7.2. More advanced if usage

7.2.1.1. Dummy example

This is the construct to use to take one course of action if the if commands test true, and another if it tests false. An example:

freddy scripts> gender="male"

freddy scripts> if [[ "$gender" == "f*" ]]
More input> then echo "Pleasure to meet you, Madame."
More input> else echo "How come the lady hasn't got a drink yet?"
More input> fi
How come the lady hasn't got a drink yet?

freddy scripts>

[] vs. [[]]

Contrary to [, [[ prevents word splitting of variable values. So, if VAR="var with spaces", you do not need to double quote $VAR in a test - eventhough using quotes remains a good habit. Also, [[ prevents pathname expansion, so literal strings with wildcards do not try to expand to filenames. Using [[, == and != interpret strings to the right as shell glob patterns to be matched against the value to the left, for instance: [[ "value" == val* ]].

Like the CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS list following the then statement, the ALTERNATE-CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS list following the else statement can hold any UNIX-style command that returns an exit status.

Another example, extending the one from Section 7.1.2.1:

anny ~> su -
Password:
[root@elegance root]# if ! grep ^$USER /etc/passwd 1> /dev/null
> then echo "your user account is not managed locally"
> else echo "your account is managed from the local /etc/passwd file"
> fi
your account is managed from the local /etc/passwd file
[root@elegance root]#

We switch to the root account to demonstrate the effect of the else statement - your root is usually a local account while your own user account might be managed by a central system, such as an LDAP server.

7.2.1.2. Checking command line arguments

Instead of setting a variable and then executing a script, it is frequently more elegant to put the values for the variables on the command line.

We use the positional parameters $1, $2, ..., $N for this purpose. $# refers to the number of command line arguments. $0 refers to the name of the script.

The following is a simple example:

Here's another example, using two arguments:

anny ~> cat weight.sh
#!/bin/bash

# This script prints a message about your weight if you give it your
# weight in kilos and height in centimeters.

weight="$1"
height="$2"
idealweight=$[$height - 110]

if [ $weight -le $idealweight ] ; then
  echo "You should eat a bit more fat."
else
  echo "You should eat a bit more fruit."
fi

anny ~> bash -x weight.sh 55 169
+ weight=55
+ height=169
+ idealweight=59
+ '[' 55 -le 59 ']'
+ echo 'You should eat a bit more fat.'
You should eat a bit more fat.

7.2.1.3. Testing the number of arguments

The following example shows how to change the previous script so that it prints a message if more or less than 2 arguments are given:

anny ~> cat weight.sh
#!/bin/bash

# This script prints a message about your weight if you give it your
# weight in kilos and height in centimeters.

if [ ! $# == 2 ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 weight_in_kilos length_in_centimeters"
  exit
fi

weight="$1"
height="$2"
idealweight=$[$height - 110]

if [ $weight -le $idealweight ] ; then
  echo "You should eat a bit more fat."
else
  echo "You should eat a bit more fruit."
fi

anny ~> weight.sh 70 150
You should eat a bit more fruit.

anny ~> weight.sh 70 150 33
Usage: ./weight.sh weight_in_kilos length_in_centimeters

The first argument is referred to as $1, the second as $2 and so on. The total number of arguments is stored in $#.

Check out Section 7.2.5 for a more elegant way to print usage messages.

7.2.1.4. Testing that a file exists

This test is done in a lot of scripts, because there's no use in starting a lot of programs if you know they're not going to work:

#!/bin/bash

# This script gives information about a file.

FILENAME="$1"

echo "Properties for $FILENAME:"

if [ -f $FILENAME ]; then
  echo "Size is $(ls -lh $FILENAME | awk '{ print $5 }')"
  echo "Type is $(file $FILENAME | cut -d":" -f2 -)"
  echo "Inode number is $(ls -i $FILENAME | cut -d" " -f1 -)"
  echo "$(df -h $FILENAME | grep -v Mounted | awk '{ print "On",$1", \
which is mounted as the",$6,"partition."}')"
else
  echo "File does not exist."
fi

Note that the file is referred to using a variable; in this case it is the first argument to the script. Alternatively, when no arguments are given, file locations are usually stored in variables at the beginning of a script, and their content is referred to using these variables. Thus, when you want to change a file name in a script, you only need to do it once.

	Filenames with spaces
	The above example will fail if the value of $1 can be parsed as multiple words. In that case, the if command can be fixed either using double quotes around the filename, or by using [[ instead of [.

7.2.2.1. General

This is the full form of the if statement:

if TEST-COMMANDS; then

CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS;

elif MORE-TEST-COMMANDS; then

MORE-CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS;

else ALTERNATE-CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS;

fi

The TEST-COMMANDS list is executed, and if its return status is zero, the CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS list is executed. If TEST-COMMANDS returns a non-zero status, each elif list is executed in turn, and if its exit status is zero, the corresponding MORE-CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS is executed and the command completes. If else is followed by an ALTERNATE-CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS list, and the final command in the final if or elif clause has a non-zero exit status, then ALTERNATE-CONSEQUENT-COMMANDS is executed. The return status is the exit status of the last command executed, or zero if no condition tested true.

7.2.2.2. Example

This is an example that you can put in your crontab for daily execution:

anny /etc/cron.daily> cat disktest.sh
#!/bin/bash

# This script does a very simple test for checking disk space.

space=`df -h | awk '{print $5}' | grep % | grep -v Use | sort -n | tail -1 | cut -d "%" -f1 -`
alertvalue="80"

if [ "$space" -ge "$alertvalue" ]; then
  echo "At least one of my disks is nearly full!" | mail -s "daily diskcheck" root
else
  echo "Disk space normal" | mail -s "daily diskcheck" root
fi