Welcome back to our mini-series on square brackets. In the previous article, we looked at various ways square brackets are used at the command line, including globbing. If you’ve not read that article, you might want to start there.

Square brackets can also be used as a command. Yep, for example, in:

[ "a" = "a" ]

which is, by the way, a valid command that you can execute, [ ... ] is a command. Notice that there are spaces between the opening bracket [ and the parameters "a" = "a", and then between the parameters and the closing bracket ]. That is precisely because the brackets here act as a command, and you are separating the command from its parameters.

You would read the above line as “test whether the string “a” is the same as string “a”“. If the premise is true, the [ ... ] command finishes with an exit status of 0. If not, the exit status is 1. We talked about exit statuses in a previous article, and there you saw that you could access the value by checking the $? variable.

Try it out:

[ "a" = "a" ]

echo $?

And now try:

[ "a" = "b" ]

echo $?

In the first case, you will get a 0 (the premise is true), and running the second will give you a 1 (the premise is false). Remember that, in Bash, an exit status from a command that is 0 means it exited normally with no errors, and that makes it true. If there were any errors, the exit value would be a non-zero value (false). The [ ... ] command follows the same rules so that it is consistent with the rest of the other commands.

The [ ... ] command comes in handy in if ... then constructs and also in loops that require a certain condition to be met (or not) before exiting, like the while and until loops.

The logical operators for testing stuff are pretty straightforward:

[ STRING1 = STRING2 ] => checks to see if the strings are equal

[ STRING1 != STRING2 ] => checks to see if the strings are not equal [ INTEGER1 -eq INTEGER2 ] => checks to see if INTEGER1 is equal to INTEGER2 [ INTEGER1 -ge INTEGER2 ] => checks to see if INTEGER1 is greater than or equal to INTEGER2

[ INTEGER1 -gt INTEGER2 ] => checks to see if INTEGER1 is greater than INTEGER2

[ INTEGER1 -le INTEGER2 ] => checks to see if INTEGER1 is less than or equal to INTEGER2

[ INTEGER1 -lt INTEGER2 ] => checks to see if INTEGER1 is less than INTEGER2

[ INTEGER1 -ne INTEGER2 ] => checks to see if INTEGER1 is not equal to INTEGER2

etc...

You can also test for some very shell-specific things. The -f option, for example, tests whether a file exists or not:

for i in {000..099}; \ do \ if [ -f file$i ]; \ then \ echo file$i exists; \ else \ touch file$i; \ echo I made file$i; \ fi; \

done

If you run this in your test directory, line 3 will test to whether a file is in your long list of files. If it does exist, it will just print a message; but if it doesn’t exist, it will create it, to make sure the whole set is complete.

You could write the loop more compactly like this:

for i in {000..099};\

do\ if [ ! -f file$i ];\ then\ touch file$i;\ echo I made file$i;\ fi;\

done

The ! modifier in the condition inverts the premise, thus line 3 would translate to “if the file file$i does not exist“.

Try it: delete some random files from the bunch you have in your test directory. Then run the loop shown above and watch how it rebuilds the list.

There are plenty of other tests you can try, including -d tests to see if the name belongs to a directory and -h tests to see if it is a symbolic link. You can also test whether a files belongs to a certain group of users (-G), whether one file is older than another (-ot), or even whether a file contains something or is, on the other hand, empty.

Try the following for example. Add some content to some of your files:

echo "Hello World" >> file023

echo "This is a message" >> file065

echo "To humanity" >> file010

and then run this:

for i in {000..099};\

do\ if [ ! -s file$i ];\ then\ rm file$i;\ echo I removed file$i;\ fi;\

done

And you’ll remove all the files that are empty, leaving only the ones you added content to.

To find out more, check the manual page for the test command (a synonym for [ ... ]) with man test.

You may also see double brackets ([[ ... ]]) sometimes used in a similar way to single brackets. The reason for this is because double brackets give you a wider range of comparison operators. You can use ==, for example, to compare a string to a pattern instead of just another string; or < and > to test whether a string would come before or after another in a dictionary.

