[SOLVED] bash script to check file name begins with expected string

Issue

Running on OS X with a bash script:

sourceFile=`basename $1`
shopt -s nocasematch
if [[ "$sourceFile" =~ "adUsers.txt" ]]; then echo success ; else echo fail ; fi

The above works, but what if the user sources a file called adUsers_new.txt?

I tried:

if [[ "$sourceFile" =~ "adUsers*.txt" ]]; then echo success ; else echo fail ; fi

But the wildcard doesn't work in this case. I'm writing this script to allow for the user to have different iterations of the source file name, which must begin with aduser and have the .txt file extension.

Solution

In bash, you can get the first seven characters of a shell variable with:

${sourceFile:0:7}

and the last four with:

${sourceFile:${#sourceFile}-4}

Armed with that knowledge, simply use those expressions where you would normally use the variable itself, something like the following script:

arg=$1
shopt -s nocasematch
i7f4="${arg:0:7}${arg:${#arg}-4}"
if [[ "${i7f4}" = "adusers.txt" ]] ; then
    echo Okay
else
    echo Bad
fi

You can see it in action with the following transcript:

pax> check.sh hello
Bad

pax> check.sh addUsers.txt
Bad

pax> check.sh adUsers.txt
Okay

pax> check.sh adUsers_new.txt
Okay

pax> check.sh aDuSeRs_stragngeCase.pdf.gx..txt
Okay

Answered By - paxdiablo

Answer Checked By - Willingham (WPSolving Volunteer)