A bash function that executes a command n (default 5) times

bash function: execute command n times

# Usage:

# $loopc echo 'hello world'
# hello world
# hello world
# hello world
# hello world
# hello world
#
#(i.e. defaults to 5 iterations)
#
# $loopc 3 echo 'hello world'
# hello world
# hello world
# hello world
#
function loopc {
  args=("$@")

  if [ $1 -ge 0 2>/dev/null ]
  then
    LIMIT=$1
    unset args[0]
  else
    LIMIT=5
  fi

  for i in $(eval echo "{1..$LIMIT}"); do
    $(eval echo "${args[@]}");
  done
}

Please try and improve this code and let me know.

In particular if I want to quit midway, currently I need to quit (^c) for the n iterations that are left. (Not nice if you do loopc 50 bla). I guess rewriting this in ruby is an option for that case :)

Hi Saimon, do you mind if I barge in? Well, I'd say that it's not recommended to have optional positional arguments, you won't be able to tell a time from a command. So you either make it required (see my fork) or use getopt/getops. And no need to use evals, just execute "$@" after shifting the undesired arguments.