tcsh script if statement - shell

I need to loop through a bunch of different scenarios (variable scen), but can't figure out how to use the if statements in the tcsh shell script. Getting the error "if: Expression Syntax" Can someone please tell me what I have wrong? Simplified code follows! Thanks!
#!/bin/tcsh -f
#
set val = 0
foreach scen ( a b )
echo $scen
if ($scen==a) then
echo $scen
else
echo $val
endif
end

Solution to your problem
Apparently you need spaces around the equality comparison ==. This
works:
#!/bin/tcsh -f
#
set val = 0
foreach scen ( a b )
echo $scen
if ($scen == a) then
echo $scen
else
echo $val
endif
end
producing:
a
a
b
0
Unsolicited advice
Also, unless you have to be using tcsh here, I suggest using a better
shell like bash or zsh. Here are some arguments against csh and tcsh:
http://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/anti/csh/
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/
For comparison, here's your code in bash (and zsh):
#!/bin/bash
# No space around equal sign in assignment!
val=0
for scen in a b; do
echo $scen
if [[ $scen == a ]]; then
echo $scen
else
echo $val
fi
done
There's no important difference here, but see the above articles for
examples where csh would be a bad choice.

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

BASH - never execute unless environment variable is defined and certain value [duplicate]

I've got a few Unix shell scripts where I need to check that certain environment variables are set before I start doing stuff, so I do this sort of thing:
if [ -z "$STATE" ]; then
echo "Need to set STATE"
exit 1
fi
if [ -z "$DEST" ]; then
echo "Need to set DEST"
exit 1
fi
which is a lot of typing. Is there a more elegant idiom for checking that a set of environment variables is set?
EDIT: I should mention that these variables have no meaningful default value - the script should error out if any are unset.
Parameter Expansion
The obvious answer is to use one of the special forms of parameter expansion:
: ${STATE?"Need to set STATE"}
: ${DEST:?"Need to set DEST non-empty"}
Or, better (see section on 'Position of double quotes' below):
: "${STATE?Need to set STATE}"
: "${DEST:?Need to set DEST non-empty}"
The first variant (using just ?) requires STATE to be set, but STATE="" (an empty string) is OK — not exactly what you want, but the alternative and older notation.
The second variant (using :?) requires DEST to be set and non-empty.
If you supply no message, the shell provides a default message.
The ${var?} construct is portable back to Version 7 UNIX and the Bourne Shell (1978 or thereabouts). The ${var:?} construct is slightly more recent: I think it was in System III UNIX circa 1981, but it may have been in PWB UNIX before that. It is therefore in the Korn Shell, and in the POSIX shells, including specifically Bash.
It is usually documented in the shell's man page in a section called Parameter Expansion. For example, the bash manual says:
${parameter:?word}
Display Error if Null or Unset. If parameter is null or unset, the expansion of word (or a message to that effect if word is not present) is written to the standard error and the shell, if it is not interactive, exits. Otherwise, the value of parameter is substituted.
The Colon Command
I should probably add that the colon command simply has its arguments evaluated and then succeeds. It is the original shell comment notation (before '#' to end of line). For a long time, Bourne shell scripts had a colon as the first character. The C Shell would read a script and use the first character to determine whether it was for the C Shell (a '#' hash) or the Bourne shell (a ':' colon). Then the kernel got in on the act and added support for '#!/path/to/program' and the Bourne shell got '#' comments, and the colon convention went by the wayside. But if you come across a script that starts with a colon, now you will know why.
Position of double quotes
blong asked in a comment:
Any thoughts on this discussion? https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck/issues/380#issuecomment-145872749
The gist of the discussion is:
… However, when I shellcheck it (with version 0.4.1), I get this message:
In script.sh line 13:
: ${FOO:?"The environment variable 'FOO' must be set and non-empty"}
^-- SC2086: Double quote to prevent globbing and word splitting.
Any advice on what I should do in this case?
The short answer is "do as shellcheck suggests":
: "${STATE?Need to set STATE}"
: "${DEST:?Need to set DEST non-empty}"
To illustrate why, study the following. Note that the : command doesn't echo its arguments (but the shell does evaluate the arguments). We want to see the arguments, so the code below uses printf "%s\n" in place of :.
$ mkdir junk
$ cd junk
$ > abc
$ > def
$ > ghi
$
$ x="*"
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?You must set x} # Careless; not recommended
abc
def
ghi
$ unset x
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?You must set x} # Careless; not recommended
bash: x: You must set x
$ printf "%s\n" "${x:?You must set x}" # Careful: should be used
bash: x: You must set x
$ x="*"
$ printf "%s\n" "${x:?You must set x}" # Careful: should be used
