I have written a script that is reading an array: recentdirs with directory names from an external config file called: defaults.cfg and the user can either chose one of the directories from the list or enter a new one. If the user enters a new directory I want this to be stored as the first position in the array recentdirs and saved back in the config file defaults.cfg . The script is able to do this BUT in the current form it is overwriting the file defaults.cfg and thus loosing all other values I'd like to store in it. I have played with ">>" but then the array will be added to the end of the file instead of modified.
directory_select.sh
#!/bin/bash number=0 source defaults.cfg for i in "${recentdirs[@]}" do #only show the last 5 directories if [ $number -le 5 ] then echo "$number - $i" number=$((number+1)) else break fi done read selection #check if number or string was entered regpat='^[0-9]+$' if ! [[ $selection =~ $regpat ]] then newdir=( ${selection} ) #merge arrays to have the new entry at the first position recentdirs=("${newdir[@]}" "${recentdirs[@]}") #write array back into file set | grep ^recentdirs > defaults.cfg else echo ${recentdirs[$selection]} fi Content of defaults.cfg
recentdirs=([0]="/new/folder/" [1]="/folderA/folder1/" [2]="/folderB/folder2/" [3]="/folderX/folder5") EDIT Working version:
#!/bin/bash number=0 source defaults.cfg for i in "${recentdirs[@]}" do #only show the last 5 directories if [ $number -le 5 ] then echo "$number - $i" number=$((number+1)) else break fi done read selection #check if number or string was entered regpat='^[0-9]+$' if ! [[ $selection =~ $regpat ]] then newdir=( ${selection} ) #merge and write array back into file with sed sexp="s[^recentdirs.*[recentdirs=(${newdir[@]} ${recentdirs[@]})[" sed -i -e "$sexp" defaults.cfg else echo ${recentdirs[$selection]} fi 
