Book Image

Learning Linux Shell Scripting

By : Ganesh Sanjiv Naik
Book Image

Learning Linux Shell Scripting

By: Ganesh Sanjiv Naik

Overview of this book

Linux is the one of the most powerful and universally adopted OSes. Shell is a program that gives the user direct interaction with the operating system. Scripts are collections of commands that are stored in a file. The shell can read this file and act on the commands as if they were typed on the keyboard. Shell scripting is used to automate day-to-day administration, and for testing or product development tasks. This book covers Bash, GNU Bourne Again SHell, preparing you to work in the exciting world of Linux shell scripting. We start with an introduction to the Shell environment and explain basic commands used in Shell. Next we move on to check, kill, and control the execution of processes in Linux OS. Further, we teach you about the filter tools available in Linux and explain standard output and standard errors devices. Then we will ensure you understand Shell’s interpretation of commands and get a firmer grasp so you use them in practice. Next, you’ll experience some real-world essentials such as debugging and perform Shell arithmetic fluently. Then you’ll take a step ahead and learn new and advanced topics in Shell scripting, such as starting up a system and customizing a Linux system. Finally, you’ll get to understand the capabilities of scripting and learn about Grep, Stream Editor, and Awk.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Learning Linux Shell Scripting
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Using until


The until command is similar to the while command. The given statements in the loop are executed as long as they evaluate the condition as true. As soon as the condition becomes false, then the loop is exited.

The syntax is as follows:

until command
do
    command(s)
done

In the following script until_01.sh, we are printing numbers 0-9 on screen. When the value of variable x becomes 10, then the until loop stops executing:

#!/bin/bash
x=0
until [ $x -eq 10 ]
do
  echo $x
  x=`expr $x + 1`
done

Let's test the program:

$ chmod +x until_01.sh
$ ./until_01.sh

The following will be the output after executing the preceding commands:

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

In the following script until_02.sh, we ask the user to input text. We are printing entered text on the screen. When the user enters the text quit, the until loop ends the iterations:

#!/bin/bash
INPUT=""
until [ "$INPUT" = quit ]
do
   echo ""
   echo 'Enter a word (quit to exit) : '
   read INPUT
   echo "You typed : $INPUT"
done

Let's test...