A collection of pure bash alternatives to external processes
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pure bash bible
A [WIP] collection of pure bash alternatives to external processes.
The goal of this repository is to document known and unknown methods of doing various tasks using only built-in bash
features. Using the snippets from this bible can help to remove unneeded dependencies from your scripts and in most cases make them that little bit faster. I came across these tips and discovered a few while developing neofetch , pxltrm and some other smaller projects.
The snippets below are linted using shellcheck
and tests have been written where applicable. If you're looking to contribute, have a read of the CONTRIBUTING.md . It outlines how the unit tests work and what's required when adding snippets to the bible.
If you see something that is incorrectly described, buggy or outright wrong, open an issue or send a pull request. If you know a handy snippet that is not included in this list, contribute! If the bible is missing something, open an issue and I or others will come up with a solution.
NOTE: Error handling ( checking if a file exists, etc ) is not included. These are meant to be snippets you can incorporate into your scripts and not full blown utilities.
Table of Contents
- Strings
- Trim leading and trailing white-space from string
- Trim all white-space from string and truncate spaces
- Use regex on a string
- Split a string on a delimiter
- Change a string to lowercase
- Change a string to uppercase
- Trim quotes from a string
- Strip all instances of pattern from string
- Strip first occurrence of pattern from string
- Strip pattern from start of string
- Strip pattern from end of string
- Check if string contains a sub-string
- Check if string starts with sub-string
- Check if string ends with sub-string
- Arrays
- Reverse an array
- Remove duplicate array elements
- Random array element
- Cycle through an array
- Toggle between two values
- Loops
- Loop over a range of numbers
- Loop over a variable range of numbers
- Loop over an array
- Loop over an array with an index
- Loop over the contents of a file
- Loop over files and directories
- File handling
- Read a file to a string
- Read a file to an array ( by line )
- Get the first N lines of a file
- Get the last N lines of a file
- Get the number of lines in a file
- Count files or directories in directory
- Create an empty file
- Extract lines between two markers
- File Paths
- Get the directory name of a file path
- Get the base-name of a file path
- Variables
- Assign and access a variable using a variable
- Escape Sequences
- Text Colors
- Text Attributes
- Cursor Movement
- Erasing Text
- Parameter Expansion
- Indirection
- Replacement
- Length
- Expansion
- Case Modification
- Default Value
- Brace Expansion
- Ranges
- String Lists
- Arithmetic
- Simpler syntax to set variables
- Ternary tests
- Obsolete Syntax
- Shebang
- Command Substitution
- Function Declaration
- Internal Variables
- Get the location to the
bash
binary - Get the version of the current running
bash
process - Open the user's preferred text editor
- Get the name of the current function
- Get the host-name of the system
- Get the architecture of the Operating System
- Get the name of the Operating System / Kernel
- Get the current working directory
- Get the number of seconds the script has been running
- Get a pseudorandom integer
- Get the location to the
- Information about the terminal
- Get the terminal size in lines and columns ( from a script )
- Get the terminal size in pixels
- Get the current cursor position
- Conversion
- Convert a hex color to RGB
- Convert an RGB color to hex
- Code Golf
- Shorter
for
loop syntax - Shorter infinite loops
- Shorter function declaration
- Shorter
if
syntax - Simpler
case
statement to set variable
- Shorter
- Other
- Use
read
as an alternative to thesleep
command - Check if a program is in the user's PATH
- Get the current date using
strftime
- Generate a UUID V4
- Progress bars
- Get the list of functions from your script
- Bypass shell aliases
- Bypass shell functions
- Use
- Afterword
Strings
Trim leading and trailing white-space from string
This is an alternative to sed
, awk
, perl
and other tools. The function below works by finding all leading and trailing white-space and removing it from the start and end of the string. The :
built-in is used in place of a temporary variable.
