I was doing some reading here and it suggested that I wrap my variables in quotes just in case the value contains spaces.
If I have the following script:
#!/bin/bash
function checkDirectory()
{
local checkDir=$1
if [[ -d $checkDir ]] ; then
echo "File is directory"
fi
}
checkDirectory "/home/someuser/Downloads/"
If I wrap my parameter, in this case, "/home/someuser/Downloads/" in quotes, do I still need to wrap $1 and checkDir in quotes as well?
No. You don't have to as $1 will be assigned to checkDir correctly and bash's [[ ]] won't do word splitting and your script will work as expected.
However, in case if you use sh test [ .. ] then you'll have a problem with:
if [ -d $checkDir ] ; then
echo "File is directory"
fi
So it's always good practice to quote your variables rather than having to remember it matters and when not.
Related
I am searching for a command, that separates all given parameters with a specific delimiter, and outputs them quoted.
Example (delimiter is set to be a colon :):
somecommand "this is" "a" test
should output
"this is":"a":"test"
I'm aware that the shell interprets the "" quotes before passing the parameters to the command. So what the command should actually do is to print out every given parameter in quotes and separate all these with a colon.
I'm also not seeking for a bash-only solution, but for the most elegant solution.
It is very easy to just loop over an array of these elements and do that, but the problem is that I have to use this inside a gnu makefile which only allows single line shell commands and uses sh instead of bash.
So the simpler the better.
How about
somecommand () {
printf '"%s"\n' "$#" | paste -s -d :
}
Use printf to add the quotes and print every entry on a separate line, then use paste with the -s ("serial") option and a colon as the delimiter.
Can be called like this:
$ somecommand "this is" "a" test
"this is":"a":"test"
apply_delimiter () {
(( $# )) || return
local res
printf -v res '"%s":' "$#"
printf '%s\n' "${res%:}"
}
Usage example:
$ apply_delimiter hello world "how are you"
"hello":"world":"how are you"
As indicated in a number of the comments, a simple "loop-over" approach, looping over each of the strings passed as arguments is a fairly straight-forward way to approach it:
delimit_colon() {
local first=1
for i in "$#"; do
if [ "$first" -eq 1 ]; then
printf "%s" "$i"
first=0
else
printf ":%s" "$i"
fi
done
printf "\n"
}
Which when combined with a short test script could be:
#!/bin/bash
delimit_colon() {
local first=1
for i in "$#"; do
if [ "$first" -eq 1 ]; then
printf "%s" "$i"
first=0
else
printf ":%s" "$i"
fi
done
printf "\n"
}
[ -z "$1" ] && { ## validate input
printf "error: insufficient input\n"
exit 1
}
delimit_colon "$#"
exit 0
Test Input/Output
$ bash delimitargs.sh "this is" "a" test
this is:a:test
Here a solution using the z-shell:
#!/usr/bin/zsh
# this is "somecommand"
echo '"'${(j_":"_)#}'"'
If you have them in an array already, you can use this command
MYARRAY=("this is" "a" "test")
joined_string=$(IFS=:; echo "$(MYARRAY[*])")
echo $joined_string
Setting the IFS (internal field separator) will be the character separator. Using echo on the array will display the array using the newly set IFS. Putting those commands in $() will put the output of the echo into joined_string.
I just want to verify that the script I wrote is doing what I think it's doing, and that it's doing it properly.
I wanted to write a script that takes an environment variable and a string value, and then sets that variable to the given value. So I can do something like setvar BOOST_HOME /home/me/boost/boost_1.52.0 and the script will export BOOST_HOME=/home/me/boost/boost_1.52.0
Something like:
#!/bin/bash
# Usage: setvar VAR VAR_VALUE
function setvar()
{
VAR=${1}
VAR_VALUE=${2}
if [ -d $2 ]
then
eval export $VAR=$2
fi
}
This seems to work, at least judging from a echo echo tests, but I am still not very comfortable with shell scripting, and would like someone to either verify what I am doing or point out what I am doing wrong / less correct.
You don't need the eval.
setvar() {
if [[ -d $2 ]]; then
export "$1=$2"
fi
}
Using [[ instead of [ avoids the need to quote $2, since the bash (and other shell) extension [[ does not word-split interior parameter expansions. If I'd stuck with the old-fashioned [ -d "$2" ], I would have had to quote the $2 in case its value included whitespace.
I want in a bash script (Linux) to check, if two files are identical.
I use the following code:
#!/bin/bash
…
…
differ=$(diff $FILENAME.out_ok $FILENAME.out)
echo "******************"
echo $differ
echo "******************"
if [ $differ=="" ]
then
echo "pass"
else
echo "Error ! different output"
echo $differ
fi
The problem:
the diff command return white space and break the if command
output
******************
82c82 < ---------------------- --- > ---------------------
******************
./test.sh: line 32: [: too many arguments
Error ! different output
The correct tool for checking whether two files are identical is cmp.
if cmp -s $FILENAME.out_ok $FILENAME.out
then : They are the same
else : They are different
fi
Or, in this context:
if cmp -s $FILENAME.out_ok $FILENAME.out
then
echo "pass"
else
echo "Error ! different output"
diff $FILENAME.out_ok $FILENAME.out
fi
If you want to use the diff program, then double quote your variable (and use spaces around the arguments to the [ command):
if [ -z "$differ" ]
then
echo "pass"
else
echo "Error ! different output"
echo "$differ"
fi
Note that you need to double quote the variable when you echo it to ensure that newlines etc are preserved in the output; if you don't, everything is mushed onto a single line.
