Bourne/bash shell scripts: if statement syntax

Conditional expressions give programs life. The ability to branch makes shell scripts powerful. This recipe shows the basic if then else structure for sh, ksh, bash, zsh, etc.

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Determine if a file is readable by current Bourne shell script user

A well contructed shell script, like any good program, should handle error conditions gracefully. Checking if a file is readable before attempting to read it allows a script to branch instead of abort or display an error message.

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Determine if a file is writable by a Bourne script user

From a Bourne shell script (sh, ksh, bash, …), it is possible to test if a file exists and is writable by the user running the script.

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Determine if file exists in a Bourne/bash shell script

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Sending multiple lines of input to a program

Using a ‘here document’ it is possible to send multiple lines of input to a program from a shell script.

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