Case statement with multiple possible values ignored - linux

I would like to execute a shell script which is having below code .
value=`echo "false"`
case $1 in "26492|26851|27407|26493")
value=`echo "true"`
;;
esac
If the first argument is one of the values specified, a word true will be printed otherwise, false will be printed
26492|26851|27407|26493
I am not getting the required output.
I have executed like this sh -x script name 27407.
Can some one please help in this ?

There are two issues here:
You can't enclose the option indicators (the pipe symbols, |) within the quotation marks, since that makes bash treat that entire string as a single possible value.
Your echo statement is enclosed in back-ticks, and that's assigned to value. So what happens is that instead of getting true as the output, you're getting the value of value changed.
Try:
case $1 in 26492|26851|27407|26493)
echo "true"
;;
esac

Related

Unix & Linux ksh shell: How to use eval in CASE expression when variable is derived from a string plus another variable? [duplicate]

How can I retrieve a bash variable value if I have the variable name as string? var1="this is the real value"
a="var1"
Do something to get value of var1 just using variable a.
Context:
I have some AMI's (Amazon Machine Image) and I want to fire up a few instances of each AMI. As soon as they finish booting, I want to setup each instance according to its AMI type. I don't want to bake lots of scripts or secret keys inside any AMI so I prepared a generalized startup script and I put it on S3 with a publicly accessible link. In rc.local I put small piece of code which fetches the startup script and executes it. This is all I have in the AMIs. Then each AMI accesses a common configuration script which is applicable to all AMIs and special setup scripts for each. These scripts are private and require a signed URL to access them.
So now, when I fire an instance of an AMI (my_private_ami_1), I pass a signed URL for one more file presented on S3 which contains signed URL for all private scripts in terms of key/value pair.config_url="http://s3.amazo.../config?signature"
my_private_ami_1="http://s3.amazo.../ami_1?signature"
...
When the startup script runs, it downloads the above file and source's it. Then it checks for its AMI type and picks the correct setup script for itself.
ami\_type=GET AMI TYPE #ex: sets ami\_type to my\_private\_ami\_1
setup\_url=GET THE SETUP FILE URL BASED ON AMI\_TYPE # this is where this problem arises
So now I can have a generic code which can fire instances irrespective of their AMI types and instances can take care of themselves.
You can use ${!a}:
var1="this is the real value"
a="var1"
echo "${!a}" # outputs 'this is the real value'
This is an example of indirect parameter expansion:
The basic form of parameter expansion is ${parameter}. The value of
parameter is substituted.
If the first character of parameter is an exclamation point (!), it
introduces a level of variable indirection. Bash uses the value of the
variable formed from the rest of parameter as the name of the
variable; this variable is then expanded and that value is used in the
rest of the substitution, rather than the value of parameter itself.
X=foo
Y=X
eval "Z=\$$Y"
sets Z to foo.
For my fellow zsh users, the way to accomplish the same thing as the accepted answer is to use:
echo ${(P)a} # outputs 'this is the real value'
It is appropriately called Parameter name replacement
This forces the value of the parameter name to be interpreted as a
further parameter name, whose value will be used where appropriate.
Note that flags set with one of the typeset family of commands (in
particular case transformations) are not applied to the value of name
used in this fashion.
If used with a nested parameter or command substitution, the result of
that will be taken as a parameter name in the same way. For example,
if you have ‘foo=bar’ and ‘bar=baz’, the strings ${(P)foo},
${(P)${foo}}, and ${(P)$(echo bar)} will be expanded to ‘baz’.
Likewise, if the reference is itself nested, the expression with the
flag is treated as if it were directly replaced by the parameter name.
It is an error if this nested substitution produces an array with more
than one word. For example, if ‘name=assoc’ where the parameter assoc
is an associative array, then ‘${${(P)name}[elt]}’ refers to the
element of the associative subscripted ‘elt’.
Modified my search keywords and Got it :). eval a=\$$a Thanks for your time.
In bash 4.3+, you can use declare -n:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
var="this is the real value"
var_name="var"
declare -n var_ref=$var_name
echo "${var_ref}"
Had the same issue with arrays, here is how to do it if you're manipulating arrays too :
array_name="ARRAY_NAME"
ARRAY_NAME=("Val0" "Val1" "Val2")
ARRAY=$array_name[#]
echo "ARRAY=${ARRAY}"
ARRAY=("${!ARRAY}")
echo "ARRAY=${ARRAY[#]}"
echo "ARRAY[0]=${ARRAY[0]}"
echo "ARRAY[1]=${ARRAY[1]}"
echo "ARRAY[2]=${ARRAY[2]}"
This will output :
ARRAY=ARRAY_NAME[#]
ARRAY=Val0 Val1 Val2
ARRAY[0]=Val0
ARRAY[1]=Val1
ARRAY[2]=Val2
In bash 4.3, the '-v' test for set variables was introduced. At the same time, 'nameref' declaration was added. These two features together with the indirection operator (!) enable a simplified version of the previous example:
get_value()
{
declare -n var_name=$1
if [[ -v var_name ]]
then
echo "${var_name}"
else
echo "variable with name <${!var_name}> is not set"
fi
}
test=123
get_value test
123
test="\$(echo \"something nasty\")"
get_value test
$(echo "something nasty")
unset test
get_value test
variable with name <test> is not set
As this approach eliminates the need for 'eval', it is safer.
This code checked under bash 5.0.3(1).
modern shells already support arrays( and even associative arrays). So please do use them, and use less of eval.
var1="this is the real value"
array=("$var1")
# or array[0]="$var1"
then when you want to call it , echo ${array[0]}
Based on the answer: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/111627
###############################################################################
# Summary: Returns the value of a variable given it's name as a string.
# Required Positional Argument:
# variable_name - The name of the variable to return the value of
# Returns: The value if variable exists; otherwise, empty string ("").
###############################################################################
get_value_of()
{
variable_name=$1
variable_value=""
if set | grep -q "^$variable_name="; then
eval variable_value="\$$variable_name"
fi
echo "$variable_value"
}
test=123
get_value_of test
# 123
test="\$(echo \"something nasty\")"
get_value_of test
# $(echo "something nasty")
VALUE=$(eval "echo \$$SOME_VAR_NAME")
Example
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_FOO="/tmp/key"
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_PREFIX="SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH"
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_SUFFIX="FOO"
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH=$(eval "echo \$${SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_PREFIX}_${SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_SUFFIX}")
echo "$SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH"
/tmp/key

