Tag: korn

Shell Scripting: If Variable Is Not Defined, Set Default Variable

in Categories , , last updated July 27, 2009

If var is defined AND NOT EMPTY, use var, otherwise set a default variable under Bash. For e.g. my script needs a parameter for output variable. It can be text or html. I set it as follows in my script

output=$1 # either text or html

However, sometime user forget to pass the parameter to my shell script and my enter logic fails. So how do I set default value to text, if no parameter passed?