Bash Shell: Find Out If a Variable Is Set or Not
How do I check if a bash shell variable called $input is defined or not under BSD / Apple OS X / Unix / Linux like operating systems?
Method #1: Bash Variable Existence Check
The syntax is as follows to determine if $input is defined or not:
${Variable?Error \$Variable is not defined}
OR
${Variable:?Error \$Variable is not defined}
In this example your script will stop executing if the variable $input is not defined:
input="Foo bar" echo ${input?Error \$input is not defined.} unset input echo ${input?Error \$input is not defined.}
Sample outputs:
Foo bar bash: input: Error $input is not defined.
In this example, make sure $input is defined and is not empty, enter:
[[ $input && ${input-x} ]] input="Foo" [[ $input && ${input-x} ]] && echo "Found" || echo "Not found" unset input [[ $input && ${input-x} ]] && echo "Found" || echo "Not found"
Here is an example that make sure $_php_map_extension is defined:
# read config data loadConfigData "${_t_domain_php_conf}" $LINENO "${FUNCNAME[0]}" # make sure it is defined and not empty if [[ $_php_map_extension && ${_php_map_extension-_} ]] then at=${#_php_map_extension[*]} # get total elements in an array s="" echo '## Map extension to .php? ##' echo 'fastcgi.map-extensions = (' for (( i=0; i<${at}; i++ )); do [ $i -lt $(( $at - 1 )) ] && s="," || s="" # remove , for last item in an array echo " \".${_php_map_extension[i]}\" => \".php\"${s}" done echo ')' else echo "Skiping php map extension as \$_php_map_extension is not defined in /usr/local/etc/nixcraft/conf/php.conf." fi
Sample outputs:
Skiping php map extension as $_php_map_extension is not defined in /usr/local/etc/nixcraft/conf/php.conf
OR
## Map extension to .php? ## fastcgi.map-extensions = ( ".html" => ".php", ".htm" => ".php", ".phtml" => ".php", ".php3" => ".php", ".php4" => ".php" )
Method #2: isvarset() function
The above examples are useful for a sanity checking. Finally, you can use the following code:
isvarset(){ local v="$1" [[ ! ${!v} && ${!v-unset} ]] && echo "Variable not found." || echo "Variable found." } # find out if $vech defined or not vech="Bus" && isvarset vech vech="" && isvarset vech unset vech && isvarset vech
Method 3: Using the Length of STRING
The -z option to test command returns TRUE of the Length of STRING is zero. You can use the following syntax:
### set or not??? input="Foo" [ -z "${input+x}" ] && echo "\$input is not set" || echo "\$input found and is set to \"$input\"." ### Not set at ALL unset input [ -z "${input+x}" ] && echo "\$input is not set" || echo "\$input found and is set to \"$input\"." ### 'set but empty' or not? input="" [ -z "$input" -a "${input+x}" = "x" ] && echo "\$input variable is set with empty value." || echo "\$input found and is set to "\$input\""
The above syntax will tell if a variable is defined or not defined or defined with a empty value in a bash shell script.