How to Read a variable in defined in terminal to a bash script

I am new to shell scripting. I have a very basic question about how we read variables defined in our terminal as input to a shell scirpt.
let us say i defined this variable in my terminal
a=22
if i do echo $a it gives 22 as output in my terminal.
I wanted to pass this variable as a parameter to a script named input.sh
#!/bin/bash
echo "Enter variable name:"
read Input
echo $Input
I ran the scirpt as ./input.sh It popped up the message as
Enter variable name:$a
But in the output i have $a as output not 22. I wanted 22 as output. Is there a way to do this?
You are mixing several things here. Where to start...
The usual way to pass values to a script is through positional parameters.
Suppose you have this script, called s1 :
#!/bin/bash
echo "First two args are: $1 $2"
If you execute it like this :
./s1 Arg1 Arg2
You will see the following output :
First two args are: Arg1 Arg2
If you want to pass a variable name to the script, and have that script output the value of this variable, then you must do two things. First, initialize the variable and export it so that it can be seen by the children processes (including the script you will call, which is a separate process unless called with source or .).
VAR="Some value"
export VAR
You can also do both in a single statement:
export VAR="Some value"
Then, adapt the script to perform an indirect access to the variable :
#!/bin/bash
echo "Value of variable named $1 : ${!1}"
Please note that while $1 means "the content of variable 1", ${!1} means "the content of the variable that is named $1". This is the indirect part.
Now, if you want to take it a step further, and allow the script to interactively read user input (not an argument) and use the value read as a variable name to expand, you would do something like this :
#!/bin/bash
echo "Please enter a variable name"
read VARNAME
echo "Value of variable named $VARNAME : ${!VARNAME}"
Using positional parameters makes the script easier to reuse in non-interactive scenarios, so reading user input should be limited to cases where it is necessary.
The above is to help understand the basics. If you move beyond toy scripts, you will need to understand the security implications of indirect access (especially if you allow user input). You will also need to validate positional parameters or user input are valid for your purpose (i.e. contains a valid variable name) so that you may have your script react appropriately. Well, you would probably need to check if positional parameters were even provided to begin with. All of this is doable in shell scripting, but is beyond the scope of a single question. In any case, checking input (and also errors) will be required if you intend to have robust scripts in situations where reliability is expected.
To use the variables defined in the terminal in your bash script -
Change last line of your script so that it looks like -
#!/bin/bash
echo "Enter variable name:"
read Input
echo ${!Input}
Run your script input.sh on the terminal as -
. input.sh
And finally, when you input the variable name, do not use $ sign. For e.g. -
6c4008a16b7c:~ z001lg8$ . input.sh
Enter variable name:
a
22
6c4008a16b7c:~ z001lg8$
Voila, you can now use the variables defined in the terminal in your script.
Explanation -
In your script, $Input is changed to ${!Input} so that the content of the user input(which is variable name) is echoed and not the variable name itself.
As explained by #Fred - $1 means "the content of variable 1", ${!1} means "the content of the variable that is named $1".
When script is run as . input.sh , it means that you are sourcing the script contents on the terminal. The . symbol is used for sourcing a command/script.
The $ sign is not required when the variable name is entered in terminal because ${!Input} format already takes into account that the value in Input variable is a variable name.