To find out more about extended operators check out this full list of Bash expressions.

Next Time

In an upcoming article, we’ll continue our tour and take a look at the role of parentheses () in Linux command lines. See you then!

Read more:

1. The Meaning of Dot (.)
2. Understanding Angle Brackets in Bash (<...>)
3. More About Angle Brackets in Bash(< and >)
4. And, Ampersand, and & in Linux (&)
5. Ampersands and File Descriptors in Bash (&)
6. Logical & in Bash (&)
7. All about {Curly Braces} in Bash ({})
8. Using Square Brackets in Bash: Part 1

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions has now received a solid release date for Nintendo Switch. Get ready to bring the fires of war to a hybrid console near you on 16th April.

The game is described as “a modern take on collectable card games”, featuring cross-play between digital and physical versions and allowing players to scan physical cards into their collection to claim and take them onto the battlefield. We first heard about this one coming to Switch in January, when we were also treated to a cinematic trailer.

Now, though, we have that all-important release date, and PlayFusion CEO Mark Gehard has shared the following in a press release:

“The response for the physical and digital game has already been incredible, and we just can’t wait to watch that grow to new heights. With the upcoming release of our Set 3 cards in Savagery, and a whole heap of new features like Arena of Echoes and Realm Trials, there’s always going to be something new to try. And now, there will be a much bigger community to try with”

Launching alongside the new Switch version is a brand new single-player adventure called Realm Trials, which is said to feature “dozens of hours of content” where players will fight legendary battles to conquer the Mortal Realms. The new mode, ‘Arena of Echoes’, will also give players “a whole new way to battle”.

Are you excited for this one? Will you be checking it out later this month? Tell us below.

Pathea Games, the studio behind My Time at Portia, has today revealed its next project. The game’s called Super Buckyball Tournament and – on the surface, at least – the whole thing looks incredibly familiar.

The game is a third-person, online multiplayer, action sports soccer game, setting itself apart from traditional sports titles by offering “full physics-based ball movement and passing”. Players will have to work with each other to create opportunities to score and then prevent the opposition from scoring.

If you’ve watched the trailer above, you’ll see that the familiarities with Rocket League are obvious, right down to the blue and orange colouring. According to a press release sent out today, however, it’s also inspired by the likes of ARMS and Super Mario Kart.

“Inspired by the likes of “Arms”, “Super Mario Kart” and “Rocket League”, the player will experience exciting and intense competition in Super Buckyball Tournament. There are eight unique heroes to choose from, and each hero has a unique power to pass, score, or attack the opposing team’s players. Items will also randomly spawn during a game to give the player an extra boost during play. These include shields, homing missiles, bombs, and more! The game simulates real-time physics and collisions. Teams with good teamwork will have an advantage!”

Pathea Games says that the game will hit Early Access on Steam in late 2019, before receiving full support for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch when the game is fully released.

What do you think? An interesting concept? Share your thoughts with us below.

Bringing together information from multiple disconnected security systems to solve today’s security challenges is complex. We recently asked Microsoft Graph Security Hackathon participants to come up with innovative solutions using the Microsoft Graph Security API, and they did not disappoint.

We were excited to get a diverse set of submissions that covered real world security use cases, including security operations, user risk management, alerts enrichment, incident response, and analytics. It was truly inspiring to see the effort and creativity that teams and individuals put into their applications.

With that, please join us in congratulating the winners of the Microsoft Graph Security Hackathon.

First place: Microsoft User Security Evaluation Reporter

The Microsoft User Security Evaluation Reporter (MS-USER), from Darren Robinson, helps service desks and cybersecurity leads get instant visibility into their organization’s user security posture. Leveraging the Graph Security API and Microsoft Secure Score, the MS-USER app pulls together user and event information and includes recommended actions for remediating risks. The application also checks against the Have I Been Pwned database to give administrators and service desk personnel additional context on a user’s password security. This solution makes it easy to reach out to users and give them simple, actionable advice to improve their security, and as a result, the security of the rest of the organization. Darren will be joining us at our session at the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle, Washington, May 6-8, 2019. Definitely take a moment to check out his app today at devpost.com/software/microsoft-user-security-evaluation-reporter.

