Script for automating regression testing

Question

I am writing a simple script to automate my regression testing. I am new to bash scripting and my goal is achieve the most efficient and clean code. I have written a simple function to allow me to select which subject I would like to test. This will loop until I select the exit option. Again, this is quite simple; however I am looking for some feedback on how I can improve.

BIO=biology
showMenu () {
 echo "What subject would like to regression test?"
 echo "1) Physics"
 echo "2) Sociology"
 echo "3) Biology"
 echo "4) Quit"
}
while [ 0 ]
do
 showMenu
 read CHOICE
 case "$CHOICE" in
 "1")
 read SUBJECT
 SUBJECT=physics
 echo "LOG: REGRESSION TESTING $SUBJECT" $SUBJECT
 GENERATE_CSS=`lessc /home/developer/oer.exports/css/ccap-$BIO.less > /home/developer/oer.exports/css/ccap-$BIO.css`
 echo "LOG: CSS GENERATION COMPLETE"
 GENERATE_PDF=`python collectiondbk2pdf.py -v -s ccap-$BIO -d ./test-ccap/col$SUBJECT $SUBJECT.pdf -t tempdir/$SUBJECT`
 echo "LOG: GENERATING $SUBJECT PDF WITH $BIO CSS STYLE"
 ;;
 "2")
 read SUBJECT
 SUBJECT=sociology
 echo "LOG: REGRESSION TESTING SOCIOLOGY" $SUBJECT
 GENERATE_CSS=`lessc /home/developer/oer.exports/css/ccap-$BIO.less > /home/developer/oer.exports/css/ccap-$BIO.css`
 echo "LOG: CSS GENERATION COMPLETE"
 GENERATE_PDF=`python collectiondbk2pdf.py -v -s ccap-$BIO -d ./test-ccap/col$SUBJECT $SUBJECT.pdf -t tempdir/$SUBJECT`
 echo "LOG: GENERATING $SUBJECT PDF WITH $BIO CSS STYLE"
 ;;
 "3")
 echo "Biology"
 DIFF=`diffpdf -a --debug=2 /tmp/pdf/diff bio.pdf bio_slicer.pdf`
 echo "LOG: DIFF DEV vs STAGING NOW AVAILABLE FOR PDF VIEW. "
 ;; 
 "4")
 echo "Exiting now..."
 exit
 ;;
 esac
done

Answer 1

1. while : is a standard idiom for "loop forever" in bash. The colon (:) is a synonym for true.
2. Prefer $(command) to `command` ("backticks"). The former allows you to nest; the latter does not.
3. Though in your case, you don't need the backticks at all. These are for capturing the output of the command, which you don't use anywhere.
4. It isn't clear why you have the read SUBJECT inside each case -- you throw away the value in the very next statement.
5. Don't do this: lessc ccap-$BIO.less > ccap-$BIO.css. (It's a classic mistake in shell scripting; everyone's been bit by it.) This will nuke the file -- it will be truncated by the shell, overwriting the contents before lessc has the chance to read it.

Aside from your code: if your goal is to regenerate the output files whenever one of the input files has changed, you should consider learning make. With a 10-20 line makefile, you can automatically regenerate whichever of the output files need updating whenever one of the input files change.

• Jessica Burnett: Thanks for you comments and suggestions. Points 2 & 5 were particularly valuable.

Answer 2

Take a look at the select command. The selection loop it provides is slightly different from what you have, but take a look at the following:

PS3="What subject would you like to regression test? "
select choice in Physics Biology Sociology Quit; do
 case $choice in
 Physics)
 echo "Do your Physics code here"
 ;;
 Biology)
 echo "Do your Biology code here"
 ;;
 Sociology)
 echo "Do your Physics code here"
 ;;
 Quit)
 exit
 ;;
 esac
done