RE matching operator not working in this script - bash

Strange enough, [[ 111-11-1111 =~ "[0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]" ]] just yield success on command line.
But this script cannot yield the same when I bash re.sh 111-11-1111
#!/bin/bash
# re.sh
input=$1
if [[ "$input" =~ "[0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]" ]]
# ^ NOTE: Quoting not necessary, as of version 3.2 of Bash.
# NNN-NN-NNNN (where each N is a digit).
then
echo "Social Security number."
# Process SSN.
else
echo "Not a Social Security number!"
# Or, ask for corrected input.
fi
why?

As others have mentioned, you should remove the quotes on the regular expression if you're using bash 3.2 or higher. Also though, here's a shorter expression:
if [[ $input =~ ^[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}$ ]]

Related

Bash script with multiline variable

Here is my code
vmname="$1"
EXCEPTLIST="desktop-01|desktop-02|desktop-03|desktop-04"
if [[ $vmname != #(${EXCEPTLIST}) ]]; then
echo "${vmname}"
else
echo "Its in the exceptlist"
fi
The above code works perfectly but my question is , the EXCEPTLIST can be a long line, say 100 server names. In that case its hard to put all that names in one line. In that situation is there any way to make the variable EXCEPTLIST to be a multiline variable ? something like as follows:
EXCEPTLIST="desktop-01|desktop-02|desktop-03| \n
desktop-04|desktop-05|desktop-06| \n
desktop-07|desktop-08"
I am not sure but was thinking of possibilities.
Apparently I would like to know the terminology of using #(${})- Is this called variable expansion or what ? Does anyone know the documentation/explain to me about how this works in bash. ?
One can declare an array if the data/string is long/large. Use IFS and printf for the format string, something like:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
exceptlist=(
desktop-01
desktop-02
desktop-03
desktop-04
desktop-05
desktop-06
)
pattern=$(IFS='|'; printf '#(%s)' "${exceptlist[*]}")
[[ "$vmname" != $pattern ]] && echo good
In that situation is there any way to make the variable EXCEPTLIST to be a multiline variable ?
With your given input/data an array is also a best option, something like:
exceptlist=(
'desktop-01|desktop-02|desktop-03'
'desktop-04|desktop-05|desktop-06'
'desktop-07|desktop-08'
)
Check what is the value of $pattern variable one way is:
declare -p pattern
Output:
declare -- pattern="#(desktop-01|desktop-02|desktop-03|desktop-04|desktop-05|desktop-06)"
Need to test/check if $vmname is an empty string too, since it will always be true.
On a side note, don't use all upper case variables for purely internal purposes.
The $(...) is called Command Substitution.
See LESS=+'/\ *Command Substitution' man bash
In addition to what was mentioned in the comments about pattern matching
See LESS=+/'(pattern-list)' man bash
See LESS=+/' *\[\[ expression' man bash
s there any way to make the variable EXCEPTLIST to be a multiline variable ?
I see no reason to use matching. Use a bash array and just compare.
exceptlist=(
desktop-01
desktop-02
desktop-03
desktop-04
desktop-05
desktop-06
)
is_in_list() {
local i
for i in "${#:2}"; do
if [[ "$1" = "$i" ]]; then
return 0
fi
done
return 1
}
if is_in_list "$vmname" "${EXCEPTLIST[#]}"; then
echo "is in exception list ${vmname}"
fi
#(${})- Is this called variable expansion or what ? Does anyone know the documentation/explain to me about how this works in bash. ?
${var} is a variable expansion.
#(...) are just characters # ( ).
From man bash in Compund commands:
[[ expression ]]
When the == and != operators are used, the string to the right of the operator is considered a pattern and matched according to the rules
described below under Pattern Matching, as if the extglob shell option were enabled. ...
From Pattern Matching in man bash:
#(pattern-list)
Matches one of the given patterns
[[ command receives the #(a|b|c) string and then matches the arguments.
There is absolutely no need to use Bash specific regex or arrays and loop for a match, if using grep for raw string on word boundary.
The exception list can be multi-line, it will work as well:
#!/usr/bin/sh
exceptlist='
desktop-01|desktop-02|desktop-03|
deskop-04|desktop-05|desktop-06|
desktop-07|deskop-08'
if printf %s "$exceptlist" | grep -qwF "$1"; then
printf '%s is in the exceptlist\n' "$1"
fi
I wouldn't bother with multiple lines of text. This is would be just fine:
EXCEPTLIST='desktop-01|desktop-02|desktop-03|'
EXCEPTLIST+='desktop-04|desktop-05|desktop-06|'
EXCEPTLIST+='desktop-07|desktop-08'
The #(...) construct is called extended globbing pattern and what it does is an extension of what you probably already know -- wildcards:
VAR='foobar'
if [[ "$VAR" == fo?b* ]]; then
echo "Yes!"
else
echo "No!"
fi
A quick walkthrough on extended globbing examples: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/bash-extended-globbing
#!/bin/bash
set +o posix
shopt -s extglob
vmname=$1
EXCEPTLIST=(
desktop-01 desktop-02 desktop-03
...
)
if IFS='|' eval '[[ ${vmname} == #(${EXCEPTLIST[*]}) ]]'; then
...
Here's one way to load a multiline string into a variable:
fn() {
cat <<EOF
desktop-01|desktop-02|desktop-03|
desktop-04|desktop-05|desktop-06|
desktop-07|desktop-08
EOF
}
exceptlist="$(fn)"
echo $exceptlist
As to solving your specific problem, I can think of a variety of approaches.
Solution 1, since all the desktop has the same desktop-0 prefix and only differ in the last letter, we can make use of {,} or {..} expansion as follows:
vmname="$1"
found=0
for d in desktop-{01..08}
do
if [[ "$vmname" == $d ]]; then
echo "It's in the exceptlist"
found=1
break
fi
done
if (( !found )); then
echo "Not found"
fi
Solution 2, sometimes, it is good to provide a list in a maintainable clear text list. We can use a while loop and iterate through the list
vmname="$1"
found=0
while IFS= read -r d
do
if [[ "$vmname" == $d ]]; then
echo "It's in the exceptlist"
found=1
break
fi
done <<EOF
desktop-01
desktop-02
desktop-03
desktop-04
desktop-05
desktop-06
desktop-07
desktop-08
EOF
if (( !found )); then
echo "Not found"
fi
Solution 3, we can desktop the servers using regular expressions:
vmname="$1"
if [[ "$vmname" =~ ^desktop-0[1-8]$ ]]; then
echo "It's in the exceptlist"
else
echo "Not found"
fi
Solution 4, we populate an array, then iterate through an array:
vmname="$1"
exceptlist=()
exceptlist+=(desktop-01 desktop-02 desktop-03 deskop-04)
exceptlist+=(desktop-05 desktop-06 desktop-07 deskop-08)
found=0
for d in ${exceptlist[#]}
do
if [[ "$vmname" == "$d" ]]; then
echo "It's in the exceptlist"
found=1
break;
fi
done
if (( !found )); then
echo "Not found"
fi

