Pipes
cat hello.txt
echo 'Hello!'
# Sends to stdout
echo 'Bye!' > bye.txt # write to file
echo 'Bye again' >> bye.txt # Append
cat non-existent-file 2> errors.txt # redirect stderr
cat existing-file 2> errors.txt # errors.txt is empty
# prints file contents
# Combined output - both stdout and stderr
cat hello.txt non-existent.txt &> combined.txt
# Throw away all output
cat hello.txt non-existent.txt &> /dev/null
# pipes and stdin
sort hello.txt | grep Hello | sed 's/Hello/Hey/'
Scripting
#! /bin/sh
set -e
set -o pipefail
echo 'Hello'
chmod +x hello.sh
./hello.sh
set -e - stop and raise immediately on any error. Always exit early.
set -o pipefail - without this, a command is considered to be failing if any
of the commands in a pipeline fail.
Eg. grep foo missing-file.txt | sed 's/hello/hey'
The grep fails, and writes empty string to stdout, so sed won’t fail. This
command is considered ok by default, but pipefail exits as soon as grep fails.
$? - most reent exit code - 0 indicates success
foo && bar - second thing runs only if first succeeds.
An example script:
$ ls services
rails.service postgres.service some-other-file.txt
$ cat services/rails.service
name rails
port 3000
$ cat services/postgres.service
name postgres
port 5432
#! /bin/bash
set -e
set -o pipefail
# Exit early if no arguments given
# Usage: ./this-file.sh services-dir
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Error: Provide the name of the services directory."
exit 64 # Recommended code for wrong number of args
fi
print_services() {
# -q option -> quiet
if grep -q port "$1" && grep -q name "$1"; do
name=$(grep name "$1" | sed 's/name //')
if [ $port -lt 5000 ]; then
echo "Greater than 5000"
fi
echo "$1: $name $port"
else
echo "$1 Missing name or port"
fi
}
for file in $1/*.service; do
print_service "$file"
end
Other zsh tips
Inserting last argument in zsh:
- Use
!$to insert last command’s arg orESC-. !*inserts all args
fc or “fix command”: if you make a mistake in a command, like git pull orgiin master, run fc
it will open the command in an editor where you can fix the typo. once you save and close, the new command will run
When you find yourself typing a long command (like a curl request) and it becomes hard to navigate on the terminal’s readline, you can hold ⌃ (control) and then type x e.
This will open up your $EDITOR and allow to edit your command more conveniently. When you save and close, the text will show up on the readline and will not be executed automatically. So you can still review it before hitting Enter.