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Arithmetic Expressions in BASH

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 Quoting caveats Double square bracket conditionals Single square bracket conditionals
Compound comparisons if statements in shell  Macro substitutions caveats Case statement in shell Bash Built-in Variables Array Variables
BASH Debugging  Neatbash -- a simple bash prettyprinter bash Tips and Tricks Tips and Tricks Humor Etc

Introduction

Older UNIX shells like Borne shell  and ksh88 have clumsy, inefficient way of doing arithmetic based on external expr command:

z=`expr $z + 3`

This was questionable decision even at the time when Unix run of machines with just 2MB of memory. Even at this time shell can be implemented in Forth (which was available since early 70th) with much richer capabilities. Charles Moore and Elizabeth Rather formed FORTH, Inc. in 1973, refining and porting Forth systems to dozens of platforms. Forth interpreter is really small; minimal is under 1KB. 

When Perl arrived, it became clear that classic Unix shell approach to arithmetic expressions is inferior on modern computers and actually increases overhead of shell instead of decreasing it. So ksh93 was created to fight back the lost ground. While it failed to stop Perl momentum and Perl replaced shell for larger scripts, ksh93 was a big improvement over all previous shells. Among innovation brought to shell world by ksh93 is this new type of arithmetic expressions. 

Later bash (starting from version 3.2) re-implemented most of the advanced features of ksh93 plus a couple of its own.  Currently bash is restricted to integer arithmetic, while ksh93 can do floating-point arithmetic as well.

In bash version 3.2 and later you can (and should) use $(( )) or let for integer arithmetic expressions and conditionals. The idea of ((...)) construct is similar to [[...]] construct  introduced in ksh88. It provides built in capabilities for arithmetic that are superior to calling external function expr (or test in case of conditionals).

You can also declare integer variable using declare statement, for example:

declare -i k;

In this case you can omit   ((...)) brackets and  write expression like in "normal" programming languages. For example

declare -i k=0;
declare -i j=10
k=k+j;
All-in-all despite warts and non-uniformity with the rest of bash expression,  ((..)) capabilities represent a considerable improvement over what we used to have in older Unix shells and thus should be used whenever possible.  I would like to remind again that before ksh93 introduced let and (( ... )) commands, the only way to perform arithmetic was with expr. For example, to do the same increment to variable i you need to write:
i=`expr $i + 5`
The ((...)) construct can (and should) be used in any control statements such as if, headers of the while loop and case statement.

New  ((...)) conditional expression  should always be used instead of expr function

The ((...)) conditional expression evaluates an arithmetic expression like it was written in a "normal" algorithmic language (you can even omit dollar signs from the variables within such an expression) and sets the exit status to 1 if the expression evaluates to 0, or to 0 if the expression evaluates to a non-zero value.  For example:

(( uid == 0 ))
(( uid > 1000 ))
(( i=i+1 ))

You can use multiple expressions connected with operations AND or OR. That make it the new standard was to program integer comparisons in if statements, while loops and similar control flow constructs. Old [[...]] construct should no longer be used for arithmetic expressions: it just does not make any sense anymore outside string comparisons.  For example

 (( percent >= 0 && percent <= 100 ))

Another  example: 

 (( uid > 10  &&  uid < 100  )) && echo "$usd is a system UID" # example of complex arithmetic condition

As long as you can limit yourself to integer arithmetic, you can use all the standard C-language operators inside of  ((...)) conditionals.

As long as you can limit yourself to integer arithmetic, you can use all the standard C-language operators inside of  ((...)) conditionals.

Here is a more complex examples, that demonstrates that it not always possible to get rid of leading $ in arithmetic expressions -- parameters still should contain it: 

function mess
{
   if (( "$1" > 0 )) ; then
      total=$1
   else
      total=100
   fi
   tail -$total /var/adm/messages | more
}

Issues of style and the problem of undefined variables

By default, shell variables are typeless and can be assigned both numeric and non-numeric values.  You need explicitly declare integer variable for shell to know how they should be treated.

While this is not required, a good programming style is to declare all integer variables you use with the declare statement. That means that each variable name will appear in the script at least twice and that allow easy catch misspelling, which are the most common source of errors in bash script.  such errors are difficult to defect because your test case might not cover the branch in which misspelled name is present. So it will be detect much later, possibly in production.

For novices and infrequent users of Bash this is actually a "must" requirement: all variables should be declared using the Bash declare command and option set -o nounset should be set at the very beginning of the script the script.  For example to declare a variable named cores, as integer variable use this:

set -o nounset 
declare -i cores
declare message

Choosing good variable names is important.  The are two requirements here:

Because Bash does minimum checking of variable names, even with the nounset option turned on, another common mistake is using a variable that looks the same. You can declared a variable called nfiles, but in the body of his program use the variable nofiles. So it makes sense to initialize all variables in declare statement

set -o nounset 
declare -i cores=16
printf %d $ncores

Here ncores variable is not initialized and will be detected.

NOTES:

Values can be assigned an initial value when the variable is first declared.

set -o nounset 
declare -i cores=16
printf "%d" $cores

Because declare is a command, variables are created only when the declare command is executed.

The results of a command can also be assigned to a variable. If a command is contained in backquotes ('), everything written to standard output is stored in the variable being assigned instead. For example: 

declare -i nfiles=0
nfiles=`ls -1 | wc -l`
printf "%d" $nfiles

Arithmetic operations

All arithmetic operations are performed  on integers. Syntax is similar to conditional expressions with some twists. After all Bash is based on Born shall which is a product of 70th. And as such has a lot of warts. You have at least two "wrong" ways of writing arithmetic expression in bash :-). Unless you need compatibility with versions earlier then 2.0 (Typing variables declare or typeset ), the only right way is to declare all integer variables and use  ((...)) notation for complex expressions and let for simple (insluding self-referncial operatiors ++, --, etc).

For example: 

declare -i i;
i++ # this is a bug in bash and will not work.
let i++ # much better

In logical expressions always use ((..)). For example

if (( file_size < 10 )) ; then
    echo "the file size is too small. Aborting..."
    exit
fi

Again, it is highly recommended to explicitly declare the variables and use "normal language notation"

declare -i k=0
let i=k+1

Some semi-perverted ways to write arithmetic expressions assignments in bash

Bash is really non-orthogonal language, in a sense much worse then Perl. Those additional features implemented during more then 50 years of its existence make the language a real minefield. But we can do nothing about it.

That  means that when there are multiple ways to write the same expression in bash, each with its own gotachs you need to use the most simple and direct way:

 The most "gotch free was is to use ((..)) for the whole assignment statement. But agaiag if expression is way to complex and uses indirect calls to expr, you need to split it on a simpler chunks to avoid trobles.

for self-referential operators always use let. for more complex staff there are subtle nuances here that can spoit the broth. And in this sense ((...)) is more reliable option. In all cases I mentioned, Bash supports C-style shotcuts ++, --,+=, etc.  For example:   

(( i=i+1 )) is the same as (( i++ ))
let i+=1 is the same as let i++
i=$(( i++)) is the same as let i++ but worse then previous example

Quotes or backslashes  usually are not needed  inside of the $(( )) construct: all characters between the (( and )) are treated as a string in double quotes.

If you use let for more or less complex expression involving multiplication and brackets ( and I do not recommend using let for anything but C-style shortcut operators like += and ++) it is prudent to put expression in double quote to avoid conflict with bash meta symbols such as "*", '('  and ')'.

The best is to declare integer variables and use ((..)) notation.
I do not recommend using let for anything but C-style self-referecial shorcuts operators like += and ++ )

Again, most of C-style shortcuts operators are now supported by BASH. The most useful is probably  +=  (familiar to any C programmer). That means that: 

declare -i i
i=i+5
is better written as 
declare -i i
let i+=5

of cause each integer variable declaration is need in a script only once.

All  C-style self-referential shortcut are now available in bash including increments/decrements  ++/-- : 

let i++
or, worse:  
(( $i++ ))

Here is an extended table of available shortcuts:

Operator Operation with assignment Use Meaning
= Simple assignment a=b a=b
*= Multiplication a*=b a=(a*b)
/= Division a/=b a=(a/b)
%= Remainder a%=b a=(a%b)
+= Addition a+=b a=(a+b)
-= Subtraction a-=b a=(a-b)
<<= Bit-shift left a<<=b a=(a<<b)
>>= Bit-shift right a>>=b a=(a>>b)
&= Bitwise "and" a&=b a=(a&b)
^= Bitwise "exclusive or" a^=b a=(a^b)
|= Bitwise "or" a|=b a=(a|b)

The differences between the ((...)) command and let command

While constructs are almost identical there some minor differences. First of all explicit declation and then usage of "normal" programming language notation implicitly means that you use ((...)) notation.  But you better be explicit. You are more or les safe is the expression is normal with = sign.  Like

I=k+1

You can run into troubles using normal notation for self-referential operators. Here you always need to use let. In other words, writing

i++

is "gotcha" in bash 4.2  if you enabled autocd option in your profile :-(

but in general "normal way of writing assignment statement in which the valuable on the left side of the assignement sign is declared as intergeg ahousl always be equavalent to ((...)). There should be no gotchas here.

I would prefer always use ((..)) in both conditional expressions  and assignment statements just to be safe, and you let construct only for self referential operators.

There are some subtle nuances when you use let with compex  expression including a couple of unpleasant gotchas:

Note: there can be some exotic usage of (( ... ))). For example, the assignments can  be cascaded, through the use of the comma operator:

	echo $(( i+=2 , j++ ))

which will do both assignments and then echo the result of the second expression (since the comma operator returns the value of its second expression).

Of cause, this is perversion, but still...

Ternary operator ?

In C ?: there is a useful ternary operator that provides capabilities for a basic conditional expression. It is commonly referred to as the conditional operator, inline if (iif), or ternary if.

A traditional if-else construct in C  is written:

if (a >= b) {
    max = a;
} else {
    max = b;
}

In C and Perl this can be rewritten as the following statement:

max = a >= b ? a : b;

Although many ternary operators are possible, only conditional operators is common. Other ternary operators so rare, that the conditional operator is commonly referred to as the ternary operator.

It is now re-implemented and is available in bash. The example above can be written as 

let "max = a >= b ? a : b" # note usage of double quotes
or better 
 (( max = a >= b ? a : b ))

For example: 

a=6 
b=5
let "max = a >= b ? a : b"   # Condition is true
echo $max

let "b += 2"
let "max = a > b ? a : b"   # Condition is false
echo $max
Here is a relevant discussion in Stack Overflow

Q: Is there a way to do something like this

int a = (b == 5) ? c : d;

using Bash?

Daniel Daranas asked Oct 17 '10 at 14:38 

A: Code:

   a=$(( b == 5 ? c : d ))
answered Oct 17 '10 at 14:53  by Vladimir

A: ternary operator ? : is just short form of if/else

case "$b" in 
   5) a=$c ;; 
   *) a=$d ;; 
   esac

Or

a="$d"; [[ $b = 5 ]] && a="$c"

down vote for [ $b == 5 ] && a=$c || a=$d

this solution is incorrect !!! Watch out with this construct, as the part after the || is also executed when the part between && and || fails. Use

[ $b == 5 ] && { a=$c; true; } || a=$d – James Andino Nov 22 '13 at 23:14

This will avoid executing the part after || by accident when the code between && and || fails.

If the condition is merely checking if a variable is set, there's even a shorter form:
a=${VAR:-20}

will assign to a the value of VAR if VAR is set, otherwise it will assign it the default value 20 -- this can also be a result of an expression. As alex notes in the comment, this approach is technically called "Parameter Expansion".

(( a = b==5 ? c : d )) # string + numeric

This is good for numeric comparisons and assignments, but it will give unpredictable results if you use it for string comparisons and assignments.... (( )) treats any/all strings as 0 – Peter.O May 12 '11 at 22:51 

(ping -c1 localhost&>/dev/null) && { echo "true", true; } || { echo "false"; }
The let command supports most of the basic operators one would need:
let a = b==5 ? c : d;

Naturally, this works only for assigning variables; it cannot execute other commands.

it is exactly equivalent to (( ... )), so it is only valid for arithmetic expressions – AlberT Jan 30 '13 at 12:07

Here is another option where you only have to specify the variable you're assigning once, and it doesn't matter whether what your assigning is a string or a number:
VARIABLE=`[ test ] && echo VALUE_A || echo VALUE_B`

Just a thought. :)

down vote

if [ "$b" -eq 5 ]; then a="$c"; else a="$d"; fi

The cond && op1 || op2 solution suggested in other answers has an inherent bug: if op1 has a nonzero exit status, op2 silently becomes the result; the error will also not be catched in -e mode.

Gotchas

  1.  (( )) treats any strings as 0. If any of the integer variable is accidentally assigned  a string value and you did not declare this variable as integer and strict checking option you might have a problem, that can slip during testing and discovered much later in production. 
  2. Generally in shells like bash or ksh93 spaces are treated as in any normal algorithmic language: they are optional.  But there are some exception. Spaces before and after equal sign have a special meaning in shell. And that a gotcha that you need to be aware of: a space before equal sign confuses bash into thinking that this is a function invocation. For example, in case of 
    i = $(( i + 5 )) # not what you think!

    bash will try to run a program named i and its first argument would be an equal sign, and its second argument would be the number you get adding 5 to the value of $i.

    Spaces before and after equal sign have a special meaning: a space before equal sign confuses bash into thinking that this is a function invocation

    Another idiosyncrasy is that so called shell   R-value rule ($ should be prefixed to the shell variable on the right side of assignment statement to get its value) is now optional and generally you should probably omit $ prefix for variables in ((..)) construct.  That means that 

    let i=$i+1

    can be written as in regular programming languages: 

    let i=i+1

    The gotcha is that you still need the dollar sign for positional parameters (e.g.,$2) to distinguish it from a numeric constant (e.g., "2"). Here's an example:

    i=$(( i + $2 ))

Additional examples

  1. Instant integer calculator using the echo command. For example, for conversion of megabytes in kilobytes and bytes
    echo $(( 33*1024 ))
  2. Additional examples from Internal Commands and Builtins 
    let a=11            # not the same as 'declare -i a=11'
let a=a+5           # Equivalent to  let "a = a + 5" (Double quotes and spaces make it more readable.)

let "a <<= 3"       # Equivalent to  let "a = a << 3"
echo "\"\$a\" (=16) left-shifted 3 places = $a"
                    # 128

let "a /= 4"        # Equivalent to  let "a = a / 4"
echo "128 / 4 = $a" # 32

let "a -= 5"        # Equivalent to  let "a = a - 5"
echo "32 - 5 = $a"  # 27

let "a *=  10"      # Equivalent to  let "a = a * 10"
echo "27 * 10 = $a" # 270

let "a %= 8"        # Equivalent to  let "a = a % 8"
echo "270 modulo 8 = $a  (270 / 8 = 33, remainder $a)"
                    # 6
  3. C-style shortcuts 
    let a++             # C-style (post) increment.
let a--             # C-style decrement.
# Of course, ++a, etc., also allowed . . .

History

The man page for bash v3.2.48 says:

[...] The format for arithmetic expansion is: $((expression))

The old format $[expression] is deprecated and will be removed in upcoming versions of bash. So $[...] is old syntax that should not be used anymore.

The feature has been deprecated since bash-2.0, but persists till today (bash-4.2).  History of this feature is explained in the old email from the  bug-bash mailing list. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2012-04/msg00033.html 

“In early proposals, a form $[expression] was used. It was functionally equivalent to the "$(())" of the current text, but objections were lodged that the 1988 KornShell had already implemented "$(())" and there was no compelling reason to invent yet another syntax.

Furthermore, the "$[]" syntax had a minor incompatibility involving the patterns in case statements.”

Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov

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[Jul 02, 2020] Associative arrays in Bash by Seth Kenlon

Apr 02, 2020 | opensource.com

Originally from: Get started with Bash scripting for sysadmins - Opensource.com

Most shells offer the ability to create, manipulate, and query indexed arrays. In plain English, an indexed array is a list of things prefixed with a number. This list of things, along with their assigned number, is conveniently wrapped up in a single variable, which makes it easy to "carry" it around in your code.

Bash, however, includes the ability to create associative arrays and treats these arrays the same as any other array. An associative array lets you create lists of key and value pairs, instead of just numbered values.

The nice thing about associative arrays is that keys can be arbitrary:

$ declare -A userdata
$ userdata [ name ] =seth
$ userdata [ pass ] =8eab07eb620533b083f241ec4e6b9724
$ userdata [ login ] = ` date --utc + % s `

Query any key:

$ echo " ${userdata[name]} "
seth
$ echo " ${userdata[login]} "
1583362192

Most of the usual array operations you'd expect from an array are available.

