Question

If I am writing a bash script, and I choose to use a config file for parameters. Can I still pass in parameters for it via the command line? I guess I’m asking can I do both on the same command?

The watered down code:

#!/bin/bash 

source builder.conf 
function xmitBuildFile { 
    for IP in "{SERVER_LIST[@]}" 
    do 
        echo $1@$IP 
    done 
} 
xmitBuildFile

builder.conf:

SERVER_LIST=( 192.168.2.119 10.20.205.67 )

---

$bash> ./builder.sh myname

My expected output should be myname@192.168.2.119 and myname@10.20.205.67, but when I do an $ echo $#, I am getting 0, even when I passed in ‘myname’ on the command line.

Answer 1

Assuming the “config file” is just a piece of shell sourced into the main script (usually containing definitions of some variables), like this:

. /etc/script.conf

of course you can use the positional parameters anywhere (before or after “. /etc/…”):

echo "$@"
test -n "$1" && ...

you can even define them in the script or in the very same config file:

test $# = 0 && set -- a b c