NOW

Shell Scripting

1
Course Materials

You can access the course materials via this link

[Link]

2
Day 2 Contents

• Using / Avoid using Shell Script

• Standard Shells
• Built-in commands
• Variables
• Flow Control

3
When do you use shell script?

• When you want to extract information from a lot

of data
• It supports the user by allowing tools for
– Data selection
– Data combination
– Decision and rules.
• It automates repetitive tasks
• It so simple
• Doesn’t need a compiler
• It is portable
When do you AVOID Shell script

• This task will be done once.

• It is a complex task and need user interactive.
• It requires different software tools or different
hardware environment.

5
Standard Shells
• Bourne Shell (sh)
Most system Administration’s scripts are Bourne shell
scripts
• C Shell (csh)
Command line history, aliasing, and job control
• sh shell is more simpler and faster
• Korn shell (ksh)
Editing history, aliasing, functions, regular expression
wildcards, job control and special debugging features

6
Built-in Commands
• cd
• export
• umask
• exit
• break
• continue
• test
• for
• if

8
Built-in Commands
• newgrp
• read
• set
• until
• while

• To know if a command is built-in or not use the

whence -v/type command

9
Creating a shell Script
• A shell program is a combination of UNIX
commands, programming constructions and
comments.

• To execute the script use chmod command to

turn on the execute permission.

10
Creating a shell Script
• The first line
#!/usr/bin/bash

• Comments
# calculating x

11
Example
$ vi hi1
#!/usr/bin/ksh
# this is my first korn shell script

print hi there

$ chmod +x hi1

$ ./hi1
hi there

Using sourcing
$ . ./hi1
hi there

12
Variables
• Type of Variables:
– Local Variables
– Environment Variables
– Predefined Variables

13
Local Variables
• Local variables are given values that are known
only to the shell in which they are created.
• Variables names must begin with an alphabetic
or underscore character.

14
Examples
$ state=cal
$ echo $state
cal
$ name=“Sherine Bahader”
$ echo $name
Sherine Bahader
$ x=
$ echo $x

$ echo ${state}ifornia
california

15
Arithmetic
• ksh support integers
typeset –i variable

$ typeset –i num
$ num=5+5
$ echo $num
10

16
Examples
$ num=5 + 5
ksh: +: not found

$ num=4*6
$ echo $num
24

$ num=“4 * 6”
$ echo $num
24

$ num=6.789
$ echo $num
6

$ num=hello
$ echo $num
0
Examples
$ i=5
$ let i=i+1
$ print $i
6

$ let “i = i + 2”
$ print $i
8

$ let “i+=1”
$ print $i
Output:
9

$ i=9
$ ((i = i * 6))
$ print $i
54
Environment Variables
• To set a variable
VAR=value
export VAR=value
• To unset a variable
unset VAR
• To display all variables
set
env
export
• To display values stored in variables
echo $VAR
print $var
Environment Variables
• Environment variables are available to the shell
in which they are created and any sub-shells.
PATH
HOME
PS1
LOGNAME
PS2
….
Environment Variables
PS1="$LOGNAME@`uname -n`: \$ "
echo $PS1
user1@host1: $
echo $PATH
/usr/dt/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/bi
n:/usr/ucb
PATH=$PATH:~
echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin

21
Environment Variables
• Quoting is a process that instructs the shell to mask, or
ignore, the special meaning of metacharacters.

• Single forward quotation instruct the shell to ignore all

metacharacters.

• Double quotation instruct the shell to ignore all

metacharacters except $ ' \

• A backslash (\) character prevents the shell from

interpreting the next character as a metacharacter.
Environment Variables
echo '$SHELL‘
$SHELL

echo "$SHELL"
/bin/ksh

echo "\$SHELL"
$SHELL

echo "Today's date is `date`“

Today's date is Tue May 2 14:10:05 MDT 2002

echo "The user is currently in the $(pwd) directory.“

The user is currently in the /home/user1 directory.
Predefined Variables
• Predefined variables are variables known to the shell and their values
are assigned by the shell.

• $#
Number of arguments
• $*
List of all arguments
• $0
Script name
• $1, $2,...
First argument, second argument,..
• $?
Return code of the last command
Examples
$ print The name of the script $0
$ print The first argument $1
$ print The second argument $2
$ print the number of arguments $#
$ oldarg=$*
# reset predefined variables
$ set Ahmed Mohamed Adel
$ print all arguments are $*
$ print the number of arguments $#
$ print $oldarg
# predefined variables are unassigned
$ set --
$ print Good-bye for now, $1
$ set $oldarg
$ print $*
Reading User Input
#!/usr/bin/ksh
print “Are you happy ?”
read answer
print “$answer is the right response.”

print “What is your full name?”

read first middle last
print “hello $first”

print “where do you work?”

read
print I guess $REPLY keeps you busy !

read place?”where do you live?”

print Welcome to $place, $first $last
Conditional Constructs and Flow control

• Conditional commands allow you to perform some tasks based on whether

or not a condition succeeds or fails
– if
– if/else
– if/elif/else

• The shell expects a command after an if and the exit status of the
command is used to evaluate the condition.

• To evaluate an expression use the test command or double brackets.

27
Testing and logical operations

• String Testing
string1=string2 string1 is equal string2
string1!=string2 string1 is not equal string2
string string is not null
-z string Length of string is zero
-n string Length of string is nonzero

28
Testing and logical operations (cont.)

• Integer Testing
int1 –eq int2 • equal to
int1 –ne int2 • not equal to
int1 –gt int2 • greater than
int1 –ge int2 • greater and equal
int1 –lt int2 • less than
int1 –le int2 • less and equal

29
Testing and logical operations (cont.)

• ! • not operator
• and operator
• -a
• or operator
• -o
• -f filename • file existence
• -h filename • symbolic link
• -r filename • readable
• -w filename • writable
• -x filename • executable

30
Examples
$ test –r fname

$ test “islam” = “islama”

$ test 5 –gt 3

$ test “sbahader” = “sbahader” –a 5 –gt 3

31
The if command
if command
then
… commands …
fi
or
if [ expression ]
then
… commands …
fi
if command
then
… commands …
if command
then
… commands …
fi
fi

32
Examples
$ if test -f file1
>then
>cat file1
>fi

$ if [ -f file1 ]
> then
> cat file1
>fi

$ print “Are you ok?”

$ read answer
$ if [ $answer = Y –o $answer = y ]
> then
> print “Glad to hear that ”
 fi

33
Thanks 

SBAHADER@[Link]

34