Runner up: Microsoft Graph Security—Security Alerts Enrichment

The Security Alerts Enrichments solution, submitted by Josh Rickard, is based on the Swimlane platform and ties together alerts with threat indicators and actions. The team created two applications that use Graph Security alerts to automate the creation of a threat intelligence feed, which can then be used to automate remediation of threats in the customer’s on-premises firewall appliance, which in this case is the Palo Alto Panorama Firewall. The second application ties in five different threat intelligence sources for enrichment. This is a great example of the power of a Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) solution. We encourage you to check it out at devpost.com/software/microsoft-graph-security-security-alerts-enrichment.

Popular choice: OneGraph

The OneGraph application, from Abhishek Joshi, enables organizations to quickly investigate, analyze, and respond to security threats. The application allows users can get a quick view of all their alerts and statuses, and easily drill down into things like specific threats, users affected, and alerts from specific providers. We really liked the tie-in with Microsoft Planner that allows for alerts to get assigned to specific people or groups. The integration with Microsoft Teams was a great use case that enables quick response. We hope you take a moment to look at this app at devpost.com/software/onegraph.

Again, congratulations to the winners and a huge thank you to all participants in the hackathon. We also wanted to take a moment to thank our all-star panel of judges for taking time out of their busy schedules to review and provide feedback on all the submissions. Many thanks for the support to Ann Johnson, Rich Howard, Scott Hanselman, Mark Russinovich, Troy Hunt, and Olli Vanhoja.

Finally, if any of this has inspired to you develop your own security app or solution, here are some resources to get you started:

The Detective Pikachu movie is just over a month away from battling its way on to our screens and The Pokémon Company is gearing up for its release with some fancy new merch.

In a nice touch, the entire range is smart and discreet, so if you don’t fancy walking around town with a giant, bright yellow Pikachu face plastered over your chest, these options could well be for you. There are t-shirts, hoodies, hats, mugs, and more available. We particularly like the Cycling Road sign.

If you’re interested in picking anything up, or if you want to check out the full range, make sure to head over to the Pokémon Center website here.

We’ve recently been treated to a high definition poster of the film and a set of official trading cards, too.

Are you excited to go and watch this next month? Remember, the film releases worldwide on 10th May.

Silverblue is an operating system for your desktop built on Fedora. It’s excellent for daily use, development, and container-based workflows. It offers numerous advantages such as being able to roll back in case of any problems. If you want to test Fedora 30 on your Silverblue system, this article tells you how. It not only shows you what to do, but also how to revert back if anything unforeseen happens.

Switching to Fedora 30 branch

Switching to Fedora 30 on Silverblue is easy. First, check if the 30 branch is available, which should be true now:

ostree remote refs fedora-workstation

You should see the following in the output:

fedora-workstation:fedora/30/x86_64/silverblue

Next, import the GPG key for the Fedora 30 branch. Without this step, you won’t be able to rebase.

sudo ostree remote gpg-import fedora-workstation -k /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-30-primary

Next, rebase your system to the Fedora 30 branch.

rpm-ostree rebase fedora-workstation:fedora/30/x86_64/silverblue

Finally, the last thing to do is restart your computer and boot to Fedora 30.

How to revert things back

Remember that Fedora 30’s still in beta testing phase, so there could still be some issues. If anything bad happens — for instance, if you can’t boot to Fedora 30 at all — it’s easy to go back. Just pick the previous entry in GRUB, and your system will start in its previous state before switching to Fedora 30. To make this change permanent, use the following command:

rpm-ostree rollback

That’s it. Now you know how to rebase to Fedora 30 and back. So why not test it today?

By Neil Barnett, Director of Inclusive Hiring and Accessibility at Microsoft

Autism @ Work Playbook, a guide for HR professionals and organizations to create employment opportunities for individuals on the autism spectrum.

