[NTLUG:Discuss] More shell scripting madness

[Chris Cox]

. Daniel wrote:
...
> But while hacking around, I came up with a question I haven't yet figured 
> out.
> 
> How can I set up an expression that tests if one string is found within 
> another.  Let's say, for example, A="ABCDEFGHIJK" and B="CDEF".  Obviously 
> $B can be found within $A.  But how to set up an expression where the 
> result is true or false and can run a conditional off of the result?
> 

if expr "$A" : ".*$B" >/dev/null; then
	echo found
fi

The matched expression is a RE (Regular Expression).  You can use this
to parse out matched areas:

e.g.

expr "$A" : ".*\($B\)"


Globbing patterns are portable inside of switch statements...

case "$A" in
*$B*)
	echo found
;;
*)
	echo "not found"
;;
esac

In case that's more what you were looking for.  Just remember that "$B"
can't contain unescaped pattern matching chars.