Bash Tips and Pitfalls

Tips

Empty a file named filename, keeping the same permission and user/group:

>filename

Print multi-lines text with echo:

$ echo -e "Some text\n...on 2 lines..."                    # Enable interpretation of backslash escapes (must be quoted!)
Some text
...on 2 lines...

Pits

Description	Example
Space! - Don't forget to add spaces whenever necessary, in particular around brace in function definition, or in test conditions for ifs.	if -space- [ -space- -f /etc/foo -space- ]; then ... function myfunc() { -space- echo Hello, World!; }
Quote - Always quote parameters, variables passed to test in if ... then ... else:	if [ "$name" -eq 5 ]; then ...
For loops with file - Use simply * to list files in for loops, not `ls *`:	for file in *; cat "$file"; done # SUCCEEDS, even if white space for file in `ls *`; cat "$file"; done # FAILS miserably
Space variable setting - There must be no space between the variable name and the subsequent equal sign. Also the variable name must not be prefixed with a $	srcDir = $1 # WRONG - spaces around = sign $srcDir=$1 # WRONG - variable name must not have $ prefix srcDir=$1 # CORRECT srcDir="$1" # BEST