shell: create Shortcut command (alias or function) for working with IP address as arguments

Question

I am not sure if I performed the following illegal or true

but what I need is - to create set of ready commands
so if I need to use , for example to match IP address with 4 octet I can use the command - command_that_match_four_octet

Please advice if I performed correctly the following and, I want to know if the following syntax will not cause troubles.

[root@su1a /tmp]#  command_that_match_four_octet=" grep '[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}' "

[root@su1a /tmp]# command_that_match_three_three_octet=" grep '[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}' "

.

[root@su1a /tmp]# echo 23.4.5.1  | eval $command_that_match_four_octet
   23.4.5.1

[root@su1a /tmp]# echo 23.4.5 | eval $command_that_match_three_three_octet
   23.4.5

Shot answer is Yes, but no. This may work, but using `eval` is not a good practice. — F. Hauri - Give Up GitHub, Dec 30 '12 at 21:26

F. Hauri - Give Up GitHub · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-30T22:08:23.877

what you call shortcut seem to be a kind of alias or more complex functions.

for answering you ask, you could:

alias checkCommand="grep '[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}'"
echo 23.4.5.1  | checkCommand
23.4.5.1

or

function checkIsIp() {
    grep '[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}'
}
echo 23.4.5.1  | checkIsIp

There is a bash function that will check for IP (v4) and more this will compute 32bit integer if argument is a valid IP and return a RC > 0 if else:

function check_Is_Ip() {
    local IFS=.
    set -- $1
    [ $# -eq 4 ] || return 2
    local var
    for var in $* ;do
        [ $var -lt 0 ] || [ $var -gt 255 ] && return 3
      done
    echo $(( ($1<<24) + ($2<<16) + ($3<<8) + $4))
}

than now:

if check_Is_Ip 1.0.0.1 >/dev/null; then echo It is. ;else echo There is not. ;fi
It is.

if check_Is_Ip 1.255.0.1 >/dev/null; then echo It is. ;else echo There is not. ;fi
It is.

if check_Is_Ip 1.256.0.1 >/dev/null; then echo It is. ;else echo There is not. ;fi
There is not.

and useable for IP calculation:

There is the back function:

int2ip() {
    echo $(($1>>24)).$(($1>>16&255)).$(($1>>8&255)).$(($1&255))
}

check_Is_Ip 255.255.255.0
4294967040
check_Is_Ip 192.168.1.31
3232235807

int2ip $((4294967040 & 3232235807))
192.168.1.0

So as a good practice, you could:

function die() {
    echo "Error: $@" >&2
    exit 1
}

netIp="192.168.1.31"
netMask="255.255.255.0"

intIp=$(check_Is_Ip $netIp) || die "Submited IP: '$netIP' is not an IPv4 address."
intMask=$(check_Is_Ip $netMask) || die "Submited Mask: '$netMask' not IPv4."
netBase=$(int2ip $(( intIp & intMask )) )
netBcst=$(int2ip $(( intIp | intMask ^ ( (1<<32) - 1 ) )) )
printf "%-20s: %s\n" \
    Address $netIp Netmask $netMask Network $netBase Broadcast $netBcst

Address             : 192.168.1.31
Netmask             : 255.255.255.0
Network             : 192.168.1.0
Broadcast           : 192.168.1.255

Where check, validation and conversion of inputs are done is only one operation:

intMask=$(check_Is_Ip $netMask) || die "Submited Mask: '$netMask' not IPv4."

If $netMask don't match IPv4, the command check_Is_Ip will fail, then die will be executed. If else, result of conversion will be stored in intMask variable.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 30 '12 at 11:59

0

If you want to create a shortcut to another command, you can use the builtin shell command alias. For more info, you can see man bash.

As an example, you can use:

$ alias your_command_name='your complicated and long command'

answered Dec 30 '12 at 11:59

Khaled

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I need only to know if can use the commands as I write in my question , I only want to understand if they are correctly good enough – yael Dec 30 '12 at 12:37

shell: create Shortcut command (alias or function) for working with IP address as arguments

2 Answers2