Batch Script - Comma causing problems when writing numerical value to txt file

So this is an example of a script I'm writing to produce txt file containing a list of correctly formatted commands to be passed to another system, based on a long series of questions.
If objectName, objectNumber, or objectCategory are assigned an alphanumeric value, the script will write correctly to the txt file. However, if I were to assign a numerical value, the value is not written to the txt file.
I'm guessing this is a syntax issue related to the use of a comma, as I can replace it with with pretty much anything and the script will behave, though unfortunately it has to be a comma.
#ECHO OFF
SET objectCounter=1
SET /p objectName=What is the name of the object %objectCounter%?:
#ECHO OBJECTNAME%objectCounter%,%objectName%> objects.txt
SET /p objectNumber=How many of object %objectCounter% are there?:
#ECHO OBJECTNUMBER%objectCounter%,%objectNumber%>> objects.txt
SET /p objectCategory=Which group does object %objectCounter% belong to?:
#ECHO OBJECTCATEGORY%objectCounter%,%objectNumber%>> objects.txt
This is an example of the output to the txt file if objectNumber is assigned a value of 1:
OBJECTNAME1,Apple
OBJECTNUMBER1,
OBJECTCATEGORY1,Fruit
And this is an example of the output to the txt file if objectNumber is assigned a value of 2 or more:
OBJECTNAME1,Apple
OBJECTCATEGORY1,Fruit
This is a simplification: a echo command to send the text data 1 to a file:
echo data 1>somewhere.txt
Here it is easy to see that the 1 will be handled by the parser as the stream number to redirect, not data to send to the file.
But the question is not using a space, but a comma. Why the same behaviour? Because from the parser point of view, spaces, tabs, commas, semicolons, parenthesis and equals are delimiters. All these lines fail the same way (tabs omited)
echo data 1>>somewhere.txt
echo data,1>>somewhere.txt
echo data;1>>somewhere.txt
echo data=1>>somewhere.txt
echo data(1>>somewhere.txt
echo data)1>>somewhere.txt
How to handle it? It is necessary to separate the digit from the redirection, so we can change the order in the line
>somewhere.txt echo data,1
or force the parser see the separation
(echo data,1)>somewhere.txt
or, if the data is inside a variable, we can also use delayed expansion
set "n=1"
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
echo data,!n!>somewhere.txt
Of course, we can also do
echo data,1 >>somewhere.txt
including a space between the data and the redirection, but the space will be included in the redirected data.
Another option is to reorganize the code
#ECHO OFF
SET objectCounter=1
SET /p "objectName=What is the name of the object %objectCounter%?: "
SET /p "objectNumber=How many of object %objectCounter% are there?: "
SET /p "objectCategory=Which group does object %objectCounter% belong to?: "
> objects.txt (
ECHO OBJECTNAME%objectCounter%,%objectName%
ECHO OBJECTNUMBER%objectCounter%,%objectNumber%
ECHO OBJECTCATEGORY%objectCounter%,%objectCategory%
)
It looks like it has to do with output redirection in conjunction with the comma. I think, with the comma in there, the numeric value is being bound to the redirection rather than to the thing being output.
In other words, while:
set x=1
echo xyzzy%x%>qq.txt
will work (the thing being output is xyzzy%x% with a redirection of >qq.txt), the following will not:
set x=1
echo xyzzy,%x%>qq.txt
(presumably because the thing being output is xyzzy, with a redirection operation 1>qq.txt which is the same as >qq.txt). That also explains the difference you're seeing between 1 and other numbers since 1 is standard output.
You can see a similar problem even without variable expansion:
C:\pax> echo xyzzy1>qq.txt
C:\pax> type qq.txt
xyzzy1
C:\pax> echo xyzzy,1>qq.txt
C:\pax> type qq.txt
xyzzy,
One way around it is to reorganise your components so that the numeric value cannot be tied to the redirection:
>>objects.txt ECHO OBJECTNUMBER%objectCounter%,%objectNumber%
I tend to prefer putting them at the start since using something like:
echo xyzzy >file
will actually output xyzzy and the space immediately before the >.
Modifying the lines like that (and fixing your third echo so it outputs the category rather than the number again) gives you:
What is the name of the object 1?: Apple
How many of object 1 are there?: 1
Which group does object 1 belong to?: Fruit
with the resultant file being:
OBJECTNAME1,Apple
OBJECTNUMBER1,1
OBJECTCATEGORY1,Fruit