Example Function:
trim_string() { # Usage: trim_string " example string " : "${1#"${1%%[![:space:]]*}"}" : "${_%"${_##*[![:space:]]}"}" printf '%s\n' "$_" }
Example Usage:
$ trim_string " Hello, World " Hello, World $ name=" John Black " $ trim_string "$name" John Black
Trim all white-space from string and truncate spaces
This is an alternative to sed
, awk
, perl
and other tools. The function below works by abusing word splitting to create a new string without leading/trailing white-space and with truncated spaces.
Example Function:
# shellcheck disable=SC2086,SC2048 trim_all() { # Usage: trim_all " example string " set -f set -- $* printf '%s\n' "$*" set +f }
Example Usage:
$ trim_all " Hello, World " Hello, World $ name=" John Black is my name. " $ trim_all "$name" John Black is my name.
Use regex on a string
We can use the result of bash
's regex matching to replace sed
for a large number of use-cases.
CAVEAT: This is one of the few platform dependant bash
features. bash
will use whatever regex engine is installed on the user's system. Stick to POSIX regex features if aiming for compatibility.
CAVEAT: This example only prints the first matching group. When using multiple capture groups some modification is needed.
Example Function:
regex() { # Usage: regex "string" "regex" [[ $1 =~ $2 ]] && printf '%s\n' "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}" }
Example Usage:
$ # Trim leading white-space. $ regex ' hello' '^\s*(.*)' hello $ # Validate a hex color. $ regex "#FFFFFF" '^(#?([a-fA-F0-9]{6}|[a-fA-F0-9]{3}))$' #FFFFFF $ # Validate a hex color (invalid). $ regex "red" '^(#?([a-fA-F0-9]{6}|[a-fA-F0-9]{3}))$' # no output (invalid)
Example Usage in script:
is_hex_color() { if [[ "$1" =~ ^(#?([a-fA-F0-9]{6}|[a-fA-F0-9]{3}))$ ]]; then printf '%s\n' "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}" else printf '%s\n' "error: $1 is an invalid color." return 1 fi } read -r color is_hex_color "$color" || color="#FFFFFF" # Do stuff.
Split a string on a delimiter
This is an alternative to cut
, awk
and other tools.
Example Function:
split() { # Usage: split "string" "delimiter" IFS=$'\n' read -d "" -ra arr <<< "${1//$2/$'\n'}" printf '%s\n' "${arr[@]}" }
Example Usage:
$ split "apples,oranges,pears,grapes" "," apples oranges pears grapes $ split "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" ", " 1 2 3 4 5 # Multi char delimiters work too! $ split "hello---world---my---name---is---john" "---" hello world my name is john
Change a string to lowercase
CAVEAT:Requires bash
4+
Example Function:
lower() { # Usage: lower "string" printf '%s\n' "${1,,}" }
Example Usage:
$ lower "HELLO" hello $ lower "HeLlO" hello $ lower "hello" hello
Change a string to uppercase
CAVEAT:Requires bash
4+
Example Function:
upper() { # Usage: upper "string" printf '%s\n' "${1^^}" }
Example Usage:
$ upper "hello" HELLO $ upper "HeLlO" HELLO $ upper "HELLO" HELLO
Trim quotes from a string
Example Function:
trim_quotes() { # Usage: trim_quotes "string" : "${1//\'}" printf '%s\n' "${_//\"}" }
Example Usage:
$ var="'Hello', \"World\"" $ trim_quotes "$var" Hello, World
Strip all instances of pattern from string
Example Function:
strip_all() { # Usage: strip_all "string" "pattern" printf '%s\n' "${1//$2}" }
Example Usage:
$ strip_all "The Quick Brown Fox" "[aeiou]" Th Qck Brwn Fx $ strip_all "The Quick Brown Fox" "[[:space:]]" TheQuickBrownFox $ strip_all "The Quick Brown Fox" "Quick " The Brown Fox
Strip first occurrence of pattern from string
Example Function:
strip() { # Usage: strip "string" "pattern" printf '%s\n' "${1/$2}" }
