Bash – Loop Through Variables

bashshell-script

I am writing a bash script to use rsync and update files on about 20 different servers.

I have the rsync part figured out. What I'm having trouble with is going through a list of variables.

My script thus far look like this:

#!/bin/bash
SERVER1="192.xxx.xxx.2"
SERVER2="192.xxx.xxx.3"
SERVER3="192.xxx.xxx.4"
SERVER4="192.xxx.xxx.5"
SERVER5="192.xxx.xxx.6"
SERVER6="192.xxx.xxx.7"

for ((i=1; i<7; i++))
do
    echo [Server IP Address]
done

Where [Server IP Address] should be the value of the associated variable. So when i = 1 I should echo the value of $SERVER1.

I've tried several iterations of this including

echo "$SERVER$i"    # printed the value of i
echo "SERVER$i"     # printer "SERVER" plus the value of i ex: SERVER 1 where i = 1
echo $("SERVER$i")  # produced an error SERVER1: command not found where i = 1
echo $$SERVER$i     # printed a four digit number followed by "SERVER" plus the value of i
echo \$$SERVER$i    # printed "$" plus the value of i

It has been a long time since I scripted so I know I am missing something. Plus I'm sure I'm mixing in what I could do using C#, which I've used for the past 11 years.

Is what I'm trying to do even possible? Or should I be putting these values in an array and looping through the array? I need to this same thing for production IP addresses as well as location names.

This is all in an effort to not have to repeat a block of code I will be using to sync the files on the remote server.

Best Answer

Use an array.

#! /bin/bash
servers=( 192.xxx.xxx.2 192.xxx.xxx.3
          192.xxx.xxx.4 192.xxx.xxx.5
          192.xxx.xxx.6 192.xxx.xxx.7
)

for server in "${servers[@]}" ; do
    echo "$server"
done

Related Solutions

Bash eval array variable name

The simplest form for parameter expansion is: ${parameter}.
Using braces in confused case is better way.

Considering of possibilities of being included spaces in array of "myvarA", I think this would be the answer.

#!/bin/bash -x
myvarA=( "variable  A1" "variable  A2" )
varname="A"

eval varAlias=( '"${myvar'${varname}'[@]}"' )
eval varAlias=( \"\${myvar${varname}[@]}\" ) # both works
for varItem in "${varAlias[@]}" # double quote and `@' is needed
do
    echo "$varItem"
done

Bash – What’s the right way to sort a associated array in bash or zsh

Zsh has a built-in way to sort lists. However, I don't think there's a way to sort the values while keeping the correlation with the keys using parameter expansion flags and subscript flags, which means that an explicit loop is necessary. Assuming that your values don't contain a null character, you can build an array containing the values and keys concatenated with a null character in between, and sort that.

keys=("${(@k)A}")
values=("${(@v)A}")
combined=()
for ((i=1; i <= $#values; i++)) { combined[i]=($values[i]$'\0'$keys[i]); }
keys_sorted_by_decreasing_value=("${${(@On)combined}#*$'\0'}")
keys_of_the_top_two_values=("${(@)keys_sorted_by_decreasing_value[1,2]}")

EDIT by @sch: the first 4 lines can be simplified to

combined=()
for k v ("${(@kv)A}") combined+=($k$'\0'$v)

The variables keys and values contain the keys and values of A in an arbitrary but consistent order. You can write keys=(${(k)A}) if there are no empty keys, and similarly for values. keys_sorted_by_decreasing_value sorts keys lexicographically, add the n flag to sort numerically (9 before 10) and remove O if you want to sort in increasing order (in which case the top two values can be obtained with the subscript [-2,-1]).

Ksh93 has a way to sort the positional parameters only, with set -s; this also exists in zsh but not in bash 4.2. Assuming your values don't contain newlines or control characters that sort before newlines:

keys=("${!A[@]}")
combined=()
for ((i=0; i <= ${#keys}; i++)); do combined[i]=(${A[${keys[$i]}]}$'\n'${keys[$i]}); done
set -A sorted -s "${combined[@]}"
top_combined=${sorted[${#sorted[@]}-1]}  # -2 for the next-to-largest, etc.
top_key=${top_combined#*$'\n'}

This is all pretty complex, so you might as well go for the external sort, which is a lot easier to write. Assuming that neither keys nor values contain control characters, in ksh or bash:

IFS=$'\n'; set -f
keys_sorted_by_decreasing_value=($(
    for k in "${!A[@]}"; do printf '%s\t%s\n' "${A[$k]}" "$k"; done |
    sort | sed $'s/\t.*//'
  ))

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash eval array variable name

Bash – What’s the right way to sort a associated array in bash or zsh

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