case:tldr:97bcb

case: Match a variable against string literals to decide which command to run.

case

$ case ${$tocount} in ${words}) ${wc -w README}; ;; ${lines}) ${wc -l README}; ;; esac

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The given command is a shell script command that uses the case statement to perform different actions based on the value of the variable $tocount. Let's break it down step by step:

case ${$tocount} in ${words}): This begins the case statement by specifying the variable "$tocount" as the value to be evaluated. It checks if $tocount matches the value ${words}.
${wc -w README}; ;;: If the value of $tocount matches ${words}, the command wc -w README will be executed. This command uses the wc utility to count the number of words in the file README. The double semicolon ;; signifies the end of this case block.
${lines}) ${wc -l README}; ;;: If the value of $tocount does not match ${words}, it will be checked if it matches ${lines}. If it does, the command wc -l README will be executed. This command counts the number of lines in the file README. Again, the double semicolon ;; denotes the end of this case block.
esac: This is used to close the case statement.

In summary, this script allows for different actions to be taken depending on the value of $tocount. If $tocount matches ${words}, it returns the word count of the file README. If it matches ${lines}, it returns the line count of README.

This explanation was created by an AI. In most cases those are correct. But please always be careful and never run a command you are not sure if it is safe.

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