## Getting started

### Introduction

This is a quick reference to getting started with Bash scripting.

- Learn bash in y minutes (learnxinyminutes.com)
- Bash Guide (mywiki.wooledge.org)

### Example

    #!/usr/bin/env bash

    NAME="John"
    echo "Hello $NAME!"

### Variables

    NAME="John"
    echo $NAME
    echo "$NAME"
    echo "${NAME}!"

### String quotes

    NAME="John"
    echo "Hi $NAME"  #=> Hi John
    echo 'Hi $NAME'  #=> Hi $NAME

### Shell execution

    echo "I'm in $(pwd)"
    echo "I'm in `pwd`"
    # Same

See Command substitution

### Conditional execution

    git commit && git push
    git commit || echo "Commit failed"

### Functions

    get_name() {
      echo "John"
    }

    echo "You are $(get_name)"

See: Functions

### Conditionals

    if [[ -z "$string" ]]; then
      echo "String is empty"
    elif [[ -n "$string" ]]; then
      echo "String is not empty"
    fi

See: Conditionals

### Strict mode

    set -euo pipefail
    IFS=$'\n\t'

See: Unofficial bash strict mode

### Brace expansion

    echo {A,B}.js

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`{A,B}` | Same as `A B`
`{A,B}.js` | Same as `A.js B.js`
`{1..5}` | Same as `1 2 3 4 5`

See: Brace expansion

## Parameter expansions

### Basics

    name="John"
    echo ${name}
    echo ${name/J/j}    #=> "john" (substitution)
    echo ${name:0:2}    #=> "Jo" (slicing)
    echo ${name::2}     #=> "Jo" (slicing)
    echo ${name::-1}    #=> "Joh" (slicing)
    echo ${name:(-1)}   #=> "n" (slicing from right)
    echo ${name:(-2):1} #=> "h" (slicing from right)
    echo ${food:-Cake}  #=> $food or "Cake"

    length=2
    echo ${name:0:length}  #=> "Jo"

See: Parameter expansion

    STR="/path/to/foo.cpp"
    echo ${STR%.cpp}    # /path/to/foo
    echo ${STR%.cpp}.o  # /path/to/foo.o
    echo ${STR%/*}      # /path/to

    echo ${STR##*.}     # cpp (extension)
    echo ${STR##*/}     # foo.cpp (basepath)

    echo ${STR#*/}      # path/to/foo.cpp
    echo ${STR##*/}     # foo.cpp

    echo ${STR/foo/bar} # /path/to/bar.cpp

    STR="Hello world"
    echo ${STR:6:5}   # "world"
    echo ${STR: -5:5}  # "world"

    SRC="/path/to/foo.cpp"
    BASE=${SRC##*/}   #=> "foo.cpp" (basepath)
    DIR=${SRC%$BASE}  #=> "/path/to/" (dirpath)

### Substitution

Code | Description
--- | ---
`${FOO%suffix}` | Remove suffix
`${FOO#prefix}` | Remove prefix
`${FOO%%suffix}` | Remove long suffix
`${FOO##prefix}` | Remove long prefix
`${FOO/from/to}` | Replace first match
`${FOO//from/to}` | Replace all
`${FOO/%from/to}` | Replace suffix
`${FOO/#from/to}` | Replace prefix

### Comments

    # Single line comment

    : '
    This is a
    multi line
    comment
    '

### Substrings

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`${FOO:0:3}` | Substring (position, length)
`${FOO:(-3):3}` | Substring from the right

### Length

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`${#FOO}` | Length of `$FOO`

### Manipulation

    STR="HELLO WORLD!"
    echo ${STR,}   #=> "hELLO WORLD!" (lowercase 1st letter)
    echo ${STR,,}  #=> "hello world!" (all lowercase)

    STR="hello world!"
    echo ${STR^}   #=> "Hello world!" (uppercase 1st letter)
    echo ${STR^^}  #=> "HELLO WORLD!" (all uppercase)

### Default values

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`${FOO:-val}` | `$FOO`, or `val` if unset (or null)
`${FOO:=val}` | Set `$FOO` to `val` if unset (or null)
`${FOO:+val}` | `val` if `$FOO` is set (and not null)
`${FOO:?message}` | Show error message and exit if `$FOO` is unset (or null)

Omitting the `:` removes the (non)nullity checks, e.g. `${FOO-val}` expands to `val` if unset otherwise `$FOO`.

## Loops

### Basic for loop

    for i in /etc/rc.*; do
      echo $i
    done

### C-like for loop

    for ((i = 0 ; i < 100 ; i++)); do
      echo $i
    done

### Ranges

    for i in {1..5}; do
        echo "Welcome $i"
    done

#### With step size

    for i in {5..50..5}; do
        echo "Welcome $i"
    done

### Reading lines

    cat file.txt | while read line; do
      echo $line
    done

### Forever

    while true; do
      ···
    done

## Functions

### Defining functions

    myfunc() {
        echo "hello $1"
    }

    # Same as above (alternate syntax)
    function myfunc() {
        echo "hello $1"
    }

    myfunc "John"

### Returning values

    myfunc() {
        local myresult='some value'
        echo $myresult
    }

    result="$(myfunc)"

### Raising errors

    myfunc() {
      return 1
    }

    if myfunc; then
      echo "success"
    else
      echo "failure"
    fi

### Arguments

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`$#` | Number of arguments
`$*` | All arguments
`$@` | All arguments, starting from first
`$1` | First argument
`$_` | Last argument of the previous command

See Special parameters.