Resources

[Oct 17, 2018] How to use arrays in bash script - LinuxConfig.org

Oct 17, 2018 | linuxconfig.org

Create indexed arrays on the fly We can create indexed arrays with a more concise syntax, by simply assign them some values:

$ my_array=(foo bar)
In this case we assigned multiple items at once to the array, but we can also insert one value at a time, specifying its index: 
$ my_array[0]=foo
Array operations Once an array is created, we can perform some useful operations on it, like displaying its keys and values or modifying it by appending or removing elements: Print the values of an array To display all the values of an array we can use the following shell expansion syntax: 
${my_array[@]}
Or even: 
${my_array[*]}
Both syntax let us access all the values of the array and produce the same results, unless the expansion it's quoted. In this case a difference arises: in the first case, when using @ , the expansion will result in a word for each element of the array. This becomes immediately clear when performing a for loop . As an example, imagine we have an array with two elements, "foo" and "bar": 
$ my_array=(foo bar)
Performing a for loop on it will produce the following result: 
$ for i in "${my_array[@]}"; do echo "$i"; done
foo
bar
When using * , and the variable is quoted, instead, a single "result" will be produced, containing all the elements of the array: 
$ for i in "${my_array[*]}"; do echo "$i"; done
foo bar

me name=
Print the keys of an array It's even possible to retrieve and print the keys used in an indexed or associative array, instead of their respective values. The syntax is almost identical, but relies on the use of the ! operator: 
$ my_array=(foo bar baz)
$ for index in "${!my_array[@]}"; do echo "$index"; done
0
1
2
The same is valid for associative arrays: 
$ declare -A my_array
$ my_array=([foo]=bar [baz]=foobar)
$ for key in "${!my_array[@]}"; do echo "$key"; done
baz
foo
As you can see, being the latter an associative array, we can't count on the fact that retrieved values are returned in the same order in which they were declared. Getting the size of an array We can retrieve the size of an array (the number of elements contained in it), by using a specific shell expansion: 
$ my_array=(foo bar baz)
$ echo "the array contains ${#my_array[@]} elements"
the array contains 3 elements
We have created an array which contains three elements, "foo", "bar" and "baz", then by using the syntax above, which differs from the one we saw before to retrieve the array values only for the # character before the array name, we retrieved the number of the elements in the array instead of its content. Adding elements to an array As we saw, we can add elements to an indexed or associative array by specifying respectively their index or associative key. In the case of indexed arrays, we can also simply add an element, by appending to the end of the array, using the += operator: 
$ my_array=(foo bar)
$ my_array+=(baz)
If we now print the content of the array we see that the element has been added successfully: 
$ echo "${my_array[@]}"
foo bar baz
Multiple elements can be added at a time: 
$ my_array=(foo bar)
$ my_array+=(baz foobar)
$ echo "${my_array[@]}"
foo bar baz foobar
To add elements to an associative array, we are bound to specify also their associated keys: 
$ declare -A my_array

# Add single element
$ my_array[foo]="bar"

# Add multiple elements at a time
$ my_array+=([baz]=foobar [foobarbaz]=baz)

me name=
Deleting an element from the array To delete an element from the array we need to know it's index or its key in the case of an associative array, and use the unset command. Let's see an example: 
$ my_array=(foo bar baz)
$ unset my_array[1]
$ echo ${my_array[@]}
foo baz
We have created a simple array containing three elements, "foo", "bar" and "baz", then we deleted "bar" from it running unset and referencing the index of "bar" in the array: in this case we know it was 1 , since bash arrays start at 0. If we check the indexes of the array, we can now see that 1 is missing: 
$ echo ${!my_array[@]}
0 2
The same thing it's valid for associative arrays: 
$ declare -A my_array
$ my_array+=([foo]=bar [baz]=foobar)
$ unset my_array[foo]
$ echo ${my_array[@]}
foobar
In the example above, the value referenced by the "foo" key has been deleted, leaving only "foobar" in the array.

Deleting an entire array, it's even simpler: we just pass the array name as an argument to the unset command without specifying any index or key:

$ unset my_array
$ echo ${!my_array[@]}
After executing unset against the entire array, when trying to print its content an empty result is returned: the array doesn't exist anymore. Conclusions In this tutorial we saw the difference between indexed and associative arrays in bash, how to initialize them and how to perform fundamental operations, like displaying their keys and values and appending or removing items. Finally we saw how to unset them completely. Bash syntax can sometimes be pretty weird, but using arrays in scripts can be really useful. When a script starts to become more complex than expected, my advice is, however, to switch to a more capable scripting language such as python.

[Jun 01, 2018] Introduction to Bash arrays by Robert Aboukhalil

Jun 01, 2018 | opensource.com

... ... ...

Looping through arrays

Although in the examples above we used integer indices in our arrays, let's consider two occasions when that won't be the case: First, if we wanted the $i -th element of the array, where $i is a variable containing the index of interest, we can retrieve that element using: echo ${allThreads[$i]} . Second, to output all the elements of an array, we replace the numeric index with the @ symbol (you can think of @ as standing for all ): echo ${allThreads[@]} .

Looping through array elements

With that in mind, let's loop through $allThreads and launch the pipeline for each value of --threads :

for t in ${allThreads[@]} ; do
. / pipeline --threads $t
done

Looping through array indices

Next, let's consider a slightly different approach. Rather than looping over array elements , we can loop over array indices :

for i in ${!allThreads[@]} ; do
. / pipeline --threads ${allThreads[$i]}
done

Let's break that down: As we saw above, ${allThreads[@]} represents all the elements in our array. Adding an exclamation mark to make it ${!allThreads[@]} will return the list of all array indices (in our case 0 to 7). In other words, the for loop is looping through all indices $i and reading the $i -th element from $allThreads to set the value of the --threads parameter.

This is much harsher on the eyes, so you may be wondering why I bother introducing it in the first place. That's because there are times where you need to know both the index and the value within a loop, e.g., if you want to ignore the first element of an array, using indices saves you from creating an additional variable that you then increment inside the loop.

Populating arrays

So far, we've been able to launch the pipeline for each --threads of interest. Now, let's assume the output to our pipeline is the runtime in seconds. We would like to capture that output at each iteration and save it in another array so we can do various manipulations with it at the end.

Some useful syntax

But before diving into the code, we need to introduce some more syntax. First, we need to be able to retrieve the output of a Bash command. To do so, use the following syntax: output=$( ./my_script.sh ) , which will store the output of our commands into the variable $output .

The second bit of syntax we need is how to append the value we just retrieved to an array. The syntax to do that will look familiar:

myArray+=( "newElement1" "newElement2" )
The parameter sweep

Putting everything together, here is our script for launching our parameter sweep:

allThreads = ( 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 )
allRuntimes = ()
for t in ${allThreads[@]} ; do
runtime =$ ( . / pipeline --threads $t )
allRuntimes+= ( $runtime )
done

And voilà!

What else you got?

In this article, we covered the scenario of using arrays for parameter sweeps. But I promise there are more reasons to use Bash arrays -- here are two more examples.

Log alerting

In this scenario, your app is divided into modules, each with its own log file. We can write a cron job script to email the right person when there are signs of trouble in certain modules:

# List of logs and who should be notified of issues
logPaths = ( "api.log" "auth.log" "jenkins.log" "data.log" )
logEmails = ( "jay@email" "emma@email" "jon@email" "sophia@email" )

# Look for signs of trouble in each log
for i in ${!logPaths[@]} ;
do
log = ${logPaths[$i]}
stakeholder = ${logEmails[$i]}
numErrors =$ ( tail -n 100 " $log " | grep "ERROR" | wc -l )

# Warn stakeholders if recently saw > 5 errors
if [[ " $numErrors " -gt 5 ]] ;
then
emailRecipient = " $stakeholder "
emailSubject = "WARNING: ${log} showing unusual levels of errors"
emailBody = " ${numErrors} errors found in log ${log} "
echo " $emailBody " | mailx -s " $emailSubject " " $emailRecipient "
fi
done

API queries

Say you want to generate some analytics about which users comment the most on your Medium posts. Since we don't have direct database access, SQL is out of the question, but we can use APIs!

To avoid getting into a long discussion about API authentication and tokens, we'll instead use JSONPlaceholder , a public-facing API testing service, as our endpoint. Once we query each post and retrieve the emails of everyone who commented, we can append those emails to our results array:

endpoint = "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/comments"
allEmails = ()

# Query first 10 posts
for postId in { 1 .. 10 } ;
do
# Make API call to fetch emails of this posts's commenters
response =$ ( curl " ${endpoint} ?postId= ${postId} " )

# Use jq to parse the JSON response into an array
allEmails+= ( $ ( jq '.[].email' <<< " $response " ) )
done

Note here that I'm using the jq tool to parse JSON from the command line. The syntax of jq is beyond the scope of this article, but I highly recommend you look into it.

As you might imagine, there are countless other scenarios in which using Bash arrays can help, and I hope the examples outlined in this article have given you some food for thought. If you have other examples to share from your own work, please leave a comment below.

But wait, there's more!

Since we covered quite a bit of array syntax in this article, here's a summary of what we covered, along with some more advanced tricks we did not cover:

Syntax Result
arr=() Create an empty array
arr=(1 2 3) Initialize array
${arr[2]} Retrieve third element
${arr[@]} Retrieve all elements
${!arr[@]} Retrieve array indices
${#arr[@]} Calculate array size
arr[0]=3 Overwrite 1st element
arr+=(4) Append value(s)
str=$(ls) Save ls output as a string
arr=( $(ls) ) Save ls output as an array of files
${arr[@]:s:n} Retrieve elements at indices n to s+n
One last thought

As we've discovered, Bash arrays sure have strange syntax, but I hope this article convinced you that they are extremely powerful. Once you get the hang of the syntax, you'll find yourself using Bash arrays quite often.

... ... ...

Robert Aboukhalil is a Bioinformatics Software Engineer. In his work, he develops cloud applications for the analysis and interactive visualization of genomics data. Robert holds a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and a B.Eng. in Computer Engineering from McGill.

[Oct 20, 2017] Simple logical operators in Bash - Stack Overflow

Notable quotes:
"... Backquotes ( ` ` ) are old-style form of command substitution, with some differences: in this form, backslash retains its literal meaning except when followed by $ , ` , or \ , and the first backquote not preceded by a backslash terminates the command substitution; whereas in the $( ) form, all characters between the parentheses make up the command, none are treated specially. ..."
"... Double square brackets delimit a Conditional Expression. And, I find the following to be a good reading on the subject: "(IBM) Demystify test, [, [[, ((, and if-then-else" ..."
Oct 20, 2017 | stackoverflow.com

Amit , Jun 7, 2011 at 19:18

I have a couple of variables and I want to check the following condition (written out in words, then my failed attempt at bash scripting): 
if varA EQUALS 1 AND ( varB EQUALS "t1" OR varB EQUALS "t2" ) then 

do something

done.

And in my failed attempt, I came up with:

if (($varA == 1)) && ( (($varB == "t1")) || (($varC == "t2")) ); 
  then
    scale=0.05
  fi

Best answer Gilles

What you've written actually almost works (it would work if all the variables were numbers), but it's not an idiomatic way at all.

This is the idiomatic way to write your test in bash:

if [[ $varA = 1 && ($varB = "t1" || $varC = "t2") ]]; then

If you need portability to other shells, this would be the way (note the additional quoting and the separate sets of brackets around each individual test):

if [ "$varA" = 1 ] && { [ "$varB" = "t1" ] || [ "$varC" = "t2" ]; }; then

Will Sheppard , Jun 19, 2014 at 11:07

It's better to use == to differentiate the comparison from assigning a variable (which is also = ) – Will Sheppard Jun 19 '14 at 11:07

Cbhihe , Apr 3, 2016 at 8:05

+1 @WillSheppard for yr reminder of proper style. Gilles, don't you need a semicolon after yr closing curly bracket and before "then" ? I always thought if , then , else and fi could not be on the same line... As in:

if [ "$varA" = 1 ] && { [ "$varB" = "t1" ] || [ "$varC" = "t2" ]; }; then

– Cbhihe Apr 3 '16 at 8:05

Rockallite , Jan 19 at 2:41

Backquotes ( ` ` ) are old-style form of command substitution, with some differences: in this form, backslash retains its literal meaning except when followed by $ , ` , or \ , and the first backquote not preceded by a backslash terminates the command substitution; whereas in the $( ) form, all characters between the parentheses make up the command, none are treated specially.

– Rockallite Jan 19 at 2:41

Peter A. Schneider , Aug 28 at 13:16

You could emphasize that single brackets have completely different semantics inside and outside of double brackets. (Because you start with explicitly pointing out the subshell semantics but then only as an aside mention the grouping semantics as part of conditional expressions. Was confusing to me for a second when I looked at your idiomatic example.) – Peter A. Schneider Aug 28 at 13:16

matchew , Jun 7, 2011 at 19:29

very close 
if (( $varA == 1 )) && [[ $varB == 't1' || $varC == 't2' ]]; 
  then 
    scale=0.05
  fi

should work.

breaking it down

(( $varA == 1 ))

is an integer comparison where as

$varB == 't1'

is a string comparison. otherwise, I am just grouping the comparisons correctly.

Double square brackets delimit a Conditional Expression. And, I find the following to be a good reading on the subject: "(IBM) Demystify test, [, [[, ((, and if-then-else"

Peter A. Schneider , Aug 28 at 13:21

Just to be sure: The quoting in 't1' is unnecessary, right? Because as opposed to arithmetic instructions in double parentheses, where t1 would be a variable, t1 in a conditional expression in double brackets is just a literal string.

I.e., [[ $varB == 't1' ]] is exactly the same as [[ $varB == t1 ]] , right? – Peter A. Schneider Aug 28 at 13:21

[Sep 27, 2017] Arithmetic Evaluation

Sep 27, 2017 | mywiki.wooledge.org

Bash has several different ways to say we want to do arithmetic instead of string operations. Let's look at them one by one.

The first way is the let command:

$ unset a; a=4+5
$ echo $a
4+5
$ let a=4+5
$ echo $a
9

You may use spaces, parentheses and so forth, if you quote the expression:

$ let a='(5+2)*3'

For a full list of operators availabile, see help let or the manual.

Next, the actual arithmetic evaluation compound command syntax:

$ ((a=(5+2)*3))

This is equivalent to let , but we can also use it as a command , for example in an if statement:

$ if (($a == 21)); then echo 'Blackjack!'; fi

Operators such as == , < , > and so on cause a comparison to be performed, inside an arithmetic evaluation. If the comparison is "true" (for example, 10 > 2 is true in arithmetic -- but not in strings!) then the compound command exits with status 0. If the comparison is false, it exits with status 1. This makes it suitable for testing things in a script.

Although not a compound command, an arithmetic substitution (or arithmetic expression ) syntax is also available:

$ echo "There are $(($rows * $columns)) cells"

Inside $((...)) is an arithmetic context , just like with ((...)) , meaning we do arithmetic (multiplying things) instead of string manipulations (concatenating $rows , space, asterisk, space, $columns ). $((...)) is also portable to the POSIX shell, while ((...)) is not.

Readers who are familiar with the C programming language might wish to know that ((...)) has many C-like features. Among them are the ternary operator:

$ ((abs = (a >= 0) ? a : -a))

and the use of an integer value as a truth value:

$ if ((flag)); then echo "uh oh, our flag is up"; fi

Note that we used variables inside ((...)) without prefixing them with $ -signs. This is a special syntactic shortcut that Bash allows inside arithmetic evaluations and arithmetic expressions.

There is one final thing we must mention about ((flag)) . Because the inside of ((...)) is C-like, a variable (or expression) that evaluates to zero will be considered false for the purposes of the arithmetic evaluation. Then, because the evaluation is false, it will exit with a status of 1. Likewise, if the expression inside ((...)) is non-zero , it will be considered true ; and since the evaluation is true, it will exit with status 0. This is potentially very confusing, even to experts, so you should take some time to think about this. Nevertheless, when things are used the way they're intended, it makes sense in the end:

$ flag=0      # no error
$ while read line; do
>   if [[ $line = *err* ]]; then flag=1; fi
> done < inputfile
$ if ((flag)); then echo "oh no"; fi

[Jul 26, 2017] I feel stupid declare not found in bash scripting

A single space can make a huge difference in bash :-)
www.linuxquestions.org

Mohtek

I feel stupid: declare not found in bash scripting? I was anxious to get my feet wet, and I'm only up to my toes before I'm stuck...this seems very very easy but I'm not sure what I've done wrong. Below is the script and its output. What the heck am I missing?

______________________________________________________
#!/bin/bash
declare -a PROD[0]="computers" PROD[1]="HomeAutomation"
printf "${ PROD[*]}"
_______________________________________________________

products.sh: 6: declare: not found
products.sh: 8: Syntax error: Bad substitution

[email protected]

I ran what you posted (but at the command line, not in a script, though that should make no significant difference), and got this:

Code:

-bash: ${ PROD[*]}: bad substitution

In other words, I couldn't reproduce your first problem, the "declare: not found" error. Try the declare command by itself, on the command line.

And I got rid of the "bad substitution" problem when I removed the space which is between the ${ and the PROD on the printf line.

Hope this helps.

blackhole54

The previous poster identified your second problem.

As far as your first problem goes ... I am not a bash guru although I have written a number of bash scripts. So far I have found no need for declare statements. I suspect that you might not need it either. But if you do want to use it, the following does work:

Code:
#!/bin/bash

declare -a PROD
PROD[0]="computers"
PROD[1]="HomeAutomation"
printf "${PROD[*]}\n"

EDIT: My original post was based on an older version of bash. When I tried the declare statement you posted I got an error message, but one that was different from yours. I just tried it on a newer version of bash, and your declare statement worked fine. So it might depend on the version of bash you are running. What I posted above runs fine on both versions.

[Jul 26, 2017] Associative array declaration gotcha

Jul 26, 2017 | unix.stackexchange.com

bash silently does function return on (re-)declare of global associative read-only array - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

Ron Burk :

Obviously cut out of a much more complex script that was more meaningful: 

#!/bin/bash

function InitializeConfig(){
    declare -r -g -A SHCFG_INIT=( [a]=b )
    declare -r -g -A SHCFG_INIT=( [c]=d )
    echo "This statement never gets executed"
}

set -o xtrace

InitializeConfig
echo "Back from function"
The output looks like this: 
ronburk@ubuntu:~/ubucfg$ bash bug.sh
+ InitializeConfig
+ SHCFG_INIT=([a]=b)
+ declare -r -g -A SHCFG_INIT
+ SHCFG_INIT=([c]=d)
+ echo 'Back from function'
Back from function
Bash seems to silently execute a function return upon the second declare statement. Starting to think this really is a new bug, but happy to learn otherwise.

