Unix Shell Scripting

1
Course Objectives
 The participant will learn
 Linux Introduction
 Linux file related commands
 Linux text manipulation commands
 Environment variables
 The vi-editor
 Shell programming
 Awk programming

2
Introduction to Linux
 Features of Linux System:
1. Simple design, organization and functioning
2. Portability
3. Background processing
4. Hierarchical File System
5. Multi-user
6. Multi-tasking
7. Security
8. Interactive Operating System
9. Communication facilities
10. Utilities
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Introduction to Linux
 Utility Software:
1. Text Manipulation tools: cut, grep, tr, etc.
2. Advanced filters: sed, awk, etc.
3. Document Formatting tools: troff, nroff, etc.
4. Various Programming Languages: C, C++, Java,
etc.
5. Interactive Calculators : bc, dc, etc.
6. Advanced tools : lex, yacc.

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Linux File System
 The Linux file system is the structure in which all the
information on your computer is stored.
 It has hierarchical file structure, where each directory
can contain files, as well as other directories.
 It looks like an upside down tree.
 Linux looks at everything as a file.
 At the top is the root directory, represented by a
forward slash (/).
 At the children node of it is a set of common
directories in the Linux system, such as /bin, /dev,
/home, etc.

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Linux File System
 The diagram shows the Linux file structure
/

bin/ home/ etc/ dev/ …

itp1/ itp2/ …

test1.sh test2.sh …

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Linux File System
 In Windows file systems, drive letters represent
different storage devices like A: is a floppy drive, C:
is a hard disk, etc. In Linux, all storage devices are
in the same file system hierarchy.
 Windows file systems uses backslash (\) to separate
directory names, whereas Linux uses forward slash
(/) for the same.
 Every file and directory in a Linux system has
permissions and ownership associated with it.
 File names have suffixes in Windows, whereas in
Linux you can use them as conventions.

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Linux File System
 The chunk of the disk is divided into blocks (1024-
bytes block, or 4096-bytes block, etc.) in multiple of
512 bytes in size.
 These blocks are organized into four groupings- boot
block, superblock, inode blocks and data blocks.

FS1
Boot Super
FS2 block block inode list Data blocks …..
FS3

8
Linux Users
 Users
1. Super user
2. Owner
3. Group
4. Others

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Introduction to Linux
 Logging on and Logging off.
Step 1: telnet <System Address>
Step 2: login : ravindra
Step 3: password : ******
Login incorrect
Step 4: login : ravindra
Step 5: password : ******
Step 6: $ Command prompt to execute commands
Step 7: $ logout

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Unix Shells
 The Bourne shell /bin/sh (written by S. R. Bourne).
 Along came the people from UCB and the C-shell
/bin/csh was born. Into this shell they put several
concepts which were new, (the majority of these being
job control and aliasing) and managed to produce a
shell that was much better for interactive use.
 Eventually David Korn from AT&T had the bright idea to
sort out this mess and the Korn shell /bin/ksh made its
appearance. The Korn shell became part of System V
but had one major problem; unlike the rest of the UNIX
shells it wasn't free, you had to pay AT&T for it.

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Unix Shells
 Also at about this time the GNU project was
underway and they decided that they needed a free
shell, they also decided that they wanted to make
this new shell POSIX compatible, thus bash (the
Bourne again shell) was born.
 Like the Korn shell bash was based upon the Bourne
shells language and like the Korn shell, it also
pinched features from the C shell and other
operating systems.

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Unix Shells
 The Bourne Shell
 The Bourne shell is the original UNIX shell program. It is
very widely used. You can start the Bourne shell—if it
hasn't been set as your default startup shell—by typing
"sh" or "/bin/sh" at the command prompt. This will not
spawn a new shell window, but rather will just change
your current shell to the Bourne shell.
 The Bourne shell supports conditional branching in the
form of if/then/else statements. In addition, the Bourne
shell supports case statements and loops (for, while,
and until).
 The Bourne shell uses the $ as a prompt.

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Unix Shells
 The Korn shell
 The Korn shell is a much newer variation of the Bourne
shell. It supports everything the Bourne shell does, and
adds features not available in the Bourne shell. The Korn
shell is not a standard offering in UNIX installations. If you
have the Korn shell, you can run it by typing ksh or /bin/ksh
at the shell prompt. A public-domain version of the Korn
shell, called pdksh.
 The Korn shell was originally written by David Korn and is
copyrighted by AT&T.
 The programming structure of the Korn shell is very similar
to that of the Bourne shell. The Korn shell, however, is more
interactive.

