Positional Parameters in Unix OS and Shell Programming
In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, positional parameters are variables that hold the
arguments or input passed to a script or command. These parameters are numbered, allowing
you to access and manipulate them easily in shell scripts.
Here’s a breakdown:
1. Accessing Positional Parameters:
• $0: Refers to the name of the script or command itself.
• $1, $2, ..., $N: Refers to the first, second, ..., Nth argument passed to the script.
For example, in a script invoked like this:
./myscript.sh arg1 arg2 arg3
$0 is ./myscript.sh
$1 is arg1
$2 is arg2
$3 is arg3
Special Parameters:
• $#: Represents the number of arguments passed to the script.
• $*: Expands to all arguments as a single word.
• $@: Expands to all arguments but treats each argument as a separate word.
• "$@": Useful in loops; it treats each argument as a separate quoted string, unlike $*.
• $$: The process ID (PID) of the current script.
• $?: The exit status of the last command executed.
• $!: The PID of the last background process.
echo "Script name: $0"
echo "First argument: $1"
echo "Second argument: $2"
echo "Number of arguments: $#"
echo "All arguments (using \$*): $*"
echo "All arguments (using \$@): $@"
Differences between $* and $@:
• $*: Treats all arguments as a single string. If quoted, it returns a single word with all
arguments joined by the first character of IFS (Internal Field Separator, typically a
space).
• $@: Treats each argument separately. When quoted, each argument is individually
quoted and separated.
For instance, given arg1 arg2 arg3 as inputs:
• $* expands to "arg1 arg2 arg3"
• $@ expands to "arg1" "arg2" "arg3"
Examples
# Using "$@"
for arg in "$@"; do
echo "Argument: $arg"
done
# Using "$*"
for arg in "$*"; do
echo "Argument: $arg"
done
In this example, "$@" iterates over each argument separately, while "$*" treats all arguments as
one string.
Unix shell script for addition of two numbers using user input
# Prompt the user to input the first number
echo "Enter the first number:"
read num1
# Prompt the user to input the second number
echo "Enter the second number:"
read num2
# Perform the addition
sum=$((num1 + num2))
# Output the result
echo "The sum of $num1 and $num2 is: $sum"
When executed, it will ask for two numbers and then display the sum.
Unix shell script for addition of two numbers using positional parameters
# Check if two arguments are provided
if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 number1 number2"
exit 1
fi
# Perform the addition
sum=$(($1 + $2))
# Output the result
echo "The sum of $num1 and $num2 is: $sum"
Using Positional Parameters in Conditional Statements
if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
echo "You must provide exactly 2 arguments."
exit 1
fi
echo "First argument: $1"
echo "Second argument: $2"
Shifting Positional Parameters
echo "First argument before shift: $1"
shift
echo "First argument after shift: $1"
Combining Positional Parameters with Arithmetic Operations
if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 number1 number2"
exit 1
fi
sum=$(( $1 + $2 ))
echo "The sum of $1 and $2 is: $sum"