*
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?"You must set x"} # Not quite careful enough
abc
def
ghi
$ x=
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?"You must set x"} # Not quite careful enough
bash: x: You must set x
$ unset x
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?"You must set x"} # Not quite careful enough
bash: x: You must set x
$
Note how the value in $x is expanded to first * and then a list of file names when the overall expression is not in double quotes. This is what shellcheck is recommending should be fixed. I have not verified that it doesn't object to the form where the expression is enclosed in double quotes, but it is a reasonable assumption that it would be OK.
Try this:
[ -z "$STATE" ] && echo "Need to set STATE" && exit 1;
Your question is dependent on the shell that you are using.
Bourne shell leaves very little in the way of what you're after.
BUT...
It does work, just about everywhere.
Just try and stay away from csh. It was good for the bells and whistles it added, compared the Bourne shell, but it is really creaking now. If you don't believe me, just try and separate out STDERR in csh! (-:
There are two possibilities here. The example above, namely using:
${MyVariable:=SomeDefault}
for the first time you need to refer to $MyVariable. This takes the env. var MyVariable and, if it is currently not set, assigns the value of SomeDefault to the variable for later use.
You also have the possibility of:
${MyVariable:-SomeDefault}
which just substitutes SomeDefault for the variable where you are using this construct. It doesn't assign the value SomeDefault to the variable, and the value of MyVariable will still be null after this statement is encountered.
Surely the simplest approach is to add the -u switch to the shebang (the line at the top of your script), assuming you’re using bash:
#!/bin/sh -u
This will cause the script to exit if any unbound variables lurk within.
${MyVariable:=SomeDefault}
If MyVariable is set and not null, it will reset the variable value (= nothing happens).
Else, MyVariable is set to SomeDefault.
The above will attempt to execute ${MyVariable}, so if you just want to set the variable do:
MyVariable=${MyVariable:=SomeDefault}
In my opinion the simplest and most compatible check for #!/bin/sh is:
if [ "$MYVAR" = "" ]
then
echo "Does not exist"
else
echo "Exists"
fi
Again, this is for /bin/sh and is compatible also on old Solaris systems.
bash 4.2 introduced the -v operator which tests if a name is set to any value, even the empty string.
$ unset a
$ b=
$ c=
$ [[ -v a ]] && echo "a is set"
$ [[ -v b ]] && echo "b is set"
b is set
$ [[ -v c ]] && echo "c is set"
c is set
I always used:
if [ "x$STATE" == "x" ]; then echo "Need to set State"; exit 1; fi
Not that much more concise, I'm afraid.
Under CSH you have $?STATE.
For future people like me, I wanted to go a step forward and parameterize the var name, so I can loop over a variable sized list of variable names:
#!/bin/bash
declare -a vars=(NAME GITLAB_URL GITLAB_TOKEN)
for var_name in "${vars[#]}"
do
if [ -z "$(eval "echo \$$var_name")" ]; then
echo "Missing environment variable $var_name"
exit 1
fi
done
We can write a nice assertion to check a bunch of variables all at once:
#
# assert if variables are set (to a non-empty string)
# if any variable is not set, exit 1 (when -f option is set) or return 1 otherwise
#
# Usage: assert_var_not_null [-f] variable ...
#
function assert_var_not_null() {
local fatal var num_null=0
[[ "$1" = "-f" ]] && { shift; fatal=1; }
for var in "$#"; do
[[ -z "${!var}" ]] &&
printf '%s\n' "Variable '$var' not set" >&2 &&
((num_null++))
done
if ((num_null > 0)); then
[[ "$fatal" ]] && exit 1
return 1
fi
return 0
}
Sample invocation:
one=1 two=2
assert_var_not_null one two
echo test 1: return_code=$?
assert_var_not_null one two three
echo test 2: return_code=$?
assert_var_not_null -f one two three
echo test 3: return_code=$? # this code shouldn't execute
Output:
test 1: return_code=0
Variable 'three' not set
test 2: return_code=1
Variable 'three' not set
More such assertions here: https://github.com/codeforester/base/blob/master/lib/assertions.sh
This can be a way too:
if (set -u; : $HOME) 2> /dev/null
...
...
http://unstableme.blogspot.com/2007/02/checks-whether-envvar-is-set-or-not.html
None of the above solutions worked for my purposes, in part because I checking the environment for an open-ended list of variables that need to be set before starting a lengthy process. I ended up with this:
mapfile -t arr < variables.txt
EXITCODE=0
for i in "${arr[#]}"
do
ISSET=$(env | grep ^${i}= | wc -l)
if [ "${ISSET}" = "0" ];
then
EXITCODE=-1
echo "ENV variable $i is required."
fi
done
exit ${EXITCODE}
Rather than using external shell scripts I tend to load in functions in my login shell. I use something like this as a helper function to check for environment variables rather than any set variable:
is_this_an_env_variable ()
local var="$1"
if env |grep -q "^$var"; then
return 0
else
return 1
fi
}
The $? syntax is pretty neat:
if [ $?BLAH == 1 ]; then
echo "Exists";
else
echo "Does not exist";
fi