Other details: 

Machine: x86_64
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='x86_64' -DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='x86_64-pc-linux-gn$
uname output: Linux ubuntu 3.16.0-38-generic #52~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 8 09:43:57 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Lin$
Machine Type: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 4.3
Patch Level: 11
Release Status: release
bash array readonly
share improve this question edited Jun 14 '15 at 17:43 asked Jun 14 '15 at 7:05 118

By gum, you're right! Then I get readonly warning on second declare, which is reasonable, and the function completes. The xtrace output is also interesting; implies declare without single quotes is really treated as two steps. Ready to become superstitious about always single-quoting the argument to declare . Hard to see how popping the function stack can be anything but a bug, though. – Ron Burk Jun 14 '15 at 23:58

Weird. Doesn't happen in bash 4.2.53(1). – choroba Jun 14 '15 at 7:22
I can reproduce this problem with bash version 4.3.11 (Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS). It works fine with bash 4.2.8 (Ubuntu 11.04). – Cyrus Jun 14 '15 at 7:34
Maybe related: unix.stackexchange.com/q/56815/116972 I can get expected result with declare -r -g -A 'SHCFG_INIT=( [a]=b )' . – yaegashi Jun 14 '15 at 23:22
add a comment |

I found this thread in [email protected] related to test -v on an assoc array. In short, bash implicitly did test -v SHCFG_INIT[0] in your script. I'm not sure this behavior got introduced in 4.3.

You might want to use declare -p to workaround this... 

if  declare p SHCFG_INIT >/dev/null >& ; then
    echo "looks like SHCFG_INIT not defined"
fi
====
Well, rats. I think your answer is correct, but also reveals I'm really asking two separate questions when I thought they were probably the same issue. Since the title better reflects what turns out to be the "other" question, I'll leave this up for a while and see if anybody knows what's up with the mysterious implicit function return... Thanks! – Ron Burk Jun 14 '15 at 17:01
Edited question to focus on the remaining issue. Thanks again for the answer on the "-v" issue with associative arrays. – Ron Burk Jun 14 '15 at 17:55
Accepting this answer. Complete answer is here plus your comments above plus (IMHO) there's a bug in this version of bash (can't see how there can be any excuse for popping the function stack without warning). Thanks for your excellent research on this! – Ron Burk Jun 21 '15 at 19:31

[Jul 26, 2017] Typing variables: declare or typeset

Jul 26, 2017 | www.tldp.org

The declare or typeset builtins , which are exact synonyms, permit modifying the properties of variables. This is a very weak form of the typing [1] available in certain programming languages. The declare command is specific to version 2 or later of Bash. The typeset command also works in ksh scripts.

declare/typeset options
-r readonly
( declare -r var1 works the same as readonly var1 )

This is the rough equivalent of the C const type qualifier. An attempt to change the value of a readonly variable fails with an error message. 

declare -r var1=1
echo "var1 = $var1"   # var1 = 1

(( var1++ ))          # x.sh: line 4: var1: readonly variable
-i integer 
declare -i number
# The script will treat subsequent occurrences of "number" as an integer.             

number=3
echo "Number = $number"     # Number = 3

number=three
echo "Number = $number"     # Number = 0
# Tries to evaluate the string "three" as an integer.

Certain arithmetic operations are permitted for declared integer variables without the need for expr or let . 

n=6/3
echo "n = $n"       # n = 6/3

declare -i n
n=6/3
echo "n = $n"       # n = 2
-a array 
declare -a indices

The variable indices will be treated as an array .

-f function(s) 
declare -f

A declare -f line with no arguments in a script causes a listing of all the functions previously defined in that script. 

declare -f function_name

A declare -f function_name in a script lists just the function named.

-x export 
declare -x var3

This declares a variable as available for exporting outside the environment of the script itself.

-x var=$value 
declare -x var3=373

The declare command permits assigning a value to a variable in the same statement as setting its properties.

Example 9-10. Using declare to type variables 
#!/bin/bash

func1 ()
{
  echo This is a function.
}

declare -f        # Lists the function above.

echo

declare -i var1   # var1 is an integer.
var1=2367
echo "var1 declared as $var1"
var1=var1+1       # Integer declaration eliminates the need for 'let'.
echo "var1 incremented by 1 is $var1."
# Attempt to change variable declared as integer.
echo "Attempting to change var1 to floating point value, 2367.1."
var1=2367.1       # Results in error message, with no change to variable.
echo "var1 is still $var1"

echo

declare -r var2=13.36         # 'declare' permits setting a variable property
                              #+ and simultaneously assigning it a value.
echo "var2 declared as $var2" # Attempt to change readonly variable.
var2=13.37                    # Generates error message, and exit from script.

echo "var2 is still $var2"    # This line will not execute.

exit 0                        # Script will not exit here.
Caution Using the declare builtin restricts the scope of a variable. 
foo ()
{
FOO="bar"
}

bar ()
{
foo
echo $FOO
}

bar   # Prints bar.

However . . . 

foo (){
declare FOO="bar"
}

bar ()
{
foo
echo $FOO
}

bar  # Prints nothing.


# Thank you, Michael Iatrou, for pointing this out.
9.2.1. Another use for declare

The declare command can be helpful in identifying variables, environmental or otherwise. This can be especially useful with arrays . 

bash$


declare | grep HOME


HOME=/home/bozo

bash$


zzy=68


bash$


declare | grep zzy


zzy=68

bash$


Colors=([0]="purple" [1]="reddish-orange" [2]="light green")


bash$


echo ${Colors[@]}


purple reddish-orange light green

bash$


declare | grep Colors


Colors=([0]="purple" [1]="reddish-orange" [2]="light green")
Notes
[1] In this context, typing a variable means to classify it and restrict its properties. For example, a variable declared or typed as an integer is no longer available for string operations . 
declare -i intvar

intvar=23
echo "$intvar"   # 23
intvar=stringval
echo "$intvar"   # 0

[Jul 25, 2017] Arrays in bash 4.x

Jul 25, 2017 | wiki.bash-hackers.org

Purpose An array is a parameter that holds mappings from keys to values. Arrays are used to store a collection of parameters into a parameter. Arrays (in any programming language) are a useful and common composite data structure, and one of the most important scripting features in Bash and other shells.

Here is an abstract representation of an array named NAMES . The indexes go from 0 to 3.

NAMES
 0: Peter
 1: Anna
 2: Greg
 3: Jan

Instead of using 4 separate variables, multiple related variables are grouped grouped together into elements of the array, accessible by their key . If you want the second name, ask for index 1 of the array NAMES . Indexing Bash supports two different types of ksh-like one-dimensional arrays. Multidimensional arrays are not implemented .

Syntax Referencing To accommodate referring to array variables and their individual elements, Bash extends the parameter naming scheme with a subscript suffix. Any valid ordinary scalar parameter name is also a valid array name: [[:alpha:]_][[:alnum:]_]* . The parameter name may be followed by an optional subscript enclosed in square brackets to refer to a member of the array.

The overall syntax is arrname[subscript] - where for indexed arrays, subscript is any valid arithmetic expression, and for associative arrays, any nonempty string. Subscripts are first processed for parameter and arithmetic expansions, and command and process substitutions. When used within parameter expansions or as an argument to the unset builtin, the special subscripts * and @ are also accepted which act upon arrays analogously to the way the @ and * special parameters act upon the positional parameters. In parsing the subscript, bash ignores any text that follows the closing bracket up to the end of the parameter name.

With few exceptions, names of this form may be used anywhere ordinary parameter names are valid, such as within arithmetic expressions , parameter expansions , and as arguments to builtins that accept parameter names. An array is a Bash parameter that has been given the -a (for indexed) or -A (for associative) attributes . However, any regular (non-special or positional) parameter may be validly referenced using a subscript, because in most contexts, referring to the zeroth element of an array is synonymous with referring to the array name without a subscript.

# "x" is an ordinary non-array parameter.
$ x=hi; printf '%s ' "$x" "${x[0]}"; echo "${_[0]}"
hi hi hi

The only exceptions to this rule are in a few cases where the array variable's name refers to the array as a whole. This is the case for the unset builtin (see destruction ) and when declaring an array without assigning any values (see declaration ). Declaration The following explicitly give variables array attributes, making them arrays:

Syntax Description
ARRAY=() Declares an indexed array ARRAY and initializes it to be empty. This can also be used to empty an existing array.
ARRAY[0]= Generally sets the first element of an indexed array. If no array ARRAY existed before, it is created.
declare -a ARRAY Declares an indexed array ARRAY . An existing array is not initialized.
declare -A ARRAY Declares an associative array ARRAY . This is the one and only way to create associative arrays.
Storing values Storing values in arrays is quite as simple as storing values in normal variables.
Syntax Description
ARRAY[N]=VALUE Sets the element N of the indexed array ARRAY to VALUE . N can be any valid arithmetic expression
ARRAY[STRING]=VALUE Sets the element indexed by STRING of the associative array ARRAY .
ARRAY=VALUE As above. If no index is given, as a default the zeroth element is set to VALUE . Careful, this is even true of associative arrays - there is no error if no key is specified, and the value is assigned to string index "0".
ARRAY=(E1 E2 ) Compound array assignment - sets the whole array ARRAY to the given list of elements indexed sequentially starting at zero. The array is unset before assignment unless the += operator is used. When the list is empty ( ARRAY=() ), the array will be set to an empty array. This method obviously does not use explicit indexes. An associative array can not be set like that! Clearing an associative array using ARRAY=() works.
ARRAY=([X]=E1 [Y]=E2 ) Compound assignment for indexed arrays with index-value pairs declared individually (here for example X and Y ). X and Y are arithmetic expressions. This syntax can be combined with the above - elements declared without an explicitly specified index are assigned sequentially starting at either the last element with an explicit index, or zero.
ARRAY=([S1]=E1 [S2]=E2 ) Individual mass-setting for associative arrays . The named indexes (here: S1 and S2 ) are strings.
ARRAY+=(E1 E2 ) Append to ARRAY.

As of now, arrays can't be exported. Getting values article about parameter expansion and check the notes about arrays.

Syntax Description
${ARRAY[N]} Expands to the value of the index N in the indexed array ARRAY . If N is a negative number, it's treated as the offset from the maximum assigned index (can't be used for assignment) - 1
${ARRAY[S]} Expands to the value of the index S in the associative array ARRAY .
"${ARRAY[@]}"
${ARRAY[@]}
"${ARRAY[*]}"
${ARRAY[*]}		 Similar to mass-expanding positional parameters , this expands to all elements. If unquoted, both subscripts * and @ expand to the same result, if quoted, @ expands to all elements individually quoted, * expands to all elements quoted as a whole.
"${ARRAY[@]:N:M}"
${ARRAY[@]:N:M}
"${ARRAY[*]:N:M}"
${ARRAY[*]:N:M}		 Similar to what this syntax does for the characters of a single string when doing substring expansion , this expands to M elements starting with element N . This way you can mass-expand individual indexes. The rules for quoting and the subscripts * and @ are the same as above for the other mass-expansions.

For clarification: When you use the subscripts @ or * for mass-expanding, then the behaviour is exactly what it is for $@ and $* when mass-expanding the positional parameters . You should read this article to understand what's going on. Metadata

Syntax Description
${#ARRAY[N]} Expands to the length of an individual array member at index N ( stringlength
${#ARRAY[STRING]} Expands to the length of an individual associative array member at index STRING ( stringlength )
${#ARRAY[@]}
${#ARRAY[*]}		 Expands to the number of elements in ARRAY
${!ARRAY[@]}
${!ARRAY[*]}		 Expands to the indexes in ARRAY since BASH 3.0
Destruction The unset builtin command is used to destroy (unset) arrays or individual elements of arrays.
Syntax Description
unset -v ARRAY
unset -v ARRAY[@]
unset -v ARRAY[*]		 Destroys a complete array
unset -v ARRAY[N] Destroys the array element at index N
unset -v ARRAY[STRING] Destroys the array element of the associative array at index STRING

It is best to explicitly specify -v when unsetting variables with unset.

pathname expansion to occur due to the presence of glob characters.

Example: You are in a directory with a file named x1 , and you want to destroy an array element x[1] , with

unset x[1]
then pathname expansion will expand to the filename x1 and break your processing!

Even worse, if nullglob is set, your array/index will disappear.

To avoid this, always quote the array name and index:

unset -v 'x[1]'

This applies generally to all commands which take variable names as arguments. Single quotes preferred.

Usage Numerical Index Numerical indexed arrays are easy to understand and easy to use. The Purpose and Indexing chapters above more or less explain all the needed background theory.

Now, some examples and comments for you.

Let's say we have an array sentence which is initialized as follows:

sentence=(Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send)

Since no special code is there to prevent word splitting (no quotes), every word there will be assigned to an individual array element. When you count the words you see, you should get 12. Now let's see if Bash has the same opinion:

$ echo ${#sentence[@]}
12

Yes, 12. Fine. You can take this number to walk through the array. Just subtract 1 from the number of elements, and start your walk at 0 (zero)

((n_elements=${#sentence[@]}, max_index=n_elements - 1))

for ((i = 0; i <= max_index; i++)); do
  echo "Element $i: '${sentence[i]}'"
done

You always have to remember that, it seems newbies have problems sometimes. Please understand that numerical array indexing begins at 0 (zero)

The method above, walking through an array by just knowing its number of elements, only works for arrays where all elements are set, of course. If one element in the middle is removed, then the calculation is nonsense, because the number of elements doesn't correspond to the highest used index anymore (we call them " sparse arrays "). Associative (Bash 4) Associative arrays (or hash tables ) are not much more complicated than numerical indexed arrays. The numerical index value (in Bash a number starting at zero) just is replaced with an arbitrary string:

# declare -A, introduced with Bash 4 to declare an associative array
declare -A sentence

sentence[Begin]='Be liberal in what'
sentence[Middle]='you accept, and conservative'
sentence[End]='in what you send'
sentence['Very end']=...

Beware: don't rely on the fact that the elements are ordered in memory like they were declared, it could look like this:

# output from 'set' command
sentence=([End]="in what you send" [Middle]="you accept, and conservative " [Begin]="Be liberal in what " ["Very end"]="...")
This effectively means, you can get the data back with "${sentence[@]}" , of course (just like with numerical indexing), but you can't rely on a specific order. If you want to store ordered data, or re-order data, go with numerical indexes. For associative arrays, you usually query known index values: 
for element in Begin Middle End "Very end"; do
    printf "%s" "${sentence[$element]}"
done
printf "\n"

A nice code example: Checking for duplicate files using an associative array indexed with the SHA sum of the files:

# Thanks to Tramp in #bash for the idea and the code

unset flist; declare -A flist;
while read -r sum fname; do 
    if [[ ${flist[$sum]} ]]; then
        printf 'rm -- "%s" # Same as >%s<\n' "$fname" "${flist[$sum]}" 
    else
        flist[$sum]="$fname"
    fi
done <  <(find . -type f -exec sha256sum {} +)  >rmdups

Integer arrays Any type attributes applied to an array apply to all elements of the array. If the integer attribute is set for either indexed or associative arrays, then values are considered as arithmetic for both compound and ordinary assignment, and the += operator is modified in the same way as for ordinary integer variables.

 ~ $ ( declare -ia 'a=(2+4 [2]=2+2 [a[2]]="a[2]")' 'a+=(42 [a[4]]+=3)'; declare -p a )
declare -ai a='([0]="6" [2]="4" [4]="7" [5]="42")'

a[0] is assigned to the result of 2+4 . a[1] gets the result of 2+2 . The last index in the first assignment is the result of a[2] , which has already been assigned as 4 , and its value is also given a[2] .

This shows that even though any existing arrays named a in the current scope have already been unset by using = instead of += to the compound assignment, arithmetic variables within keys can self-reference any elements already assigned within the same compound-assignment. With integer arrays this also applies to expressions to the right of the = . (See evaluation order , the right side of an arithmetic assignment is typically evaluated first in Bash.)

The second compound assignment argument to declare uses += , so it appends after the last element of the existing array rather than deleting it and creating a new array, so a[5] gets 42 .

Lastly, the element whose index is the value of a[4] ( 4 ), gets 3 added to its existing value, making a[4] == 7 . Note that having the integer attribute set this time causes += to add, rather than append a string, as it would for a non-integer array.

The single quotes force the assignments to be evaluated in the environment of declare . This is important because attributes are only applied to the assignment after assignment arguments are processed. Without them the += compound assignment would have been invalid, and strings would have been inserted into the integer array without evaluating the arithmetic. A special-case of this is shown in the next section.

eval , but there are differences.) 'Todo: ' Discuss this in detail.

Indirection Arrays can be expanded indirectly using the indirect parameter expansion syntax. Parameters whose values are of the form: name[index] , name[@] , or name[*] when expanded indirectly produce the expected results. This is mainly useful for passing arrays (especially multiple arrays) by name to a function.