Example Usage:
$ strip "The Quick Brown Fox" "[aeiou]" Th Quick Brown Fox $ strip "The Quick Brown Fox" "[[:space:]]" TheQuick Brown Fox
Strip pattern from start of string
Example Function:
lstrip() { # Usage: lstrip "string" "pattern" printf '%s\n' "${1##$2}" }
Example Usage:
$ lstrip "The Quick Brown Fox" "The " Quick Brown Fox
Strip pattern from end of string
Example Function:
rstrip() { # Usage: rstrip "string" "pattern" printf '%s\n' "${1%%$2}" }
Example Usage:
$ rstrip "The Quick Brown Fox" " Fox" The Quick Brown
Check if string contains a sub-string
Using a test:
if [[ "$var" == *sub_string* ]]; then printf '%s\n' "sub_string is in var." fi # Inverse (substring not in string). if [[ "$var" != *sub_string* ]]; then printf '%s\n' "sub_string is not in var." fi # This works for arrays too! if [[ "${arr[*]}" == *sub_string* ]]; then printf '%s\n' "sub_string is in array." fi
Using a case statement:
case "$var" in *sub_string*) # Do stuff ;; *sub_string2*) # Do more stuff ;; *) # Else ;; esac
Check if string starts with sub-string
if [[ "$var" == sub_string* ]]; then printf '%s\n' "var starts with sub_string." fi # Inverse (var doesn't start with sub_string). if [[ "$var" != sub_string* ]]; then printf '%s\n' "var does not start with sub_string." fi
Check if string ends with sub-string
if [[ "$var" == *sub_string ]]; then printf '%s\n' "var ends with sub_string." fi # Inverse (var doesn't start with sub_string). if [[ "$var" != *sub_string ]]; then printf '%s\n' "var does not end with sub_string." fi
Arrays
Reverse an array
Enabling extdebug
allows access to the BASH_ARGV
array which stores the current function’s arguments in reverse.
Example Function:
reverse_array() { # Usage: reverse_array "array" shopt -s extdebug f()(printf '%s\n' "${BASH_ARGV[@]}"); f "$@" shopt -u extdebug }
Example Usage:
$ reverse_array 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 $ arr=(red blue green) $ reverse_array "${arr[@]}" green blue red
Remove duplicate array elements
Create a temporary associative array. When setting associative array values and a duplicate assignment occurs, bash overwrites the key. This allows us to effectively remove array duplicates.
CAVEAT:Requires bash
4+
Example Function:
remove_array_dups() { # Usage: remove_array_dups "array" declare -A tmp_array for i in "$@"; do [[ "$i" ]] && IFS=" " tmp_array["${i:- }"]=1 done printf '%s\n' "${!tmp_array[@]}" }
Example Usage:
$ remove_array_dups 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 2 3 4 5 $ arr=(red red green blue blue) $ remove_array_dups "${arr[@]}" red green blue
Random array element
Example Function:
random_array_element() { # Usage: random_array_element "array" local arr=("$@") printf '%s\n' "${arr[RANDOM % $#]}" }
Example Usage:
$ array=(red green blue yellow brown) $ random_array_element "${array[@]}" yellow # You can also just pass multiple arguments. $ random_array_element 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3
Cycle through an array
Each time the printf
is called, the next array element is printed. When the print hits the last array element it starts from the first element again.
arr=(a b c d) cycle() { printf '%s ' "${arr[${i:=0}]}" ((i=i>=${#arr[@]}-1?0:++i)) }
Toggle between two values
This works the same as above, this is just a different use case.
arr=(true false) cycle() { printf '%s ' "${arr[${i:=0}]}" ((i=i>=${#arr[@]}-1?0:++i)) }
Loops
Loop over a range of numbers
Don't use seq
.
# Loop from 0-100 (no variable support). for i in {0..100}; do printf '%s\n' "$i" done
Loop over a variable range of numbers
Don't use seq
.
