Shells and Shell Scripts

COMP 444/5201 Revision 1.3 January 25, 2005

July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 1

Content
Shells and Shell Scripts tcsh, enhanced C-Shell bash, Bourne-Again Shell

July 17, 2003

Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

Shell Commands
Shell commands are interpreted directly by the shell you specify. The commands are similar to the statement in some programming languages, such as C. Popular shells include:
Enhanced C-shell tchs (csh+) Bourne-Again Shell, bash (sh+) Korn Shell (ksh)

These notes will focus on the first two shells.

July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 3

Shells Features
The bash an tcsh shells are similar in the features the offer. In particular:
Pass arguments to your script Set and reference variables Use of control flow Interact with the user (read user input) Comments

Info on commands a given shell offers can be found in the man pages for that shell. There are many Linux/UNIX references that give detailed information and tips.
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 4

Shell Scripts
What are they for?
To automate certain common activities an user performs routinely. They serve the same purpose as batch files in DOS/Windows. Example:
rename 1000 files from upper case to lowercase

July 17, 2003

Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

What are Shell Scripts

Just text/ASCII files with:
a set of standard UNIX/Linux commands (ls, mv, cp, less, cat, etc.) along with
flow of control
some conditional logic and branching (if-then), loop structures (foreach, for, while), and

I/O facilities (echo, print, set, ...).

They allow use of variables. They are interpreted by a shell directly. Some of them (csh, tcsh) share some of C syntax. DOS/Win equivalent - batch files (.bat)
Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 6

July 17, 2003

Why not use C/C++ for that?

C/C++ programming requires compilation and linkage, maybe libraries, which may not be available (production servers). For the typical tasks much faster in development, debugging, and maintenance (because they are interpreted and do not require compilation).
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 7

Shell Script Invocation

Specify the shell directly:
% tcsh myshellscript % tcsh -v myshellscript (-v = verbose, useful for debugging)

Make the shell an executable first and then run is a command (set up an execution permission):
% chmod u+x myshellscript

Then either this:

% myshellscript (if the path variable has . in it; security issue!)

Or:
% ./myshellscript (should always work)
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 8

Shell Script Invocation (2)

If you get an error: myshellscrip: command not found
The probably . is not in your path or theres no execution bit set.

When writing scripts, choose unique names, that preferably do not match system commands.
Bad name would be test for example, since there are many shells with this internal command.

To disambiguate, always precede the shell with ./ or absolute path in case you have to name your thing not very creatively.
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 9

Start Writing a Shell Script

The very first line, often called 'shebang' (#!) should precede any other line, to assure that the right shell is invoked.
#!/bin/tcsh # This is for tcsh #!/bin/bash # For Bourne-Again Shell

#!/bin/sh # This is for Bourne Shell

Comments start with '#', with the exception of #!, $#, which are a special character sequences. Everything on a line after # is ignored if # is not a part of a quoted string or a special character sequence.
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tchs Quick Ref

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Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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Variables
Variables start with a $ sign when they are used.
$x, $val

There's no $ when a variable is declared.

set x = 3 @ y = 1 set input = "$<"

There are some system, predefined variables:

$0, $1, $3 .... - argument references (arguments themselves) $* - all the arguments $< - user's input from STDIN $# - # of arguments passed to the script
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July 17, 2003

if
if ( <expression> ) then <statements> else if ( <another-expression> ) then <statements> else <statements> endif

July 17, 2003

Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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foreach
foreach var ( <list-of-values> ) <statements> end

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Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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switch
switch ( string ) case str1: <statements> breaksw ... default: <statements> breaksw endsw

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Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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while
while ( <expression> ) <statements> end

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Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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File Inquiry Operators: -op file

r w x e o z s Read access Write access Execute access Existence Ownership Zero size Non-zero size f d l b c p S Plain file Directory Symbolic link Block special file Character special file Named pipe (FIFO) Socket special file

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Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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Example
See creator and uptolow.
NOTE: run them in a some temporary directory to do not mess with your own valuable files. The uptolow script:
will convert any uppercase letters in an ordinary file name to lowercase. will leave directories untouched.
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 18

Bourne Shell Quick Ref

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Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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Quick Note
In no way this going to be a duplication for the zillions of resources on Bourne Shell, but more a quick reference/syntax for most often used constructs and pointers to resources where else to find that kind of stuff. Some of it is a lame reap off the man page and so on.
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 20

Quick Resource Summary

Manual Pages:
man bash

An Intro to UNIX Shell:

<http://steve-parker.org/sh/bourne.html>

How To Write a Shell Script:

<http://www.tinker.ncsu.edu/LEGO/shell_help.html>
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 21

Bourne Shell Script Constructs Reference

System/Internal Variables Control Flow (if, for, case)

July 17, 2003

Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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Internal Variables
$# Will tell you # of command line arguments supplied
$0 Ourselves (i.e. name of the shell script executed with path) $1 First argument to the script $2 $? $$ $! $Second argument, and so on Exit status of the last command Our PID PID of the last background process Current shell status
Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 23

July 17, 2003

Internal Variables (2)

Use shift command to shift the arguments one left:
Assume intput:
./shift.sh 1 2 foo bar
$0 = <directory-of>/shift.sh $1 = 1 $3 = 2 $4 = foo $5 = bar

shift:
$1 = 2 $2 = foo $3 = bar
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 24

Environment
These (and very many others) are available to your shell:
$PATH - set of directories to look for commands $HOME - home directory $MAIL $PWD personal working directory $PS1 primary prompt $PS2 input prompt $IFS - what to treat as blanks
Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 25

July 17, 2003

Control Flow: if
General Syntax:
if [ <expression> ]; then <statements> elif <statements> else <statements> fi

<expression> can either be a logical expression or a command and usually a combo of both.
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 26

if (2)
Some Logical Operators:
-eq -ne -lt -gt -o -a -f -d
July 17, 2003

--- Equal --- Not equal --- Less Than --- Greater Than --- OR --- AND --- file --- directory
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File or directory?

case
Syntax:
case <expression> in <patter1>|<value1>) command1 ;; <patter2>|<value2>) command2 ;; esac
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 28

case (2)
case $# in 1) cat >> $1 ;; 2) cat >>$2 <$1 ;; 3) case $3 in -[abc]) echo "-a -b or -c" ;; -foo|-bar) echo "-foo or -bar" ;; esac ;; *) echo "we accept up to 3 args only."; exit 127 ;; esac
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 29

for
Syntax:
for variable in <list of values/words>[;] do command1 command2 done

List can also be a result of a command.

July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 30

for (3)
for file in *.txt do echo File $file: echo "======" cat $file echo "======" done
July 17, 2003 Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca 31

while
Syntax
while <expression> do command1 command2 done

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until
Syntax
until <expression> do command1 command2 done

July 17, 2003

Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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To Be Continued...

July 17, 2003

Serguei A. Mokhov, mokhov@cs.concordia.ca

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