This example is an "isSubset"-like predicate which returns true if all key-value pairs of the array given as the first argument to isSubset correspond to a key-value of the array given as the second argument. It demonstrates both indirect array expansion and indirect key-passing without eval using the aforementioned special compound assignment expansion.

isSubset() {
    local -a 'xkeys=("${!'"$1"'[@]}")' 'ykeys=("${!'"$2"'[@]}")'
    set -- "${@/%/[key]}"

    (( ${#xkeys[@]} <= ${#ykeys[@]} )) || return 1

    local key
    for key in "${xkeys[@]}"; do
        [[ ${!2+_} && ${!1} == ${!2} ]] || return 1
    done
}

main() {
    # "a" is a subset of "b"
    local -a 'a=({0..5})' 'b=({0..10})'
    isSubset a b
    echo $? # true

    # "a" contains a key not in "b"
    local -a 'a=([5]=5 {6..11})' 'b=({0..10})'
    isSubset a b
    echo $? # false

    # "a" contains an element whose value != the corresponding member of "b"
    local -a 'a=([5]=5 6 8 9 10)' 'b=({0..10})'
    isSubset a b
    echo $? # false
}

main

This script is one way of implementing a crude multidimensional associative array by storing array definitions in an array and referencing them through indirection. The script takes two keys and dynamically calls a function whose name is resolved from the array.

callFuncs() {
    # Set up indirect references as positional parameters to minimize local name collisions.
    set -- "${@:1:3}" ${2+'a["$1"]' "$1"'["$2"]'}

    # The only way to test for set but null parameters is unfortunately to test each individually.
    local x
    for x; do
        [[ $x ]] || return 0
    done

    local -A a=(
        [foo]='([r]=f [s]=g [t]=h)'
        [bar]='([u]=i [v]=j [w]=k)'
        [baz]='([x]=l [y]=m [z]=n)'
        ) ${4+${a["$1"]+"${1}=${!3}"}} # For example, if "$1" is "bar" then define a new array: bar=([u]=i [v]=j [w]=k)

    ${4+${a["$1"]+"${!4-:}"}} # Now just lookup the new array. for inputs: "bar" "v", the function named "j" will be called, which prints "j" to stdout.
}

main() {
    # Define functions named {f..n} which just print their own names.
    local fun='() { echo "$FUNCNAME"; }' x

    for x in {f..n}; do
        eval "${x}${fun}"
    done

    callFuncs "$@"
}

main "$@"

Bugs and Portability Considerations

Bugs Evaluation order Here are some of the nasty details of array assignment evaluation order. You can use this testcase code to generate these results. 
Each testcase prints evaluation order for indexed array assignment
contexts. Each context is tested for expansions (represented by digits) and
arithmetic (letters), ordered from left to right within the expression. The
output corresponds to the way evaluation is re-ordered for each shell:

a[ $1 a ]=${b[ $2 b ]:=${c[ $3 c ]}}               No attributes
a[ $1 a ]=${b[ $2 b ]:=c[ $3 c ]}                  typeset -ia a
a[ $1 a ]=${b[ $2 b ]:=c[ $3 c ]}                  typeset -ia b
a[ $1 a ]=${b[ $2 b ]:=c[ $3 c ]}                  typeset -ia a b
(( a[ $1 a ] = b[ $2 b ] ${c[ $3 c ]} ))           No attributes
(( a[ $1 a ] = ${b[ $2 b ]:=c[ $3 c ]} ))          typeset -ia b
a+=( [ $1 a ]=${b[ $2 b ]:=${c[ $3 c ]}} [ $4 d ]=$(( $5 e )) ) typeset -a a
a+=( [ $1 a ]=${b[ $2 b ]:=c[ $3 c ]} [ $4 d ]=${5}e ) typeset -ia a

bash: 4.2.42(1)-release
2 b 3 c 2 b 1 a
2 b 3 2 b 1 a c
2 b 3 2 b c 1 a
2 b 3 2 b c 1 a c
1 2 3 c b a
1 2 b 3 2 b c c a
1 2 b 3 c 2 b 4 5 e a d
1 2 b 3 2 b 4 5 a c d e

ksh93: Version AJM 93v- 2013-02-22
1 2 b b a
1 2 b b a
1 2 b b a
1 2 b b a
1 2 3 c b a
1 2 b b a
1 2 b b a 4 5 e d
1 2 b b a 4 5 d e

mksh: @(#)MIRBSD KSH R44 2013/02/24
2 b 3 c 1 a
2 b 3 1 a c
2 b 3 c 1 a
2 b 3 c 1 a
1 2 3 c a b
1 2 b 3 c a
1 2 b 3 c 4 5 e a d
1 2 b 3 4 5 a c d e

zsh: 5.0.2
2 b 3 c 2 b 1 a
2 b 3 2 b 1 a c
2 b 1 a
2 b 1 a
1 2 3 c b a
1 2 b a
1 2 b 3 c 2 b 4 5 e
1 2 b 3 2 b 4 5

See also

[Mar 13, 2017] 6.3 Arrays

Notable quotes:
"... aname val1 val2 val3 ..."
"... aname ..."
"... type ..."
"... ad hoc ..."
Mar 13, 2017 | name="KSH-CH-6-SECT-3">

So far we have seen two types of variables: character strings and integers. The third type of variable the Korn shell supports is an array . As you may know, an array is like a list of things; you can refer to specific elements in an array with integer indices , so that a[i] refers to the i th element of array a .

The Korn shell provides an array facility that, while useful, is much more limited than analogous features in conventional programming languages. In particular, arrays can be only one-dimensional (i.e., no arrays of arrays), and they are limited to 1024 elements. Indices can start at 0.

There are two ways to assign values to elements of an array. The first is the most intuitive: you can use the standard shell variable assignment syntax with the array index in brackets ( [] ). For example: 

nicknames[2]=bob
nicknames[3]=ed

puts the values bob and ed into the elements of the array nicknames with indices 2 and 3, respectively. As with regular shell variables, values assigned to array elements are treated as character strings unless the assignment is preceded by let .

The second way to assign values to an array is with a variant of the set statement, which we saw in Chapter 3, Customizing Your Environment . The statement: 

set -A 

aname val1 val2 val3

 ...

creates the array aname (if it doesn't already exist) and assigns val1 to aname[0] , val2 to aname[1] , etc. As you would guess, this is more convenient for loading up an array with an initial set of values.

To extract a value from an array, use the syntax ${ aname [ i ]} . For example, ${nicknames[2]} has the value "bob". The index i can be an arithmetic expression-see above. If you use * in place of the index, the value will be all elements, separated by spaces. Omitting the index is the same as specifying index 0.

Now we come to the somewhat unusual aspect of Korn shell arrays. Assume that the only values assigned to nicknames are the two we saw above. If you type print " ${nicknames[ * ]}" , you will see the output: 

bob ed

In other words, nicknames[0] and nicknames[1] don't exist. Furthermore, if you were to type: 

nicknames[9]=pete
nicknames[31]=ralph

and then type print " ${nicknames[ * ]}" , the output would look like this: 

bob ed pete ralph

This is why we said "the elements of nicknames with indices 2 and 3" earlier, instead of "the 2nd and 3rd elements of nicknames ". Any array elements with unassigned values just don't exist; if you try to access their values, you will get null strings.

You can preserve whatever whitespace you put in your array elements by using " $ { aname [@] } " (with the double quotes) instead of $ { aname [ * ] } " , just as you can with " $@ " instead of $ * .

The shell provides an operator that tells you how many elements an array has defined: ${# aname [ * ] } . Thus ${#nicknames[ * ] } has the value 4. Note that you need the [ * ] because the name of the array alone is interpreted as the 0th element. This means, for example, that ${#nicknames} equals the length of nicknames[0] (see Chapter 4 ). Since nicknames[0] doesn't exist, the value of ${#nicknames} is 0, the length of the null string.

To be quite frank, we feel that the Korn shell's array facility is of little use to shell programmers. This is partially because it is so limited, but mainly because shell programming tasks are much more often oriented toward character strings and text than toward numbers. If you think of an array as a mapping from integers to values (i.e., put in a number, get out a value), then you can see why arrays are "number-dominated" data structures.

Nevertheless, we can find useful things to do with arrays. For example, here is a cleaner solution to Task 5-4, in which a user can select his or her terminal type ( TERM environment variable) at login time. Recall that the "user-friendly" version of this code used select and a case statement: 

print 'Select your terminal type:'
PS3='terminal? '
select term in
    'Givalt GL35a' \
    'Tsoris T-2000' \
    'Shande 531' \
    'Vey VT99'
do
    case $REPLY in
        1 ) TERM=gl35a ;;
        2 ) TERM=t2000 ;;
        3 ) TERM=s531 ;;
        4 ) TERM=vt99 ;;
        * ) print "invalid." ;;
    esac
    if [[ -n $term ]]; then
        print "TERM is $TERM"
        break
    fi
done

We can eliminate the entire case construct by taking advantage of the fact that the select construct stores the user's number choice in the variable REPLY . We just need a line of code that stores all of the possibilities for TERM in an array, in an order that corresponds to the items in the select menu. Then we can use $REPLY to index the array. The resulting code is: 

set -A termnames gl35a t2000 s531 vt99
print 'Select your terminal type:'
PS3='terminal? '
select term in
    'Givalt GL35a' \
    'Tsoris T-2000' \
    'Shande 531' \
    'Vey VT99'
do
    if [[ -n $term ]]; then
        TERM=${termnames[REPLY-1]}
        print "TERM is $TERM"
        break
    fi
done

This code sets up the array termnames so that ${termnames[0]} is "gl35a", ${termnames[1]} is "t2000", etc. The line TERM=${termnames[REPLY-1]} essentially replaces the entire case construct by using REPLY to index the array.

Notice that the shell knows to interpret the text in an array index as an arithmetic expression, as if it were enclosed in (( and )) , which in turn means that variable need not be preceded by a dollar sign ( $ ). We have to subtract 1 from the value of REPLY because array indices start at 0, while select menu item numbers start at 1.

6.3.1 typeset

The final Korn shell feature that relates to the kinds of values that variables can hold is the typeset command. If you are a programmer, you might guess that typeset is used to specify the type of a variable (integer, string, etc.); you'd be partially right.

typeset is a rather ad hoc collection of things that you can do to variables that restrict the kinds of values they can take. Operations are specified by options to typeset ; the basic syntax is: 

typeset 

-o varname

[=

value

]

Options can be combined; multiple varname s can be used. If you leave out varname , the shell prints a list of variables for which the given option is turned on.

The options available break down into two basic categories:

  1. String formatting operations, such as right- and left-justification, truncation, and letter case control.

  2. Type and attribute functions that are of primary interest to advanced programmers.

6.3.2 Local Variables in Functions

typeset without options has an important meaning: if a typeset statement is inside a function definition, then the variables involved all become local to that function (in addition to any properties they may take on as a result of typeset options). The ability to define variables that are local to "subprogram" units (procedures, functions, subroutines, etc.) is necessary for writing large programs, because it helps keep subprograms independent of the main program and of each other.

If you just want to declare a variable local to a function, use typeset without any options. For example: 

function afunc {
    typeset diffvar
    samevar=funcvalue
    diffvar=funcvalue
    print "samevar is $samevar"
    print "diffvar is $diffvar"
}

samevar=globvalue
diffvar=globvalue
print "samevar is $samevar"
print "diffvar is $diffvar"
afunc
print "samevar is $samevar"
print "diffvar is $diffvar"

This code will print the following: 

samevar is globvalue
diffvar is globvalue
samevar is funcvalue
diffvar is funcvalue
samevar is funcvalue
diffvar is globvalue

Figure 6.1 shows this graphically.

Figure 6.1: Local variables in functions

[Mar 13, 2017] Leaning the Korn shell: Chapter 6 Integer Variables and Arithmetic

Mar 13, 2017 | docstore.mik.ua
6.2 Integer Variables and Arithmetic

The expression $(($OPTIND - 1)) in the last example gives a clue as to how the shell can do integer arithmetic. As you might guess, the shell interprets words surrounded by $(( and )) as arithmetic expressions. Variables in arithmetic expressions do not need to be preceded by dollar signs, though it is not wrong to do so.

Arithmetic expressions are evaluated inside double quotes, like tildes, variables, and command substitutions. We're finally in a position to state the definitive rule about quoting strings: When in doubt, enclose a string in single quotes, unless it contains tildes or any expression involving a dollar sign, in which case you should use double quotes.

date (1) command on System V-derived versions of UNIX accepts arguments that tell it how to format its output. The argument +%j tells it to print the day of the year, i.e., the number of days since December 31st of the previous year.

We can use +%j to print a little holiday anticipation message: 

print "Only $(( (365-$(date +%j)) / 7 )) weeks until the New Year!"

We'll show where this fits in the overall scheme of command-line processing in Chapter 7, Input/Output and Command-line Processing .

The arithmetic expression feature is built in to the Korn shell's syntax, and was available in the Bourne shell (most versions) only through the external command expr (1). Thus it is yet another example of a desirable feature provided by an external command (i.e., a syntactic kludge) being better integrated into the shell. [[ / ]] and getopts are also examples of this design trend.

Korn shell arithmetic expressions are equivalent to their counterparts in the C language. [5] Precedence and associativity are the same as in C. Table 6.2 shows the arithmetic operators that are supported. Although some of these are (or contain) special characters, there is no need to backslash-escape them, because they are within the $(( ... )) syntax.

[5] The assignment forms of these operators are also permitted. For example, $((x += 2)) adds 2 to x and stores the result back in x .

Table 6.2: Arithmetic Operators
Operator Meaning
+ Plus
- Minus
* Times
/ Division (with truncation)
% Remainder
<< Bit-shift left
>> Bit-shift right
& Bitwise and
| Bitwise or
~ Bitwise not
^ Bitwise exclusive or

Parentheses can be used to group subexpressions. The arithmetic expression syntax also (like C) supports relational operators as "truth values" of 1 for true and 0 for false. Table 6.3 shows the relational operators and the logical operators that can be used to combine relational expressions.

Table 6.3: Relational Operators
Operator Meaning
< Less than
> Greater than
<= Less than or equal
>= Greater than or equal
== Equal
!= Not equal
&& Logical and
|| Logical or

For example, $((3 > 2)) has the value 1; $(( (3 > 2) || (4 <= 1) )) also has the value 1, since at least one of the two subexpressions is true.

The shell also supports base N numbers, where N can be up to 36. The notation B # N means " N base B ". Of course, if you omit the B # , the base defaults to 10.

6.2.1 Arithmetic Conditionals

Another construct, closely related to $((...)) , is ((...)) (without the leading dollar sign). We use this for evaluating arithmetic condition tests, just as [[...]] is used for string, file attribute, and other types of tests.

((...)) evaluates relational operators differently from $((...)) so that you can use it in if and while constructs. Instead of producing a textual result, it just sets its exit status according to the truth of the expression: 0 if true, 1 otherwise. So, for example, ((3 > 2)) produces exit status 0, as does (( (3 > 2) || (4 <= 1) )) , but (( (3 > 2) && (4 <= 1) )) has exit status 1 since the second subexpression isn't true.

You can also use numerical values for truth values within this construct. It's like the analogous concept in C, which means that it's somewhat counterintuitive to non-C programmers: a value of 0 means false (i.e., returns exit status 1), and a non-0 value means true (returns exit status 0), e.g., (( 14 )) is true. See the code for the kshdb debugger in Chapter 9 for two more examples of this.

6.2.2 Arithmetic Variables and Assignment

The (( ... )) construct can also be used to define integer variables and assign values to them. The statement: 

(( intvar=expression ))

creates the integer variable intvar (if it doesn't already exist) and assigns to it the result of expression .

That syntax isn't intuitive, so the shell provides a better equivalent: the built-in command let . The syntax is: 

let intvar=expression

It is not necessary (because it's actually redundant) to surround the expression with $(( and )) in a let statement. As with any variable assignment, there must not be any space on either side of the equal sign ( = ). It is good practice to surround expressions with quotes, since many characters are treated as special by the shell (e.g., * , # , and parentheses); furthermore, you must quote expressions that include whitespace (spaces or TABs). See Table 6.4 for examples.

Table 6.4: Sample Integer Expression Assignments
Assignment Value
let x= $x
1+4 5
' 1 + 4 ' 5
' (2+3) * 5 ' 25
' 2 + 3 * 5 ' 17
' 17 / 3 ' 5
' 17 % 3 ' 2
' 1<<4 ' 16
' 48>>3 ' 6
' 17 & 3 ' 1
' 17 | 3 ' 19
' 17 ^ 3 ' 18

Here is a small task that makes use of integer arithmetic.

Task 6.1

Write a script called pages that, given the name of a text file, tells how many pages of output it contains. Assume that there are 66 lines to a page but provide an option allowing the user to override that.

We'll make our option - N , a la head . The syntax for this single option is so simple that we need not bother with getopts . Here is the code: 

if [[ $1 = -+([0-9]) ]]; then
    let page_lines=${1#-}
    shift
else
    let page_lines=66
fi
let file_lines="$(wc -l < $1)"

let pages=file_lines/page_lines
if (( file_lines % page_lines > 0 )); then
    let pages=pages+1
fi

print "$1 has $pages pages of text."

Notice that we use the integer conditional (( file_lines % page_lines > 0 )) rather than the [[ ... ]] form.

At the heart of this code is the UNIX utility wc(1) , which counts the number of lines, words, and characters (bytes) in its input. By default, its output looks something like this: 

8      34     161  bob

wc 's output means that the file bob has 8 lines, 34 words, and 161 characters. wc recognizes the options -l , -w , and -c , which tell it to print only the number of lines, words, or characters, respectively.

wc normally prints the name of its input file (given as argument). Since we want only the number of lines, we have to do two things. First, we give it input from file redirection instead, as in wc -l < bob instead of wc -l bob . This produces the number of lines preceded by a single space (which would normally separate the filename from the number).

Unfortunately, that space complicates matters: the statement let file_lines=$(wc -l < $1) becomes "let file_lines= N " after command substitution; the space after the equal sign is an error. That leads to the second modification, the quotes around the command substitution expression. The statement let file_lines=" N " is perfectly legal, and let knows how to remove the leading space.

The first if clause in the pages script checks for an option and, if it was given, strips the dash ( - ) off and assigns it to the variable page_lines . wc in the command substitution expression returns the number of lines in the file whose name is given as argument.

The next group of lines calculates the number of pages and, if there is a remainder after the division, adds 1. Finally, the appropriate message is printed.

As a bigger example of integer arithmetic, we will complete our emulation of the C shell's pushd and popd functions (Task 4-8). Remember that these functions operate on DIRSTACK , a stack of directories represented as a string with the directory names separated by spaces. The C shell's pushd and popd take additional types of arguments, which are:

The most useful of these features is the ability to get at the n th directory in the stack. Here are the latest versions of both functions: 

function pushd { # push current directory onto stack
    dirname=$1
    if [[ -d $dirname && -x $dirname ]]; then
  	  cd $dirname
        DIRSTACK="$dirname ${DIRSTACK:-$PWD}"
        print "$DIRSTACK"
    else
        print "still in $PWD."
    fi
}

function popd {  # pop directory off the stack, cd to new top
    if [[ -n $DIRSTACK ]]; then
        DIRSTACK=${DIRSTACK#* }
        cd ${DIRSTACK%% *}
        print "$PWD"
    else
        print "stack empty, still in $PWD."
    fi
}

To get at the n th directory, we use a while loop that transfers the top directory to a temporary copy of the stack n times. We'll put the loop into a function called getNdirs that looks like this: 

function getNdirs{
    stackfront=''
    let count=0
    while (( count < $1 )); do
        stackfront="$stackfront ${DIRSTACK%% *}"
        DIRSTACK=${DIRSTACK#* }
        let count=count+1
    done
}

The argument passed to getNdirs is the n in question. The variable stackfront is the temporary copy that will contain the first n directories when the loop is done. stackfront starts as null; count , which counts the number of loop iterations, starts as 0.

