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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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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 within Perl

As with all languages, the ability to encapsulate a code within functions can make the code more readable and ultimately results in easier to manage codes, with less number of lines. Unlike bash, the functions in Perl can be defined after they are referenced in the code and we often choose to define the functions at the end of the script.

Prompt for user input

We have seen the use of command-line arguments in Perl; now, let's take a look at prompting for user input. This becomes a great way to encapsulate the code to execute and store the prompt within a function. First of all, we will look at a simple script that prompts for the username and then we will modify it to include the function. We will create the $HOME/bin/prompt.pl file to read, as shown in the following code example:

#!/usr/bin/perl
my $name;
print("Enter your name: ");
chomp( $name = <STDIN> );
print("Hello $name\n");

In line 2, we have declared the variable using my...

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