Question

linux 3.5.6-1.fc17.x86_64
GNU bash, version 4.2.37

Hello,

I have the following bash script file. That I am using to test my program. However, I want to be able to test with and without valgrind. So I get the argument from the command line ‘valgrind’ and compare in the if statement. However, my test cases will get bigger over time, and I will have to repeat a lot of code in the if-else. Is there a way to minimize this if-else?

Many thanks for any suggestions,

#!/bin/bash

# Abort on error
set -e

echo $1

if [ "$1" == "valgrind" ]; then
    echo "TEST STARTED RUNNING WITH VALGRIND"
    echo "TEST CREATE DATABASE"
    valgrind ./db db.dat c
    echo "TEST CREATE DATABASE OK"

    echo "TEST INSERT"
    valgrind ./db db.dat s 1 steve [e-mail]
    valgrind ./db db.dat s 2 ben [e-mail]
    valgrind ./db db.dat s 3 lisa [e-mail]
    echo "TEST INSERT OK"

    echo "TEST LIST"
    valgrind ./db db.dat l
    echo "TEST LIST OK"

    echo "TEST DELETE"
    valgrind ./db db.dat d 2
    echo "TEST DELETE OK"

    echo "TEST LIST"
    valgrind ./db db.dat l
    echo "TEST LIST OK"

    echo "TEST FETCH"
    valgrind ./db db.dat g 2
    valgrind ./db db.dat g 3
    echo "TEST FETCH OK"

    echo "TEST COMPLETED OK"
else
    echo "TEST STARTED"
    echo "TEST CREATE DATABASE"
    ./db db.dat c
    echo "TEST CREATE DATABASE OK"

    echo "TEST INSERT"
    ./db db.dat s 1 steve [e-mail]
    ./db db.dat s 2 ben [e-mail]
    ./db db.dat s 3 lisa [e-mail]
    echo "TEST INSERT OK"

    echo "TEST LIST"
    ./db db.dat l
    echo "TEST LIST OK"

    echo "TEST DELETE"
    ./db db.dat d 2
    echo "TEST DELETE OK"

    echo "TEST LIST"
    ./db db.dat l
    echo "TEST LIST OK"

    echo "TEST FETCH"
    ./db db.dat g 2
    ./db db.dat g 3
    echo "TEST FETCH OK"

    echo "TEST COMPLETED OK"
fi

Answer 1

I would do it like this

VALGRIND=""
if [ "$1" == "valgrind" ]
then
  VALGRIND="valgrind"
fi

echo "TEST STARTED"
echo "TEST CREATE DATABASE"
$VALGRIND ./db db.dat c
echo "TEST CREATE DATABASE OK"
...