While loop

The while statement is used to execute a list of commands repeatedly.

The while loop syntax

The syntax is:

           while [ condition ]
           do
                 command1
                 command2
                 ..
                 ....
                 commandN
           done

Command1..commandN will execute while a condition is true. To read a text file line-by-line, use the following syntax:

           while IFS= read -r line
           do
                 command1 on $line
                 command2 on $line
                 ..
                 ....
                 commandN
           done < "/path/to/filename"

OR

           while IFS= read -r field1 filed2 field3 ... fieldN
           do
                 command1 on $field1
                 command2 on $field1 and $field3
                 ..
                 ....
                 commandN on $field1 ... $fieldN
           done < "/path/to dir/file name with space"

IFS is used to set field separator (default is while space). The -r option to read command disables backslash escaping (e.g., \n, \t). This is failsafe while read loop for reading text files.

while loop Example

Create a shell script called while.sh:

#!/bin/bash
# set n to 1
n=1
 
# continue until $n equals 5
while [ $n -le 5 ]
do
	echo "Welcome $n times."
	n=$(( n+1 ))	 # increments $n
done

Save and close the file. Run it as follows:

chmod +x while.sh
./while.sh

Sample outputs:

Welcome 1 times.
Welcome 2 times.
Welcome 3 times.
Welcome 4 times.
Welcome 5 times.

The script initializes the variable n to 1, and then increments it by one. The while loop prints out the "Welcome $n times" until it equals 5 and exit the loop.

Using ((expression)) Format With The While Loop

You can use ((expression)) syntax to test arithmetic evaluation (condition). If the value of the expression is non-zero, the return status is 0; otherwise the return status is 1. To replace while loop condition while [ $n -le 5 ] with while (( num <= 10 )) to improve code readability:

#!/bin/bash
n=1
while (( $n <= 5 ))
do
	echo "Welcome $n times."
	n=$(( n+1 ))	
done

Reading A Text File

You can read a text file using read command and while loop as follows (whilereadfile.sh):

#!/bin/bash
file=/etc/resolv.conf
while IFS= read -r line
do
        # echo line is stored in $line
	echo $line
done < "$file"

Save and close the file. Run it as follows:

chmod +x whilereadfile.sh
./whilereadfile.sh

Sample outputs:

nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 192.168.1.254
nameserver 4.2.2.1

Reading A Text File With Separate Fields

You can store above output in two separate fields as follows (whilereadfields.sh):

#!/bin/bash
file=/etc/resolv.conf
while IFS= read -r f1 f2
do
	echo "field # 1 : $f1 ==> field #2 : $f2"
done < "$file"

Run it as follows:

chmod +x whilereadfields.sh
./whilereadfields.sh

Sample outputs:

field # 1 : nameserver ==> field #2 : 127.0.0.1
field # 1 : nameserver ==> field #2 : 192.168.1.254
field # 1 : nameserver ==> field #2 : 4.2.2.1

Another useful example for reading and phrasing /etc/passwd file using the while loop (readpasswd.sh):

#!/bin/bash
file=/etc/passwd
# set field delimiter to : 
# read all 7 fields into 7 vars 
while IFS=: read -r user enpass uid gid desc home shell
do
    # only display if UID >= 500 
	[ $uid -ge 500 ] && echo "User $user ($uid) assigned \"$home\" home directory with $shell shell."
done < "$file"

Save and close the file. Run it as follows:

chmod +x readpasswd.sh
./readpasswd.sh

Sample output:

User nobody (65534) assigned "/nonexistent" home directory with /bin/sh shell.
User vivek (1000) assigned "/home/vivek" home directory with /bin/bash shell.
User oracle (1004) assigned "/usr/lib/oracle/xe" home directory with /bin/bash shell.
User simran (1001) assigned "/home/simran" home directory with /bin/bash shell.
User t2 (1002) assigned "/home/t2" home directory with /usr/local/bin/t2.bot shell.

External Links

• Bash While Loop Example
• Howto: Read One Character At A Time