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Unix Shells
 The C shell
 The C shell is a very commonly used shell. Its
programming structure closely resembles that of the
programming language "C."
 The C shell uses the "%" as a prompt.
 The C shell supports all of the features that the Bourne
shell supports, and has a more natural syntax for
programming.
 The C shell is more interactive than the Bourne shell, with
additional features that aren't available in older shells.
 The configuration of the C shell is controlled by the .rc
and the .login files.

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Unix Shells
 The tc shell
 The tc shell is a more modern variation of the C shell.
 It reads the same configuration files that the C shell
uses.
 Tcsh contains command line editing keystrokes that
the C shell is missing, and has more "modern"
conveniences that the C shell lacks.

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Unix Shells
 The Bourne-Again shell
 The Bourne-Again shell is  a variation of the Bourne shell.
 It is commonly used in Linux, but is widely available in
other standard UNIX distributions.
 The Bourne Again shell is another modification of the
Bourne shell, and uses the $ as a prompt.
 To start the Bourne Again shell, type "bash" at the shell
prompt.
 The behavior and environment of the Bourne Again shell
is controlled by the .bashrc file, which you'll find as a
hidden file in your home directory.

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Unix Shells
 Unix Shell application comparison table
 Application sh csh ksh bash tcsh
 Job control N Y Y Y Y
 Aliases N Y Y Y Y
 Input/Output redirection Y N Y Y N
 Command history N Y Y Y Y
 Command line editing N N Y Y Y
 Vi Command line editing N N Y Y Y
 Underlying Syntax sh csh ksh sh csh

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Basic commands in Linux
 $ who
 The command shows who is logged on

 $ who am I
 The command shows who are you

 $ who \
> am \
>i\
 We can type a command over two or more lines. A
backslash character before the end of the line followed
by a new line is taken to be continuation of the line.

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Commands In Linux
 $ man
 The command formats and displays on-line manual

pages.
 The manual pages are divided into logical grouping of

the commands called the sections. Sections are

numbered from 1 through 9. For example, commands
are 1, system calls are 2, library function are 3, file
formats are 5, & management commands are 8.
 If section is specified, man only looks in that section
of the manual.
 The command man 2 open will display the manual

for the system call open.

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Commands In Linux
 Option Description
–k searches a set of database files containing
short descriptions of system commands
for keywords and displays the result on
the standard output.
-f gives one line introduction to the
command (only complete word matches
are displayed).

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Basic commands in Linux
 $ date
 The command prints or sets the system date and time

 $ date –r TestFile
 It displays the last modification time of the file

“TestFile”
 $ date string
 The super user can invoke the date command with a

numeric argument to set the system date.

 This argument is usually an eight-character string of the

form MMDDhhmm (month, day, hour in 24-hour format,

minutes), and optionally followed by a two-digit year
string.

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Basic commands in Linux
 The command can be used with suitable format specifiers as
arguments. Each format is preceded by a + symbol,
followed by the % operator, and a single character
describing the format.
 Sequence Interpretation
+%a abbreviated weekday name (Mon .. Sun)
+%b abbreviated month name (Jan .. Dec)
+%d day of month (01 .. 31)
+%r time (12- hour)
+%T time (24- hour)
+%y last two digits of year (00 .. 99)
+%D date (mm/dd/yy)

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Commands In Linux
 $ ls
 The command lists contents of directories

 Option Description
-l list in long format
-C multicolumn output
-F indicates type of file by /, *
-R recursive listing of all subdirectories
encountered
-a list all files including hidden files

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Commands In Linux
 $ cat
 The command concatenates files and prints on the

standard output
 $ cat file1 file2 …
 It displays contents of all files specified on the

command line one below the other

 $ cat > file
 It creates a new file by accepting text from the

standard input
 Press CTRL-d to save and exit the file

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Commands In Linux
 $ mkdir [-p] dirname
 The command makes a directory dirname.

 The dirname can contain the full path prefix of the

directory to be created.
 When executed with –p option, it won’t give any

error if the directory dirname already exists.

 When executed with option –p, it makes parent

directories in the path if needed (if any parent

directory in the path is not available) .

