Bash: if and typecheck

Question

Hi guys i am new to this. Hoping that you could help me I am writing this (should be simple) bash script to check if the filetype is txt or zip. but it does not work

the code is:

#!/bin/sh
echo "please insert file"
read file
if [ $file == *.txt ]
then
emacs $file
elif [ $file == *.zip ]
then 
zip $file
fi

And even if `sh` *is* `bash`, `[` doesn't do pattern matching. — chepner, Oct 20 '17 at 17:24

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 20 '17 at 18:32

1

Use a case statement.

case "$file" in
*.txt) emacs $file ;;
*.zip) zip   $file ;;
esac

answered Oct 20 '17 at 18:32

Paul Hodges

13,382
1
17
36

thx! solved my problem – Mustafa Bozdemir Oct 20 '17 at 22:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 20 '17 at 18:02

0

You can either use:

if [ ${file: -4} == ".txt" ]
and thus compare the last 4 characters

Or use:

if [[ $file == *.txt ]]
and thus use a regular expression (double brackets are available only in some shells but it is available in bash).

answered Oct 20 '17 at 18:02

arne

374
1
8

Bash: if and typecheck

2 Answers2