## Conditionals

### Conditions

Note that `[[` is actually a command/program that returns either `0` (true) or `1` (false). Any program that obeys the same logic (like all base utils, such as `grep(1)` or `ping(1)`) can be used as condition, see examples.

Condition | Description
--- | ---
`[[ -z STRING ]]` | Empty string
`[[ -n STRING ]]` | Not empty string
`[[ STRING == STRING ]]` | Equal
`[[ STRING != STRING ]]` | Not Equal
`[[ NUM -eq NUM ]]` | Equal
`[[ NUM -ne NUM ]]` | Not equal
`[[ NUM -lt NUM ]]` | Less than
`[[ NUM -le NUM ]]` | Less than or equal
`[[ NUM -gt NUM ]]` | Greater than
`[[ NUM -ge NUM ]]` | Greater than or equal
`[[ STRING =~ STRING ]]` | Regexp
`(( NUM < NUM ))` | Numeric conditions

#### More conditions

Condition | Description
--- | ---
`[[ -o noclobber ]]` | If OPTIONNAME is enabled
`[[ ! EXPR ]]` | Not
`[[ X && Y ]]` | And
`[[ X || Y ]]` | Or

### File conditions

Condition | Description
--- | ---
`[[ -e FILE ]]` | Exists
`[[ -r FILE ]]` | Readable
`[[ -h FILE ]]` | Symlink
`[[ -d FILE ]]` | Directory
`[[ -w FILE ]]` | Writable
`[[ -s FILE ]]` | Size is > 0 bytes
`[[ -f FILE ]]` | File
`[[ -x FILE ]]` | Executable
`[[ FILE1 -nt FILE2 ]]` | 1 is more recent than 2
`[[ FILE1 -ot FILE2 ]]` | 2 is more recent than 1
`[[ FILE1 -ef FILE2 ]]` | Same files

### Example

    # String
    if [[ -z "$string" ]]; then
      echo "String is empty"
    elif [[ -n "$string" ]]; then
      echo "String is not empty"
    else
      echo "This never happens"
    fi

    # Combinations
    if [[ X && Y ]]; then
      ...
    fi

    # Equal
    if [[ "$A" == "$B" ]]

    # Regex
    if [[ "A" =~ . ]]

    if (( $a < $b )); then
       echo "$a is smaller than $b"
    fi

    if [[ -e "file.txt" ]]; then
      echo "file exists"
    fi

## Arrays

### Defining arrays

    Fruits=('Apple' 'Banana' 'Orange')

    Fruits[0]="Apple"
    Fruits[1]="Banana"
    Fruits[2]="Orange"

### Working with arrays

    echo ${Fruits[0]}           # Element #0
    echo ${Fruits[-1]}          # Last element
    echo ${Fruits[@]}           # All elements, space-separated
    echo ${#Fruits[@]}          # Number of elements
    echo ${#Fruits}             # String length of the 1st element
    echo ${#Fruits[3]}          # String length of the Nth element
    echo ${Fruits[@]:3:2}       # Range (from position 3, length 2)
    echo ${!Fruits[@]}          # Keys of all elements, space-separated

### Operations

    Fruits=("${Fruits[@]}" "Watermelon")    # Push
    Fruits+=('Watermelon')                  # Also Push
    Fruits=( ${Fruits[@]/Ap*/} )            # Remove by regex match
    unset Fruits[2]                         # Remove one item
    Fruits=("${Fruits[@]}")                 # Duplicate
    Fruits=("${Fruits[@]}" "${Veggies[@]}") # Concatenate
    lines=(`cat "logfile"`)                 # Read from file

### Iteration

    for i in "${arrayName[@]}"; do
      echo $i
    done

## Dictionaries

### Defining

    declare -A sounds

    sounds[dog]="bark"
    sounds[cow]="moo"
    sounds[bird]="tweet"
    sounds[wolf]="howl"

Declares `sound` as a Dictionary object (aka associative array).