# Loop from 0-VAR. VAR=50 for ((i=0;i<=VAR;i++)); do printf '%s\n' "$i" done
Loop over an array
arr=(apples oranges tomatoes) # Just elements. for element in "${arr[@]}"; do printf '%s\n' "$element" done
Loop over an array with an index
arr=(apples oranges tomatoes) # Elements and index. for i in "${!arr[@]}"; do printf '%s\n' "${arr[$i]}" done # Alternative method. for ((i=0;i<${#arr[@]};i++)); do printf '%s\n' "${arr[$i]}" done
Loop over the contents of a file
while read -r line; do printf '%s\n' "$line" done < "file"
Loop over files and directories
Don’t use ls
.
# Greedy example. for file in *; do printf '%s\n' "$file" done # PNG files in dir. for file in ~/Pictures/*.png; do printf '%s\n' "$file" done # Iterate over directories. for dir in ~/Downloads/*/; do printf '%s\n' "$dir" done # Brace Expansion. for file in /path/to/parentdir/{file1,file2,subdir/file3}; do printf '%s\n' "$file" done # Iterate recursively. shopt -s globstar for file in ~/Pictures/**/*; do printf '%s\n' "$file" done shopt -u globstar
File handling
CAVEAT: bash
doesn't handle binary data properly in versions < 4.4
.
Read a file to a string
Alternative to the cat
command.
file_data="$(<"file")"
Read a file to an array ( by line )
Alternative to the cat
command.
# Bash <4 IFS=$'\n' read -d "" -ra file_data < "file" # Bash 4+ mapfile -t file_data < "file"
Get the first N lines of a file
Alternative to the head
command.
CAVEAT:Requires bash
4+
Example Function:
head() { # Usage: head "n" "file" mapfile -tn "$1" line < "$2" printf '%s\n' "${line[@]}" }
Example Usage:
$ head 2 ~/.bashrc # Prompt PS1='➜ ' $ head 1 ~/.bashrc # Prompt
Get the last N lines of a file
Alternative to the tail
command.
CAVEAT:Requires bash
4+
Example Function:
tail() { # Usage: tail "n" "file" mapfile -tn 0 line < "$2" printf '%s\n' "${line[@]: -$1}" }
Example Usage:
$ tail 2 ~/.bashrc # Enable tmux. # [[ -z "$TMUX" ]] && exec tmux $ tail 1 ~/.bashrc # [[ -z "$TMUX" ]] && exec tmux
Get the number of lines in a file
Alternative to wc -l
.
Example Function (bash 4):
lines() { # Usage: lines "file" mapfile -tn 0 lines < "$1" printf '%s\n' "${#lines[@]}" }
Example Function (bash 3):
This method uses less memory than the mapfile
method and it's more compatible but it's slower for bigger files.
lines_loop() { # Usage: lines_loop "file" count=0 while IFS= read -r _; do ((count++)) done < "$1" printf '%s\n' "$count" }
Example Usage:
$ lines ~/.bashrc 48 $ lines_loop ~/.bashrc 48
Count files or directories in directory
This works by passing the output of the glob as function arguments. We then count the arguments and print the number.
Example Function:
count() { # Usage: count /path/to/dir/* # count /path/to/dir/*/ printf '%s\n' "$#" }
Example Usage:
# Count all files in dir. $ count ~/Downloads/* 232 # Count all dirs in dir. $ count ~/Downloads/*/ 45 # Count all jpg files in dir. $ count ~/Pictures/*.jpg 64
Create an empty file
Alternative to touch
.
# Shortest. :> file # Longer alternatives: echo -n > file printf '' > file
Extract lines between two markers
Example Function:
extract() { # Usage: extract file "opening marker" "closing marker" while IFS=$'\n' read -r line; do [[ "$extract" && "$line" != "$3" ]] && \ printf '%s\n' "$line" [[ "$line" == "$2" ]] && extract=1 [[ "$line" == "$3" ]] && extract= done < "$1" }
Example Usage:
# Extract code blocks from MarkDown file. $ extract ~/projects/pure-bash/README.md '```sh' '```' # Output here...
File Paths
Get the directory name of a file path
Alternative to the dirname
command.