Or use the [[ test:
if [[ "$differ" == "" ]]
then
echo "pass"
else
echo "Error ! different output"
echo "$differ"
fi
Here, the quotes are not strictly necessary around the variable in the condition, but old school shell scripters like me would put them there automatically and harmlessly. Roughly, if the variable might contain spaces and the spaces matter, it should be double quoted. I don't see a need to learn a special case for the [[ command when it works fine with double quotes too.
Instead of:
if [ $differ=="" ]
Use:
if [[ $differ == "" ]]
Better to use modern [[ and ]] instead of an external program /bin/[
Also use diff -b to compare 2 files while ignoring white spaces
#anubhava answer is correct,
you can also use
if [ "$differ" == "" ]
This question already has answers here:
How to check if a string has spaces in Bash shell
(10 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
e.g string = "test test test"
I want after finding any occurance of space in string, it should echo error and exit else process.
The case statement is useful in these kind of cases:
case "$string" in
*[[:space:]]*)
echo "argument contains a space" >&2
exit 1
;;
esac
Handles leading/trailing spaces.
There is more than one way to do that; using parameter expansion
you could write something like:
if [ "$string" != "${string% *}" ]; then
echo "$string contains one or more spaces";
fi
For a purely Bash solution:
function assertNoSpaces {
if [[ "$1" != "${1/ /}" ]]
then
echo "YOUR ERROR MESSAGE" >&2
exit 1
fi
}
string1="askdjhaaskldjasd"
string2="asjkld askldja skd"
assertNoSpaces "$string1"
assertNoSpaces "$string2" # will trigger error
"${1/ /}" removes any spaces in the input string, and when compared to the original string should be exactly the same if there are not spaces.
Note the quotes around "${1/ /}" - This ensures that leading/trailing spaces are taken into consideration.
To match more than one character, you can use regular expressions to define a pattern to match - "${1/[ \\.]/}".
update
A better approach would be to use in-process expression matching. It will probably be a wee bit faster as no string manipulation is done.
function assertNoSpaces {
if [[ "$1" =~ '[\. ]' ]]
then
echo "YOUR ERROR MESSAGE" >&2
exit 1
fi
}
For more details on the =~ operator, see the this page and this chapter in the Advanced Bash Scripting guide.
The operator was introduced in Bash version 3 so watch out if you're using an older version of Bash.
update 2
Regarding question in comments:
how to handle the code if user enter
like "asd\" means in double quotes
...can we handle it??
The function given above should work with any string so it would be down to how you get input from your user.
Assuming you're using the read command to get user input, one thing you need to watch out for is that by default backslash is treated as an escape character so it will not behave as you might expect. e.g.
read str # user enters "abc\"
echo $str # prints out "abc", not "abc\"
assertNoSpaces "$str" # no error since backslash not in variable
To counter this, use the -r option to treat backslash as a standard character. See read MAN Page for details.
read -r str # user enters "abc\"
echo $str # prints out "abc\"
assertNoSpaces "$str" # triggers error
The == operator inside double brackets can match wildcards.
if [[ $string == *' '* ]]
You can use grep as:
string="test test test"
if ( echo "$string" | grep -q ' ' ); then
echo 'var has space'
exit 1
fi
I just ran into a very similar problem while handling paths. I chose to rely on my shell's parameter expansion rather than looking for a space specifically. It does not detect spaces at the front or the end, though.
function space_exit {
if [ $# -gt 1 ]
then
echo "I cannot handle spaces." 2>&1
exit 1
fi
}
I'm trying to write a shell script which will compare two files, and if there are no differences between then, it will indicate that there was a success, and if there are differences, it will indicate that there was a failure, and print the results. Here's what I have so far:
result = $(diff -u file1 file2)
if [ $result = "" ]; then
echo It works!
else
echo It does not work
echo $result
fi
Anybody know what I'm doing wrong???
result=$(diff -u file1 file2)
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo "It works!"
else
echo "It does not work"
echo "$result"
fi
Suggestions:
No spaces around "=" in the variable assignment for results
Use $? status variable after running diff instead of the string length of $result.
I'm in the habit of using backticks for command substitution instead of $(), but #Dennis Williamson cites some good reasons to use the latter after all. Thanks Dennis!
Applied quotes per suggestions in comments.
Changed "=" to "-eq" for numeric test.
First, you should wrap strings being compared with quotes.
Second, "!" cannot be use it has another meaning. You can wrap it with single quotes.
So your program will be.
result=$(diff -u file1 file2)
if [ "$result" == "" ]; then
echo 'It works!'
else
echo It does not work
echo "$result"
fi
Enjoy.
Since you need results when you fail, why not simply use 'diff -u file1 file2' in your script? You may not even need a script then. If diff succeeds, nothing will happen, else the diff will be printed.
bash string equivalence is "==".
-n is non-zero string, -z is zero length string, wrapping in quotes because the command will complain if the output of diff is longer than a single string with "too many arguments".
so
if [ -n "$(diff $1 $2)" ]; then
echo "Different"
fi
or
if [ -z "$(diff $1 $2)" ]; then
echo "Same"
fi