Book Image

Mastering Linux Shell Scripting

By : Andrew Mallett
Book Image

Mastering Linux Shell Scripting

By: Andrew Mallett

Overview of this book

Shell scripting is a quick method to prototype a complex application or a problem by automating tasks when working on Linux-based systems. Using both simple one-line commands and command sequences complex problems can be solved with ease, from text processing to backing up sysadmin tools. In this book, you’ll discover everything you need to know to master shell scripting and make informed choices about the elements you employ. Get to grips with the fundamentals of creating and running a script in normal mode, and in debug mode. Learn about various conditional statements' code snippets, and realize the power of repetition and loops in your shell script. Implement functions and edit files using the Stream Editor, script in Perl, program in Python – as well as complete coverage of other scripting languages to ensure you can choose the best tool for your project.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Mastering Linux Shell Scripting
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Passing parameters to functions


Earlier within this chapter, we referred to functions as scripts within scripts and we will still maintain that analogy. Similar to how a script can have input parameters, we can create functions that also accept parameters that can make their operation less static. Before we work on a script, we can look at a useful function in the command line.

Tip

One of my pet-peeves is over commented configuration files, especially where documentation exists to detail the options available.

The GNU Linux command sed can easily edit the file for us and remove commented lines and empty lines. We are introducing the stream editor, sed, here but we will look at it in more detail in the following chapter.

The sed command line that runs the in-place edit will be:

$ sed -i.bak '/^\s*#/d;/^$/d' <filename>

We can run out forensics in the command line by breaking it down element by element. Let's take a deeper look:

  • sed -i.bak: This edits the file and creates a backup with the...