The first line of the loop body appends the top of the stack ( ${DIRSTACK%% * } ) to stackfront ; the second line deletes the top from the stack. The last line increments the counter for the next iteration. The entire loop executes N times, for values of count from 0 to N -1.

When the loop finishes, the last directory in $stackfront is the N th directory. The expression ${stackfront## * } extracts this directory. Furthermore, DIRSTACK now contains the "back" of the stack, i.e., the stack without the first n directories. With this in mind, we can now write the code for the improved versions of pushd and popd : 

function pushd {
    if [[ $1 = ++([0-9]) ]]; then
        # case of pushd +n: rotate n-th directory to top
        let num=${1#+}
        getNdirs $num

        newtop=${stackfront##* }
        stackfront=${stackfront%$newtop}

        DIRSTACK="$newtop $stackfront $DIRSTACK"
        cd $newtop

    elif [[ -z $1 ]]; then
        # case of pushd without args; swap top two directories
        firstdir=${DIRSTACK%% *}
        DIRSTACK=${DIRSTACK#* }
        seconddir=${DIRSTACK%% *}
        DIRSTACK=${DIRSTACK#* } 
        DIRSTACK="$seconddir $firstdir $DIRSTACK"
        cd $seconddir

    else
  	  cd $dirname
        # normal case of pushd dirname
        dirname=$1
        if [[ -d $dirname && -x $dirname ]]; then
            DIRSTACK="$dirname ${DIRSTACK:-$PWD}"
            print "$DIRSTACK"
        else
            print still in "$PWD."
        fi
    fi
}

function popd {      # pop directory off the stack, cd to new top
    if [[ $1 = ++([0-9]) ]]; then
        # case of popd +n: delete n-th directory from stack
        let num={$1#+}
        getNdirs $num
        stackfront=${stackfront% *}
        DIRSTACK="$stackfront $DIRSTACK"

    else
        # normal case of popd without argument
        if [[ -n $DIRSTACK ]]; then
            DIRSTACK=${DIRSTACK#* }
            cd ${DIRSTACK%% *}
            print "$PWD"
        else
            print "stack empty, still in $PWD."
        fi
    fi
}

These functions have grown rather large; let's look at them in turn. The if at the beginning of pushd checks if the first argument is an option of the form + N . If so, the first body of code is run. The first let simply strips the plus sign (+) from the argument and assigns the result - as an integer - to the variable num . This, in turn, is passed to the getNdirs function.

The next two assignment statements set newtop to the N th directory - i.e., the last directory in $stackfront - and delete that directory from stackfront . The final two lines in this part of pushd put the stack back together again in the appropriate order and cd to the new top directory.

The elif clause tests for no argument, in which case pushd should swap the top two directories on the stack. The first four lines of this clause assign the top two directories to firstdir and seconddir , and delete these from the stack. Then, as above, the code puts the stack back together in the new order and cd s to the new top directory.

The else clause corresponds to the usual case, where the user supplies a directory name as argument.

popd works similarly. The if clause checks for the + N option, which in this case means delete the N th directory. A let extracts the N as an integer; the getNdirs function puts the first n directories into stackfront . Then the line stackfront=${stackfront% *} deletes the last directory (the N th directory) from stackfront . Finally, the stack is put back together with the N th directory missing.

The else clause covers the usual case, where the user doesn't supply an argument.

Before we leave this subject, here are a few exercises that should test your understanding of this code:

  1. Add code to pushd that exits with an error message if the user supplies no argument and the stack contains fewer than two directories.

  2. Verify that when the user specifies + N and N exceeds the number of directories in the stack, both pushd and popd use the last directory as the N th directory.

  3. Modify the getNdirs function so that it checks for the above condition and exits with an appropriate error message if true.

  4. Change getNdirs so that it uses cut (with command substitution), instead of the while loop, to extract the first N directories. This uses less code but runs more slowly because of the extra processes generated.

[Nov 04, 2016] Coding Style rear-rear Wiki

Reading rear sources is an interesting exercise. It really demonstrates attempt to use "reasonable' style of shell programming and you can learn a lot.
Nov 04, 2016 | github.com

Relax-and-Recover is written in Bash (at least bash version 3 is needed), a language that can be used in many styles. We want to make it easier for everybody to understand the Relax-and-Recover code and subsequently to contribute fixes and enhancements.

Here is a collection of coding hints that should help to get a more consistent code base.

Don't be afraid to contribute to Relax-and-Recover even if your contribution does not fully match all this coding hints. Currently large parts of the Relax-and-Recover code are not yet in compliance with this coding hints. This is an ongoing step by step process. Nevertheless try to understand the idea behind this coding hints so that you know how to break them properly (i.e. "learn the rules so you know how to break them properly").

The overall idea behind this coding hints is:

Make yourself understood

Make yourself understood to enable others to fix and enhance your code properly as needed.

From this overall idea the following coding hints are derived.

For the fun of it an extreme example what coding style should be avoided:

#!/bin/bash for i in `seq 1 2 $((2*$1-1))`;do echo $((j+=i));done 



   
Try to find out what that code is about - it does a useful thing. 

   
   
   Code must be easy to read 
   
   
   
   Code should be easy to understand 

   
Do not only tell what the code does (i.e. the implementation details) but also explain what the 
   intent behind is (i.e. why ) to make the code maintainable. 

   

   
Here the initial example so that one can understand what it is about: 


   
#!/bin/bash # output the first N square numbers # by summing up the first N odd numbers 1 3 ... 
   2*N-1 # where each nth partial sum is the nth square number # see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_number#Properties 
   # this way it is a little bit faster for big N compared to # calculating each square number on its 
   own via multiplication N=$1 if ! [[ $N =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] ; then echo "Input must be non-negative integer." 
   1>&2 exit 1 fi square_number=0 for odd_number in $( seq 1 2 $(( 2 * N - 1 )) ) ; do (( square_number 
   += odd_number )) && echo $square_number done 


   
Now the intent behind is clear and now others can easily decide if that code is really the best 
   way to do it and easily improve it if needed. 

   
   
   Try to care about possible errors 

   
By default bash proceeds with the next command when something failed. Do not let your code blindly 
   proceed in case of errors because that could make it hard to find the root cause of a failure when 
   it errors out somewhere later at an unrelated place with a weird error message which could lead to 
   false fixes that cure only a particular symptom but not the root cause. 

   
   
   
   Maintain Backward Compatibility 

   
Implement adaptions and enhancements in a backward compatible way so that your changes do not 
   cause regressions for others. 

   
   Dirty 
   hacks welcome 

   
When there are special issues on particular systems it is more important that the Relax-and-Recover 
   code works than having nice looking clean code that sometimes fails. In such special cases any dirty 
   hacks that intend to make it work everywhere are welcome. But for dirty hacks the above listed coding 
   hints become mandatory rules: 

   

   
For example a dirty hack like the following is perfectly acceptable: 


   
# FIXME: Dirty hack to make it work # on "FUBAR Linux version 666" # where COMMAND sometimes inexplicably 
   fails # but always works after at most 3 attempts # see http://example.org/issue12345 # Retries should 
   have no bad effect on other systems # where the first run of COMMAND works. COMMAND || COMMAND || 
   COMMAND || Error "COMMAND failed." 

   Character 
   Encoding 

   
Use only traditional (7-bit) ASCII charactes. In particular do not use UTF-8 encoded multi-byte 
   characters. 

   
   Text Layout
   
   
   Variables
   
   
   Functions
   
   
   
   
   Relax-and-Recover functions 

   
Use the available Relax-and-Recover functions when possible instead of re-implementing basic functionality 
   again and again. The Relax-and-Recover functions are implemented in various
   lib/*-functions.sh 
   files . 

   
   test, [, [[, 
   (( 
   
   Paired 
   parenthesis 
   
   See also
   

   













[Dec 06, 2015] Bash For Loop Examples



A very nice tutorial by Vivek Gite (created October 31, 2008 last updated June 24, 2015). 
His mistake is putting new for loop too far inside the tutorial. It should emphazied, not hidden.





June 24, 2015  |  cyberciti.biz



   
... ... ...


   
Bash v4.0+ has inbuilt support for setting up a step value using {START..END..INCREMENT} 
   syntax:


   
#!/bin/bash
echo "Bash version ${BASH_VERSION}..."
for i in {0..10..2}
  do
     echo "Welcome $i times"
 done


   
Sample outputs:


   
Bash version 4.0.33(0)-release...
Welcome 0 times
Welcome 2 times
Welcome 4 times
Welcome 6 times
Welcome 8 times
Welcome 10 times


   
... ... ...


   
Three-expression bash for loops syntax


   
This type of for loop share a common heritage with the C programming language. It is characterized 
   by a three-parameter loop control expression; consisting of an initializer (EXP1), a loop-test or 
   condition (EXP2), and a counting expression (EXP3).


   
for (( EXP1; EXP2; EXP3 ))
do
	command1
	command2
	command3
done


   
A representative three-expression example in bash as follows:


   
#!/bin/bash
for (( c=1; c<=5; c++ ))
do
   echo "Welcome $c times"
done

   ... ... ...

   
Jadu Saikia, November 2, 2008, 3:37 pm

   

      Nice one. All the examples are explained well, thanks Vivek.
seq 1 2 20

      output can also be produced using jot


      
jot – 1 20 2


      
The infinite loops as everyone knows have the following alternatives.


      
while(true)

      or

      while :


      
//Jadu 

   

   Andi Reinbrech, November 18, 2010, 7:42 pm

      I know this is an ancient thread, but thought this trick might be helpful to someone:
For the 
      above example with all the cuts, simply do


      
set `echo $line`


      
This will split line into positional parameters and you can after the set simply say


      
F1=$1; F2=$2; F3=$3


      
I used this a lot many years ago on solaris with "set `date`", it neatly splits the whole date 
      string into variables and saves lots of messy cutting :-)


      
… no, you can't change the FS, if it's not space, you can't use this method 

   

   Peko, July 16, 2009, 6:11 pm

      Hi Vivek,

      Thanks for this a useful topic.
IMNSHO, there may be something to modify here

      =======================

      Latest bash version 3.0+ has inbuilt support for setting up a step value:


      
#!/bin/bash

      for i in {1..5}

      =======================

      1) The increment feature seems to belong to the version 4 of bash.

      Reference:
      http://bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php/syntax/expansion/brace

      Accordingly, my bash v3.2 does not include this feature.


      
BTW, where did you read that it was 3.0+ ?

      (I ask because you may know some good website of interest on the subject).


      
2) The syntax is {from..to..step} where from, to, step are 3 integers.

      You code is missing the increment.


      
Note that GNU Bash documentation may be bugged at this time,

      because on GNU Bash manual, you will find the syntax {x..y[incr]}

      which may be a typo. (missing the second ".." between y and increment).


      
see
      
      http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Brace-Expansion


      
The Bash Hackers page

      again, see
      http://bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php/syntax/expansion/brace

      seeems to be more accurate,

      but who knows ? Anyway, at least one of them may be right… ;-)


      
Keep on the good work of your own,

      Thanks a million.


      
- Peko

   

   Michal Kaut July 22, 2009, 6:12 am

      Hello,
is there a simple way to control the number formatting? I use several computers, some 
      of which have non-US settings with comma as a decimal point. This means that

      for x in $(seq 0 0.1 1) gives 0 0.1 0.2 … 1 one some machines and 0 0,1 0,2 … 1 on 
      other.

      Is there a way to force the first variant, regardless of the language settings? Can I, for example, 
      set the keyboard to US inside the script? Or perhaps some alternative to $x that 
      would convert commas to points?

      (I am sending these as parameters to another code and it won't accept numbers with commas…)


      
The best thing I could think of is adding x=`echo $x | sed s/,/./` as a first 
      line inside the loop, but there should be a better solution? (Interestingly, the sed command does 
      not seem to be upset by me rewriting its variable.)


      
Thanks,

      Michal

   


   
Peko July 22, 2009, 7:27 am

   


      
To Michal Kaut:


      
Hi Michal,


      
Such output format is configured through LOCALE settings.


      
I tried :


      
export LC_CTYPE="en_EN.UTF-8″; seq 0 0.1 1


      
and it works as desired.


      
You just have to find the exact value for LC_CTYPE that fits to your systems and your needs.


      
Peko

   


   
Peko July 22, 2009, 2:29 pm

   


      
To Michal Kaus [2]


      
Ooops – ;-)

      Instead of LC_CTYPE,

      LC_NUMERIC should be more appropriate

      (Although LC_CTYPE is actually yielding to the same result – I tested both)


      
By the way, Vivek has already documented the matter :
      
      http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-find-supportable-character-sets.html

   


   
Philippe Petrinko October 30, 2009, 8:35 am

   


      
To Vivek:

      Regarding your last example, that is : running a loop through arguments given to the script on 
      the command line, there is a simplier way of doing this:

      # instead of:

      # FILES="$@"

      # for f in $FILES


      
# use the following syntax

      for arg

      do

      # whatever you need here – try : echo "$arg"

      done


      
Of course, you can use any variable name, not only "arg".

   


   
Philippe Petrinko November 11, 2009, 11:25 am

   


      
To tdurden:


      
Why would'nt you use


      
1) either a [for] loop

      for old in * ; do mv ${old} ${old}.new; done


      
2) Either the [rename] command ?

      excerpt form "man rename" :


      
RENAME(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide RENAME(1)


      
NAME

      rename – renames multiple files


      
SYNOPSIS

      rename [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -f ] perlexpr [ files ]


      
DESCRIPTION

      "rename" renames the filenames supplied according to the rule specified

      as the first argument. The perlexpr argument is a Perl expression

      which is expected to modify the $_ string in Perl for at least some of

      the filenames specified. If a given filename is not modified by the

      expression, it will not be renamed. If no filenames are given on the

      command line, filenames will be read via standard input.


      
For example, to rename all files matching "*.bak" to strip the

      extension, you might say


      
rename 's/\.bak$//' *.bak


      
To translate uppercase names to lower, you'd use


      
rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' *


      
- Philippe

   


   
Philippe Petrinko November 11, 2009, 9:27 pm

   


      
If you set the shell option extglob, Bash understands some more powerful patterns. Here, a 
      is one or more pattern, separated by the pipe-symbol (|).


      
?() Matches zero or one occurrence of the given patterns

      *() Matches zero or more occurrences of the given patterns

      +() Matches one or more occurrences of the given patterns

      @() Matches one of the given patterns

      !() Matches anything except one of the given patterns


      
source: http://www.bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php/syntax/pattern

   


   
Philippe Petrinko November 12, 2009, 3:44 pm

   


      
To Sean:

      Right, the more sharp a knife is, the easier it can cut your fingers…


      
I mean: There are side-effects to the use of file globbing (like in [ for f in * ] ) , when 
      the globbing expression matches nothing: the globbing expression is not susbtitued.


      
Then you might want to consider using [ nullglob ] shell extension,

      to prevent this.

      see:
      
      http://www.bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php/syntax/expansion/globs#customization


      
Devil hides in detail ;-)

   


   
Dominic January 14, 2010, 10:04 am

   


      
There is an interesting difference between the exit value for two different for looping structures 
      (hope this comes out right):

      for (( c=1; c<=2; c++ )) do echo -n "inside (( )) loop c is $c, "; done; echo "done (( )) 
      loop c is $c"

      for c in {1..2}; do echo -n "inside { } loop c is $c, "; done; echo "done { } loop c is $c"

      You see that the first structure does a final increment of c, the second does not. The first is 
      more useful IMO because if you have a conditional break in the for loop, then you can subsequently 
      test the value of $c to see if the for loop was broken or not; with the second structure you can't 
      know whether the loop was broken on the last iteration or continued to completion.

   


   
Dominic January 14, 2010, 10:09 am

   


      
sorry, my previous post would have been clearer if I had shown the output of my code snippet, 
      which is:

      inside (( )) loop c is 1, inside (( )) loop c is 2, done (( )) loop c is 3

      inside { } loop c is 1, inside { } loop c is 2, done { } loop c is 2

   


   
Philippe Petrinko March 9, 2010, 2:34 pm

   


      
@Dmitry


      
And, again, as stated many times up there, using [seq] is counter productive, because it requires 
      a call to an external program, when you should Keep It Short and Simple, using only bash internals 
      functions:


      


      for ((c=1; c<21; c+=2)); do echo "Welcome $c times" ; done

 


      
(and I wonder why Vivek is sticking to that old solution which should be presented only for 
      historical reasons when there was no way of using bash internals.

      By the way, this historical recall should be placed only at topic end, and not on top of the topic, 
      which makes newbies sticking to the not-up-to-date technique ;-) )

   


   
Sean March 9, 2010, 11:15 pm

   


      
I have a comment to add about using the builtin for (( … )) syntax. I would agree the 
      builtin method is cleaner, but from what I've noticed with other builtin functionality, I had 
      to check the speed advantage for myself. I wrote the following files:


      
builtin_count.sh:

      

      #!/bin/bash

      for ((i=1;i<=1000000;i++))

      do

      echo "Output $i"

      done

 


      
seq_count.sh:

      

      #!/bin/bash

      for i in $(seq 1 1000000)

      do

      echo "Output $i"

      done

 


      
And here were the results that I got:

      time ./builtin_count.sh

      real 0m22.122s

      user 0m18.329s

      sys 0m3.166s


      
time ./seq_count.sh

      real 0m19.590s

      user 0m15.326s

      sys 0m2.503s


      
The performance increase isn't too significant, especially when you are probably going to be 
      doing something a little more interesting inside of the for loop, but it does show that builtin 
      commands are not necessarily faster.

   

   Andi Reinbrech November 18, 2010, 8:35 pm


      
The reason why the external seq is faster, is because it is executed only once, and returns 
      a huge splurb of space separated integers which need no further processing, apart from the for 
      loop advancing to the next one for the variable substitution.


      
The internal loop is a nice and clean/readable construct, but it has a lot of overhead. The 
      check expression is re-evaluated on every iteration, and a variable on the interpreter's heap 
      gets incremented, possibly checked for overflow etc. etc.


