Shell script calling another to return value

fuse · 18-10-2006 10:43AM #1

Any idea if I can call one shell script from another and receive a result from it?
Either a boolean result as below or an int/string?

script1.sh

IS_VALIDATED=validate.sh username

if [ ${IS_VALIDATED} = true ]
	continue
else
	exit
fi

validate.sh

USER=$1

if [ ${USER} = "root" ]
	return true
else
	return false
fi

daymobrew · 18-10-2006 12:14PM

I know of two options. You can use 'exit' in validate.sh to inform a calling process of the result. Or you can echo the data and the calling process can base it's action on that.

Here is the 'exit' option:

#!/bin/bash

./validate.sh root

# $? is the exit value of the last executed command.
if [ $? -eq 1 ]
then
  echo "User validated."
else
  echo "ERROR: User not validated."
fi

#!/bin/sh

USER=$1

if [ ${USER} = "root" ]
then
  exit 1
else
  exit 0
fi

The 'echo' version is very similar but you'd trap the output of the validate.sh script:

#!/bin/sh

# Use backticks to capture the output into a variable.
IS_VALIDATED=`./validate.sh Root`

if [ ${IS_VALIDATED} = 'true' ]
then
  echo "User validated."
else
  echo "ERROR: User not validated."
fi

#!/bin/sh

USER=$1

if [ ${USER} = "root" ]
then
  echo 'true'
else
  echo 'false'
fi

fuse · 18-10-2006 01:06PM

Ecellent, the "exit" option works perfect.

Thanks muchly!

p.s. Bus & Train Schedules (linked in your sig) are great too!

Shell script calling another to return value

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