Check if a parameter $1 is a three-character all-caps string

How can I check if the parameter inserted $1 is a string of 3 chars in uppercase? For example ABG. another example: GTD
Thanks
Using bash-only regular expression syntax:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
if [[ $1 =~ ^[[:upper:]]{3}$ ]]; then
echo "The first argument is three upper-case characters"
else
echo "The first argument is _not_ three upper-case characters
fi
...or, for compatibility with all POSIX shells, one can use a case statement:
#!/bin/sh
case $1 in
[[:upper:]][[:upper:]][[:upper:]])
echo "The first argument is three upper-case characters";;
*)
echo "The first argument is _not_ three upper-case characters";;
esac
I would use:
LC_ALL=C
[[ "$1" == [A-Z][A-Z][A-Z] ]] || exit 1
Or
LC_ALL=C
if [[ "$1" != [A-Z][A-Z][A-Z] ]]; then
echo "$1: invalid input" >&2
exit 1
fi
As per Charles' comment, A-Z is a character range, which is not equivalent to "all upper case latin letters" in all locales, so we can set the locale with LC_ALL=C.
You can use [[:upper:]] instead of [A-Z] if you don't want to set LC_ALL=C.
Alternatively, there's shopt -s globasciiranges, but it only works in bash version 4.3 or later (and is set by default in version 5.0 and later).
Note also, that using glob patterns in a string comparison is bash specific, and won't work in sh.

how to check whether a string starts with xx and ends with yy in shellscript?

