Tutorial on shell scripts for saving searches

• Executing a batch of grep commands
• Generating input to a spreadsheet program

When you type commands at the keyboard in the ordinary way, you are giving commands to the shell one by one. When you run (a.k.a. execute) a shell script, you give the commands in the script to the shell in a batch.

I've put together two sample shell scripts for you to edit and tailor to your own purposes. The first script is intended to introduce you to shell scripts; it simply executes a batch of grep searches, outputting the results to the screen or to a file. In principle, you could type the results from a script like this one into a spreadsheet program by hand. Don't do this, though, because it is both time-consuming and error-prone. Instead, use a script of the second type, which generates output that is suitable for importing into a spreadsheet program directly.

• Download batchGrep.sh.

  # this script contains some sample searches on the coded PPHCE
  
  # pound signs at the very beginning of a line indicate comments 
  
  # see what happens when you comment out lines
  # for instance, add a pound sign at the beginning of some of the "echo" lines
  
  # then see what happens when you uncomment those lines (remove the pound sign)
  
  echo "negative declaratives, ordinary verbs, old grammar, text from 1500-1519"
  grep -c "^V:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[01]" ling300.cod.ooo
  echo "negative declaratives, ordinary verbs, new grammar, text from 1500-1519"
  grep -c "^v:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[01]" ling300.cod.ooo
  
  # blank lines in the program don't generate blank lines in the output
  # if you need to generate a blank line, use the following line
  echo ""
  
  echo "questions, 'know' class, old grammar, author born 1680-1699"
  grep -c "^.:K:.:.:.:.:.:6:[89]" ling300.cod.ooo
  echo "questions, 'know' class, old grammar, author born 1680-1699"
  grep -c "^.:k:.:.:.:.:.:6:[89]" ling300.cod.ooo
  

• Make sure that the script and its input file ling300.cod.ooo are in the same directory.

• In order to run the script, you need to turn it from an ordinary text file into an executable program by changing the read-write-execute permissions on the file. At the system prompt, type

  chmod 755 batchGrep.sh
  

  You only need to use chmod once. Once the file is executable, it stays that way.

• Run the script.

  bash batchGrep.sh
  

  If the above command gives you an error message, try one of the following two options.

  ./batchGrep.sh
  

  batchGrep.sh
  

• As it stands, the script writes its results to the terminal window. You can save the output of the shell script by writing it to a file, which can then be viewed with your text editor.

  bash batchGrep.sh > firstResults
  

• Go back and forth between editing the script with your text editor and running it to learn how it works and how to get it to do what you want.

• Download spreadsheetGenerator.sh.

  # this script generates a spreadsheet that is set up as indicated below
  # the script will fill in the cells marked by ___
  # the script doesn't calculate the percentages; you will do that 
  # after importing the output of the script into your spreadsheet program
  
  # .                                      1500-1519 1520-1539 1540-1559
  # negative_declarative_ordinary_verb_old    ___       ___       ___
  # negative_declarative_ordinary_verb_new    ___       ___       ___
  # percentages
  # positive_question_'know'_class_old        ___       ___       ___
  # positive_question_'know'_class_new        ___       ___       ___
  # percentages
  
  # the dot in the first line is a placeholder for the row headers
  echo -n ". "
  # the next lines set up the column headers
  echo -n "1500-1519 "
  echo -n "1520-1539 "
  echo -n "1540-1559 "
  # include the following line at the end of every row for the spreadsheet
  echo ""
  
  # when you import the file into a spreadsheet program, space counts as a
  # possible column, so I'm using underscore to delimit words in the
  # headers.  you could also use hyphens, periods, etc.
  
  echo -n "negative_declarative_ordinary_verb_old "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^V:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[01]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^V:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[23]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^V:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[45]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo ""
  
  echo -n "negative_declarative_ordinary_verb_new "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^v:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[01]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^v:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[23]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^v:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[45]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo ""
  
  echo -n "percentages"
  echo ""
  
  echo -n "positive_question_'know'_class_old "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^.:K:p:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[01]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^.:K:p:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[23]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^.:K:p:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[45]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo ""
  
  echo -n "positive_question_'know'_class_new "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^.:k:p:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[01]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^.:k:p:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[23]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo -n "`grep -c '^.:k:p:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:5:[45]' ling300.cod.ooo` "
  echo ""
  
  echo -n "percentages"
  echo ""
  

• Once again, make sure that the script and its input file ling300.cod.ooo are in the same directory.

• Make the script executable.

  chmod 755 spreadsheetGenerator.sh
  

• Run the script.

  bash spreadsheetGenerator.sh
  

  Once again, if the above command gives you an error message, try the following options.

  ./spreadsheetGenerator.sh
  

  spreadsheetGenerator.sh
  

• Pipe the results to a file.

  bash spreadsheetGenerator.sh > firstSpreadsheet
  

• Go back and forth between editing the script with your text editor and running it to learn how it works and how to get it to do what you want.

• Import the results of running your script into your spreadsheet program so that you can calculate percentages and graph the results.