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Commands In Linux
 cd [directory]
 change working directory to the directory if

specified or to the home directory otherwise

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Commands In Linux
 $ pwd
 The command prints name of your current

working directory

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Commands In Linux
 $cp
 Copies files and directories

 $ cp file1 file2
 It copies file1 to file2

 $ cp file1 file2 … dest_directory

 It copies multiple files in the specified existing

directory
 $ cp -r directory1 directory2 … dest_directory
 Recursively copies files from directory1, directory2

etc. to the dest_directory

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Commands In Linux
 $ mv
 The command changes name of your file or moves

your file to the specified destination path

 $ mv file1 new-file
 It renames file1 as new-file

 $ mv file1 file2 … dest_directory

 It moves multiple files to the specified existing

directory
 $ mv directory1 directory2 … dest_directory
 moves one or more directory subtrees to an existing

or new dest_directory

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Commands In Linux

 $ rm
 The command is used to get rid of unwanted

files/directories
 $ rm [-i] file …
 It is interactive removal (option –i) of specified

files.
 $ rm -r directory …
 It is recursive deletion of all files within the

specified directories and also the directories

themselves.

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Commands In Linux
 Wild characters
 ^ beginning of the line
 $ end of the line
 ? Matches any character
 [ ] set of characters character hyphen(-)
represents range
 { } a number enclosed in it specifies the
number of times the preceding
expression is to be repeated
 ! represents negation

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Linux Users
 Users
1. Super user
2. Owner
3. Group
4. Others

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Commands In Linux
 $ chmod
 The command changes file permission.

 Using absolute value.

4 - Read, 2 - Write, 1 – Execute

 $ chmod 740 zz

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Commands In Linux
 Using Symbolic Mode
Code Meaning
a all
u user
g group
o other
+ add
- remove
= assign

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 Commands In Linux
 $ umask
 The command changes initial Permission of newly

created file.
 The value of the argument can be calculated by
subtracting the mode you want as default from the
current default mode.
 Assume the current default mode is 0666 and you
want it as 0644 then 666 – 644 = 022 will be the
parameter which we have to pass with umask
command.
 $umask 0 – sets default mode which is 0666.

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Text Manipulation Commands
 Filters :
 Filters : A filter is a shell command which takes input
from the standard input, processes it, and sends its
output to the standard output.
 At run time, the system supplies data to the filter as
standard input. This std input file can not be altered
by the program.

37
Text Manipulation Commands
 An important characteristic of filter is that all the
input, output and error channels have the same
structure. They are all unstructured byte streams
data delimited by an end-of-data marker.
 Some widely used filters in Unix are: sort, grep, and
wc.
 Filters allows the users to create the complex
programs from the simpler programs.
 The commands cp, mv and cd are not filter
commands.

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 Text Manipulation Commands
 wc : word count.
 $ wc -[wlc] [filename]
 head : displays first ‘n’ lines
 $ head -[n] [filename]
 tail : displays last ‘n’ lines
 $ tail -[n] [filename]
 split : divides files horizontally
 $ split -[n] [filename]
 we get m subfiles of size n (xaa, xab,…).

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Text Manipulation Commands
$ cut -[cfd] [filename]
-c characters
-f field no
-d field separator

$ cut -c2-5 sample

cuts characters from 2 to 5 from file sample.
continued...

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Text Manipulation Commands
 $ cut -c1,2 file
 cuts 1st and 2nd characters from file.

 $ cut -d” “ -f1-2 file

 cuts first 2 fields of the file.

 $ cut -c2- names

 cuts from 2nd char to the end of line.

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Text Manipulation Commands
 paste: join files column-wise
 $ paste -d[field separator] [list of files]

 uniq: removes duplicate lines from a sorted file

 $ uniq –[dcf] [file]

-d only print duplicate lines

-c prefix lines with number of
occurences
-f2 avoid comparing first two fields.

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Text Manipulation Commands
 sort: Sorting text files
 Self study.
 Try to find out different options for this command
using man pages.

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Text Manipulation Commands
 tee: read from standard input and write to
standard output and files
 $ls –l | tee dircontents
 displays the directory contents on the standard
output as well as stores them to file dircontents.
 nl: number lines of files
 nl –[options] [files]

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Text Manipulation Commands
 tr : Translating Characters.
$ tr [options] < [file]
-d : deletes specified characters.
-cd : do not delete specified characters.
-s : substitute characters.
$ tr “abc” “ABC” < samp : replaces all occurrences of
a with A, b with B, c with C.

