New Discount Offer For The Linux Command Line

I recently got a notice from Lulu stating that, for a limited time, you may receive a 10% discount when you order a printed copy of The Linux Command Line.  Details from the notice are as follows:

Disclaimer: Use coupon code SUMMERREAD305 at checkout and receive 10% off The Linux Command Line. Maximum savings with this promotion is $10. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes.  This great offer ends on June 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM so try not to procrastinate! While very unlikely we do reserve the right to change or revoke this offer at anytime, and of course we cannot offer this coupon where it is against the law to do so.

My Top 5 Bash Resources

Over the course of writing The Linux Command Line and this blog, I've had frequent need of good reference resources for command line programs including the shell itself, bash.  Here is my list of the ones that stand out:

1. The Bash Man Page

Yeah, I know.  I spent nearly half a page in my book trashing the bash man page for its impenetrable style and its lack of any trace of user-friendliness, but nothing beats typing "man bash" when you're already working in a terminal.  The trick is finding what you want in its enormous length.  This can sometimes be a significant problem, but once you find what you are looking for, the information is always concise and authoritative though not always easy to understand.  Still, this is the resource I use most often.

2. The Bash Reference Manual

Perhaps in response to the usability issues found in the bash man page, the GNU Project produced the Bash Reference Manual.  You can think of it as the bash man page translated into human readable form.  While it lacks a tutorial focus and contains no usage examples, it is much easier to read and is more usefully organized than the bash man page.

3. Greg's Wiki

The bash man page and the Bash Reference Manual both extensively document the features found in bash.  However, when we need a description of bash behavior, different resources are needed.  The best by far is Greg's Wiki.  This site covers a variety of topics, but of particular interest to us are the Bash FAQ which contains over one hundred frequently asked questions about bash, the Bash Pitfalls which describes many of the common problems script writers encounter with bash, and the Bash Guide, a useful set of tutorials for bash users.  There are also several fun to read rants. 

4. Bash Hackers Wiki

Like Greg's Wiki, the Bash Hackers Wiki provides many different articles relating to bash, its features, and its behavior.  Included are some useful tutorials on various programming techniques and issues with scripting with bash.  While the writing is, at times, a little chaotic, it does contain useful information.  Heck, they even trash my Writing Shell Scripts tutorial (Hmmm...I really ought to fix some of that stuff). 

5. Chet Ramey's Bash Page

Chet Ramey is the current maintainer of bash and he has his own page.  On this page, you can find version information, latest news, and other things.  The most useful document on the Bash Page is its version of the Bash FAQ.  The NEWS file contains a concise list of features that have been added to each version of bash.

There you have it.  Enough reading to keep even the most curious shell user busy for weeks.  Enjoy!

Using Configuration Files With Shell Scripts

If you have worked with the command line for a while, you have no doubt noticed that many programs use text configuration files of one sort or another.  In this lesson, we will look at how we can control shell scripts with external configuration files.

Why Use Configuration Files?

Since shell scripts are just ordinary text files, why should we bother with additional text configuration files?  There are a couple of reasons that you might want to consider them:

1. Having configuration files removes the need to make changes to a script.  There may be cases where you want to insure that a script remains in its original form.
2. In particular, you may want to have a script that is shared by multiple users and each user has a specific desired configuration.  Using individual configuration files prevents the need to have multiple copies of the script, thus making administration easier.

Sourcing Files

Implementing configuration files in most programming languages is a fairly complicated undertaking, as you must write code to parse the configuration file's content.  In the shell, however, parsing is automatic because you can use regular shell syntax.

The shell builtin command that makes this trick work is named source.  The source command reads a file and processes its content as if it were coming from the keyboard.  Let's create a very simple shell script to demonstrate sourcing in action.  We'll use the cat command to create the script:

me@linuxbox:~$ cat > bin/cd_script
#!/bin/bash
cd /usr/local
echo $PWD

Press Ctrl-d to signal end-of-file to the cat command.  Next, we will set the file attributes to make the script executable:

me@linuxbox:~$ chmod +x bin/cd_script

Finally, we will run the script:

me@linuxbox:~$ cd_script
/usr/local
me@linuxbox:~$

The script executes and by doing so it changes the directory to /usr/local and then outputs the name of the current working directory which is /usr/local.  Notice however, that when the shell prompt returns, we are still in our home directory.  Why is this?  While it may appear at first that the script did not change directories, it did as evidenced by the output of the PWD shell variable.  So why isn't the directory still changed when the script terminates?

