Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook - Third Edition

How to do it...

A function is defined with the function command, a function name, open/close parentheses, and a function body enclosed in curly brackets:

1. A function is defined as follows:

        function fname() 
        { 
            statements; 
        }  

Alternatively, it can be defined as:

        fname() 
        { 
            statements; 
        } 

It can even be defined as follows (for simple functions):

        fname() { statement; }

2. A function is invoked using its name:

        $ fname ; # executes function

3. Arguments passed to functions are accessed positionally, $1 is the first argument, $2 is the second, and so on:

        fname arg1 arg2 ; # passing args

The following is the definition of the function fname. In the fname function, we have included various ways of accessing the function arguments.

 fname() ...