Returning from a function

• In mathematics a function ƒ takes an input, x, and returns an output ƒ(x).
• In computer a shell function name can take an input, $1 and return back the value (true or false) to the script.
• In other words, you can return from a function with an exit status.

Syntax

• The return command causes a function to exit with the return value specified by N and syntax is:

return N

• If N is not specified, the return status is that of the last command.
• The return command terminates the function.
• The return command is not necessary when the return value is that of the last command executed.

Example

Create a shell script called isroot.sh as follows:

#!/bin/bash
# version 1.0
 
# Purpose: Determine if current user is root or not
is_root_user(){
 [ $(id -u) -eq 0 ]
}
 
# invoke the function
# make decision using conditional logical operators 
is_root_user && echo "You can run this script." || echo "You need to run this script as a root user."

Save and close the file. Run it as follows:

chmod +x isroot.sh 
./isroot.sh

Sample outputs:

You need to run this script as a root user.

Run it as the root user:

sudo ./isroot.sh

Sample outputs:

[sudo] password for vivek: 
You can run this script.

The following is an updated version of the same script. This version create the constants variables using the declare command called TRUE and FALSE.

#!/bin/bash
# version 2.0
# define constants 
declare -r TRUE=0
declare -r FALSE=1
 
# Purpose: Determine if current user is root or not
is_root_user(){
 # root user has user id (UID) zero.
 [ $(id -u) -eq 0 ] && return $TRUE || return $FALSE
}
 
is_root_user && echo "You can run this script." || echo "You need to run this script as a root user."

Returning a string or word from a function

• You cannot return a word or anything else from a function.
• However, you can use echo or printf command to send back output easily to the script.

#!/bin/bash
# Variables
domain="CyberCiti.BIz"
out=""
 
##################################################################
# Purpose: Converts a string to lower case
# Arguments:
#   $@ -> String to convert to lower case
##################################################################
function to_lower() 
{
    local str="$@"
    local output
    output=$(tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'<<<"${str}")
    echo $output
}
 
# invoke the to_lower()
to_lower "This Is a TEST"
 
# invoke to_lower() and store its result to $out variable
out=$(to_lower ${domain})
 
# Display  back the result from $out
echo "Domain name : $out"