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Mastering Linux Shell Scripting

You're reading from   Mastering Linux Shell Scripting Master the complexities of Bash shell scripting and unlock the power of shell for your enterprise

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Product type Paperback
Published in Dec 2015
Publisher
ISBN-13 9781784396978
Length 198 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Tools
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Author (1):
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Andrew Mallett Andrew Mallett
Author Profile Icon Andrew Mallett
Andrew Mallett
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Toc

Table of Contents (16) Chapters Close

Preface 1. What and Why of Scripting with Bash FREE CHAPTER 2. Creating Interactive Scripts 3. Conditions Attached 4. Creating Code Snippets 5. Alternative Syntax 6. Iterating with Loops 7. Creating Building Blocks with Functions 8. Introducing sed 9. Automating Apache Virtual Hosts 10. Awk Fundamentals 11. Summarizing Logs with Awk 12. A Better lastlog with Awk 13. Using Perl as a Bash Scripting Alternative 14. Using Python as a Bash Scripting Alternative Index

Using functions in menus


In the last chapter, Chapter 6, Iterating with Loops we created the menu.sh file. Menus are great targets to use functions, as the case statement is maintained very simply with single line entries, while the complexity can still be stored in each function. We should consider creating a function for each menu item. If we copy the previous $HOME/bin/menu.sh to $HOME/bin/menu2.sh, we can improve the functionality. The new menu should look like the following code:

#!/bin/bash
# Author: @theurbanpenguin
# Web: www.theurbapenguin.com
# Sample menu with functions
# Last Edited: Sept 2015

function to_lower {
    input="$1"
    output=$(tr [A-Z] [a-z] <<< "$input")
return $output
}

function do_backup {
    tar -czvf $HOME/backup.tgz ${HOME}/bin
}

function show_cal {
    if [ -x /usr/bin/ncal ] ; then
      command="/usr/bin/ncal -w"
    else
      command="/usr/bin/cal"
    fi
    $command
}

while true
do
  clear
  echo "Choose an item: a, b or c"
  echo "a: Backup...
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