34.5. Assorted Tips
To keep a record of which user scripts have run during a particular sesssion or over a number of sessions, add the following lines to each script you want to keep track of. This will keep a continuing file record of the script names and invocation times.
1 # Append (>>) following to end of each script tracked. 2 3 date>> $SAVE_FILE #Date and time. 4 echo $0>> $SAVE_FILE #Script name. 5 echo>> $SAVE_FILE #Blank line as separator. 6 7 # Of course, SAVE_FILE defined and exported as environmental variable in ~/.bashrc 8 # (something like ~/.scripts-run)
The >> operator appends lines to a file. What if you wish to prepend a line to an existing file, that is, to paste it in at the beginning?
1 file=data.txt 2 title="***This is the title line of data text file***" 3 4 echo $title | cat - $file >$file.new 5 # "cat -" concatenates stdout to $file. 6 # End result is 7 #+ to write a new file with $title appended at *beginning*.
Of course, sed can also do this.
A shell script may act as an embedded command inside another shell script, a Tcl or wish script, or even a Makefile. It can be invoked as as an external shell command in a C program using the system() call, i.e., system("script_name");.
Put together files containing your favorite and most useful definitions and functions. As necessary, "include" one or more of these "library files" in scripts with either the dot (.) or source command.
1 # SCRIPT LIBRARY 2 # ------ ------- 3 4 # Note: 5 # No "#!" here. 6 # No "live code" either. 7 8 9 # Useful variable definitions 10 11 ROOT_UID=0 # Root has $UID 0. 12 E_NOTROOT=101 # Not root user error. 13 MAXRETVAL=256 # Maximum (positive) return value of a function. 14 SUCCESS=0 15 FAILURE=-1 16 17 18 19 # Functions 20 21 Usage () # "Usage:" message. 22 { 23 if [ -z "$1" ] # No arg passed. 24 then 25 msg=filename 26 else 27 msg=$@ 28 fi 29 30 echo "Usage: `basename $0` "$msg"" 31 } 32 33 34 Check_if_root () # Check if root running script. 35 { # From "ex39.sh" example. 36 if [ "$UID" -ne "$ROOT_UID" ] 37 then 38 echo "Must be root to run this script." 39 exit $E_NOTROOT 40 fi 41 } 42 43 44 CreateTempfileName () # Creates a "unique" temp filename. 45 { # From "ex51.sh" example. 46 prefix=temp 47 suffix=`eval date +%s` 48 Tempfilename=$prefix.$suffix 49 } 50 51 52 isalpha2 () # Tests whether *entire string* is alphabetic. 53 { # From "isalpha.sh" example. 54 [ $# -eq 1 ] || return $FAILURE 55 56 case $1 in 57 *[!a-zA-Z]*|"") return $FAILURE;; 58 *) return $SUCCESS;; 59 esac # Thanks, S.C. 60 } 61 62 63 abs () # Absolute value. 64 { # Caution: Max return value = 256. 65 E_ARGERR=-999999 66 67 if [ -z "$1" ] # Need arg passed. 68 then 69 return $E_ARGERR # Obvious error value returned. 70 fi 71 72 if [ "$1" -ge 0 ] # If non-negative, 73 then # 74 absval=$1 # stays as-is. 75 else # Otherwise, 76 let "absval = (( 0 - $1 ))" # change sign. 77 fi 78 79 return $absval 80 }Use special-purpose comment headers to increase clarity and legibility in scripts.
1 ## Caution. 2 rm -rf *.zzy ## The "-rf" options to "rm" are very dangerous, 3 ##+ especially with wildcards. 4 5 #+ Line continuation. 6 # This is line 1 7 #+ of a multi-line comment, 8 #+ and this is the final line. 9 10 #* Note. 11 12 #o List item. 13 14 #> Another point of view. 15 while [ "$var1" != "end" ] #> while test "$var1" != "end"
Using the $? exit status variable, a script may test if a parameter contains only digits, so it can be treated as an integer.
1 #!/bin/bash 2 3 SUCCESS=0 4 E_BADINPUT=65 5 6 test "$1" -ne 0 -o "$1" -eq 0 2>/dev/null 7 # An integer is either equal to 0 or not equal to 0. 8 # 2>/dev/null suppresses error message. 9 10 if [ $? -ne "$SUCCESS" ] 11 then 12 echo "Usage: `basename $0` integer-input" 13 exit $E_BADINPUT 14 fi 15 16 let "sum = $1 + 25" # Would give error if $1 not integer. 17 echo "Sum = $sum" 18 19 # Any variable, not just a command line parameter, can be tested this way. 20 21 exit 0
Using the double parentheses construct, it is possible to use C-like syntax for setting and incrementing variables and in for and while loops. See Example 10-11 and Example 10-16.
The run-parts command is handy for running a set of command scripts in sequence, particularly in combination with cron or at.
It would be nice to be able to invoke X-Windows widgets from a shell script. There happen to exist several packages that purport to do so, namely Xscript, Xmenu, and widtools. The first two of these no longer seem to be maintained. Fortunately, it is still possible to obtain widtools here.
The widtools (widget tools) package requires the XForms library to be installed. Additionally, the Makefile needs some judicious editing before the package will build on a typical Linux system. Finally, three of the six widgets offered do not work (and, in fact, segfault).
For more effective scripting with widgets, try Tk or wish (Tcl derivatives), PerlTk (Perl with Tk extensions), tksh (ksh with Tk extensions), XForms4Perl (Perl with XForms extensions), Gtk-Perl (Perl with Gtk extensions), or PyQt (Python with Qt extensions).