for

Use

for name in Ada Linus Grace; do
  printf 'hello %s\n' "$name"
done

What It Does

for repeats commands for each item in a list.

Common Forms

Explicit list:

for name in Ada Linus Grace; do
  printf 'hello %s\n' "$name"
done

Brace expansion creates words before the loop starts:

for number in {1..3}; do
  printf '%s\n' "$number"
done

Bash expands {1..3} to 1 2 3, then for iterates over those three words.

Globbed files:

for path in ~/src/pages/*.md; do
  printf '%s\n' "$path"
done

Watch Out

Quote variables inside loops.

If a loop body grows past a few commands, move it into a script.

Docs Pointers

• Run help for.
• Read loops, quoting, one-liners, and shell scripting.