Variable is a temporary store for a simple piece of information, making it easier to use and manage in scripts.
Tow actions that we do with variables is setting a value for the variable, or reading its value .Almost of us have used variables before specially in maths class , for example : giving X = 5 ( X is the variable , X = 5 is setting a value for that variable ) ,
So , X * 2 = 10 ( we read the value of the variable and used it ).
That was variables in simple way.
For Bash scripting, you are not limited for numbers as variables’ value , you can use any data type . A variable in bash can contain a number, a character, a string of characters.
01. Using variables :
To define a variable use a meaningful name.
Variable name must begin with alphanumeric character or underscore character (_), followed by one or more alphanumeric or underscore characters. Valid shell variable examples: test , _test , test1 , BUT NOT 9test or *test1 .
Variables names are case-sensitive, just like filenames.
Do not put spaces on either side of the equal sign when assigning value to variable. For example, the following is valid variable declaration: x=5 , y=100 , m=”hello world” , N=’Welcome to Egypt’ ,…
You can define a NULL variable as follows (NULL variable is variable which has no value at the time of definition): like: x= , y=”” .
To use a variable use ( $ ) dollar-sign followed by the variable name: x=”hello world” ; echo $x
echo is command-line and script tool used to print a line.
[root@server02 ~]# x="Welcome to Egypt" [root@server02 ~]# echo $x Welcome to Egypt [root@server02 ~]#
and to do that in a script file (using any editor , i use vim , .sh file extension but not necessary ) :
vim var.sh
#!/bin/bash x="Welcome to Egypt" echo $x
#!/bin/bash : is called shebang and used to define the path to the bash , as there is many bash/shell types in Linux .
now allow to execute that script and run it.
[root@server02 ~]# chmod +x var.sh [root@server02 ~]# ./var.sh Welcome to Egypt [root@server02 ~]#
02. Special variables :
There are a few other variables that the system sets for you to use as well.
- $0 – The name of the Bash script.
- $1 – $9 – The first 9 arguments to the Bash script. (As mentioned above.)
- $# – How many arguments were passed to the Bash script.
- $@ – All the arguments supplied to the Bash script.
- $? – The exit status of the most recently run process.
- $$ – The process ID of the current script.
- $USER – The username of the user running the script.
- $HOSTNAME – The hostname of the machine the script is running on.
- $SECONDS – The number of seconds since the script was started.
- $RANDOM – Returns a different random number each time is it referred to.
- $LINENO – Returns the current line number in the Bash script.
- $PATH – Returns the path for executables in bash
- There are more others , you will know them as you need them.
03. Bash String quotes :
To set a value with more than one word, you must use quotes [ single ( ‘ ) , or double ( ” ) ].
x=”Welcome to Egypt” , or x=’Welcome to Misr’
Single quotes ( ‘ ) : can’t use variables’ values.
Double quotes ( ” ) : can execute and use variables’ value.
[root@server02 ~]# x=5 [root@server02 ~]# y='x is equal $x' [root@server02 ~]# echo $y x is equal $x [root@server02 ~]# y="x is equal $x" [root@server02 ~]# echo $y x is equal 5 [root@server02 ~]#
04. Command substitution :
Taking the output of a command or program (what would normally be printed to the screen) and save it as the value of a variable. To do this we place it within brackets, preceded by a $ sign.
[root@server02 ~]# x=$(ls -l) [root@server02 ~]# echo $x total 20 drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 6 May 5 14:27 test -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 41 May 6 13:10 var -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36 May 6 13:23 var1.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 41 May 6 13:08 var.sh [root@server02 ~]#
05. Example :
vim var1.sh
Paste this into our script :
#!/bin/bash echo "Script Name is : $0 " echo "The first argument is : $1 " echo "The user who execute this is : $USER , on host : $HOSTNAME " echo " The process ID of this script : $$ " echo "A Random number : $RANDOM "
add execute permission and run it once without an argument and once with an argument.
[root@server02 ~]# chmod +x var1.sh [root@server02 ~]# ./var1.sh Script Name is : ./var1.sh The first argument is : The user who execute this is : root , on host : server02 The process ID of this script : 3549 A Random number : 1894 [root@server02 ~]# ./var1.sh hello Script Name is : ./var1.sh The first argument is : hello The user who execute this is : root , on host : server02 The process ID of this script : 3550 A Random number : 30668 [root@server02 ~]#
Congratulation , now you can write a simple script and use variables.
That is it , i hope it was simple , thanks for joining me.
Enjoy !.