In the below example I want to find whether the sentence starts with 'ap' and ends with 'e'.
example: a="apple"
if [[ "$a" == ^"ap"+$ ]]
This is not giving proper output.
You don't mention which shell you're using, but the [[ in your attempt suggests you're using one that expands upon the base POSIX sh language. The following works with at least bash, zsh and ksh93:
$ a=apple
$ [[ $a == ap*e ]] && echo matches # Wildcard pattern
matches
$ [[ $a =~ ^ap.*e$ ]] && echo matches # Regular expression - note the =~
matches

BASH: Everything but not slash? IF STATEMENT (STRING COMPARISION)

I'm trying to match any strings that start with /John/ but does not contain / after /John/
if
[ $string == /John/[!/]+ ]; then ....
fi
This is what I got and it doesn't seem to be working.
So I tried
if
[[ $string =~ ^/John/[!/]+$ ]]; then ....
fi
It still didn't work, and so I changed it to
if
[[ $string =~ /John/[^/] ]]; then ....
fi
It worked but will match with all the strings that has / behind /John/ too.
For bash you want [[ $string =~ /John/[^/]*$ ]] -- the end-of-line anchor ensures there are no slashes after the last acceptable slash.
How about "the string starts with '/John/' and doesn't contain any slashes after '/John/'"?
[[ $string = /John/* && $string != /John/*/* ]]
Or you could compare against a parameter expansion that only expands if the conditions are met. This says "after stripping off everything including and after the last slash, the string is /John":
[[ ${string%/*} = /John ]]
In fact, this last solution is the only entirely POSIXLY_STRICT one I can come up with without multiple test expressions.
[ "${string%/*}" = /John ]
By the way, your problem is probably simply be using double-equals inside a single-bracket test expression. bash actually does accept them inside double-bracket test expressions, but a single equals is a better idea.
You can also use plain old grep:
string='/John Lennon/Yoko Ono'
if echo "$string" | grep -q "/John[^/]" ; then
echo "matched"
else
echo "no match found"
fi
This only fails if /John is at the very end of the string... if that's a possibility then you can tweak to handle that case, for instance:
string='/John Lennon/Yoko Ono'
if echo "$string" | grep -qP "(/John[^/])|(/John$)" ; then
echo "matched"
else
echo "no match found"
fi
Not sure what language you're using, but normal negative character classes are prefixed with a ^
e.g.
[^/]
You can also put in start/end qualifiers (clojure example, so Java's regex engine). Usually ^ at beginning and $ at end.
user => (re-matches #"^/[a-zA-Z]+[^/]$" "/John/")
nil

What does the "=~" operator do in shell scripts?

It seems that it is sort of comparison operator, but what exactly it does in e.g. the following code (taken from https://github.com/lvv/git-prompt/blob/master/git-prompt.sh#L154)?
if [[ $LC_CTYPE =~ "UTF" && $TERM != "linux" ]]; then
elipses_marker="…"
else
elipses_marker="..."
fi
I'm currently trying to make git-prompt to work under MinGW, and the shell supplied with MinGW doesn't seem to support this operator:
conditional binary operator expected
syntax error near `=~'
` if [[ $LC_CTYPE =~ "UTF" && $TERM != "linux" ]]; then'
In this specific case I can just replace the entire block with elipses_marker="…" (as I know my terminal supports unicode), but what exactly this =~ does?
It's a bash-only addition to the built-in [[ command, performing regexp matching. Since it doesn't have to be an exact match of the full string, the symbol is waved, to indicate an "inexact" match.
In this case, if $LC_CTYPE CONTAINS the string "UTF".
More portable version:
if test `echo $LC_CTYPE | grep -c UTF` -ne 0 -a "$TERM" != "linux"
then
...
else
...
fi
It's a regular expression matching. I guess your bash version doesn't support that yet.
In this particular case, I'd suggest replacing it with simpler (and faster) pattern matching:
[[ $LC_CTYPE == *UTF* && $TERM != "linux" ]]
(note that * must not be quoted here)
Like Ruby, it matches where the RHS operand is a regular expression.
It matches regular expressions
Refer to following example from http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/bashver3.html#REGEXMATCHREF
#!/bin/bash
input=$1
if [[ "$input" =~ "[0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]" ]]
# ^ NOTE: Quoting not necessary, as of version 3.2 of Bash.
# NNN-NN-NNNN (where each N is a digit).
then
echo "Social Security number."
# Process SSN.
else
echo "Not a Social Security number!"
# Or, ask for corrected input.
fi

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