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Commands In Linux
 grep: it is called as global regular expression
pattern. It searches for a given pattern in the
file(s)
 $ grep -[cvnl] [pattern] [files]
 Option Description
-c counts the total no of lines containing that
pattern.
-v displays all the lines not containing that
pattern.
-n displays lines with line no.
-l displays file names containing the pattern.
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Commands In Linux
 fgrep: fast searching for fixed strings
 It handles fixed character strings as text patterns.
 It cannot process wild-card matches, character
classes.
 egrep: used to search with full regular expressions.
 It is called as extended grep.
 egrep ‘ (Ravi|Ravindra) Joshi ‘ employee.txt

 This will search for Ravi Joshi as well as for

Ravindra Joshi

47
Commands In Linux
 $ ps
 It shows process status.

 Display the attribute of a process.

 Options
 $ ps -f --> Full option
 $ ps -f -u itp5 --> gives processes of user itp5

 $ ps -a --> all users processes.

 $ ps -e --> all processes on the system
including system processes.

48
Commands In Linux
 $ kill
 The command is used to terminate a process. The

command uses one or more PIDs as its arguments.

 $ Kill 105
 It will terminate job with PID 105.

 $ kill -9 121
 The option –9 indicates sure kill signal.

 $ kill $!
 The system variable $! Stores the PID of the last

background job.

49
Commands In Linux
 To execute any process in background just use & at
the end of the command.
 $ sh test &

 To bring the process in foreground use fg

 To check out jobs currently running in background
use command --> jobs
 $ jobs

50
The Environment
 The Unix system is controlled by a number of shell
variables that are separately set by the system some
during boot sequence, and some after logging in.
These variables are called system variables or
environment variables.
 The set statement displays the complete list of all
these variables. Built-in variable names are defined in
uppercase.

51
The Environment
 The PATH : is a variable that instructs the shell about
the route it should follow to locate any executable
command.
 The HOME : when you log in, UNIX normally places
you in a directory named after your login name.
 The MAIL : determines where all incoming mail
addressed to the user is to be stored.
 The PS1 and PS2 : PS1 - your command prompt and
PS2-Multi-line command string.
 The SHELL: determines the type of shell that a user
sees on logging in.

52
The Environment
 .bash_profile : the script executed during login time.
Every time you make changes to it, you should log
out and log in again.
 The .bash_profile must be located in your home
directory, and it is executed after /etc/profile, the
universal profile for all users. Universal environment
settings are kept by the administrator in /etc/profile
so that they are available to all users.

53
The Environment
 ALIASES : it allows you to assign short-hand names for
commands you may be using quite frequently. This is
done with the alias statement. Consider following ex.
 $ alias l=‘ls -l’

 Aliases are listed when the alias statement is used without

argument.
 The alias feature also allows you to incorporate positional
parameters as variables in an alias. For ex.
 $ alias showdir=‘cd $1 ; ls -l’

 When you want to see the contents of the directory

/home/itp5 use the alias as
 $ showdir /home/itp5

54
The Environment
 Setting the Environment variable:
 Environment variables can provide a way of storing
information that you need to use often from the
shell.
 Assigning a value to a variable will set an
environment variable temporarily. For example:
 $ x=50
 This example will set value 50 to the variable x. Use
the export (discussed latter) command to export the
value to the shell so that it can be propagated to
other shells you may open.

55
The Environment
 The variable will not be available if you exit the shell.
Add these variables to configuration files (discussed
earlier) to set them permanently.
 If you no longer want a variable to be set, you can
use the unset command to erase its value.
 For example
 $ unset x
 This command will cause x to have no value set.

56
The Environment
 By default,the values stored in shell variables are local to
the shell, i.e., they are available only in the shell in which
they are defined. They are not passed on to a child shell.
But the shell can also export those variables recursively
to all child processes so that, once defined, they are
available globally. This is done with the export
command.
 For example, consider a simple script
 $vi exporttest.sh
–
echo the value of x is $x
– x=50
– echo the new value of x is $x

57
The Environment
 Now at the command prompt, first assign value 25 to x,
and then execute the above script and observe, we will
get following output
 $ x=25
 $ ./exporttest.sh
 the value of x is
 the new value of x is 50
 $ echo $x
 $ 25
 Because x is a local variable in the login shell, its value
can’t be accessed in the script exporttest.sh.