Example Function:
dirname() { # Usage: dirname "path" printf '%s\n' "${1%/*}/" }
Example Usage:
$ dirname ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/1.jpg /home/black/Pictures/Wallpapers/ $ dirname ~/Pictures/Downloads/ /home/black/Pictures/
Get the base-name of a file path
Alternative to the basename
command.
Example Function:
basename() { # Usage: basename "path" : "${1%/}" printf '%s\n' "${_##*/}" }
Example Usage:
$ basename ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/1.jpg 1.jpg $ basename ~/Pictures/Downloads/ Downloads
Variables
Assign and access a variable using a variable
hello_world="test" # Create the variable name. var1="world" var2="hello_${var1}" # Print the value of the variable name stored in 'hello_$var1'. printf '%s\n' "${!var2}"
Escape Sequences
Contrary to popular belief, there's no issue in using raw escape sequences. Using tput
just abstracts the same ANSI escape sequences. What's worse is that tput
isn't actually portable, there are a number of different tput
variants on different Operating Systems each with different commands ( try and run tput setaf 3
on a FreeBSD system ). The easiest solution ends up being raw ANSI sequences.
Text Colors
NOTE:Sequences requiring RGB values only work in True-Color Terminal Emulators.
Sequence What does it do? Value\e[38;5;<NUM>m
Set text foreground color.
0-255
\e[48;5;<NUM>m
Set text background color.
0-255
\e[38;2;<R>;<G>;<B>m
Set text foreground color to RGB color.
R
, G
, B
\e[48;2;<R>;<G>;<B>m
Set text background color to RGB color.
R
, G
, B
Text Attributes
Sequence What does it do?\e[m
Reset text formatting and colors.
\e[1m
Bold text.
\e[2m
Faint text.
\e[3m
Italic text.
\e[4m
Underline text.
\e[5m
Slow blink.
\e[7m
Swap foreground and background colors.
Cursor Movement
Sequence What does it do? Value\e[<LINE>;<COLUMN>H
Move cursor to absolute position.
line
, column
\e[H
Move cursor to home position ( 0,0
).
\e[<NUM>A
Move cursor up N lines.
num
\e[<NUM>B
Move cursor down N lines.
num
\e[<NUM>C
Move cursor right N columns.
num
\e[<NUM>D
Move cursor left N columns.
num
\e[s
Save cursor position.
\e[u
Restore cursor position.
Erasing Text
Sequence What does it do?\e[K
Erase from cursor position to end of line.
\e[1K
Erase from cursor position to start of line.
\e[2K
Erase the entire current line.
\e[J
Erase from the current line to the bottom of the screen.
\e[1J
Erase from the current line to the top of the screen.
\e[2J
Clear the screen.
\e[2J\e[H
Clear the screen and move cursor to 0,0
.
Parameter Expansion
Indirection
Parameter What does it do?${!VAR}
Access a variable based on the value of VAR
. See:link
${!VAR*}
Expand to IFS
separated list of variable names starting with VAR
.
${!VAR@}
Expand to IFS
separated list of variable names starting with VAR
.
Replacement
Parameter What does it do?${VAR#PATTERN}
Remove shortest match of pattern from start of string.
${VAR##PATTERN}
Remove longest match of pattern from start of string.
${VAR%PATTERN}
Remove shortest match of pattern from end of string.
${VAR%%PATTERN}
Remove longest match of pattern from end of string.
${VAR/PATTERN/REPLACE}
Replace first match with string.
${VAR//PATTERN/REPLACE}
Replace all matches with string.
${VAR/PATTERN}
Remove first match.
${VAR//PATTERN}
Remove all matches.
Length
Parameter What does it do?${#VAR}
Length of var in characters.
${#ARR[@]}
Length of array in elements.