### Working with dictionaries

    echo ${sounds[dog]} # Dog's sound
    echo ${sounds[@]}   # All values
    echo ${!sounds[@]}  # All keys
    echo ${#sounds[@]}  # Number of elements
    unset sounds[dog]   # Delete dog

### Iteration

#### Iterate over values

    for val in "${sounds[@]}"; do
      echo $val
    done

#### Iterate over keys

    for key in "${!sounds[@]}"; do
      echo $key
    done

## Options

    set -o noclobber  # Avoid overlay files (echo "hi" > foo)
    set -o errexit    # Used to exit upon error, avoiding cascading errors
    set -o pipefail   # Unveils hidden failures
    set -o nounset    # Exposes unset variables

### Glob options

    shopt -s nullglob    # Non-matching globs are removed  ('*.foo' => '')
    shopt -s failglob    # Non-matching globs throw errors
    shopt -s nocaseglob  # Case insensitive globs
    shopt -s dotglob     # Wildcards match dotfiles ("*.sh" => ".foo.sh")
    shopt -s globstar    # Allow ** for recursive matches ('lib/**/*.rb' => 'lib/a/b/c.rb')

Set `GLOBIGNORE` as a colon-separated list of patterns to be removed from glob matches.

## History

### Commands

Command | Description
--- | ---
`history` | Show history
`shopt -s histverify` | Don’t execute expanded result immediately

### Expansions

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`!$` | Expand last parameter of most recent command
`!*` | Expand all parameters of most recent command
`!-n` | Expand `n`th most recent command
`!n` | Expand `n`th command in history
`!<command>` | Expand most recent invocation of command `<command>`

### Operations

Code | Description
--- | ---
`!!` | Execute last command again
`!!:s/<FROM>/<TO>/` | Replace first occurrence of `<FROM>` to `<TO>` in most recent command
`!!:gs/<FROM>/<TO>/` | Replace all occurrences of `<FROM>` to `<TO>` in most recent command
`!$:t` | Expand only basename from last parameter of most recent command
`!$:h` | Expand only directory from last parameter of most recent command

`!!` and `!$` can be replaced with any valid expansion.

### Slices

Code | Description
--- | ---
`!!:n` | Expand only `n`th token from most recent command (command is `0`; first argument is `1`)
`!^` | Expand first argument from most recent command
`!$` | Expand last token from most recent command
`!!:n-m` | Expand range of tokens from most recent command
`!!:n-$` | Expand `n`th token to last from most recent command

`!!` can be replaced with any valid expansion i.e. `!cat`, `!-2`, `!42`, etc.

## Miscellaneous

### Numeric calculations

    $((a + 200))      # Add 200 to $a

    $((RANDOM%=200))  # Random number 0..200

### Subshells

    (cd somedir; echo "I'm now in $PWD")
    pwd # still in first directory

### Redirection

    python hello.py > output.txt   # stdout to (file)
    python hello.py >> output.txt  # stdout to (file), append
    python hello.py 2> error.log   # stderr to (file)
    python hello.py 2>&1           # stderr to stdout
    python hello.py 2>/dev/null    # stderr to (null)
    python hello.py &>/dev/null    # stdout and stderr to (null)

    python hello.py < foo.txt      # feed foo.txt to stdin for python

### Inspecting commands

    command -V cd
    #=> "cd is a function/alias/whatever"

### Trap errors

    trap 'echo Error at about $LINENO' ERR

or

    traperr() {
      echo "ERROR: ${BASH_SOURCE[1]} at about ${BASH_LINENO[0]}"
    }

    set -o errtrace
    trap traperr ERR

### Case/switch

    case "$1" in
      start | up)
        vagrant up
        ;;

      *)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|ssh}"
        ;;
    esac

### Source relative

    source "${0%/*}/../share/foo.sh"

### printf

    printf "Hello %s, I'm %s" Sven Olga
    #=> "Hello Sven, I'm Olga

    printf "1 + 1 = %d" 2
    #=> "1 + 1 = 2"

    printf "This is how you print a float: %f" 2
    #=> "This is how you print a float: 2.000000"

### Directory of script

    DIR="${0%/*}"

### Getting options

    while [[ "$1" =~ ^- && ! "$1" == "--" ]]; do case $1 in
      -V | --version )
        echo $version
        exit
        ;;
      -s | --string )
        shift; string=$1
        ;;
      -f | --flag )
        flag=1
        ;;
    esac; shift; done
    if [[ "$1" == '--' ]]; then shift; fi

### Heredoc

    cat <<END
    hello world
    END

### Reading input

    echo -n "Proceed? [y/n]: "
    read ans
    echo $ans

    read -n 1 ans    # Just one character

### Special variables

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`$?` | Exit status of last task
`$!` | PID of last background task
`$$` | PID of shell
`$0` | Filename of the shell script

See Special parameters.

### Go to previous directory

    pwd # /home/user/foo
    cd bar/
    pwd # /home/user/foo/bar
    cd -
    pwd # /home/user/foo

### Check for command’s result

    if ping -c 1 google.com; then
      echo "It appears you have a working internet connection"
    fi

### Grep check

    if grep -q 'foo' ~/.bash_history; then
      echo "You appear to have typed 'foo' in the past"
    fi

## Also see

- Bash-hackers wiki (bash-hackers.org)
- Shell vars (bash-hackers.org)
- Learn bash in y minutes (learnxinyminutes.com)
- Bash Guide (mywiki.wooledge.org)
- ShellCheck (shellcheck.net)

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