58
 The Environment
 We will use the export command and observe the change.
 $ x=25
 $ export x
 $ ./exporttest.sh
 the value of x is 25
 the new value of x is 50
 $ echo $x
 25
 When x is exported, its assigned value 25 is available in the
script. A reassignment (x=50) in the script which is a sub-
shell, is not seen in the parent shell which executed the
script.

59
The Environment
 Executing commands from a file: . (dot)
 If we have a list of commands in a file sample then
we can execute it using command . sample
 It is like executing a shell script, but with following
difference:
 Standard shell scripts cause a new sub shell to be

created to run the script. The dot command, uses

the same shell and it just needs redirection to take
the commands from the file instead of from the
keyboard.

60
The Environment
 The dot command can change the value of a shell
variable in the current shell.
 The export command lets you pass a variable’s value
from parent shell to child shell, but there is no
comparable mechanism for passing a value from
child to parent.
 The dot command, however, creates no child
process, so any changes it produces apply to the
original shell.
 It also doesn’t require the script to have executable
permission.

61
The Environment
 For example, consider the simple script
 $vi dottest.sh
– echo the value of x is $x
– x=50
– echo the new value of x is $x
 Now we will observe the change by exporting
variable x and executing the script using dot
command.

62
The Environment
 $ x=25
 $ export x

 $ . dottest.sh

 $ the value of x is 25

 $ the new value of x is 50

 $ echo $x

 $ 50

 When x is exported, its assigned value 25 is available in

the script. A reassignment (x=50) in the script has also
changed the value of x in the parent shell which
executed the script.

63
The vi Editor
A vi session begins by invoking the command “vi”
with or without a filename.
$ vi
After executing this command you will get a full
empty screen, each line beginning with a ~(tilde).
The last line in the screen is reserved for some
commands that you can enter to act on the text.
This line is also used by the system to display
messages.

64
Modes of operation
The three different modes of operations are:
1. Command mode : This is the mode where you can
pass the commands to act on the text, using most of
the keys of the keyboard.
Example: Key “x” is used to delete the character at
the cursor position.
You can switch to this mode using “ESC” key.
contd..

65
Modes of operation
2. Insert (Input) mode: To enter the text, you have to
enter into input mode. Press key “i” to enter into
insert mode from command mode.
3. ex mode or line mode : You have to save your file or
switch to another file or make a global substitution in
the file. You then have to use ex mode, where you
can enter the instruction in the last line of the
screen. To enter into this mode press “ESC” & “:”
Example: ex mode command “:wq” will save the
current file and will quit from the editor.

66
Text insertion commands
Command Description
1. i inserts text at cursor position
2. a inserts text after cursor position
3. I inserts text at beginning of line
4. A inserts text after end of line
5. o opens line below current line to
insert text
6. O opens line above current line to
insert text

67
Cursor movement commands
Command Description
1. h left by one character
2. l right by one character
3. k up by one line
4. j down by one line
5. w right by one word
6. b left by one word
7. 0 beginning of line
8. $ end of line

68
 Text deletion commands
Command Description
1. x character under cursor
2. X character before cursor
3. dw word
4. d0 beginning to cursor position
5. d$ cursor position to end of line
6. [n]dd n lines from current line
7. [n]dd p p will paste deleted lines to
current cursor position.
Equivalent to Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V
[in Windows]

69
 Text copy commands
Command Description
1. y character
2. y0 beginning to cursor position
3. y$ cursor position to end of line
4. yw word
5. [n]yy n lines from current line in to the buffer
6. [n]yy p p will paste copied lines to current
cursor position. Equivalent to Ctrl-C and Ctrl-
V [in windows]

70
Text modification commands
Command Description
1. nc [space] overwrites next n characters
2. c0 overwrites the portion between
beginning of line to cursor position
3. c$ overwrites the portion between cursor to
end of line
4. cw overwrites current word
5. :[addr1,addr2]s/pattern1/pattern2[/g]
globally replaces pattern1 with pattern2 on the
specified lines

71
File related commands
Command Description
1. ZZ or :wq save and exit
2. :w save & continue editing
3. :q! quit without saving
4. :r filnam insert file filnam
5. :[addr1,addr2]w filname
write the lines between line
number addr1 and line number
addr2 in the file filname
contd..

