Bash Scripting for Beginners: Complete Guide to Getting Started - Case Statements (Part 13)

Welcome to LearnLinuxTV's brand new complete course on Bash Scripting! In this episode, we'll take a look at case statements.

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*⏰ TIME CODES*
00:00 - Intro
00:27 - A quick example of a Case Statement in Bash
05:58 - Taking our case statement script for a test run
08:08 - Introducing a while loop into our script

*OTHER BASH SCRIPTING SERIES EPISODES*

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#tech #learnlinux #linuxcommands

[deprimarvin]

It should be noted that ';;' is the most used operator for the end of a code block, which means: "Stop matching patterns as soon as one is succesful."
But there are others:
- ';&' = if the pattern matches, the code block of the next choice is executed, too, no matter if the pattern for that choice matches or not
- ';;&' = if the pattern matches, the code block of the next matching pattern is executed, too.

Nevertheless you have to use one operator at each end of a code block but the very last.

[udayarpandey]

Jay my brother, can you please make a similar series on:
-Nginx
-Apache
-RAID
-Git
-Any monitoring server like (Nagios, Zabbix or Prometheus)
-Docker and Kubernets

??
It would be great help to all the Linux SysAdmins over the world.

[AlbusRegis]

Defining the default in case statements is actually very important, even if it is unreachable in theory users will always find that edge case you did not think of, either out of carelessness or of malice.

[jojobobbubble]

Great series Jay! Learning lots!! Please keep up the great work!!

[paujoan]

Here is a cleaner solution combining the knowledge from the previous lesson (functions). A function that calls itself it's called recursive function (does the same job as the while loop while keeping all the logic inside the function scope without modifying any external state).

function prompt_favorite_distro () {
echo 'What is your favorite Linux distro?'

echo "1 - Arch"
echo "2 - CentOS"
echo "3 - Debian"
echo "4 - Mint"
echo "5 - Ubuntu"
echo "6 - Something else..."
echo "x - exit"

read -r distro;

case $distro in
1) echo "Arch is a rolling release";;
2) echo "Centos";;
3) echo "Debian";;
4) echo "Mint";;
5) echo "Ubuntu";;
6) echo "6 - Something else...";;
x) echo "Alright then, see ya." && exit 0;;
*) echo "$distro is not a valid option. Please select a valid option" && prompt_favorite_distro;;
esac
}

prompt_favorite_distro

[LinuxCloud]

I believe that the single semicolon at the end of "read distro" line isn't necessary.

[madry]

you don't need to create a variable "finished". You can just assign 1 to the 'distro' variable and it is still going to do the trick

[tbr]

why is there a ; after the read distro ?

[angeltrasvina]

Hello!

Why did you use upper case letter X in chmod command but in Class 02 - Hello World you used lower case x?
Is it the same then?

[cagedtigersteve]

I wish these would go a little faster. I just want to know the syntax nuances...I know how to program.

[Leverquin]

its so weird to see ";;" and not just ";"