email shell script part 2 - shell

Question

I'm creating a shell script that takes in user input and text's people using the mail function. I am looking to make it more advanced. Right now it just text's one person at a time, I want it to have the ability to text multiple people or even everyone with a user input of 'All'.
#!/bin/sh
# Prefix the numbers with something
number_Joe=8881235555
number_Bob=8881235556
echo "Who do you want to text?:(i.e. Joe, Bob, etc)"
read name
echo "What do you want to say?:"
read quote
# Remove any dangerous characters that the user enters
sanitized=$(printf "%s" "$name" | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z')
#Look up by evaluating e.g. "number=$number_Joe"
eval "number=\$number_$sanitized"
if [ "$number" ]
then
echo "texting $name ($number) with $quote"
printf "%s\n" "$quote" | mailx -s "Text Message via email" "$number#txt.att.net"
else
echo "Unknown user"
exit 1
fi
Also, is there a cleaner method of bringing in a external txt file that houses the numbers instead of the script?
(note: we still have bash <4, thus why I'm not using a associative array)

Answer 1

Here's a rewrite.
Should work fine in bash3.
#!/bin/bash
# Prefix the numbers with something
names=()
names+=(Joe); numberJoe=8881235555
names+=(Bob); numberBob=8881235556
domain=txt.att.example.com
usage () {
echo "usage: $(basename $0) names message ..."
echo "where: names is a comma-separated list of names (no spaces)"
echo
echo "example: $(basename $0) Jim,Fred hello lads, this is my message"
}
while getopts ":hl" opt; do
case $opt in
h) usage; exit ;;
l) IFS=,; echo "known names: ${names[#]}"; exit ;;
esac
done
shift $((OPTIND - 1))
if (( $# < 2 )); then
usage
exit
fi
IFS=, read -ra usernamelist <<<"$1"
shift
message="$*"
# validate names
namelist=()
for name in "${usernamelist[#]}"; do
if [[ " ${names[#]} " == *" $name "* ]]; then
namelist+=("$name")
else
echo "unknown name: $name" >&2
fi
done
if (( ${#namelist[#]} == 0 )); then
echo "no valid names given" >&2
exit 1
fi
# generate the recipient list
echo "texting '$message' to:"
recipients=()
for name in "${namelist[#]}"; do
numvar="number$name"
echo " $name -> ${!numvar}"
recipients+=( "${!numvar}#$domain" )
done
# send it
printf "%s\n" "$message" | mailx -s "Text Message via email" "$(IFS=,; echo "${recipients[*]}")"