      
Note that the check expression cannot be simplified or internally optimised by the interpreter 
      because the value may change inside the loop's body (yes, there are cases where you'd want to 
      do this, however rare and stupid they may seem), hence the variables are volatile and get re-evaluted.


      
I.e. botom line, the internal one has more overhead, the "seq" version is equivalent to either 
      having 1000000 integers inside the script (hard coded), or reading once from a text file with 
      1000000 integers with a cat. Point being that it gets executed only once and becomes static.


      
OK, blah blah fishpaste, past my bed time :-)


      
Cheers,

      Andi

   


   
Anthony Thyssen June 4, 2010, 6:53 am

   


      
The {1..10} syntax is pretty useful as you can use a variable with it!


      
limit=10
echo {1..${limit}}
{1..10}


      
You need to eval it to get it to work!


      
limit=10
eval "echo {1..${limit}}"
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10



      
'seq' is not avilable on ALL system (MacOSX for example)

      and BASH is not available on all systems either.


      
You are better off either using the old while-expr method for computer compatiblity!


      
   limit=10; n=1;
   while [ $n -le 10 ]; do
     echo $n;
     n=`expr $n + 1`;
   done



      
Alternativally use a seq() function replacement…


      
 # seq_count 10
seq_count() {
  i=1; while [ $i -le $1 ]; do echo $i; i=`expr $i + 1`; done
}
# simple_seq 1 2 10
simple_seq() {
  i=$1; while [ $i -le $3 ]; do echo $i; i=`expr $i + $2`; done
}
seq_integer() {
    if [ "X$1" = "X-f" ]
    then format="$2"; shift; shift
    else format="%d"
    fi
    case $# in
    1) i=1 inc=1 end=$1 ;;
    2) i=$1 inc=1 end=$2 ;;
    *) i=$1 inc=$2 end=$3 ;;
    esac
    while [ $i -le $end ]; do
      printf "$format\n" $i;
      i=`expr $i + $inc`;
    done
  }



      
Edited: by Admin – added code tags.

   

   TheBonsai June 4, 2010, 9:57 am


      
The Bash C-style for loop was taken from KSH93, thus I guess it's at least portable towards 
      Korn and Z.


      
The seq-function above could use i=$((i + inc)), if only POSIX matters. expr is obsolete for 
      those things, even in POSIX.

   


   
Philippe Petrinko June 4, 2010, 10:15 am

   


      
Right Bonsai,

      (
      
      http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/xcu_chap02.html#tag_02_06_04 )


      
But FOR C-style does not seem to be POSIXLY-correct…


      
Read on-line reference issue 6/2004,

      Top is here,
      http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/mindex.html


      
and the Shell and Utilities volume (XCU) T.OC. is here

      http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/toc.html

      doc is:

      
      http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap01.html


      
and FOR command:

      
      http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/xcu_chap02.html#tag_02_09_04_03

   


   
Anthony Thyssen June 6, 2010, 7:18 am

   


      
TheBonsai wrote…. "The seq-function above could use i=$((i + inc)), if only POSIX matters. 
      expr is obsolete for those things, even in POSIX."


      
I am not certain it is in Posix. It was NOT part of the original Bourne Shell, and on some 
      machines, I deal with Bourne Shell. Not Ksh, Bash, or anything else.


      
Bourne Shell syntax works everywhere! But as 'expr' is a builtin in more modern shells, then 
      it is not a big loss or slow down.


      
This is especially important if writing a replacement command, such as for "seq" where you 
      want your "just-paste-it-in" function to work as widely as possible.


      
I have been shell programming pretty well all the time since 1988, so I know what I am talking 
      about! Believe me.


      
MacOSX has in this regard been the worse, and a very big backward step in UNIX compatibility. 
      2 year after it came out, its shell still did not even understand most of the normal 'test' functions. 
      A major pain to write shells scripts that need to also work on this system.

   


   
TheBonsai June 6, 2010, 12:35 pm

   


      
Yea, the question was if it's POSIX, not if it's 100% portable (which is a difference). The 
      POSIX base more or less is a subset of the Korn features (88, 93), pure Bourne is something "else", 
      I know. Real portability, which means a program can go wherever UNIX went, only in C ;)

   

   Philippe Petrinko November 22, 2010, 8:23 am


      
And if you want to get rid of double-quotes, use:


      
one-liner code:

      while read; do record=${REPLY}; echo ${record}|while read -d ","; do field="${REPLY#\"}"; 
      field="${field%\"}"; echo ${field}; done; done<data

 


      
script code, added of some text to better see record and field breakdown:

      

      #!/bin/bash

      while read

      do

      echo "New record"

      record=${REPLY}

      echo ${record}|while read -d ,

      do

      field="${REPLY#\"}"

      field="${field%\"}"

      echo "Field is :${field}:"

      done

      done<data

 


      
Does it work with your data?


      
- PP

   


   
Philippe Petrinko November 22, 2010, 9:01 am

   


      
Of course, all the above code was assuming that your CSV file is named "data".


      
If you want to use anyname with the script, replace:

      

      done<data

      

      With:

      

      done

 


      
And then use your script file (named for instance "myScript") with standard input redirection:

      

      myScript < anyFileNameYouWant

 


      
Enjoy!

   


   
Philippe Petrinko November 22, 2010, 11:28 am

   


      
well no there is a bug, last field of each record is not read – it needs a workout and may 
      be IFS modification ! After all that's what it was built for… :O)

   


   
Anthony Thyssen November 22, 2010, 11:31 pm

   


      
Another bug is the inner loop is a pipeline, so you can't assign variables for use later in 
      the script. but you can use '<<<' to break the pipeline and avoid the echo.


      
But this does not help when you have commas within the quotes! Which is why you needed quotes 
      in the first place.


      
In any case It is a little off topic. Perhaps a new thread for reading CVS files in shell should 
      be created.

   


   
Philippe Petrinko November 24, 2010, 6:29 pm

   


      
Anthony,

      Would you try this one-liner script on your CSV file?


      
This one-liner assumes that CSV file named [data] has __every__ field double-quoted.


      


      while read; do r="${REPLY#\"}";echo "${r//\",\"/\"}"|while read -d \";do echo "Field is :${REPLY}:";done;done<data

 


      
Here is the same code, but for a script file, not a one-liner tweak.


      


      #!/bin/bash

      # script csv01.sh

      #

      # 1) Usage

      # This script reads from standard input

      # any CSV with double-quoted data fields

      # and breaks down each field on standard output

      #

      # 2) Within each record (line), _every_ field MUST:

      # - Be surrounded by double quotes,

      # - and be separated from preceeding field by a comma

      # (not the first field of course, no comma before the first field)

      #

      while read

      do

      echo "New record" # this is not mandatory-just for explanation

      #

      #

      # store REPLY and remove opening double quote

      record="${REPLY#\"}"

      #

      #

      # replace every "," by a single double quote

      record=${record//\",\"/\"}

      #

      #

      echo ${record}|while read -d \"

      do

      # store REPLY into variable "field"

      field="${REPLY}"

      #

      #

      echo "Field is :${field}:" # just for explanation

      done

      done

 


      
This script named here [cvs01.sh] must be used so:

      

      cvs01.sh < my-cvs-file-with-doublequotes

 

   


   
Philippe Petrinko November 24, 2010, 6:35 pm

   


      
@Anthony,


      
By the way, using [REPLY] in the outer loop _and_ the inner loop is not a bug.

      As long as you know what you do, this is not problem, you just have to store [REPLY] value conveniently, 
      as this script shows.

   

   TheBonsai March 8, 2011, 6:26 am
   


      
for ((i=1; i<=20; i++)); do printf "%02d\n" "$i"; done

   


   
nixCraft 
   March 8, 2011, 6:37 am

   


      
+1 for printf due to portability, but you can use bashy .. syntax too


      
for i in {01..20}; do echo "$i"; done

   


   
TheBonsai March 8, 2011, 6:48 am

   


      
Well, it isn't portable per se, it makes it portable to pre-4 Bash versions.


      
I think a more or less "portable" (in terms of POSIX, at least) code would be


      
i=0
while [ "$((i >= 20))" -eq 0 ]; do
  printf "%02d\n" "$i"
  i=$((i+1))
done

   


   
Philip Ratzsch April 20, 2011, 5:53 am

   


      
I didn't see this in the article or any of the comments so I thought I'd share. While this 
      is a contrived example, I find that nesting two groups can help squeeze a two-liner (once for 
      each range) into a one-liner:


      
for num in {{1..10},{15..20}};do echo $num;done


      
Great reference article!

   


   
Philippe Petrinko April 20, 2011, 8:23 am

   


      
@Philip

      Nice thing to think of, using brace nesting, thanks for sharing.

      Philippe Petrinko May 6, 2011, 10:13 am
Hello Sanya,


      
That would be because brace expansion does not support variables. I have to check this.

      Anyway, Keep It Short and Simple: (KISS) here is a simple solution I already gave above:


      
xstart=1;xend=10;xstep=1

      for (( x = $xstart; x <= $xend; x += $xstep)); do echo $x;done


      
Actually, POSIX compliance allows to forget $ in for quotes, as said before, you could also 
      write:


      
xstart=1;xend=10;xstep=1

      for (( x = xstart; x <= xend; x += xstep)); do echo $x;done

   


   
Philippe Petrinko May 6, 2011, 10:48 am

   


      
Sanya,


      
Actually brace expansion happens __before__ $ parameter exapansion, so you cannot use it this 
      way.


      
Nevertheless, you could overcome this this way:


      
max=10; for i in $(eval echo {1..$max}); do echo $i; done

   


   
Sanya May 6, 2011, 11:42 am

   


      
Hello, Philippe


      
Thanks for your suggestions

      You basically confirmed my findings, that bash constructions are not as simple as zsh ones.

      But since I don't care about POSIX compliance, and want to keep my scripts "readable" for less 
      experienced people, I would prefer to stick to zsh where my simple for-loop works


      
Cheers, Sanya

   


   
Philippe Petrinko May 6, 2011, 12:07 pm

   


      
Sanya,


      
First, you got it wrong: solutions I gave are not related to POSIX, I just pointed out that 
      POSIX allows not to use $ in for (( )), which is just a little bit more readable – sort of.


      
Second, why do you see this less readable than your [zsh] [for loop]?


      
for (( x = start; x <= end; x += step)) do

      echo "Loop number ${x}"

      done


      
It is clear that it is a loop, loop increments and limits are clear.


      
IMNSHO, if anyone cannot read this right, he should not be allowed to code. :-D


      
BFN

   


   
Anthony Thyssen May 8, 2011, 11:30 pm

   


      
If you are going to do… $(eval echo {1..$max});

      You may as well use "seq" or one of the many other forms.

      See all the other comments on doing for loops.

   


   
Tom P May 19, 2011, 12:16 pm

   


      
I am trying to use the variable I set in the for line on to set another variable with a different 
      extension. Couldn't get this to work and couldnt find it anywhere on the web… Can someone help.


      
Example:


      
FILE_TOKEN=`cat /tmp/All_Tokens.txt`
for token in $FILE_TOKEN
do
A1_$token=`grep $A1_token /file/path/file.txt | cut -d ":" -f2`



      
my goal is to take the values from the ALL Tokens file and set a new variable with A1_ infront 
      of it… This tells be that A1_ is not a command…

   

   












[May 02, 2015] 
shell 
- Parenthesis in bash arithmetic 3 (2 + 1)




   

   
   Unix & Linux Stack Exchange


   
Parenthesis in bash arithmetic: 3 * (2 + 1)


   
expr does not seem to like parenthesis (used in mathematics to explicit operator priority):

   expr 3 * (2 + 1)

   bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('


   How to express operator priority in bash?


   / bash / shell / quoting / arithmetic 


   
asked Aug 12 '14 at 6:09 by Nicolas Raoul


   
Another way to use let bash builtin:

   $ let a="3 * (2 + 1)"

   $ printf '%s\n' "$a"


   
Note


   As @Stéphane Chazelas pointed out, in bash you should use ((...)) to do arithmetic over expr 
   or let for legibility.

   

   For portability, use $((...)) like @Bernhard answer.


   
cuonglm


   
+1 Even more readable! I posted my question+answer just thinking it would be helpful for my 
   fellow Linux users, but now I am getting a lot of benefit from the other answers :-) – Nicolas 
   Raoul Aug 12 '14 at 6:52 


   
There's no reason to be using let. It's not any more standard or portable than (( a = 3 * 
   (2 + 1) )) (both come from ksh and are only available in ksh, bash and zsh) and it's less 
   legible or easy to quote. Use a=$((3 * (2 + 1))) to be portable. – Stéphane Chazelas 
   Aug 12 '14 at 15:27 


   
I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying it should not be used as there are better 
   alternatives (one for legibility ((a = 3 * (2 + 1) )), one for portability a=$((3 * (2 + 1)))), 
   so it's not a note against you or your answer but against it being the selected answer and 
   top-scorer. – Stéphane Chazelas Aug 12 '14 at 15:48 


   
@StéphaneChazelas: Updated my answer! – cuonglm Aug 12 '14 at 16:19 


   
You can use the arithmetic expansion instead.

   echo "$(( 3 * ( 2 + 1 ) ))"


   
In my personal opinion, this looks a bit nicer than using expr. From man bash

   


      
Arithmetic Expansion Arithmetic expansion allows the evaluation of an arithmetic expression 
      and the substitution of the result. The format for arithmetic expansion is:

      $((expression))


      The expression is treated as if it were within double quotes, but a double quote inside the 
      parentheses is not treated specially. All tokens in the expression undergo parameter 
      expansion, string expansion, command substitution, and quote removal. Arithmetic expansions 
      may be nested.


      The evaluation is performed according to the rules listed below under ARITHMETIC EVALUATION. 
      If expression is invalid, bash prints a message indicating failure and no substitution occurs.

   


   
edited Dec 9 '14 at 19:39, by Stéphane Chazelas


   
Aside from readability, it also doesn't require forking an extra process to do the arithmetic; 
   it's handled by the shell itself. – chepner Aug 12 '14 at 12:02 


   
Note that in POSIX shells, it's subject to word splitting, so it's a good habit to quote it in 
   list contexts. 


   
– Stéphane Chazelas Aug 12 '14 at 15:57 


   
Use parenthesis with quotes:


   
expr 3 '*' '(' 2 '+' 1 ')'


   
The quotes prevent bash from interpreting the parenthesis as bash syntax.


   
Nicolas Raoul


   
What Nicolas illustrates but doesn't explain is that the tokens on the expr command line must 
   be separated by spaces; so; for example, expr 3 "*" "(2" "+" "1)" will not work. (Also, BTW, you 
   probably don't need to quote the +.) 


   
– G-Man Aug 12 '14 at 17:28 


   
The parentheses aren't keywords like while and [[, they're syntax. If they were keywords, they 
   wouldn't be interpreted as such in command arguments. You need quotes so that bash doesn't parse 
   them but instead sees a string literal.


   
 – Gilles Aug 13 '14 at 1:31 


   
@Gilles: Thanks, updated! – Nicolas Raoul Aug 13 '14 at 1:55 


   
There's no reason to be using expr for arithmetic in modern shells.


   POSIX defines the $((...)) expansion operator. So you can use that in all POSIX compliant shells 
   (the sh of all modern Unix-likes, dash, bash, yash, mksh, zsh, posh, ksh...).

   a=$(( 3 * (2 + 1) ))

   a=$((3*(2+1)))


   ksh also introduced a let builtin which is passed the same kind of arithmetic expression, doesn't 
   expand into something but returns an exit status based on whether the expression resolves to 0 or 
   not, like in expr:

   if let 'a = 3 * (2 + 1)'; then

   echo "$a is non-zero"

   fi


   However, as the quoting makes it awkward and not very legible (not to the same extent as expr of 
   course), ksh also introduced a ((...)) alternative form:

   if (( a = 3 * (2 + 1) )) && (( 3 > 1 )); then

   echo "$a is non-zero and 3 > 1"

   fi

   ((a+=2))


   which is a lot more legible and should be used instead.


   let and ((...)) are only available in ksh, zsh and bash. The $((...)) syntax should be preferred 
   if portability to other shells is needed, expr is only needed for pre-POSIX Bourne-like shells 
   (typically the Bourne shell or early versions of the Almquist shell).


   On the non-Bourne front, there are a few shells with built-in arithmetic operator:


   •csh/tcsh (actually the first Unix shell with arithmetic evaluation built-in): 

   @ a = 3 * (2 + 1)


   

   •akanga (based on rc)

   a = $:'3 * (2 + 1)'


   

   •as a history note, the original version of the Almquist shell, as posted on usenet in 1989 had 
   an expr builtin (actually merged with test), but it was removed later.


   
answered Aug 12 '14 at 15:41 by Stéphane Chazelas


   
I learn something new every day from you, Stéphane. I very much appreciate your POSIX shell 
   knowledge! – MattBianco Aug 21 '14 at 8:50 


   
expr is an external command, it is not special shell syntax. Therefore, if you want expr to 
   see shell special characters, you need to protect them from shell parsing by quoting them. 
   Furthermore, expr needs each number and operator to be passed as a separate parameter. Thus:

   expr 3 \* \( 2 + 1 \)


   Unless you're working on an antique unix system from the 1970s or 1980s, there is very little 
   reason to use expr. In the old days, shells didn't have a built-in way to perform arithmetic, and 
   you had to call the expr utility instead. All POSIX shells have built-in arithmetic via the 
   arithmetic expansion syntax.

   echo $((3 * (2 + 1)))


   The construct $((…)) expands to the result of the arithmetic expression (written in decimal). 
   Bash, like most shells, supports only integer arithmetic modulo 264 (or modulo 232 for older 
   versions of bash and some other shells on 32-bit machines).


   Bash offers an additional convenience syntax when you want to perform assignments or to test 
   whether an expression is 0 but don't care about the result. This construct also exists in ksh and 
   zsh but not in plain sh.