Being inclusive is not something we simply do, but rather it stands for who we are. The value proposition for diversity and inclusion within Microsoft is increasingly clear — a diverse and inclusive workforce will yield better products and solutions for our customers, and better experiences for our employees. We all need to do our part to encourage new and different perspectives, solutions, and innovative ideas to surface from all our employees.

Four years ago, on World Autism Awareness Day, we announced Microsoft’s Autism Hiring Program. Given that 80% of individuals on the autism spectrum are unemployed or underemployed, we knew there was an untapped pool of talented people who have the skills aligned to the work we are doing every day at Microsoft. Over the years, we have learned a lot about inclusive hiring and actively share our learnings with other employers interested in evolving their hiring programs.

As an outcome of working with organizations across industries, we are proud to be a founding member of the Autism @ Work Employer Roundtable. About 18 months ago, Disability:IN brought together a group of employers to create the Roundtable, where the main goal is to expand employment opportunities for individuals on the autism spectrum. Today, the Roundtable consists of 16 organizations who all have robust autism hiring programs. As part of the Roundtable, we regularly receive questions about how to get started. In response, we came together and collaborated with the University Washington Information School to publish the “Autism @ Work Playbook,” a resource for employers who are interested in beginning or expanding their inclusive hiring journey. The playbook covers topics from building your business case, recruiting and sourcing talent, going through the interview process, to training, on-boarding, and career development. This is a great resource for every organization, so please take a moment to read and share the playbook.

Throughout the year, Roundtable members along with 250 other employers, academics, service providers, and government agencies, get together at events across the U.S. to share best practices and talk about how we can work together to make an impact on changing the unemployment rate for individuals on the autism spectrum. This year we are happy to announce there will be two upcoming summits sponsored by the Autism @ Work Employer Roundtable to bring this group together. The Autism at Work Summit in May will be hosted by Microsoft at our Redmond campus followed by another summit hosted by SAP in the Fall.

Over the years, we have continued to learn, evolve, and grow our own Autism Hiring Program. We changed our approach from a traditional interview to a cohort model where candidates come to our campus for a week-long experience to demonstrate their skills, gain feedback, and meet with hiring managers. Based on interest in the program from across the company, we have also seen an expansion of the types of roles where candidates are being hired. For example, we have grown from hiring mainly technical roles, like software engineers or data scientists, to more non-technical roles like customer support. In addition, we have recently expanded the program outside of Redmond, WA, with new pilot programs at our campuses in Fargo, ND and Vancouver, BC. These are important regions for Microsoft – we have a large campus in Fargo and it’s one of our TechSpark regions, and an ongoing vision for greater cross-border collaboration throughout the Cascadia Innovation Corridor in Vancouver. We look forward to seeing the program grow in these regions and continue to expand.

Our approach to inclusive hiring is not limited to just one event, program, or initiative. We host various career fairs throughout the year, and on April 23, we will host our next Virtual Career Fair in partnership with 14 other leading companies including, Fidelity, Deloitte, Travelers, Ford and more. If you know someone that is looking for a new opportunity, please make sure to share the event, which provides opportunities to connect with recruiters, learn about open positions and submit resumes. We also fund an annual scholarship for high school students interested in technology and offer broad inclusive hiring efforts and events. If we bring organizations together to focus on inclusive hiring, we can accelerate progress towards breaking down barriers and changing the unemployment rate for individuals on the autism spectrum.

We look forward to continuing to partner with others in the near future to truly make a difference in the employment landscape, educational, and working opportunities for all individuals on the spectrum. If you or someone you know is interested in a career at Microsoft, please send resumes to msautism@microsoft.com and learn more about our inclusive hiring efforts at www.microsoft.com/inclusivehiring. We look forward to hearing from you!

Autism at Work Virtual Career Fair featuring companies, Cintas, Deloitte, EY, Fidelity, Ford, IBM, JP Morgan Chase &Co., Merck, Microsoft, PwC, SAP, Travelers, Ultra Testing, and Willis Towers Watson.

By Admin 03 Apr 2019