72
File related commands
Command Description
1. “a4yy copy 4 lines into buffer a
2. “ap paste contents of buffer a to
current cursor position.
Maximum 26 buffers are available buffer having
names “a” to “z”
1. ctrl-v select particular columns
2. “byy copy selected into buffer b
3. “bp paste contents of buffer b to current
cursor position.
contd..

73
File related commands
Command Description
1. 1,$s/source/target/ substitute string source by
string target from line number 1 to last line
2. u undo last change on the line
3. U undo last changes on the line
4. Ctrl-R redo the undone changes.
5. e edit multiple files
6. e# return to original file
7. rew back to first file in command line
contd..

74
Visual mode commands
Command Description
1. v_u converts the character to lower
case
2. v_U converts the character to upper
case
3. sp splitting window
4. Ctrl-w toggle between windows
5. <Ctrl-w>j moves to lower window
6. <Ctrl-w>k moves to upper window

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Customizing vi
 The set command
 When the string “no” is prefixed to any option, it
indicates that the option is inoperative.
Command Description
1. :Set all displays all set option
2. :set autoindent does automatic indentation
3. :set number shows all line duly numbered
4. :set showmatch helps to locate matching
brackets
5. :set tabstop=5 sets tab=5 for display

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 Advanced Commands
 The .exrc File and exinit : all sets, maps and
abbreviations can be conveniently stored in the file
$HOME/.exrc
 Vi looks for this file on startup and executes the
instructions as ex mode command

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Shell Programming
 When a group of commands has to be executed
regularly, they are stored in a file. All such files are
called shell scripts, shell programs, or shell
procedures.
 There is no restrictions on extension of these files,
but conventionally extension .sh is used for a shell
program.
 You can use the vi editor to create the shell script.

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Shell Programming
 You can execute the shell scripts using either
command sh or by just typing shell script name at
the prompt (make sure that you have execute
permission).
 $ sh test.sh
 $ test.sh
 $ ./test.sh

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Shell Programming
 User-created Shell Variables :
variable=value => will assign value to variable.
$variable => will print value of the variable.
 Command echo : it displays message on the screen.

Consider following ex.

$ var=hello
$ echo $var “$var” ‘$var’
with this the output will be
$ hello hello $var
2. read var => will read value from keyboard to var.
$ read var
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Shell Programming
 Operators
Arithmetic : + - / * %
Relational : -lt -le -gt -ge –eq –ne
Logical : -a -o
 Expression
expr 10 + 20
 Assignment statement.
x=77
 Command substitution: when a command is enclosed in
back quotes, the command is replaced by the output it
produces. Ex. The command
x=`expr $x + 1` will set x=78
81
Shell Programming
 Shell Metacharacters:
 Wildcard substitution: * ? []

 Redirection: > >> < 2> <<

 Piping: |

 Command substitution: ` `
 Sequential commands: semicolon (;)

 Inserting comment: #

 Command grouping: () parenthesis

 Ex. (date; cat employee.txt) > Report

 This will copy contents of employee.txt with current

date to a file Report.

82
Shell Programming
 Creating a here document (<< operator):
 It allows a shell script to get its input from the same
file that holds the script.
 Data used this way is said to be in a here document.
 To create a here document, we use the << operator.
 Any command using standard input can also have the
input from a here document.
 The here document symbol (<<) followed by the
data, and a delimiter (the termination string).

83
Shell Programming
 The example for here document
 $ wc << EOF

 >This is for testing the here document. It will

>give us the count of lines, words and characters

>till the terminator given after here document
>symbol, the terminator which is the EOF.
 We will get output of the command as number of
lines, words, characters till first occurrence of the
EOF symbol in the script
 We can use any string as a terminator.

84
Shell Programming
 Debugging the scripts
 Command set is used for debugging purpose
 The –v option of sh causes the shell to echo each
command before it is executed.
 Command Action
1. set –v sets the debugging mode on
2. sh –v sample.sh echoes each command of
script sample.sh before it is executed
3. set +v turns off –v option of sh
 We can also use –x option. What is difference?