Expansion
Parameter What does it do?${VAR:OFFSET}
Remove first N
chars from variable.
${VAR:OFFSET:LENGTH}
Get substring from N
character to N
character. (
${VAR:10:10}
: Get sub-string from char 10
to char 20
)
${VAR:: OFFSET}
Get first N
chars from variable.
${VAR:: -OFFSET}
Remove last N
chars from variable.
${VAR: -OFFSET}
Get last N
chars from variable.
${VAR:OFFSET:-OFFSET}
Cut first N
chars and last N
chars.
Case Modification
Parameter What does it do? CAVEAT${VAR^}
Uppercase first character.
bash 4+
${VAR^^}
Uppercase all characters.
bash 4+
${VAR,}
Lowercase first character.
bash 4+
${VAR,,}
Lowercase all characters.
bash 4+
Default Value
Parameter What does it do?${VAR:-STRING}
If VAR
is empty or unset, use STRING
as it's value.
${VAR-STRING}
If VAR
is unset, use STRING
as it's value.
${VAR:=STRING}
If VAR
is empty or unset, set the value of VAR
to STRING
.
${VAR=STRING}
If VAR
is unset, set the value of VAR
to STRING
.
${VAR:+STRING}
If VAR
isn't empty, use STRING
as it's value.
${VAR+STRING}
If VAR
is set, use STRING
as it's value.
${VAR:?STRING}
Display an error if empty or unset.
${VAR?STRING}
Display an error if unset.
Brace Expansion
Ranges
# Syntax: {<START>..<END>} # Print numbers 1-100. echo {1..100} # Print range of floats. echo 1.{1..9} # Print chars a-z. echo {a..z} echo {A..Z} # Nesting. echo {A..Z}{0..9} # Print zero-padded numbers. # CAVEAT: bash 4+ echo {01..100} # Change increment amount. # Syntax: {<START>..<END>..<INCREMENT>} # CAVEAT: bash 4+ echo {1..10..2} # Increment by 2.
String Lists
echo {apples,oranges,pears,grapes} # Example Usage: # Remove dirs Movies, Music and ISOS from ~/Downloads/. rm -rf ~/Downloads/{Movies,Music,ISOS}
Arithmetic
Simpler syntax to set variables
# Simple math ((var=1+2)) # Decrement/Increment variable ((var++)) ((var--)) ((var+=1)) ((var-=1)) # Using variables ((var=var2*arr[2]))
Ternary tests
# Set the value of var to var2 if var2 is greater than var. # var: variable to set. # var2>var: Condition to test. # ?var2: If the test succeeds. # :var: If the test fails. ((var=var2>var?var2:var))
Obsolete Syntax
Shebang
Use #!/usr/bin/env bash
instead of #!/bin/bash
.
- The former searches the user's
PATH
to find thebash
binary. - The latter assumes it is always installed to
/bin/
which can cause issues.
# Right: #!/usr/bin/env bash # Wrong: #!/bin/bash
Command Substitution
Use $()
instead of `
.
# Right. var="$(command)" # Wrong. var=`command` # $() can easily be nested whereas `` cannot. var="$(command "$(command)")"
Function Declaration
Don't use the function
keyword, it reduces compatibility with older versions of bash
.
# Right. do_something() { # ... } # Wrong. function do_something() { # ... }
Internal Variables
NOTE: This list does not include every internal variable ( You can help by adding a missing entry! ).
For a complete list, see: http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/internalvariables.html
Get the location to the bash
binary
"$BASH"
Get the version of the current running bash
process
# As a string. "$BASH_VERSION" # As an array. "${BASH_VERSINFO[@]}"
Open the user's preferred text editor
"$EDITOR" "$file" # NOTE: This variable may be empty, set a fallback value. "${EDITOR:-vi}" "$file"
Get the name of the current function
# Current function. "${FUNCNAME[0]}" # Parent function. "${FUNCNAME[1]}" # So on and so forth. "${FUNCNAME[2]}" "${FUNCNAME[3]}" # All functions including parents. "${FUNCNAME[@]}"
Get the host-name of the system
"$HOSTNAME" # NOTE: This variable may be empty. # Optionally set a fallback to the hostname command. "${HOSTNAME:-$(hostname)}"
Get the architecture of the Operating System
"$HOSTTYPE"
Get the name of the Operating System / Kernel
This can be used to add conditional support for different Operating Systems without needing to call uname
.
