bash scripting: perform the same actions on many variables

I just had to write a script for James which would (a) download a bunch of .tar.gzs from various sourceforge projects, and (b) untar those files, and store the directories for later use.

Here's what I came up with:

#!/bin/bash



SRC_XMLRPC="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xmlrpc-epi/xmlrpc-epi-0.51.tar.gz"

SRC_ELFIO="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/elfio/ELFIO-1.0.3.tar.gz"



for SRCVAR

in ${!SRC_*}

do

  TAROUT=$(curl -s --location ${!SRCVAR}  | tar -zxvf -)

  export DIR_${SRCVAR/SRC_/}=$(echo $TAROUT | cut -f 1 -d \ )

done

New things I learnt:

${!SRC_*} expands to an array containing the names of all variables whose names start with SRC_

${!SRCVAR} expands to the value of the variable whose name is the value of $SRCVAR - ie, one level of indirection.

${SRCVAR/SRC_/} - well, think what :s/$SRCVAR/SRC_// would do in vi (if vi knew how to expand $SRCVAR)...

Bash is the rocks.

One thing that annoys me: that cut. That causes a fork. Forks is bad. The forks for curl and tar - those, I can't avoid, but this fork should be avoidable. I'd like to avoid that fork if I could.

Update: Fork Avoided!

#!/bin/bash -x



BASEDIR=`pwd`



SRC_XMLRPC="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xmlrpc-epi/xmlrpc-epi-0.51.tar.gz"

SRC_ELFIO="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/elfio/ELFIO-1.0.3.tar.gz"



for SRCVAR

in ${!SRC_*}

do

  TAROUT=$(curl -s --location ${!SRCVAR}  | tar -zxvf -)

  export DIR_${SRCVAR/SRC_/}=${TAROUT%%/*}

done