Bash

• Homepage
• http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html
• Shortcuts to move faster in Bash command line
• Bash Guide for Beginners
• http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/users/reriksso/unix/shell.html
• Advanced Bash Scripting Guide
• Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial
• Aliens Bash Tutorial
• http://www.skorks.com/2009/09/bash-shortcuts-for-maximum-productivity/
• Bash Keyboard Shortcuts
• Change colour of bash prompt

Tips and tricks

read without while loop

The problem is scope, try

echo foo bar | { read a b;echo $b; }

check if variable is integer

if [[ $foo =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]

get first character of a string

FIRST=${STRING:0:1}

check if var contains substring

[[ $foo =~ .*sub.* ]]

move cursor

^b move back 1 char
^f move forward 1 char
alt-b move back 1 word
alf-f move forward 1 word

loops

loop through range of numbers

for i in {0..10};do echo $i;done

bash history timestamp

HISTTIMEFORMAT="%d/%m/%y %T "

screen and bash history

To make sure all screens write to same history (at least on CentOS and RHEL):

echo "history -a;history -r" > /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-screen
chmod +x /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-screen

In general:

export PROMPT_COMMAND='history -n'

functions

function foo() {
   echo $1 $2
 }