Check for IP validity

Question

How do I check the validity of an IP address in a shell script, that is within the range 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255?

Answer 1

If you're using bash, you can do a simple regex match for the pattern, without validating the quads:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

ip=1.2.3.4

if [[ $ip =~ ^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$ ]]; then
  echo "success"
else
  echo "fail"
fi

If you're stuck with a POSIX shell, then you can use expr to do basically the same thing, using BRE instead of ERE:

#!/bin/sh

ip=1.2.3.4

if expr "$ip" : '[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*$' >/dev/null; then
  echo "success"
else
  echo "fail"
fi

Note that expr assumes that your regex is anchored to the left-hand-side of the string, so the initial ^ is unnecessary.

If it's important to verify that each quad is less than 256, you'll obviously require more code:

#!/bin/sh

ip=${1:-1.2.3.4}

if expr "$ip" : '[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*$' >/dev/null; then
  for i in 1 2 3 4; do
    if [ $(echo "$ip" | cut -d. -f$i) -gt 255 ]; then
      echo "fail ($ip)"
      exit 1
    fi
  done
  echo "success ($ip)"
  exit 0
else
  echo "fail ($ip)"
  exit 1
fi

Or perhaps even with fewer pipes:

#!/bin/sh

ip=${1:-1.2.3.4}

if expr "$ip" : '[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*$' >/dev/null; then
  IFS=.
  set $ip
  for quad in 1 2 3 4; do
    if eval [ \$$quad -gt 255 ]; then
      echo "fail ($ip)"
      exit 1
    fi
  done
  echo "success ($ip)"
  exit 0
else
  echo "fail ($ip)"
  exit 1
fi

Or again, if your shell is bash, you could use a cumbersome regular expression for quad validation if you're not fond of arithmetic:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

ip=${1:-1.2.3.4}

re='^(0*(1?[0-9]{1,2}|2([0-4][0-9]|5[0-5]))\.){3}'
 re+='0*(1?[0-9]{1,2}|2([‌​0-4][0-9]|5[0-5]))$'

if [[ $ip =~ $re ]]; then
  echo "success"
else
  echo "fail"
fi

This could also be expressed in BRE, but that's more typing than I have in my fingers.

And lastly, if you like the idea of putting this functionality ... in a function:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

ip=${1:-1.2.3.4}

ipvalid() {
  # Set up local variables
  local ip=${1:-NO_IP_PROVIDED}
  local IFS=.; local -a a=($ip)
  # Start with a regex format test
  [[ $ip =~ ^[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){3}$ ]] || return 1
  # Test values of quads
  local quad
  for quad in {0..3}; do
    [[ "${a[$quad]}" -gt 255 ]] && return 1
  done
  return 0
}

if ipvalid "$ip"; then
  echo "success ($ip)"
  exit 0
else
  echo "fail ($ip)"
  exit 1
fi

There are many ways you could do this. I've shown you just a few.