|
|
A here document allows you to place into a shell program lines that are redirected to be the input to a command in that program. By using a here document, you can provide input to a command in a shell program without using a separate file. The notation consists of the redirection symbol ``<<'' and a delimiter that specifies the beginning and end of the lines of input. The delimiter can be one character or a string of characters; the ``!'' is often used.
``Format of a here document'' shows the general format for a here document.
command <<delimiter . . . input lines . . . delimiter
Format of a here document
In the next example, the program gbday uses a here document to send a generic birthday greeting by redirecting lines of input into the mail command:
$ cat gbday mail $1 <<! Best wishes to you on your birthday. ! $When you use this command, you must specify the recipient's login as the argument to the command. The input included with the use of the here document is:
Best wishes to you on your birthday.For example, to send this greeting to the owner of login mary, type:
$ gbday maryUser mary will receive your greeting the next time she reads her mail messages:
$ mail From mylogin Mon May 14 14:31 CDT 1991 Best wishes to you on your birthday. $
The here document offers a convenient and useful way to use ed in a shell script. For example, suppose you want to make a shell program that will enter the ed editor, make a global substitution to a file, write the file, and then quit ed. The following screen shows the contents of a program called ch.text which does these tasks.
$ cat ch.text echo Type in the filename. read file1 echo Type in the exact text to be changed. read old_text echo Type in the exact new text to replace the above. read new_text ed - $file1 <<! g/$old_text/s//$new_text/g w q ! $Notice the - (minus) option to the ed command. This option prevents the character count from being displayed on the screen. Notice, also, the format of the ed command for global substitution:
g/old_text/s//new_text/gThe program uses three variables: file1, old_text, and new_text. When the program is run, it uses the read command to obtain the values of these variables. The variables provide the following information:
$ ch.text Type in the filename. memo Type in the exact text to be changed. Dear John: Type in the exact new text to replace the above. To whom it may concern: $ cat memo To whom it may concern: $Notice that by running the cat command on the changed file, you could examine the results of the global substitution.
The stream editor sed can also be used in shell programming.