Question

2

Pulling multiple alternatives from a variable in a case condition

rated 0 times [ 2] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 2232 / 2 Years ago, wed, december 29, 2021, 11:14:23

I'd like to use variable as condition in case statement. Something similar to:

#!/bin/sh



ALLOWED_SERVICES=tomcat6|james;



case $1 in

    $ALLOWED_SERVICES )

        service $1 restart

    ;;

    * )

    echo "Unsupported argument"

    ;;

esac

This doesn't work. When script is started with tomcat6 argument for exapmle, it outpoots "Unsuported argument" message.
But when case condition is hardcoded it works ok:

case $1 in

    tomcat6|james )

        service $1 restart

    ;;

    * )

    echo "Unsupported argument"

    ;;

esac

Is it possible to use variables in this case?

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istmasted

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2 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago istmasted · Accepted Answer

Trouble is that both variable expansion and pattern expansion need to be done before matching and that doesn't work here. If you have a recent version of bash available you could use regex matching:

#!/bin/bash



ALLOWED_SERVICES="tomcat6|james"



if [[ $ALLOWED_SERVICES =~ $1 ]]; then

  service $1 restart

else

  echo "Unsupported argument"

fi

Add shopt -s nocasematch before the if to make the matching case insensitive.