BASH shell scripting tip: Set default values for variable

by on May 23, 2007 · 3 comments· Last updated December 18, 2007

A shell variable may be assigned to by a statement using following syntax:
var=value

If value is not given, the variable is assigned the null string. In shell program it is quite useful to provide default value for variables. For example consider rsync.sh script:
#!/bin/bash
RSRC=$1
LOCAL=$2
rsync -avz -e 'ssh ' user@myserver:$RSRC $LOCAL

This script can be run as follows:
$ ./rsync.sh /var/www .
$ ./rsync.sh /home/vivek /home/vivek

It will sync remote /home/vivek directory with local /home/vivek directory. But if you need to supply default values for a variable you can write as follows:

#!/bin/bash
RSRC=$1
LOCAL=$2
: ${RSRC:="/var/www"}
: ${LOCAL:="/disk2/backup/remote/hot"}
rsync -avz -e 'ssh ' user@myserver:$RSRC $LOCAL

: ${RSRC:="/var/www"} ==> this means if the variable RSRC is not already set, set the variable to /var/www. You can also write same statement with following code:

if [ -z "$RSRC" ]
then
   RSRC="/var/www"
fi

You can also execute a command and set the value to returned value (output). For example if the variable NOW is not already set, execute command date and set the variable to the todays date using date +"%m-%d-%Y":

#!/bin/bash
NOW=$1
....
.....
: ${NOW:=$(date +"%m-%d-%Y")}
....
..


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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 0xception August 7, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Thanks for the explanation… I’ve been trying to work with some shell scripts which are a bit more advanced then what i’m used to and this helped a lot. I was wondering if you also knew what ${VAR:+xxx} syntax and/or the ${VAR:-xxx} is for?

I’m seeing this in a script which uses
export ${NO_EXPORT:+-n} CONFIG_SECTION=”$name”

is this just a method of applying an conditional flag to a variable inline (like an assert statement)? I’m not sure as if that were true they could just as simply do
[ -n "$NO_EXPORT" ] && CONFIG_SECTION=”$name”

Reply

2 Vivek Gite August 8, 2009 at 5:29 am
3 kate August 1, 2012 at 7:18 pm

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