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Case Statement
The case statement allows us to specify several possible
statement blocks depending on the value of a variable.
The case statement can replace a group of "if" statements.
Example (process the first argument to a program):
<![CDATA[
#!/bin/sh
case $1 in
--test|-t)
echo "you used the --test option"
exit 0
;;
--help|-h)
echo "Usage:"
echo " myprog.sh [--test|--help|--version]"
exit 0
;;
--version|-v)
echo "myprog.sh version 0.0.1"
exit 0
;;
-*)
echo "No such option $1"
echo "Usage:"
echo " myprog.sh [--test|--help|--version]"
exit 1
;;
esac
echo "You typed \"$1\" on the command-line"
]]>
Each statement block is separated by ;;.
The strings before the ) are glob expression matches.
The first successful match causes the following blocks to be executed.
The | symbol enables us to enter several possible glob expressions.