"$OSTYPE"
Get the current working directory
This is an alternative to the pwd
built-in.
"$PWD"
Get the number of seconds the script has been running
"$SECONDS"
Get a pseudorandom integer
Each time $RANDOM
is used, a different integer between 0
and 32767
is returned. This variable should not be used for anything related to security ( this includes encryption keys etc ).
"$RANDOM"
Information about the terminal
Get the terminal size in lines and columns ( from a script )
This is handy when writing scripts in pure bash and stty
/ tput
can’t be called.
Example Function:
get_term_size() { # Usage: get_term_size # (:;:) is a micro sleep to ensure the variables are # exported immediately. shopt -s checkwinsize; (:;:) printf '%s\n' "$LINES $COLUMNS" }
Example Usage:
# Output: LINES COLUMNS $ get_term_size 15 55
Get the terminal size in pixels
CAVEAT: This does not work in some terminal emulators.
Example Function:
get_window_size() { # Usage: get_window_size printf '%b' "${TMUX:+\\ePtmux;\\e}\\e[14t${TMUX:+\\e\\\\}" IFS=';t' read -d t -t 0.05 -sra term_size printf '%s\n' "${term_size[1]}x${term_size[2]}" }
Example Usage:
# Output: WIDTHxHEIGHT $ get_window_size 1200x800 # Output (fail): $ get_window_size x
Get the current cursor position
This is useful when creating a TUI in pure bash.
Example Function:
get_cursor_pos() { # Usage: get_cursor_pos IFS='[;' read -p $'\e[6n' -d R -rs _ y x _ printf '%s\n' "$x $y" }
Example Usage:
# Output: X Y $ get_cursor_pos 1 8
Conversion
Convert a hex color to RGB
Example Function:
hex_to_rgb() { # Usage: hex_to_rgb "#FFFFFF" ((r=16#${1:1:2})) ((g=16#${1:3:2})) ((b=16#${1:5:6})) printf '%s\n' "$r $g $b" }
Example Usage:
$ hex_to_rgb "#FFFFFF" 255 255 255
Convert an RGB color to hex
Example Function:
rgb_to_hex() { # Usage: rgb_to_hex "r" "g" "b" printf '#%02x%02x%02x\n' "$1" "$2" "$3" }
Example Usage:
$ rgb_to_hex "255" "255" "255" #FFFFFF
Code Golf
Shorter for
loop syntax
# Tiny C Style. for((;i++<10;)){ echo "$i";} # Undocumented method. for i in {1..10};{ echo "$i";} # Expansion. for i in {1..10}; do echo "$i"; done # C Style. for((i=0;i<=10;i++)); do echo "$i"; done
Shorter infinite loops
# Normal method while :; do echo hi; done # Shorter for((;;)){ echo hi;}
Shorter function declaration
# Normal method f(){ echo hi;} # Using a subshell f()(echo hi) # Using arithmetic # You can use this to assign integer values. # Example: f a=1 # f a++ f()(($1)) # Using tests, loops etc. # NOTE: You can also use ‘while’, ‘until’, ‘case’, ‘(())’, ‘[[]]’. f()if true; then echo "$1"; fi f()for i in "$@"; do echo "$i"; done
Shorter if
syntax
# One line # Note: The 3rd statement may run when the 1st is true [[ "$var" == hello ]] && echo hi || echo bye [[ "$var" == hello ]] && { echo hi; echo there; } || echo bye # Multi line (no else, single statement) # Note: The exit status may not be the same as with an if statement [[ "$var" == hello ]] && \ echo hi # Multi line (no else) [[ "$var" == hello ]] && { echo hi # ... }
Simpler case
statement to set variable
We can use the :
builtin to avoid repeating variable=
in a case statement. The $_
variable stores the last argument of the last successful command. :
always succeeds so we can abuse it to store the variable value.