85
Shell Programming
 Conditional Statement – if then else
 Syntax:
if test <condition>
then
command1
command2
else
command3
fi
 The if statement takes two-way decisions depending on
the condition .

86
Shell Programming
 String Tests used by the command test
String Comparison True if
string1 = string2 strings equal
string1 != string2 strings not equal
-n string string not null
-z string string is null

87
Shell Programming
 Arithmetic expression comparisons used by the
command test
Arithmetic comparison True if
expr1 -eq expr2 expressions equal
expr1 -ne expr2 expressions not equal
expr1 -gt expr2 expr1 > expr2
expr1 -ge expr2 expr1 >= expr2
expr1 -lt expr2 expr1 < expr2
expr1 -le expr2 expr1 <=expr2
! expression expression is false

88
Shell Programming
 String Tests used by the command test
Test True if
-d file file exists and is a directory
-e file file exists
-f file file exists and is a regular file
-r file file exists and is a readable
-s file file exists and has a size > 0
-w file file exists and is a writable
-x file file exists and is a executable

89
Shell Programming
 Conditional Statement - case
 Syntax:
case $value in
val1) command1
command2;;
val2) command3;;
….
*) command4;;
esac
 The statement matches an expression for more than one
alternative, and permits multi-way branching.

90
Shell Programming
 Example of case statement:
echo “Enter the color”
read color
case $color in
Red | red) echo “You have selected red color”;;
Blue | blue) echo “You have selected blue
color”;;
*) echo “Sorry! Yet to add this color in our list”
esac

91
Shell Programming
 Loop Statement - while
 Syntax:
while test <condition>
do
command1
command2
done
 While statement repeatedly performs a set of
instructions till the control command returns a true
exit status.

92
Shell Programming
 Loop Statement – until
 Syntax:
until test <condition>
do
command1
command2
done
 The set of instructions is executed repeatedly as long as
the condition remains false.
 The until statement complements the while statement.

93
Shell Programming
 Unconditional loop – for
 Syntax
for <var> in <val1 val2 …>
do
command1
command2
done
 The loop body (do-done) is executed as many times
as there are items in the list. It doesn’t test
condition but uses a list.

94
Shell Programming
 Example of for statement
 Assume file “Users.txt” contains names of users.
for name in `cat Users.txt`
do
echo Hello, $name
done
 This statement when executed, will print the
message “Hello, user-name” for each user name from
the file.

95
Shell Programming
 Command Line parameters (positional parameters)
 When arguments are specified with a shell script,
they are assigned to variables called positional
parameters.
 The first argument is read by the shell into the
parameter $1, the second into the parameter $2, and
so on.
 The $# represents total no of arguments passed to
the script.
 The command is assigned to a variable $0.
 You can use these variables up to $9.

96
Shell Programming
 The $* indicates all arguments, in a single variable,
separated by the first character in the environment
variable IFS
 The $@ is same as $* except when enclosed in
double quotes.
 The “$@” works with string input.
 The parameter $? stores the exit status of the last
command. On success, the command stores value 0
in $?, and a non-zero value if it fails.

97
Shell Programming
 set : Assigning values to positional parameters.
 $ set 23 532
 The command assigns value 23 to the positional
parameter $1, value 532 to $2.
 It also sets $#, $*.

98
Shell Programming
 shift : shifting arguments to left.
 The command shift copies the contents of a
positional parameter to its immediate lower
numbered positional parameter. When called once,
contents of $2 are copied to $1, $3 to $2 and so on.
 $ shift 2

 The command does two shifts i.e. $1=$3,

$2=$4, and so on.

 Using shift command we can use more than 9
command line parameters.

99
Shell Programming
 Finding the length of the string:
 The regular expression .* signifies to command expr
that it has to print the number of characters
matching the pattern, i.e., the length of the entire
string.
 We can also use keyword length with command expr
 $ expr “abcd” : “.*”
 $4
 $ expr length “abcd”
 $4

100
Shell Programming
 Command grouping using parenthesis ()
 Commands are grouped using parenthesis ()
 Using parenthesis, we can collectively redirect the
standard output of two commands with a single
redirection symbol.
 For example:
 $ (date; cat employee.txt) > Report.txt

 This will redirect the collective output which is current

date and employee.txt file contents to Report.txt file.