The answer lies in the fact that when you execute a shell script, a new copy of the shell is launched and with it comes a new copy of the environment.  When the script finishes, the copy of the shell is destroyed and so is its environment  As a general rule, a child process, such as the shell running a script, is not permitted to modify the environment of the parent process.

So if we actually wanted to change the working directory in the current shell, we would need to use the source command and to read the contents of our script.  Note that the name of the source command may be abbreviated as a single dot followed by a space.

me@linuxbox:~$ . cd_script
/usr/local
me@linuxbox:/usr/local$

By sourcing the file, the working directory is changed in current shell as we can see by the trailing portion of the shell prompt.  Be aware that, by default, the shell will search the directories listed in the PATH variable for the file to be read.  Files that are read by source do not have to be executable, nor do they need to start with the shebang (i.e. #!) mechanism.

Implementing Configuration Files In Scripts

Now that we see how sourcing works, let's try our hand at writing a script that uses a the source command to read a configuration file.

In part 4 of the Getting Ready For Ubuntu 10.04 series, we wrote a script to perform a backup of our system to an external USB disk drive.  The script looked like this:

#!/bin/bash

# usb_backup # backup system to external disk drive

SOURCE="/etc /usr/local /home"
DESTINATION=/media/BigDisk/backup

if [[ -d $DESTINATION ]]; then
    sudo rsync -av \
        --delete \
        --exclude '/home/*/.gvfs' \
        $SOURCE $DESTINATION
fi 

You will notice that the source and destination directories are hard-coded into the SOURCE and DESTINATION constants at the beginning of the script.  We will remove these and modify the script to read a configuration file instead:

#!/bin/bash

# usb_backup2 # backup system to external disk drive

CONFIG_FILE=~/.usb_backup.conf

if [[ -f $CONFIG_FILE ]]; then
        . $CONFIG_FILE
fi

if [[ -d $DESTINATION ]]; then
        sudo rsync -av \
                --delete \
                --exclude '/home/*/.gvfs' \
                $SOURCE $DESTINATION
fi

Now we can create a configuration file named ~/.usb_backup2.conf that contains these two lines:

SOURCE="/etc /usr/local /home"
DESTINATION=/media/BigDisk/backup

When we run the script, the contents of the configuration file is read and the SOURCE and DESTINATION constants are added to the script's environment just as though the lines were in the text of the script itself.  The

if [[ -f $CONFIG_FILE ]]; then
        . $CONFIG_FILE
fi

construct is a common way to set up the reading of a file.  In fact, if you look at your ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile startup files, you will probably see something like this:

if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
    . "$HOME/.bashrc"
fi

which is how your environment is established when you log in at the console.

While our script in its current form requires the configuration file to define the SOURCE and DESTINATION constants, it's easy to make the use of the file optional by setting default values for the constants if the configuration file is either missing or does not contain the required definitions.  We will modify our script to set default values and also support an optional command line option (-c) to specify an optional, alternate configuration file name:

#!/bin/bash

# usb_backup3 # backup system to external disk drive

# Look for alternate configuration file
if [[ $1 == -c ]]; then
    CONFIG_FILE=$2
else
    CONFIG_FILE=~/.usb_backup.conf
fi

# Source configuration file
if [[ -f $CONFIG_FILE ]]; then
    . $CONFIG_FILE
fi

# Fill in any missing values with defaults
SOURCE=${SOURCE:-"/etc /usr/local /home"}
DESTINATION=${DESTINATION:-/media/BigDisk/backup}

if [[ -d $DESTINATION ]]; then
    sudo rsync -av \
        --delete \
        --exclude '/home/*/.gvfs' \
        $SOURCE $DESTINATION
fi

Code Libraries

Since the files read by the source command can contain any valid shell commands, source is often used to load collections of shell functions into scripts.  This allows central libraries of common routines to be shared by multiple scripts.  This can make code maintenance considerably easier.

