bash

bash - scripting

Thomas Trocha

— 1 min read

Now that all platforms (beside the apple ones) can be built on linux, I want a fabulous build-all script, that automagically creates a folder with all runtimes. Time to refresh my bash-basics.

And to say it from the start: Spaces do matter!!

  • How to set a variable

      # GOOD:
  varname="fortuna"
  # WRONG:
  varname = "fortuna"

  • Show argument count

    #!/bin/bash
echo number of arguments: $#
echo script itself: $0
echo arg1:$1 arg2:$2 arg3:$3  ...

  • basic conditionals for number comparison with if-elif-else-construct using some checks: -eq, -ne, -lt, -le, -gt, -ge

    #!/bin/bash

#equals
if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
  echo "NO ARGS"
elif [[ $# -eq 1 ]]; then
  echo "ONE ARGUMENT"
else
  echo "$# Arguments"
fi

# not equals
if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
  echo "arg-count != 1"
else
  echo "arg-count == 1"
fi

# check if a directory does NOT exist
if [[ ! -d "linux" ]]; then
  echo "linux-directory does not exist"
fi

    For string-comparison use: =,!=

  • Some useful directory-magic:

    # get the directory from which the script is called
CURRENT_DIR=$PWD

# get the directory where the script is located (relative)
REL_BASEDIR=$(dirname $0)

# get the directory where the script is located (absolute)
ABS_BASEDIR=$( cd $(dirname $0) ; pwd )

# get the directory where the script is located (absolute with resolved symlinks)
ABS_BASEDIR_RESOLVED=$( cd $(dirname $0) ; pwd -P )

  • Check if something went wrong (e.g. with cmake).

    cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .. || {
  echo "Something went wrong with CMAKE! Exiting..."
  exit 1;
}

echo "Everything went fine!"

  • exit the script:

    # just exit with code 0
exit

# give it a special exit-code you can use on the shell
exit 95
    There are some special exit-codes

  • creating functions:

    #!/bin/bash
function myEcho {
    echo $1
}  
myEcho Hello

  • Prevent a command to output errors

    # if a.txt is not present do not output any error
rm a.txt 2>/dev/null

Links:
* Bash Conditionals http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#Bash-Conditional-Expressions
* Testing exit values https://sanctum.geek.nz/arabesque/testing-exit-values-bash/
* Functions http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO-8.html

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