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Homework and Emergencies Homework & Coursework Questions BASH Environment Variables as arguments? Post 302393733 by Helix on Tuesday 9th of February 2010 12:12:28 PM
Old 02-09-2010
BASH Environment Variables as arguments?

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data:
Write a shell program called myenv which takes one argument. The argument should be the name of an environment variable, such as PATH HOME etc. myenv should print out the value of the variable given as the argument. If no argument is given, or the argument is invalid, your program could do unpredictable things!
e.g., myenv PRINTER
should print a line such as: PRINTER=kc3500
e.g., myenv HOME PRINTER
should print a line such as: HOME=/home/dwoit


2. Relevant commands, code, scripts, algorithms:
None that I can think of? Besides the basic start of #!/bin/bash


3. The attempts at a solution (include all code and scripts):
I'm not sure how to write this... I assume I could try setting the argument to a local variable within the script, but that's the next topic (local variables) so I don't think I have to. I know you can see the values of environment variables by typing in $ and then the one you want, so I tried doing ${"$1"} within the program but it doesn't work (I get a bad substitution error) and I have no idea how else to do it. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

#!/bin/bash
echo ${"$1"}
exit 0

4. Complete Name of School (University), City (State), Country, Name of Professor, and Course Number (Link to Course):
Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, Denise Woit, CPS393
 

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set(1F) 							   FMLI Commands							   set(1F)

NAME
set, unset - set and unset local or global environment variables SYNOPSIS
set [-l variable [=value]] ... set [-e variable [=value]] ... set [-ffile variable [=value]]... ... unset -l variable... unset -f file variable... DESCRIPTION
The set command sets variable in the environment, or adds variable=value to file. If variable is not equated it to a value, set expects the value to be on stdin. The unset command removes variable. Note that the FMLI predefined, read-only variables (such as ARG1), may not be set or unset. Note that at least one of the above options must be used for each variable being set or unset. If you set a variable with the -ffilename option, you must thereafter include filename in references to that variable. For example, ${(file)VARIABLE}. FMLI inherits the UNIX environment when invoked. OPTIONS
-l Sets or unsets the specified variable in the local environment. Variables set with -l will not be inherited by processes invoked from FMLI. -e Sets the specified variable in the UNIX environment. Variables set with -e will be inherited by any processes started from FMLI. Note that these variables cannot be unset. -ffile Sets or unsets the specified variable in the global environment. The argument file is the name, or pathname, of a file containing lines of the form variable=value. file will be created if it does not already exist. Note that no space intervenes between -f and file. EXAMPLES
Example 1 A sample output of set command. Storing a selection made in a menu: name=Selection 2 action=`set -l SELECTION=2`close NOTES
Variables set to be available to the UNIX environment (those set using the -e option) can only be set for the current fmli process and the processes it calls. When using the -f option, unless file is unique to the process, other users of FMLI on the same machine will be able to expand these vari- ables, depending on the read/write permissions on file. A variable set in one frame may be referenced or unset in any other frame. This includes local variables. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
env(1), sh(1), attributes(5) SunOS 5.11 5 Jul 1990 set(1F)
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