How to do a while loop with a string redirected into it

Im trying to loop though a string with HTTP links inside and newlines, I want to loop over a line at a time.
At the moment I have
echo -e "$HTTP_LINKS" | while read HTTP_S_LINK ; do
TEST_STRING="test"
done
But this way I don't have access to the TEST_STRING out side the loop, which is what I want.
I'm using the while loop so that it will loop though each newline in $HTTP_LINKS and not just the words in the string. (I don't want to use a for loop with IFS set to \n)
I thought maybe I could just do something like this
#!/bin/bash
while read HTTP_S_LINKS
do
TEST_STRING="test2"
done < $HTTP_LINKS
But of course this doesn't work as $HTTP_LINKS contains a string and not a link to a file.
You had the right idea with your 2nd snipit but you need to use 'Here Strings' via the <<< syntax. You cant access $TEST_STRING outside of your first snipit because the pipe creates a sub-shell; using the here-string does not. Also, make sure you quote "$HTTP_LINKS" otherwise you'll lose the newlines.
#!/bin/bash
HTTP_LINKS=$(echo -e "http://www.aaa.com\nhttp://www.bbb.com")
unset TEST_STRING;
while read url;
do
((TEST_STRING++))
done <<<"$HTTP_LINKS"
echo $TEST_STRING
Output
2
If you initialize and export the TEST_STRING variable outside the loop you should have access to it after the loop.

How to get a variable value if variable name is stored as string?

