New Features In Bash Version 4.x - Part 3

In this installment, we are going to look at a couple of commands that have been updated in bash 4.x

read Enhancements

The read command has gotten several small improvements.  There is one however that I thought was a real standout.  You can now provide a default value that will be accepted if the user presses the Enter key.  The new -i option is followed by a string containing the default text.  Note that for this option to work, the -e option (which enables the readline library) must also be specified.  Here is an example script:

#!/bin/bash

# read4: demo new read command feature

read -e -p "What is your user name? " -i $USER
echo "You answered: '$REPLY'"

When the script is executed, the user is prompted to answer, but a default value is supplied which may be edited if desired:

bshotts@twin7:~$ read4
What is your user name? bshotts
You answered: 'bshotts'

case Improvements

The case compound command has been made more flexible.  As you may recall, case performs a multiple choice test on a string.  In versions of bash prior to 4.x, case allowed only one action to be performed on a successful match.  After a successful match, the command would terminate.  Here we see a script that tests a character:

#!/bin/bash

# case4-1: test a character

read -n 1 -p "Type a character > "
echo
case $REPLY in
    [[:upper:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is upper case." ;;
    [[:lower:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is lower case." ;;
    [[:alpha:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is alphabetic." ;;
    [[:digit:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a digit." ;;
    [[:graph:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a visible character." ;;
    [[:punct:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a punctuation symbol." ;;
    [[:space:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a whitespace character." ;;
    [[:xdigit:]])   echo "'$REPLY' is a hexadecimal digit." ;;
esac

Running this script produces this:

bshotts@twin7:~$ case4-1
Type a character > a
'a' is lower case.

The script works for the most part, but fails if a character matches more than one of the POSIX characters classes.  For example the character "a" is both lower case and alphabetic, as well as a hexadecimal digit.  In bash prior to 4.x there was no way for case to match more than one test.  In bash 4.x however, we can do this:

#!/bin/bash

# case4-2: test a character

read -n 1 -p "Type a character > "
echo
case $REPLY in
    [[:upper:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is upper case." ;;&
    [[:lower:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is lower case." ;;&
    [[:alpha:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is alphabetic." ;;&
    [[:digit:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a digit." ;;&
    [[:graph:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a visible character." ;;&
    [[:punct:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a punctuation symbol." ;;&
    [[:space:]])    echo "'$REPLY' is a whitespace character." ;;&
    [[:xdigit:]])   echo "'$REPLY' is a hexadecimal digit." ;;&
esac

Now when we run the script, we get this:

bshotts@twin7:~$ case4-2
Type a character > a
'a' is lower case.
'a' is alphabetic.
'a' is a visible character.
'a' is a hexadecimal digit.

The addition of the ";;&" syntax allows case to continue on to the next test rather than simply terminating.  There is also a ";&" syntax which permits case to continue on to the next action regardless of the outcome of the next test.

Further Reading

The bash man page:

• The Compound Commands subsection of the SHELL GRAMMAR section.
• The SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS section.

The Bash Hackers Wiki:

• http://bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php/commands/builtin/read
• http://bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php/syntax/ccmd/case

The Bash Reference Manual

• http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Bash-Builtins
• http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Conditional-Constructs

Other installments in this series: 1 2 3 4