Make Bash script exit and print error message if users invoke the script incorrectly
-
09-07-2021 - |
Question
Script needed was
#!/bin/bash
# Check if there are two arguments
if [ $# -eq 2 ]; then
# Check if the input file actually exists.
if ! [[ -f "$1" ]]; then
echo "The input file $1 does not exist."
exit 1
fi
else
echo "Usage: $0 [inputfile] [outputfile]"
exit 1
fi
# Run the command on the input file
grep -P "^[\s]*[0-9A-Za-z-]+.?[\s]*$" "$1" > "$2"
Edit, the script has changed to
grep -P "^[\s]*[0-9A-Za-z-]+.?[\s]*$" $*
if [ ! -f "$1" ]; then
echo 'Usage: '
echo
echo './Scriptname inputfile > outputfile'
exit 0
fi
invoking the script with no parameters gives no erros and sits blank
Usage:
./Scriptname inputfile > outputfile
I have bit of code
grep -P "^[\s]*[0-9A-Za-z-]+.?[\s]*$" $*
This code pulls lines that have a single word on them and pumps the output to a new file, so for example
This is a multi word line this the above line is not now once again wrong
The output would be
This
now
The code works, users invoke the code using ./scriptname file > newfile
However, I am trying to expand the code to give users an error message if they invoke the script incorrectly.
For the error messange, I'm thinking of echoing something back like scriptname file_to_process > output_file
.
I did try
if [incorrectly invoted unsure what to type]
echo $usage
exit 1
Usage="usage [inputfile] [>] [outputfile]
However I have had little luck. The code runs but does nothing if I invoke with just the script name. Also, if I invoke the script with just the scriptname and the input file, it will output the results instead of exiting with the error message.
Other ones I have tried are
if [ ! -n $1 ]; then
echo 'Usage: '
echo
echo './Scriptname inputfile > outputfile'
exit 0
fi
Given replies I have received so far, my code now is
#!/bin/bash
grep -P "^[\s]*[0-9A-Za-z-]+.?[\s]*$" $*
if [ ! -f "$1" ]; then
echo 'Usage: '
echo
echo './Scriptname inputfile > outputfile'
exit 0
fi
When invoking the script without an input file the script does nothing and has to be aborted with ctrl+c, still trying to get the echo of the invoke message.
La solution
When you are invoking the script like ./scriptname file > newfile
, the shell interprets file
as the only argument to ./scriptname
. This is because >
is the standard output redirection operator.
I would like to propose 2 possible alternatives:
Alternative 1: Maybe you're can try passing it as 1 argument like this?
./scriptname 'file > newfile'
In that case one way to check the format would be
#!/bin/bash
# Check if the format is correct
if [[ $1 =~ (.+)' > '(.+) ]]; then
# Check if the input file actually exists.
if ! [[ -f "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}" ]]; then
echo "The input file ${BASH_REMATCH[1]} does not exist!"
exit 1
fi
else
echo "Usage: $0 \"[inputfile] [>] [outputfile]\""
exit 1
fi
# Redirect standard output to the output file
exec > "${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
# Run the command on the input file
grep -P "^[\s]*[0-9A-Za-z-]+.?[\s]*$" "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
Note: If you are checking whether the arguments are valid or not, it's generally better to run commands only after the checking is done.
Alternative 2: Passing 2 arguments like
./scriptname file newfile
The script looks like this
#!/bin/bash
# Check if there are two arguments
if [ $# -eq 2 ]; then
# Check if the input file actually exists.
if ! [[ -f "$1" ]]; then
echo "The input file $1 does not exist."
exit 1
fi
else
echo "Usage: $0 [inputfile] [outputfile]"
exit 1
fi
# Run the command on the input file
grep -P "^[\s]*[0-9A-Za-z-]+.?[\s]*$" "$1" > "$2"
Autres conseils
I'd use parameter expansion for this:
inputfile=${1:?Usage: $(basename $0) inputfile > outputfile}
If the script is called without arguments (i.e. $1
is unset) the ${var:?error message}
expansion causes the shell to display an error with the given message and exit. Otherwise the first argument is assigned to $inputfile
.
Try to add double quotes around $1
and use -f
to check for exists and is normal file:
if [ ! -f "$1" ]; then
echo 'Usage: '
echo
echo './Scriptname inputfile > outputfile'
exit 0
fi
Also you can check for the param count with $#
and cat
an usage message:
if [ ! $# -eq 1 ]; then
cat << EOF
Usage:
$0 'input_file' > output_file
EOF
exit 1
fi