How can I retrieve a bash variable value if I have the variable name as string? var1="this is the real value"
a="var1"
Do something to get value of var1 just using variable a.
Context:
I have some AMI's (Amazon Machine Image) and I want to fire up a few instances of each AMI. As soon as they finish booting, I want to setup each instance according to its AMI type. I don't want to bake lots of scripts or secret keys inside any AMI so I prepared a generalized startup script and I put it on S3 with a publicly accessible link. In rc.local I put small piece of code which fetches the startup script and executes it. This is all I have in the AMIs. Then each AMI accesses a common configuration script which is applicable to all AMIs and special setup scripts for each. These scripts are private and require a signed URL to access them.
So now, when I fire an instance of an AMI (my_private_ami_1), I pass a signed URL for one more file presented on S3 which contains signed URL for all private scripts in terms of key/value pair.config_url="http://s3.amazo.../config?signature"
my_private_ami_1="http://s3.amazo.../ami_1?signature"
...
When the startup script runs, it downloads the above file and source's it. Then it checks for its AMI type and picks the correct setup script for itself.
ami\_type=GET AMI TYPE #ex: sets ami\_type to my\_private\_ami\_1
setup\_url=GET THE SETUP FILE URL BASED ON AMI\_TYPE # this is where this problem arises
So now I can have a generic code which can fire instances irrespective of their AMI types and instances can take care of themselves.
You can use ${!a}:
var1="this is the real value"
a="var1"
echo "${!a}" # outputs 'this is the real value'
This is an example of indirect parameter expansion:
The basic form of parameter expansion is ${parameter}. The value of
parameter is substituted.
If the first character of parameter is an exclamation point (!), it
introduces a level of variable indirection. Bash uses the value of the
variable formed from the rest of parameter as the name of the
variable; this variable is then expanded and that value is used in the
rest of the substitution, rather than the value of parameter itself.
X=foo
Y=X
eval "Z=\$$Y"
sets Z to foo.
For my fellow zsh users, the way to accomplish the same thing as the accepted answer is to use:
echo ${(P)a} # outputs 'this is the real value'
It is appropriately called Parameter name replacement
This forces the value of the parameter name to be interpreted as a
further parameter name, whose value will be used where appropriate.
Note that flags set with one of the typeset family of commands (in
particular case transformations) are not applied to the value of name
used in this fashion.
If used with a nested parameter or command substitution, the result of
that will be taken as a parameter name in the same way. For example,
if you have ‘foo=bar’ and ‘bar=baz’, the strings ${(P)foo},
${(P)${foo}}, and ${(P)$(echo bar)} will be expanded to ‘baz’.
Likewise, if the reference is itself nested, the expression with the
flag is treated as if it were directly replaced by the parameter name.
It is an error if this nested substitution produces an array with more
than one word. For example, if ‘name=assoc’ where the parameter assoc
is an associative array, then ‘${${(P)name}[elt]}’ refers to the
element of the associative subscripted ‘elt’.
Modified my search keywords and Got it :). eval a=\$$a Thanks for your time.
In bash 4.3+, you can use declare -n:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
var="this is the real value"
var_name="var"
declare -n var_ref=$var_name
echo "${var_ref}"
Had the same issue with arrays, here is how to do it if you're manipulating arrays too :
array_name="ARRAY_NAME"
ARRAY_NAME=("Val0" "Val1" "Val2")
ARRAY=$array_name[#]
echo "ARRAY=${ARRAY}"
ARRAY=("${!ARRAY}")
echo "ARRAY=${ARRAY[#]}"
echo "ARRAY[0]=${ARRAY[0]}"
echo "ARRAY[1]=${ARRAY[1]}"
echo "ARRAY[2]=${ARRAY[2]}"
This will output :
ARRAY=ARRAY_NAME[#]
ARRAY=Val0 Val1 Val2
ARRAY[0]=Val0
ARRAY[1]=Val1
ARRAY[2]=Val2
In bash 4.3, the '-v' test for set variables was introduced. At the same time, 'nameref' declaration was added. These two features together with the indirection operator (!) enable a simplified version of the previous example:
get_value()
{
declare -n var_name=$1
if [[ -v var_name ]]
then
echo "${var_name}"
else
echo "variable with name <${!var_name}> is not set"
fi
}
test=123
get_value test
123
test="\$(echo \"something nasty\")"
get_value test
$(echo "something nasty")
unset test
get_value test
variable with name <test> is not set
As this approach eliminates the need for 'eval', it is safer.
This code checked under bash 5.0.3(1).
modern shells already support arrays( and even associative arrays). So please do use them, and use less of eval.
var1="this is the real value"
array=("$var1")
# or array[0]="$var1"
then when you want to call it , echo ${array[0]}
Based on the answer: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/111627
###############################################################################
# Summary: Returns the value of a variable given it's name as a string.
# Required Positional Argument:
# variable_name - The name of the variable to return the value of
# Returns: The value if variable exists; otherwise, empty string ("").
###############################################################################
get_value_of()
{
variable_name=$1
variable_value=""
if set | grep -q "^$variable_name="; then
eval variable_value="\$$variable_name"
fi
echo "$variable_value"
}
test=123
get_value_of test
# 123
test="\$(echo \"something nasty\")"
get_value_of test
# $(echo "something nasty")
VALUE=$(eval "echo \$$SOME_VAR_NAME")
Example
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_FOO="/tmp/key"
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_PREFIX="SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH"
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_SUFFIX="FOO"
SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH=$(eval "echo \$${SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_PREFIX}_${SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH_VAR_NAME_SUFFIX}")
echo "$SSH_KEY_FILE_PATH"
/tmp/key

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