Security Considerations

On the other hand, since sourced files can contain any valid shell command, care must be take to make sure that nothing malicious is placed in a file that is to be sourced.  This holds especially true for any script that is to be run by the superuser.  When writing such scripts, make sure that the super user owns the file to be sourced and that the file is not world-writable.  Some code like this could do the trick:

if [[ -O $CONFIG_FILE ]]; then
    if [[ $(stat --format %a $CONFIG_FILE) == 600 ]]; then
        . $CONFIG_FILE
    fi
fi

Further Reading

The bash man page:

• BUILTIN COMMANDS (source command)
• CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS (testing file attributes)

The Linux Command Line:

• Chapter 35 - Strings And Numbers (parameter expansions to set default values)

Will The iPad Kill The Netbook?

Ever since Apple announced the iPad, there have been countless stories in the press about the iPad's effect on the netbook market.  I'm a big fan of netbooks and I agree that the netbook market is in trouble but it's not because of the iPad.

It's because of Windows.

Now, I don't mean this as a piece of simple-minded anti-MS snark (though I am fully capable ;-).  I'm serious.  Windows is the problem with netbooks.  Installing Windows on a netbook changes the device from a small effective portable Internet interaction device into a tiny, underpowered, laptop computer.

In the beginning of the netbook revolution, hardware makers chose Linux.  The first generation of netbooks featured small screens (7-9 inch) and solid-state disks.  To make use of this platform, they pretty much had to use Linux because of its small footprint and easy customization allowing manufacturers the freedom to create user interfaces appropriate to the device.  The fact that the OS license was free didn't hurt either given the price points that netbooks originally held.

So what went wrong?

First, Microsoft was able to respond to the threat to its consumer OS monopoly by releasing a version of Windows XP with ultra-cheap licensing provided that the computer was suitably underpowered.  Asus, for example, sold both Linux and Windows versions of it's netbooks for a time.  Both models cost the same but the Linux model had a larger drive.  Why? Because the Windows license placed a cap on size of the drive that would qualify the computer for the low-cost license.

Second, the Linux distributions supplied by the netbook makers were not very good.  I can personally attest to that.  My editor's eeePC 901 (pictured above with my own HP Mini 1116NR) came with the Asus version of Xandros and frankly, it sucked.  After struggling with it for several months, I replaced the Xandros with Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix and now the machine is a delight.

Finally, in response to the inappropriate user interface Windows provides for small screen devices, netbook makers made netbooks larger with 10-12 inch screens and they gave up on solid-state drives.  Almost all netbooks today come with slow 160 GB hard disks.  So now you have a slow 12 inch laptop that costs about the same as a "real" laptop and isn't really that portable anymore.  No wonder nearly one-third of netbook shoppers are buying IPads instead.

Interface, Interface, Interface.

But the iPad should not be directly competitive with netbooks at the conceptual level.  In many ways the iPad is a remarkable device for content consumption.  Unlike a Windows computer, it requires virtually no system administration.  This makes the device a perfect "television of the future" where one just uses it to passively consume content.  However, its lack of a real keyboard and limited connectivity options makes it a poor choice as a portable Internet interaction device; a role that the netbook hardware platform excels in.

Clearly, Apple devised a near perfect user interface for a tablet, something Microsoft was never able to do.  It is possible that the next generation of netbooks will do better.  There have been a number of announcements of upcoming models that will be based on ARM chips using operating systems, such as Android, better suited to mobile devices.  Even as much as I like Ubuntu's netbook remix, it's still a crude hack to shoehorn a desktop OS onto a small screen computer.

Thanks for listening!  See you again soon.

Site News: 20,000 Downloads And New Series Navigation

A few updates on the state of the site:

• The book reached the 20,000 download mark over the weekend.  Thanks everybody!  This represents the number of downloads performed from the Sourceforge site, but there are probably more since the book is mirrored at a variety of other sites throughout the world.
• If you have been thinking about purchasing a printed copy of The Linux Command Line, now may be the time.  Lulu (my on-demand publisher) has a limited time, free shipping offer!  See the lulu.com home page for details.  You can order your very own copy directly from here.
• Last week I updated many of my previous blog posts to add handy navigation links for the multi-part series posts.  It is now much easier to move from installment to installment in my popular series.  Included are Building An All-Text Linux Workstation, New Features In Bash Version 4.x, and Getting Ready For Ubuntu 10.04.

Enjoy!