if statement always goes to the else

I just started learning Bash scripting and i have to do a program that separate between one bit map image to two (the image is broken), I already found on the web how to write loops and statements
but i don't know why my if statement is always goes to the else.
the if is modulo by 2 thats equals to 0
here is the following code
#!/bin/sh
OUTPUT="$(hexdump -v -e '/1 "%02X\n"' merge.bmp)"
echo $OUTPUT
vars=0
count=1
touch one
touch two
for i in $OUTPUT
do
if (($vars%2==0))
then
echo "1"
else
echo "2"
fi
vars=$((vars+count))
done
in the terminal the following error is
./q3.sh: 14: ./q3.sh: 2885%2==0: not found
2
i really don't know why the if always print 2
The shebang line is wrong, it should be:
#!/bin/bash
((expression)) is a bash extension, not available in sh.
The /bin/sh version of the (()) bashism is this:
if test $(($vars % 2)) -eq 0; then
echo "1"
...
fi
Since $(()) knows about variable names, you may even drop the dollar and write
if test $((vars % 2)) -eq 0; then
echo "1"
...
fi

syntax error: unexpected end of file trying to run a simple bash script

I really can't see what the issue is with my script is. I've considered missing quotations or other syntax errors. There's got to be something I'm missing. It's a very simple while loop script...
#!/bin/bash
c=1
while [ $c -le 5 ]
do
echo "Welcone $c times"
c=$(( c++ ))
done
I should mention that I'm running bash in cygwin on windows 7.
thanks for the help
Change:
c=$(( c++ ))
to
(( c=c+1 ))
When Bash sees: (( var)) it will try and 'do some math' on contents... In this case 'c++' == empty string == '0'; c will always be equal to '1' due to 1st assignment...
From the Bash man page on my Linux system (you may need to review this for Cygwin - could be different...):
((expression))
The expression is evaluated according to the rules described below under ARITHMETIC EVALUATION. If the value of the expression is non-zero, the return status is 0; otherwise the return status is 1. This is exactly equivalent to let "expression".
Also:
id++ id--
variable post-increment and post-decrement
++id --id
variable pre-increment and pre-decrement
After a little testing, the 'pre-increment' seems to do what you are after here - note that you may need to declare 'c' as an integer:
typeset -i c=1
while [ $c -le 5 ]
do
echo "Welcone $c times"
c=++c
# (( c=c+1 ))
done

What's a concise way to check that environment variables are set in a Unix shell script?