# Modified snippet from Neofetch. case "$OSTYPE" in "darwin"*) : "MacOS" ;; "linux"*) : "Linux" ;; *"bsd"* | "dragonfly" | "bitrig") : "BSD" ;; "cygwin" | "msys" | "win32") : "Windows" ;; *) printf '%s\n' "Unknown OS detected, aborting..." >&2 exit 1 ;; esac # Finally, set the variable. os="$_"
Other
Use read
as an alternative to the sleep
command
I was surprised to find out sleep
is an external command and isn't a built-in.
CAVEAT:Requires bash
4+
Example Function:
read_sleep() { # Usage: sleep 1 # sleep 0.2 read -rst "${1:-1}" -N 999 }
Example Usage:
read_sleep 1 read_sleep 0.1 read_sleep 30
Check if a program is in the user's PATH
# There are 3 ways to do this and you can use either of # these in the same way. type -p executable_name &>/dev/null hash executable_name &>/dev/null command -v executable_name &>/dev/null # As a test. if type -p executable_name &>/dev/null; then # Program is in PATH. fi # Inverse. if ! type -p executable_name &>/dev/null; then # Program is not in PATH. fi # Example (Exit early if program isn't installed). if ! type -p convert &>/dev/null; then printf '%s\n' "error: convert isn't installed, exiting..." exit 1 fi
Get the current date using strftime
Bash’s printf
has a built-in method of getting the date which we can use in place of the date
command in a lot of cases.
CAVEAT:Requires bash
4+
Example Function:
date() { # Usage: date "format" # See: 'man strftime' for format. printf "%($1)T\\n" "-1" }
Example Usage:
# Using above function. $ date "%a %d %b - %l:%M %p" Fri 15 Jun - 10:00 AM # Using printf directly. $ printf '%(%a %d %b - %l:%M %p)T\n' "-1" Fri 15 Jun - 10:00 AM # Assigning a variable using printf. $ printf -v date '%(%a %d %b - %l:%M %p)T\n' '-1' $ printf '%s\n' "$date" Fri 15 Jun - 10:00 AM
Generate a UUID V4
Example Function:
uuid() { # Usage: uuid C="89ab" for ((N=0;N<16;++N)); do B="$((RANDOM%256))" case "$N" in 6) printf '4%x' "$((B%16))" ;; 8) printf '%c%x' "${C:$RANDOM%${#C}:1}" "$((B%16))" ;; 3|5|7|9) printf '%02x-' "$B" ;; *) printf '%02x' "$B" ;; esac done printf '\n' }
Example Usage:
$ uuid d5b6c731-1310-4c24-9fe3-55d556d44374
Progress bars
This is a simple way of drawing progress bars without needing a for loop in the function itself.
Example Function:
bar() { # Usage: bar 1 10 # ^----- Elapsed Percentage (0-100). # ^-- Total length in chars. ((elapsed=$1*$2/100)) # Create the bar with spaces. printf -v prog "%${elapsed}s" printf -v total "%$(($2-elapsed))s" printf '%s\r' "[${prog// /-}${total}]" }
Example Usage:
for ((i=0;i<=100;i++)); do # Pure bash micro sleeps (for the example). (:;:) && (:;:) && (:;:) && (:;:) && (:;:) # Print the bar. bar "$i" "10" done printf '\n'
Get the list of functions from your script
get_functions() { # Usage: get_functions IFS=$'\n' read -d "" -ra functions < <(declare -F) printf '%s\n' "${functions[@]//declare -f }" }
Bypass shell aliases
# alias ls # command # shellcheck disable=SC1001 \ls
Bypass shell functions
# function ls # command command ls
Afterword
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