101
Shell Programming
 Command grouping using curly braces {}
 The curly braces {} are also used to group commands.
 The difference between () and {} is that parenthesis ()
executes the commands group in a sub-shell, while the
curly braces {} uses the current shell only.
 The closing curly brace must be on a separate line by
itself, or simply terminate the last command with a
semi-colon.
 For example, observe output of the following:
 $ pwd ; ( cd /home/ravindra/test ; pwd) ; pwd

 $ pwd ; { cd /home/ravindra/test ; pwd; } ; pwd

102
Shell Programming
 Shell Functions:
 A function consists of a group of statements which
are executed together as a bunch.
 For function we need function definition (body of
function) and function call.
 A shell function must precede the statements that call
it.
 The return statement, when present, returns a value
representing the success or failure of the function.
 The return statement is optional.

103
Shell Programming
 The syntax for function definition:
 function_test() {

 Command1

 Command2

 Command3

 return value

 }

 When function is invoked it executes all the

commands enclosed by the curly braces.
 Use only function name (function_test ) to invoke it.

104
Shell Programming
 Shell functions can be defined at a number of places:
 At the beginning of every script

 In a separate file, so that other scripts can also use

them
 In the .bash_profile, so that they are available in

the current session

 If we store the functions in a file called
function_library then you must include this file in
your script using dot command as follows:
 $ . function_library

105
Shell Programming
 The positional parameters made available to shell
scripts externally are not available directly to a shell
function.
 We have to store these parameters in the shell
variables and then pass them to the function.
 The parameters are passed on the function call
statement itself.
 These parameters are accessed in the function using
system variables $1, $2, etc.

106
Advanced Filter - awk
 AWK Programming.
 Aho, Weinberger, Kernighan
 A typical and complete awk command specifies
address and an action.
 $ awk ‘/unix/ { print }’ filename

 the address section /unix/ selects lines that are

processed in the action section { print }
 the print statement, when used without any field
specifiers, prints entire line.

107
Advanced Filter - awk
 Splitting a line into fields : awk uses the special
“variable” $0 to indicate the entire line. It also
identifies fields by $1, $2, $3, etc.
 awk uses -F option for indicating the field separator.
 For ex. password file contains colon (:) separated
fields.
 So if you have to use awk you can use as
 $ awk -F”:” ‘/itp/ { print $1, $3, $2 }’ passwd

108
Advanced Filter - awk
 The logical and relational operators.
 $ awk -F”:” ‘$1 == “itp3” || $1 == “itp5” { printf

“%-20s %-12s “ , $2, $5}’ passwd

 The awk can also handle numbers, both integer and
floating type, and all the relational tests can be
handled by awk. (ex. <,<=,==, etc)
 awk has certain built-in variables, like NR- cumulative
record no and $0 (whole record)
 $ awk ‘NR == 3, NR ==5 { print $3, $4 }’ tex

109
Advanced Filter - awk
 Storing awk Programs in a File
 Large awk programs should be stored in files. The
extension should be preferable .awk to distinguish it
from other files.No quotes are used to enclose the
awk program.
 $ vi test.awk

 NR == 3, NR ==5 {print $3, $4}

 you can use awk with -f to get result as

 $ awk -f test.awk text

110
Advanced Filter - awk
 The BEGIN and END sections
 these are optional, and take the form
 BEGIN { action }
 END { action }
 you can use them to print a suitable heading at the
beginning and the average salary at the end. Always
start the opening brace in the same line the section
(BEGIN or END) begins.

111
Advanced Filter - awk
 Built-In variables:
 NR cumulative no of records read
 FS input field separator
 OFS output field separator
 NF number of fields in current record
 FILENAME current input file

112
Advanced Filter - awk
 FUNCTIONS : awk has several built-in functions for
arithmetic and string operation
 int(x) returns integer value of x
 sqrt(x) returns sqare root of x
 length returns length of complete record
 length(x) returns length of x
 substr(s1,s2,s3) returns portion of string of length
s3, starting from position s2 in str s1

113
Advanced Filter - awk
 CONTROL FLOW : awk has practically all the features
of a modern programming language.
 If statement :
 if($5 >20000)
 interest = 0.10 * $5
 else
 interest = 0.05 * $5

114
Advanced Filter - awk
 Looping with for
 for( i=1; i<10; i++)
 Looping with while
 while ( i < 10)
 print $2 * i

115
Thanks!
Contact - Sharda Centre - ext. 5160

116