====== Bash Scripting ======

===== Resources =====

  * [[http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/|Advanced Bash Scripting Guide]]

===== Useful Tricks =====

==== Existence of a Directory ====

  if [ -z "`ls the/directory`" ]; then echo empty; fi 

==== Getting the First Word in a String ====

Examples, using ''wc''

  wc_count=`wc -l SOMETHING | cut -d' ' -f1`

or

  wc_count=`wc -l SOMETHING | awk '{ print $1 }'`

or

  wc_count=`wc -l SOMETHING | (read X Y; echo $X)` 

or 
  
  wc_count=`wc -l SOMETHING | sed -e 's/ .*//'`

or

  wc_count=`wc -l SOMETHING`
  wc_count=${wc_count% SOMETHING}

or

  function first { echo $1 }
  wc_count=$(first $(wc -l SOMETHING))