I've got a few Unix shell scripts where I need to check that certain environment variables are set before I start doing stuff, so I do this sort of thing:
if [ -z "$STATE" ]; then
echo "Need to set STATE"
exit 1
fi
if [ -z "$DEST" ]; then
echo "Need to set DEST"
exit 1
fi
which is a lot of typing. Is there a more elegant idiom for checking that a set of environment variables is set?
EDIT: I should mention that these variables have no meaningful default value - the script should error out if any are unset.
Parameter Expansion
The obvious answer is to use one of the special forms of parameter expansion:
: ${STATE?"Need to set STATE"}
: ${DEST:?"Need to set DEST non-empty"}
Or, better (see section on 'Position of double quotes' below):
: "${STATE?Need to set STATE}"
: "${DEST:?Need to set DEST non-empty}"
The first variant (using just ?) requires STATE to be set, but STATE="" (an empty string) is OK — not exactly what you want, but the alternative and older notation.
The second variant (using :?) requires DEST to be set and non-empty.
If you supply no message, the shell provides a default message.
The ${var?} construct is portable back to Version 7 UNIX and the Bourne Shell (1978 or thereabouts). The ${var:?} construct is slightly more recent: I think it was in System III UNIX circa 1981, but it may have been in PWB UNIX before that. It is therefore in the Korn Shell, and in the POSIX shells, including specifically Bash.
It is usually documented in the shell's man page in a section called Parameter Expansion. For example, the bash manual says:
${parameter:?word}
Display Error if Null or Unset. If parameter is null or unset, the expansion of word (or a message to that effect if word is not present) is written to the standard error and the shell, if it is not interactive, exits. Otherwise, the value of parameter is substituted.
The Colon Command
I should probably add that the colon command simply has its arguments evaluated and then succeeds. It is the original shell comment notation (before '#' to end of line). For a long time, Bourne shell scripts had a colon as the first character. The C Shell would read a script and use the first character to determine whether it was for the C Shell (a '#' hash) or the Bourne shell (a ':' colon). Then the kernel got in on the act and added support for '#!/path/to/program' and the Bourne shell got '#' comments, and the colon convention went by the wayside. But if you come across a script that starts with a colon, now you will know why.
Position of double quotes
blong asked in a comment:
Any thoughts on this discussion? https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck/issues/380#issuecomment-145872749
The gist of the discussion is:
… However, when I shellcheck it (with version 0.4.1), I get this message:
In script.sh line 13:
: ${FOO:?"The environment variable 'FOO' must be set and non-empty"}
^-- SC2086: Double quote to prevent globbing and word splitting.
Any advice on what I should do in this case?
The short answer is "do as shellcheck suggests":
: "${STATE?Need to set STATE}"
: "${DEST:?Need to set DEST non-empty}"
To illustrate why, study the following. Note that the : command doesn't echo its arguments (but the shell does evaluate the arguments). We want to see the arguments, so the code below uses printf "%s\n" in place of :.
$ mkdir junk
$ cd junk
$ > abc
$ > def
$ > ghi
$
$ x="*"
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?You must set x} # Careless; not recommended
abc
def
ghi
$ unset x
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?You must set x} # Careless; not recommended
bash: x: You must set x
$ printf "%s\n" "${x:?You must set x}" # Careful: should be used
bash: x: You must set x
$ x="*"
$ printf "%s\n" "${x:?You must set x}" # Careful: should be used
*
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?"You must set x"} # Not quite careful enough
abc
def
ghi
$ x=
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?"You must set x"} # Not quite careful enough
bash: x: You must set x
$ unset x
$ printf "%s\n" ${x:?"You must set x"} # Not quite careful enough
bash: x: You must set x
$
Note how the value in $x is expanded to first * and then a list of file names when the overall expression is not in double quotes. This is what shellcheck is recommending should be fixed. I have not verified that it doesn't object to the form where the expression is enclosed in double quotes, but it is a reasonable assumption that it would be OK.
