errexit # Used to exit upon error, avoiding cascading errors
set -o pipefail # Unveils hidden failures
set -o nounset # Exposes unset variables
Glob options
set -o nullglob # Non-matching globs are removed ('*.foo' => '')
set -o failglob # Non-matching globs throw errors
set -o nocaseglob # Case insensitive globs
set -o globdots # Wildcards match dotfiles ("*.sh" => ".foo.sh")
set -o globstar # Allow ** for recursive matches ('lib/**/*.rb' => 'lib/a/b/c.rb')
#Set GLOBIGNORE as a colon-separated list of patterns to be removed from glob matches.
History
Commands
history #Show history
shopt -s #histverify Don’t execute expanded result immediately
Expansions
!$ #Expand last parameter of most recent command
!* #Expand all parameters of most recent command
!-n #Expand nth most recent command
!n #Expand nth command in history
!<command> #Expand most recent invocation of command <command>
Operations
!! #Execute last command again
!!:s/<FROM>/<TO>/ #Replace first occurrence of <FROM> to <TO> in most recent command
!!:gs/<FROM>/<TO>/ #Replace all occurrences of <FROM> to <TO> in most recent command
!$:t #Expand only basename from last parameter of most recent command
!$:h #Expand only directory from last parameter of most recent command
#!! and !$ can be replaced with any valid expansion.
Slices
!!:n #Expand only nth token from most recent command (command is 0; first argument is 1)
!^ #Expand first argument from most recent command
!$ #Expand last token from most recent command
!!:n-m #Expand range of tokens from most recent command
!!:n-$ #Expand nth token to last from most recent command
#!! can be replaced with any valid expansion i.e. !cat, !-2, !42, etc.
Miscellaneous
Numeric calculations
$((a + 200)) # Add 200 to $a
$((RANDOM%=200)) # Random number 0..200
Subshells
(cd somedir; echo "I'm now in $PWD")
pwd # still in first directory
Redirection
python hello.py > output.txt # stdout to (file)
python hello.py >> output.txt # stdout to (file), append
python hello.py 2> error.log # stderr to (file)
python hello.py 2>&1 # stderr to stdout
python hello.py 2>/dev/null # stderr to (null)
python hello.py &>/dev/null # stdout and stderr to (null)
python hello.py < foo.txt
Inspecting commands
command -V cd
#=> "cd is a function/alias/whatever"
Trap errors
trap 'echo Error at about $LINENO' ERR
or
traperr() {
echo "ERROR: ${BASH_SOURCE[1]} at about ${BASH_LINENO[0]}"
}
set -o errtrace
trap traperr ERR
Case/switch
case "$1" in
start | up)
vagrant up
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|ssh}"
;;
esac
Source relative
source "${0%/*}/../share/foo.sh"
printf
printf "Hello %s, I'm %s" Sven Olga
#=> "Hello Sven, I'm Olga
Directory of script
DIR="${0%/*}"
Getting options
while [[ "$1" =~ ^- && ! "$1" == "--" ]]; do case $1 in
-V | --version )
echo $version
exit
;;
-s | --string )
shift; string=$1
;;
-f | --flag )
flag=1
;;
esac; shift; done
if [[ "$1" == '--' ]]; then shift; fi
Heredoc
cat <<END
hello world
END
Reading input
echo -n "Proceed? [y/n]: "
read ans
echo $ans
read -n 1 ans # Just one character
Special variables
$? #Exit status of last task
$! #PID of last background task
$$ #PID of shell
Go to previous directory
pwd # /home/user/foo
cd bar/
pwd # /home/user/foo/bar
cd -
pwd # /home/user/foo
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