   
((x = 3 * (2+1)))

   echo "$x"

   if ((x > 3)); then …


   In addition to integer arithmetic, expr offers a few string manipulation functions. These too are 
   subsumed by features of POSIX shells, except for one: expr STRING : REGEXP tests whether 
   the string matches the specified regexp. 


   
A POSIX shell cannot do this without external tools, but bash can with [[ STRING =~ REGEXP 
   ]] (with a different regexp syntax - expr is a classic tool and uses BRE, bash uses ERE).


   Unless you're maintaing scripts that run on 20-year-old systems, you don't need to know that 
   expr ever existed. Use shell arithmetic.


   
- Gilles


   
expr foo : '\(.\)' also does text extraction. bash's BASH_REMATCH achieves something similar. 
   It also does string comparison, which POSIX [ does not do (though one could imagine ways to use 
   sort for that).


   
 – Stéphane Chazelas Aug 15 '14 at 11:25 













[May 02, 2015]  ArithmeticExpression




   
2014-02-13 | Greg's Wiki

   
   
Arithmetic in BASH is integer 
         math only. You can't do floating point math in Bash; if you need that capability, see
         Bash FAQ #22.
         


   
Also see
         the Bash hackers article 
         about the full syntax theory.
         /!\ 
         The $[ ] syntax is
         deprecated 


   
There are several ways to tell Bash to treat numbers as integers instead 
         of strings, and to do basic arithmetic operations on them. The first is to use the let 
         command: 


   
let a=17+23
echo "a = $a"      # Prints a = 40


   
Note that each arithmetic expression has to be passed as a single argument 
         to the let command, so you need quotes if there are spaces or globbing characters, 
         thus: 


   
let a=17 + 23      # WRONG
let a="17 + 23"    # Right
let 'a = 17 + 23'  # Right
let a=17 a+=23     # Right (2 arithmetic expressions)

let a[1]=1+1       # Wrong (try after touch a1=1+1 or with shopt -s failglob)
let 'a[1]=1+1'     # Right
let a\[1]=1+1      # Right


   
Division in Bash is integer division, and it truncates the results, just 
         as in C: 


   
let a=28/6
echo "a = $a"      # Prints a = 4


   
In addition to the let command, one may use the (( )) 
         syntax to enforce an arithmetic context. If there is a $ (dollar sign) before the 
         parentheses, then a substitution is performed (more on this below). White space is allowed 
         inside (( )) with much greater leniency than with let, and variables inside
         (( )) don't require $ (because string literals aren't allowed). Examples:
         


   
((a=$a+7))         # Add 7 to a
((a = a + 7))      # Add 7 to a.  Identical to the previous command.
((a += 7))         # Add 7 to a.  Identical to the previous command.

((a = RANDOM % 10 + 1))     # Choose a random number from 1 to 10.
                            # % is modulus, as in C.

# (( )) may also be used as a command.  > or < inside (( )) means
# greater/less than, not output/input redirection.
if ((a > 5)); then echo "a is more than 5"; fi


   
(( )) without the leading $ is not a standard sh feature. 
         It comes from ksh and is only available in ksh, Bash and zsh. $(( )) substitution 
         is allowed in the POSIX shell. As one would expect, the result of the arithmetic expression 
         inside the $(( )) is substituted into the original command. Like for parameter substitution, 
         arithmetic substitution is subject to word splitting so should be quoted to prevent it when 
         in list contexts. Here are some examples of the use of the arithmetic substitution syntax:
         


   
a=$((a+7))         # POSIX-compatible version of previous code.
if test "$((a%4))" = 0; then ...
lvcreate -L "$((4*1096))" -n lvname vgname   # Actual HP-UX example.


   
Variables may be declared as integers so that any subsequent assignments 
         to them will always assume a numeric context. Essentially any variable that's declared as an 
         integer acts as if you had a let command in front of it when you assign to it. For 
         example: 


   
unset b             # Forget any previous declarations
b=7+5; echo "$b"    # Prints 7+5
declare -i b        # Declare b as an integer
b=7+5; echo "$b"    # Prints 12


   
Also, array indices are a numeric context:
         


   
n=0
while read line; do
   array[n++]=$line      # array[] forces a numeric context
done


   
There is one common pitfall with arithmetic expressions in Bash: numbers 
         with leading zeroes are treated as octal. For example, 


   
# Suppose today is September 19th.
month=$(date +%m)
next_month=$(( (month == 12) ? 1 : month+1 ))
# bash: 09: value too great for base (error token is "09")


   
This causes great confusion among people who are extracting zero-padded 
         numbers from various sources (although dates are by far the most common) and then doing math 
         on them without sanitizing them first. (It's especially bad if you write a program like this 
         in March, test it, roll it out... and then it doesn't blow up until August 1.)
         


   
If you have leading-zero problems with Bash's built-in arithmetic, there 
         are two possible solutions. The first is, obviously, to remove the leading zeroes from the 
         numbers before doing math with them. This is not trivial in Bash, unfortunately, because Bash 
         has no ability to perform substitutions on a variable using regular expressions (it can only 
         do it with "glob" patterns). But you could use a loop:


   
# This removes leading zeroes from a, one at a time.
while [[ $a = 0* ]]; do a=${a#0}; done


   
You can do the above without using a loop, by using extended globs; see
         FAQ #67 for more information. Or, you 
         could use sed; that may be more efficient if you're reading many numbers from a stream, 
         and can arrange to sanitize them all in one command, rather than one by one.
         


   
Without a loop: 


   
# This removes leading zeroes from a, all at once.
a=${a##+(0)}


   
The third solution is to force Bash to treat all numbers as base 10 by prefixing 
         them with 10#. This might be more efficient, but also may be less elegant to read.
         


   
a=008
let b=a+1       # Generates an error because 008 is not valid in octal.
let b=10#$a+1   # Force a to be treated as base 10.  Note: the $ is required.


   
Finally, a note on the exit status of commands, and the notions of "true" 
         and "false", is in order. When bash runs a command, that command will return an exit status 
         from 0 to 255. 0 is considered "success" (which is "true" when used in the context of an
         if or while command). However, in an arithmetic context, there are 
         places where the C language rules (0 is false, anything else is true) apply.
         


   
Some examples: 


   
true; echo "$?"       # Writes 0, because a successful command returns 0.
((10 > 6)); echo "$?" # Also 0.  An arithmetic command returns 0 for true.
echo "$((10 > 6))"    # Writes 1.  An arithmetic expression returns 1 for true.


   
In addition to a comparison returning 1 for true, an arithmetic expression 
         that evaluates to a non-zero value is also true in the sense of a command.
         


   
if ((1)); then echo true; fi     # Writes true.


   
This also lets you use "flag" variables, just like in a C program:
         


   
found=0
while ...; do
   ...
  if something; then found=1; fi    # Found one!  Keep going.
   ...
done
if ((found)); then ...


   
Here is a function to convert numbers in other bases to decimal (base 10):
         


   
todec() {
    echo "$(( $1#$2 ))"
}


   
Examples: 


   
todec 16 ffe    # -> 4094
todec 2 100100  # -> 36













[Nov 21, 2010]

Integer Arithmetic




   
Both Bash and the Korn shell support evaluating arithmetic expressions without arithmetic expansion. 
   The syntax is similar to $((...)) but without the dollar sign. Because expansion 
   is not performed, the construct can be used without variable assignment or the colon operator:


   
$ x=10
$ ((x = x * 12))
$ echo $x
120
$


   
The real value of this construct is that it allows arithmetic expressions to be used rather than
   test in if, while, and until commands. The comparison operators 
   set the exit status to a nonzero value if the result of the comparison is false and to a zero value 
   if the result is true. So writing


   
(( i == 100 ))


   
has the effect of testing i to see whether it is equal to 100 and setting the exit status 
   appropriately. This knowledge makes integer arithmetic ideal for inclusion in if commands:


   
if (( i == 100 ))
then
       ...
fi


   
The (( i == 100 )) returns an exit status of zero (true) if i equals 100 and 
   one (false) otherwise, and has the same effect as writing


   
if [ "$i" -eq 100 ]
then
        ...
fi


   
One advantage of using ((...)) rather than test is the capability to 
   perform arithmetic as part of the test:


   
if (( i / 10 != 0 ))
then
    ...
fi


   
Here the comparison returns a true if i divided by 10 is not equal to zero.


   
while loops can also benefit from integer arithmetic. For example,


   
x=0
while ((x++ < 100))
do
      commands
done



   
executes commands 100 times. (Note that some older versions of the Korn shell and Bash do not 
   support the ++ and -- operators.)


   
Integer Types


   
The Korn shell and Bash both support an integer data type. You can declare variables to be integers 
   by using the typeset command with the -i option


   
typeset -i variables


   
where variables are any valid shell variable names. Initial values can be assigned to the variables 
   at the time they are declared.


   
Arithmetic performed on integer variables with the ((...)) construct is slightly 
   faster than on noninteger ones because the shell internally stores the value of an integer variable 
   as a binary number and not as a character string.


   
An integer variable cannot be assigned anything but an integer value or an integer expression. 
   If you attempt to assign a noninteger to it, the message bad number is printed by the Korn 
   shell:


   
$ typeset -i i
$ i=hello
ksh: i: bad number



   
Bash simply ignores any strings that don't contain numeric values and generates an error for anything 
   that contains both numbers and other characters:


   
$ typeset -i i
$ i=hello
$ echo $i
0
$ i=1hello
bash: 1hello: value too great for base (error token is "1hello")
$ i=10+15
$ echo $i
25
$



   
The preceding example shows that integer-valued expressions can be assigned to an integer variable, 
   without even having to use the ((...)) construct. This holds true for both Bash 
   and the Korn shell.


   
Numbers in Different Bases


   
The Korn shell and Bash allow you to perform arithmetic in different bases. To write a number 
   in a different base with these shells, you use the notation


   
base#number



   
For example, to express the value 100 in base 8 (octal) you write


   
8#100



   
You can write constants in different bases anywhere an integer value is permitted. To assign octal 
   100 to the integer variable i, you can write


   
typeset -i i=8#100


   
Note that with the Korn shell the base of the first value assigned to an integer variable fixes 
   the base of all subsequent substitutions of that variable. In other words, if the first value you 
   assign to the integer variable i is an octal number, each time you subsequently substitute 
   the value of i on the command line, the Korn shell substitutes the value as an octal number 
   using the notation 8#value.


   
$ typeset -i i=8#100
$ echo $i
8#100
$ i=50
$ echo $i
8#62
$ (( i = 16#a5 + 16#120 ))
$ echo $i
8#705


   
Because the first value assigned to i in this example is an octal number (8#100), all 
   further substitutions of i will be in octal. When the base 10 value of 50 is next assigned 
   to i and then i is subsequently displayed, we get the value 8#62, which is the 
   octal equivalent of 50 in base 10.


   
In the preceding example, the ((...)) construct is used to add together the 
   two hexadecimal values a5 and 120. The result is then displayed, once again in octal.


   
Bash uses both the base#number syntax for arbitrary bases and the C language syntax for 
   octal and hexadecimal numbers-octal numbers are preceded by 0 (zero), and hexadecimal numbers 
   are preceded by 0x:


   
$ typeset -i i=0100
$ echo $i
64
$ i=0x80
$ echo $i
128
$ i=2#1101001
$ echo $i
105
$ (( i = 16#a5 + 16#120 ))
$ echo $i
453
$



   
Unlike the Korn shell, Bash doesn't keep track of the variable's base; integer variables are displayed 
   as decimal numbers. You can always use printf to print integers in octal or hexadecimal 
   format.













[Nov 21, 2010]

Advanced Bash Shell Scripting Guide - Operators



   Arithmetic operators often occur in an
   
   expr or
   
   let expression.
Example 8-2. Using Arithmetic Operations


   
#!/bin/bash
# Counting to 11 in 10 different ways.

n=1; echo -n "$n "

let "n = $n + 1"   # let "n = n + 1"  also works.
echo -n "$n "


: $((n = $n + 1))
#  ":" necessary because otherwise Bash attempts
#+ to interpret "$((n = $n + 1))" as a command.
echo -n "$n "

(( n = n + 1 ))
#  A simpler alternative to the method above.
#  Thanks, David Lombard, for pointing this out.
echo -n "$n "

n=$(($n + 1))
echo -n "$n "

: $[ n = $n + 1 ]
#  ":" necessary because otherwise Bash attempts
#+ to interpret "$[ n = $n + 1 ]" as a command.
#  Works even if "n" was initialized as a string.
echo -n "$n "

n=$[ $n + 1 ]
#  Works even if "n" was initialized as a string.
#* Avoid this type of construct, since it is obsolete and nonportable.
#  Thanks, Stephane Chazelas.
echo -n "$n "

# Now for C-style increment operators.
# Thanks, Frank Wang, for pointing this out.

let "n++"          # let "++n"  also works.
echo -n "$n "

(( n++ ))          # (( ++n )  also works.
echo -n "$n "

: $(( n++ ))       # : $(( ++n )) also works.
echo -n "$n "

: $[ n++ ]         # : $[ ++n ]] also works
echo -n "$n "

echo

exit 0

   Integer variables in Bash are actually signed long (32-bit) integers, in the range of -2147483648 
   to 2147483647. An operation that takes a variable outside these limits will give an erroneous result.

   
a=2147483646
echo "a = $a"      # a = 2147483646
let "a+=1"         # Increment "a".
echo "a = $a"      # a = 2147483647
let "a+=1"         # increment "a" again, past the limit.
echo "a = $a"      # a = -2147483648
                   #      ERROR (out of range)


   
As of version 2.05b, Bash supports 64-bit integers. Bash does not understand floating point arithmetic. 
   It treats numbers containing a decimal point as strings. 


   
a=1.5

let "b = $a + 1.3"  # Error.
# t2.sh: let: b = 1.5 + 1.3: syntax error in expression (error token is ".5 + 1.3")

echo "b = $b"       # b=1

   Use
   
   bc in scripts that that need floating point calculations or math library functions.












[Jun 19, 2008] Bash Arrays
 by Mitch Frazier





   
Jun, 2008 | Linux Journal


   
If you're used to a "standard" *NIX shell you may not be familiar with bash's array feature. Although 
   not as powerful as similar constructs in the P languages (Perl, Python, and PHP) and others, they 
   are often quite useful. 


   
Bash arrays have numbered indexes only, but they are sparse, ie you don't have to define all the 
   indexes. An entire array can be assigned by enclosing the array items in parenthesis: 


   
  arr=(Hello World)

   Individual items can be assigned with the familiar array syntax (unless you're used to Basic or Fortran):

   
  arr[0]=Hello
  arr[1]=World

   But it gets a bit ugly when you want to refer to an array item:

   
  echo ${arr[0]} ${arr[1]}

   To quote from the man page:
   

      The braces are required to avoid conflicts with pathname expansion.
   


   
In addition the following funky constructs are available: 


   
  ${arr[*]}         # All of the items in the array
  ${!arr[*]}        # All of the indexes in the array
  ${#arr[*]}        # Number of items in the array
  ${#arr[0]}        # Length if item zero


   The ${!arr[*]} is a relatively new addition to bash, it was not part of the original array 
   implementation.

   
The following example shows some simple array usage (note the "[index]=value" assignment to assign 
   a specific index): 


   
#!/bin/bash

array=(one two three four [5]=five)

echo "Array size: ${#array[*]}"

echo "Array items:"
for item in ${array[*]}
do
    printf "   %s\n" $item
done

echo "Array indexes:"
for index in ${!array[*]}
do
    printf "   %d\n" $index
done

echo "Array items and indexes:"
for index in ${!array[*]}
do
    printf "%4d: %s\n" $index ${array[$index]}
done


   Running it produces the following output:

   
Array size: 5
Array items:
   one
   two
   three
   four
   five
Array indexes:
   0
   1
   2
   3
   5
Array items and indexes:
   0: one
   1: two
   2: three
   3: four
   5: five


   
Note that the "@" sign can be used instead of the "*" in constructs such as ${arr[*]}, 
   the result is the same except when expanding to the items of the array within a quoted string. In 
   this case the behavior is the same as when expanding "$*" and "$@" within quoted strings: "${arr[*]}" 
   returns all the items as a single word, whereas "${arr[@]}" returns each item as 
   a separate word. 


   
The following example shows how unquoted, quoted "*", and quoted "@" affect the expansion (particularly 
   important when the array items themselves contain spaces): 


   
#!/bin/bash

array=("first item" "second item" "third" "item")

echo "Number of items in original array: ${#array[*]}"
for ix in ${!array[*]}
do
    printf "   %s\n" "${array[$ix]}"
done
echo

arr=(${array[*]})
echo "After unquoted expansion: ${#arr[*]}"
for ix in ${!arr[*]}
do
    printf "   %s\n" "${arr[$ix]}"
done
echo

arr=("${array[*]}")
echo "After * quoted expansion: ${#arr[*]}"
for ix in ${!arr[*]}
do
    printf "   %s\n" "${arr[$ix]}"
done
echo

arr=("${array[@]}")
echo "After @ quoted expansion: ${#arr[*]}"
for ix in ${!arr[*]}
do
    printf "   %s\n" "${arr[$ix]}"
done


   When run it outputs:

   
Number of items in original array: 4
   first item
   second item
   third
   item

After unquoted expansion: 6
   first
   item
   second
   item
   third
   item

After * quoted expansion: 1
   first item second item third item

After @ quoted expansion: 4
   first item
   second item
   third
   item


   
Mitch Frazier is the System Administrator at Linux Journal.













Arithmetic expansion with 
double parentheses, and using
let  



   
The use of backticks (backquotes) in arithmetic expansion has been superseded by
   double parentheses -- ((...)) and $((...)) -- and also by 
   the very convenient let construction.
z=$(($z+3))
z=$((z+3))                                  #  Also correct.
                                            #  Within double parentheses,
                                            #+ parameter dereferencing
                                            #+ is optional.

# $((EXPRESSION)) is arithmetic expansion.  #  Not to be confused with
                                            #+ command substitution.



