bourne: $var in ' )' part of 'case' statement

[Seeker]

This is part of a code

case "$driver" in
            $fw_devs )
                ...

Works:

fw_devs=ral

However, this doesn't:

fw_devs='ral | run'
fw_devs='ral|run'

Coping raw string from var, worked:

case "$driver" in
            ral|run )
                ...

 

[DutchDaemon]

You cannot assign multiple values to a variable that way. This will only make this a literal variable containing the string "ral|run" or "ral | run". You can use arrays (driver[0]=ral, driver[1]=run, echo ${driver[0]}, echo ${driver[1]}), but calling those from a case script the way you would like to may create more work than simply putting the multiple choices in the case script itself. There may be other solutions, of course.

Experiment with [cmd=]echo ${driver[*]}[/cmd] maybe. This will print the entire array.

 

[wblock@]

It can be done with an eval, as shown here: http://www.unix.com/shell-programming-scripting/90311-help-variable-substitution-case-statement.html.

Any time you find yourself trying to do something nontrivial in a shell script, stop and ask if there's a good reason you're using sh rather than something more powerful that can call sh (i.e., Perubython).

 

[jilles@]

Apart from eval, another trick that sometimes works is to reverse word and pattern, for example:

fw_devs='ral|run'
case "|$fw_devs|" in
*"|$driver|"*) echo yes ;;
*) echo no ;;
esac

Make sure $driver does not contain a "|" symbol.

 

[Seeker]

@ DutchDaemon -> bourne shell doesn't have an arrays.
@ wblock -> Thx! I've put whole 'case' statement in eval "".
@ jilles -> Excellent hack! However, my 'case' statement, is too complex, for your hack.