simple script help!! Please

kb100 · 08-23-2006, 04:07 AM

Hi there. Does anyone know how to
a) test a command line argument of a user's username
b) test to make sure that a command line argument was provided.

thanks

unSpawn · 08-23-2006, 05:48 AM

- You obviously didn't read any of the docs everyone mentioned to you.
- You already know how to test a condition from your other threads.

For username you can use the standard "$LOGNAME" and the amount of commandline arguments is "$#". Now please post whatever you got already. From now on that should be the default thing for you to do since you are learning scripting.

kb100 · 08-24-2006, 02:54 AM

I just dont understand what it means by command line argument. So what does the user have to input?

unSpawn · 08-24-2006, 07:29 AM

I can try and be patient, and 'm willing to explain things but if you can't even read a post and supply what's asked for this isn't going to be very efficient. With what I posted you could have made a script to test things out, like:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
set -e
echo "The amount of commandline args is $#"
echo "They are \"$@\""
n=0; for arg in $@; do
 if [ "$arg" = "$LOGNAME" ]; then
  echo "Number $n is logname"
 fi
 let n=${n}+1; shift $n;
done
exit 0

then name it say "cli_test", give it a few arguments on the commandline and wedge in your local username, like:
"sh cli_test abc 123 $LOGNAME 456". See? Now run it as "sh -x cli_test abc 123 $LOGNAME 456" and you see how the variables get filled in. I would suggest you next first read these two Bash scripting guides:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginne...tml/index.html

kb100 · 08-25-2006, 03:35 AM

Hi there thanks for your reply. I think the main problem is that i dont understand what commandline means. If you take a commandline of a user's username what is that exactly asking the script to do (In lamens terms!!) because i am just a beginner attempting certain questions just to help me. I have been through the tutorials but it is a lot to take in especially as there are not that many examples.

thanks

Nylex · 08-25-2006, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb100

Hi there thanks for your reply. I think the main problem is that i dont understand what commandline means.

You're doing BASH scripting and you don't know what the command line is?? The command line is well, the place where you enter commands to be run..

Quote:

If you take a commandline of a user's username what is that exactly asking the script to do

That doesn't actually make any sense :/.

prozac · 08-25-2006, 05:37 AM

the command line in bash is where you type-in your commands like mv, cp, ls etc. now if you type-in additional parameters extending the command, the additional parameters are called command-line parameters. for example, let's say i have a script called "help" which i use to get help about different commands from the system. so when i type "./help cp" in the command-line it prints out manpages of cp for me. you see here the "./help" is the actual command and the "cp" following the command is a command-line argument.

now from unspawn's script,

Code:

1 #!/bin/sh
2 set -e
3 echo "The amount of commandline args is $#"
4 echo "They are \"$@\""
5 n=0; for arg in $@; do
6  if [ "$arg" = "$LOGNAME" ]; then
7   echo "Number $n is logname"
8  fi
9  let n=${n}+1; shift $n;
10 done
11exit 0

the 3rd line prints out the total number of command-line arguments you passed to script when you ran it. if we call this script "test" and you type "./test root usex", this line will print

Quote:

The amount of commandline args is 2

kb100 · 08-25-2006, 06:12 AM

thanks PROZAC for your reply. If other people are asking me why i dont know what a command line is well i wouldn be asking would i? Thanks PROZAC.

Nylex · 08-25-2006, 07:42 AM

How do you run your scripts if you're not using the command line then? They're Bash scripts so you need to run them in the shell..

kb100 · 08-25-2006, 08:19 AM

how do you print all the processes "root" is running?

thanks

prozac · 08-25-2006, 09:11 AM

Code:

ps -U root -u root u

kb100 · 08-26-2006, 03:13 AM

Hi there thanks for reply. Does anyone know how to print a users home directory path?

thanks

prozac · 08-26-2006, 03:39 AM

if you are logged in as that user, you can do a "echo $HOME" in the shell to print that user's home directory, or you can look-it-up in the file /etc/passwd.