1.8. Hush shell

barebox has an integrated shell: hush. This is a simple shell which is enough for writing simple shell scripts. Usage of the shell for scripts should not be overstrained. Often a command written in C is more flexible and also more robust than a complicated shell script.

1.8.1. Hush features

variables:

a="Hello user"
echo $a
Hello user

conditional execution if / elif / else / fi:

if [ ${foo} = ${bar} ]; then
        echo "foo equals bar"
else
        echo "foo and bar differ"
fi

for loops:

for i in a b c; do
        echo $i
done

while loops:

while true; do
        echo "endless loop"
done

wildcard globbing:

ls d*
echo ???

There is no support in hush for input/output redirection or pipes. Some commands work around this limitation with additional arguments. for example the echo - echo args to console command has the -a FILE option for appending a file and the -o FILE option for overwriting a file. The readline command requires a variable name as argument in which the line will be stored.

NOTE: hush feels like a normal Unix shell, but it cannot calculate by itself, i.e. $(($A/2)) won’t work. Calculation can however be done with let - evaluate arithmetic expressions:

A=10
let B=$A/2
echo $B