# You may also use operations within double parentheses without assignment.

  n=0
  echo "n = $n"                             # n = 0

  (( n += 1 ))                              # Increment.
# (( $n += 1 )) is incorrect!
  echo "n = $n"                             # n = 1


let z=z+3
let "z += 3"  #  Quotes permit the use of spaces in variable assignment.
              #  The 'let' operator actually performs arithmetic evaluation,
              #+ rather than expansion.

   







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Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide




Bash Arrays  by
Mitch Frazier (Linux 
Journal, 2008)



Linux.com Turn Vim into a bash 
IDE



Debugging




Linux tip 
Bash test and comparison functions



Common 
shell script mistakes



Reference



      

   

   
Examples shipped with bash 3.2 and newer

   
   
      
   
   
      

         Path 
         Description 
         X-ref 
      

   
   

      

      
./bashdb 

      		
      Deprecated sample implementation of a bash debugger. 
       
   

   

      

      
./complete 

      		
      Shell completion code. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions 

      		
      Example functions. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/array-stuff 

      		
      Various array functions (ashift, array_sort, reverse). 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/array-to-string 

      		
      Convert an array to a string. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/autoload 

      		
      An almost ksh-compatible 'autoload' (no lazy load). 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/autoload.v2 

      		
      An almost ksh-compatible 'autoload' (no lazy load). 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/autoload.v3 

      		
      A more ksh-compatible 'autoload' (with lazy load). 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/basename 

      		
      A replacement for basename(1). 
      basename 
   

   

      

      
./functions/basename2 

      		
      Fast basename(1) and dirname(1) functions for bash/sh. 
      basename, dirname 
   

   

      

      
./functions/coproc.bash 

      		
      Start, control, and end co-processes. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/coshell.bash 

      		
      Control shell co-processes (see coprocess.bash). 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/coshell.README 

      		
      README for coshell and coproc. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/csh-compat 

      		
      A C-shell compatibility package. 
      csh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/dirfuncs 

      		
      Directory manipulation functions from the book The Korn Shell. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/dirname 

      		
      A replacement for dirname(1). 
      dirname 
   

   

      

      
./functions/emptydir 

      		
      Find out if a directory is empty. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/exitstat 

      		
      Display the exit status of processes. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/external 

      		
      Like command, but forces the use of external command. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/fact 

      		
      Recursive factorial function. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/fstty 

      		
      Front-end to sync TERM changes to both stty(1) and readline 'bind'. 
      stty.bash 
   

   

      

      
./functions/func 

      		
      Print out definitions for functions named by arguments. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/gethtml 

      		
      Get a web page from a remote server (wget(1) in bash). 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/getoptx.bash 

      		
      getopt function that parses long-named options. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/inetaddr 

      		
      Internet address conversion (inet2hex and hex2inet). 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/inpath 

      		
      Return zero if the argument is in the path and executable. 
      inpath 
   

   

      

      
./functions/isnum.bash 

      		
      Test user input on numeric or character value. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/isnum2 

      		
      Test user input on numeric values, with floating point. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/isvalidip 

      		
      Test user input for valid IP addresses. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/jdate.bash 

      		
      Julian date conversion. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/jj.bash 

      		
      Look for running jobs. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/keep 

      		
      Try to keep some programs in the foreground and running. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/ksh-cd 

      		
      ksh-like cd: cd [-LP] [dir[change]]. 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/ksh-compat-test 

      		
      ksh-like arithmetic test replacements. 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/kshenv 

      		
      Functions and aliases to provide the beginnings of a ksh environment for bash 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/login 

      		
      Replace the login and newgrp built-ins in old Bourne shells. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/lowercase 

      		
      Rename files to lowercase. 
      rename lower 
   

   

      

      
./functions/manpage 

      		
      Find and print a manpage. 
      fman 
   

   

      

      
./functions/mhfold 

      		
      Print MH folders, useful only because folders(1) doesn't print mod date/times. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/notify.bash 

      		
      Notify when jobs change status. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/pathfuncs 

      		
      Path related functions (no_path, add_path, pre-path, del_path). 
      path 
   

   

      

      
./functions/README 

      		
      README 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/recurse 

      		
      Recursive directory traverser. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/repeat2 

      		
      A clone of the C shell built-in repeat. 
      repeat, csh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/repeat3 

      		
      A clone of the C shell built-in repeat. 
      repeat, csh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/seq 

      		
      Generate a sequence from m to n;m defaults to 1. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/seq2 

      		
      Generate a sequence from m to n;m defaults to 1. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/shcat 

      		
      Readline-based pager. 
      cat, readline pager 
   

   

      

      
./functions/shcat2 

      		
      Readline-based pagers. 
      cat, readline pager 
   

   

      

      
./functions/sort-pos-params 

      		
      Sort the positional parameters. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/substr 

      		
      A function to emulate the ancient ksh built-in. 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/substr2 

      		
      A function to emulate the ancient ksh built-in. 
      ksh 
   

   

      

      
./functions/term 

      		
      A shell function to set the terminal type interactively or not. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/whatis 

      		
      An implementation of the 10th Edition Unix sh built-in whatis(1) command. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/whence 

      		
      An almost ksh-compatible whence(1) command. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/which 

      		
      An emulation of which(1) as it appears in FreeBSD. 
       
   

   

      

      
./functions/xalias.bash 

      		
      Convert csh alias commands to bash functions. 
      csh, aliasconv 
   

   

      

      
./functions/xfind.bash 

      		
      A find(1) clone. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/ 

      		
      Example loadable replacements. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/basename.c 

      		
      Return nondirectory portion of pathname. 
      basename 
   

   

      

      
./loadables/cat.c 

      		
      cat(1) replacement with no options-the way cat was intended. 
      cat, readline pager 
   

   

      

      
./loadables/cut.c 

      		
      cut(1) replacement. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/dirname.c 

      		
      Return directory portion of pathname. 
      dirname 
   

   

      

      
./loadables/finfo.c 

      		
      Print file info. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/getconf.c 

      		
      POSIX.2 getconf utility. 
   

   

      

      
./loadables/getconf.h 

      		
      Replacement definitions for ones the system doesn't provide. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/head.c 

      		
      Copy first part of files. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/hello.c 

      		
      Obligatory "Hello World" / sample loadable. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/id.c 

      		
      POSIX.2 user identity. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/ln.c 

      		
      Make links. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/logname.c 

      		
      Print login name of current user. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/Makefile.in 

      		
      Simple makefile for the sample loadable built-ins. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/mkdir.c 

      		
      Make directories. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/necho.c 

      		
      echo without options or argument interpretation. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/pathchk.c 

      		
      Check pathnames for validity and portability. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/print.c 

      		
      Loadable ksh-93 style print built-in. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/printenv.c 

      		
      Minimal built-in clone of BSD printenv(1). 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/push.c 

      		
      Anyone remember TOPS-20? 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/README 

      		
      README 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/realpath.c 

      		
      Canonicalize pathnames, resolving symlinks. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/rmdir.c 

      		
      Remove directory. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/sleep.c 

      		
      Sleep for fractions of a second. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/strftime.c 

      		
      Loadable built-in interface to strftime(3). 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/sync.c 

      		
      Sync the disks by forcing pending filesystem writes to complete. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/tee.c 

      		
      Duplicate standard input. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/template.c 

      		
      Example template for loadable built-in. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/truefalse.c 

      		
      True and false built-ins. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/tty.c 

      		
      Return terminal name. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/uname.c 

      		
      Print system information. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/unlink.c 

      		
      Remove a directory entry. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/whoami.c 

      		
      Print out username of current user. 
       
   

   

      

      
./loadables/perl/ 

      		
      Illustrates how to build a Perl interpreter into bash. 
       
   

   

      

      
./misc 

      		
      Miscellaneous 
       
   

   

      

      
./misc/aliasconv.bash 

      		
      Convert csh aliases to bash aliases and functions. 
      csh, xalias 
   

   

      

      
./misc/aliasconv.sh 

      		
      Convert csh aliases to bash aliases and functions. 
      csh, xalias 
   

   

      

      
./misc/cshtobash 

      		
      Convert csh aliases, environment variables, and variables to bash equivalents. 
      csh, xalias 
   

   

      

      
./misc/README 

      		
      README 
       
   

   

      

      
./misc/suncmd.termcap 

      		
      SunView TERMCAP string. 
       
   

   

      

      
./obashdb 

      		
      Modified version of the Korn Shell debugger from Bill Rosenblatt's Learning the Korn Shell.
      
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah 

      		
      Noah Friedman's collection of scripts (updated to bash v2 syntax by Chet Ramey). 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/aref.bash 

      		
      Pseudo-arrays and substring indexing examples. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/bash.sub.bash 

      		
      Library functions used by require.bash. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/bash_version. bash 

      		
      A function to slice up $BASH_VERSION. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/meta.bash 

      		
      Enable and disable eight-bit readline input. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/mktmp.bash 

      		
      Make a temporary file with a unique name. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/number.bash 

      		
      A fun hack to translate numerals into English. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/PERMISSION 

      		
      Permissions to use the scripts in this directory. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/prompt.bash 

      		
      A way to set PS1 to some predefined strings. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/README 

      		
      README 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/remap_keys.bash 

      		
      A front end to bind to redo readline bindings. 
      readline 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/require.bash 

      		
      Lisp-like require/provide library functions for bash. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/send_mail. 

      		
      Replacement SMTP client written in bash. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/shcat.bash 

      		
      bash replacement for cat(1). 
      cat 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/source.bash 

      		
      Replacement for source that uses current directory. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/string.bash 

      		
      The string(3) functions at the shell level. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/stty.bash 

      		
      Front-end to stty(1) that changes readline bindings too. 
      fstty 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.noah/y_or_n_p.bash 

      		
      Prompt for a yes/no/quit answer. 
      ask 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2 

      		
      John DuBois' ksh script collection (converted to bash v2 syntax by Chet Ramey). 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/arc2tarz 

      		
      Convert an arc archive to a compressed tar archive. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/bashrand 

      		
      Random number generator with upper and lower bounds and optional seed. 
      random 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/cal2day.bash 

      		
      Convert a day number to a name. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/cdhist.bash 

      		
      cd replacement with a directory stack added. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/corename 

      		
      Tell what produced a core file. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/fman 

      		
      Fast man(1) replacement. 
      manpage 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/frcp 

      		
      Copy files using ftp(1) but with rcp-type command-line syntax. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/lowercase 

      		
      Change filenames to lowercase. 
      rename lower 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/ncp 

      		
      A nicer front end for cp(1) (has -i, etc).. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/newext 

      		
      Change the extension of a group of files. 
      rename 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/nmv 

      		
      A nicer front end for mv(1) (has -i, etc).. 
      rename 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/pages 

      		
      Print specified pages from files. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/PERMISSION 

      		
      Permissions to use the scripts in this directory. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/pf 

      		
      A pager front end that handles compressed files. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/pmtop 

      		
      Poor man's top(1) for SunOS 4.x and BSD/OS. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/README 

      		
      README 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/ren 

      		
      Rename files by changing parts of filenames that match a pattern. 
      rename 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/rename 

      		
      Change the names of files that match a pattern. 
      rename 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/repeat 

      		
      Execute a command multiple times. 
      repeat 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/shprof 

      		
      Line profiler for bash scripts. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/untar 

      		
      Unarchive a (possibly compressed) tarfile into a directory. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/uudec 

      		
      Carefully uudecode(1) multiple files. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/uuenc 

      		
      uuencode(1) multiple files. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/vtree 

      		
      Print a visual display of a directory tree. 
      tree 
   

   

      

      
./scripts.v2/where 

      		
      Show where commands that match a pattern are. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts 

      		
      Example scripts. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/adventure.sh 

      		
      Text adventure game in bash! 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/bcsh.sh 

      		
      Bourne shell's C shell emulator. 
      csh 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/cat.sh 

      		
      Readline-based pager. 
      cat, readline pager 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/center 

      		
      Center a group of lines. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/dd-ex.sh 

      		
      Line editor using only /bin/sh, /bin/dd, and /bin/rm. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/fixfiles.bash 

      		
      Recurse a tree and fix files containing various bad characters. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/hanoi.bash 

      		
      The inevitable Towers of Hanoi in bash. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/inpath 

      		
      Search $PATH for a file the same name as $1; return TRUE if found.
      
      inpath 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/krand.bash 

      		
      Produces a random number within integer limits. 
      random 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/line-input.bash 

      		
      Line input routine for GNU Bourne Again Shell plus terminal-control primitives. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/nohup.bash 

      		
      bash version of nohup command. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/precedence 

      		
      Test relative precedences for && and || operators. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/randomcard.bash 

      		
      Print a random card from a card deck. 
      random 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/README 

      		
      README 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/scrollbar 

      		
      Display scrolling text. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/scrollbar2 

      		
      Display scrolling text. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/self-repro 

      		
      A self-reproducing script (careful!). 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/showperm.bash 

      		
      Convert ls(1) symbolic permissions into octal mode. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/shprompt 

      		
      Display a prompt and get an answer satisfying certain criteria. 
      ask 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/spin.bash 

      		
      Display a spinning wheel to show progress. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/timeout 

      		
      Give rsh(1) a shorter timeout. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/vtree2 

      		
      Display a tree printout of the direcotry with disk use in 1k blocks. 
      tree 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/vtree3 

      		
      Display a graphical tree printout of dir. 
      tree 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/vtree3a 

      		
      Display a graphical tree printout of dir. 
      tree 
   

   

      

      
./scripts/websrv.sh 

      		
      A web server in bash! 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/xterm_title 

      		
      Print the contents of the xterm title bar. 
       
   

   

      

      
./scripts/zprintf 

      		
      Emulate printf (obsolete since printf is now a bash built-in). 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files 

      		
      Example startup files. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/Bash_aliases 

      		
      Some useful aliases (written by Fox). 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/Bash_profile 

      		
      Sample startup file for bash login shells (written by Fox). 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/bash-profile 

      		
      Sample startup file for bash login shells (written by Ramey). 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/bashrc 

      		
      Sample Bourne Again Shell init file (written by Ramey). 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/Bashrc.bfox 

      		
      Sample Bourne Again Shell init file (written by Fox). 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/README 

      		
      README 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple 

      		
      Example startup files for Mac OS X. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple/aliases 

      		
      Sample aliases for Mac OS X. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple/bash.defaults 

      		
      Sample User preferences file. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple/environment 

      		
      Sample Bourne Again Shell environment file. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple/login 

      		
      Sample login wrapper. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple/logout 

      		
      Sample logout wrapper. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple/rc 

      		
      Sample Bourne Again Shell config file. 
       
   

   

      

      
./startup-files/apple/README 

      		
      
      README 
   










Etc



Society





Groupthink :
Two Party System 
as Polyarchy : 

Corruption of Regulators :
Bureaucracies :
Understanding Micromanagers 
and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :  
Harvard Mafia :
Diplomatic Communication 
: Surviving a Bad Performance 
Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as 
Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience :
Who Rules America :
Neoliberalism
 : The Iron 
Law of Oligarchy : 
Libertarian Philosophy





Quotes





 
War and Peace 
: Skeptical 
Finance : John 
Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand :
Oscar Wilde :
Otto Von Bismarck :
Keynes :
George Carlin :
Skeptics :
Propaganda  : SE 
quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes :
Random IT-related quotes : 
Somerset Maugham :
Marcus Aurelius :
Kurt Vonnegut :
Eric Hoffer :
Winston Churchill :
Napoleon Bonaparte :
Ambrose Bierce : 
Bernard Shaw : 
Mark Twain Quotes





Bulletin:






Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient 
markets hypothesis :

Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 :

Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :
 Vol 23, No.10 
(October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments :

Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 :

Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 :
Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan 
(Win32/Crilock.A) :
Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers 
as intelligence collection hubs : 

Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 :

Inequality Bulletin, 2009 :

Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 :
Copyleft Problems 
Bulletin, 2004 :

Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 :

Energy Bulletin, 2010 : 
Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, 
No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult :

Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 :
Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification 
of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 
(May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : 
Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law





History:





Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): 
the triumph of the US computer engineering :
Donald Knuth : TAoCP 
and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman 
: Linus Torvalds  :
Larry Wall  :
John K. Ousterhout : 
CTSS : Multix OS Unix 
History : Unix shell history :
VI editor :
History of pipes concept :
Solaris : MS DOS 
:  Programming Languages History :
PL/1 : Simula 67 :
C :
History of GCC development : 
Scripting Languages :
Perl history   :
OS History : Mail :
DNS : SSH 
: CPU Instruction Sets :
SPARC systems 1987-2006 :
Norton Commander :
Norton Utilities :
Norton Ghost :
Frontpage history :
Malware Defense History :
GNU Screen : 
OSS early history





Classic books:





The Peter 
Principle : Parkinson 
Law : 1984 :
The Mythical Man-Month : 
How to Solve It by George Polya :
The Art of Computer Programming :
The Elements of Programming Style :
The Unix Hater’s Handbook :
The Jargon file :
The True Believer :
Programming Pearls :
The Good Soldier Svejk : 
The Power Elite





Most popular humor pages:






Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society :
Ten Commandments 
of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection 
: BSD Logo Story :
The Cuckoo's Egg :
IT Slang : C++ Humor 
: ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? :
The Perl Purity Test :
Object oriented programmers of all nations 
: Financial Humor :
Financial Humor Bulletin, 
2008 : Financial 
Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related 
Humor : Programming Language Humor :

Goldman Sachs related humor :

Greenspan humor : C Humor :
Scripting Humor :
Real Programmers Humor :
Web Humor : GPL-related Humor 
: OFM Humor :
Politically Incorrect Humor :
IDS Humor : 
"Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian 
Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer 
Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church 
: Richard Stallman Related Humor :
Admin Humor : Perl-related 
Humor : Linus Torvalds Related 
humor : PseudoScience Related Humor :
Networking Humor :
Shell Humor :
Financial Humor Bulletin, 
2011 : Financial 
Humor Bulletin, 2012 :
Financial Humor Bulletin, 
2013 : Java Humor : Software 
Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor :
Education Humor : IBM 
Humor : Assembler-related Humor :
VIM Humor : Computer 
Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled 
to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer 
Humor 





The Last but not Least  Technology is dominated by 
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. 
Ph.D






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