Try this:
[ -z "$STATE" ] && echo "Need to set STATE" && exit 1;
Your question is dependent on the shell that you are using.
Bourne shell leaves very little in the way of what you're after.
BUT...
It does work, just about everywhere.
Just try and stay away from csh. It was good for the bells and whistles it added, compared the Bourne shell, but it is really creaking now. If you don't believe me, just try and separate out STDERR in csh! (-:
There are two possibilities here. The example above, namely using:
${MyVariable:=SomeDefault}
for the first time you need to refer to $MyVariable. This takes the env. var MyVariable and, if it is currently not set, assigns the value of SomeDefault to the variable for later use.
You also have the possibility of:
${MyVariable:-SomeDefault}
which just substitutes SomeDefault for the variable where you are using this construct. It doesn't assign the value SomeDefault to the variable, and the value of MyVariable will still be null after this statement is encountered.
Surely the simplest approach is to add the -u switch to the shebang (the line at the top of your script), assuming you’re using bash:
#!/bin/sh -u
This will cause the script to exit if any unbound variables lurk within.
${MyVariable:=SomeDefault}
If MyVariable is set and not null, it will reset the variable value (= nothing happens).
Else, MyVariable is set to SomeDefault.
The above will attempt to execute ${MyVariable}, so if you just want to set the variable do:
MyVariable=${MyVariable:=SomeDefault}
In my opinion the simplest and most compatible check for #!/bin/sh is:
if [ "$MYVAR" = "" ]
then
echo "Does not exist"
else
echo "Exists"
fi
Again, this is for /bin/sh and is compatible also on old Solaris systems.
bash 4.2 introduced the -v operator which tests if a name is set to any value, even the empty string.
$ unset a
$ b=
$ c=
$ [[ -v a ]] && echo "a is set"
$ [[ -v b ]] && echo "b is set"
b is set
$ [[ -v c ]] && echo "c is set"
c is set
I always used:
if [ "x$STATE" == "x" ]; then echo "Need to set State"; exit 1; fi
Not that much more concise, I'm afraid.
Under CSH you have $?STATE.
For future people like me, I wanted to go a step forward and parameterize the var name, so I can loop over a variable sized list of variable names:
#!/bin/bash
declare -a vars=(NAME GITLAB_URL GITLAB_TOKEN)
for var_name in "${vars[#]}"
do
if [ -z "$(eval "echo \$$var_name")" ]; then
echo "Missing environment variable $var_name"
exit 1
fi
done
We can write a nice assertion to check a bunch of variables all at once:
#
# assert if variables are set (to a non-empty string)
# if any variable is not set, exit 1 (when -f option is set) or return 1 otherwise
#
# Usage: assert_var_not_null [-f] variable ...
#
function assert_var_not_null() {
local fatal var num_null=0
[[ "$1" = "-f" ]] && { shift; fatal=1; }
for var in "$#"; do
[[ -z "${!var}" ]] &&
printf '%s\n' "Variable '$var' not set" >&2 &&
((num_null++))
done
if ((num_null > 0)); then
[[ "$fatal" ]] && exit 1
return 1
fi
return 0
}
Sample invocation:
one=1 two=2
assert_var_not_null one two
echo test 1: return_code=$?
assert_var_not_null one two three
echo test 2: return_code=$?
assert_var_not_null -f one two three
echo test 3: return_code=$? # this code shouldn't execute
Output:
test 1: return_code=0
Variable 'three' not set
test 2: return_code=1
Variable 'three' not set
More such assertions here: https://github.com/codeforester/base/blob/master/lib/assertions.sh
This can be a way too:
if (set -u; : $HOME) 2> /dev/null
...
...
http://unstableme.blogspot.com/2007/02/checks-whether-envvar-is-set-or-not.html
None of the above solutions worked for my purposes, in part because I checking the environment for an open-ended list of variables that need to be set before starting a lengthy process. I ended up with this:
mapfile -t arr < variables.txt
EXITCODE=0
for i in "${arr[#]}"
do
ISSET=$(env | grep ^${i}= | wc -l)
if [ "${ISSET}" = "0" ];
then
EXITCODE=-1
echo "ENV variable $i is required."
fi
done
exit ${EXITCODE}
Rather than using external shell scripts I tend to load in functions in my login shell. I use something like this as a helper function to check for environment variables rather than any set variable:
is_this_an_env_variable ()
local var="$1"
if env |grep -q "^$var"; then
return 0
else
return 1
fi
}
The $? syntax is pretty neat:
if [ $?BLAH == 1 ]; then
echo "Exists";
else
echo "Does not exist";
fi

Resources