Welcome to the Shell Scripting Tutorial! This guide will help you understand the basics of shell scripting and how to write your own scripts to automate tasks on your computer.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Shell scripting is a powerful tool for automating tasks on your computer. By writing scripts, you can automate repetitive tasks, save time, and increase productivity.

What is Shell Scripting?

Shell scripting is the practice of writing scripts to automate tasks on a Unix-like operating system. A script is a series of commands that are executed by the shell, the command-line interface of the operating system.

Getting Started

Before you start writing scripts, you need to have a Unix-like operating system installed on your computer. Common options include Linux, macOS, and BSD.

To write shell scripts, you need a text editor. You can use any text editor you like, such as Vim, Nano, or Sublime Text.

Basic Syntax

Here's a simple example of a shell script:

#!/bin/bash

echo "Hello, World!"

This script starts with the shebang #!/bin/bash, which tells the shell which interpreter to use (bash in this case). The echo command prints "Hello, World!" to the console.

Control Structures

Shell scripts can use control structures such as if, for, and while to make decisions and loop through sequences of commands.

If Statement

#!/bin/bash

if [ $1 == "hello" ]; then
  echo "Hello, World!"
else
  echo "Not a hello command."
fi

For Loop

#!/bin/bash

for i in {1..5}; do
  echo "Number $i"
done

While Loop

#!/bin/bash

count=1

while [ $count -le 5 ]; do
  echo "Count is $count"
  ((count++))
done

Functions

Functions are reusable blocks of code that can be called from other parts of your script.

#!/bin/bash

say_hello() {
  echo "Hello, World!"
}

say_hello

Common Commands

Here are some common shell commands you'll use in your scripts:

  • echo: Print text to the console.
  • ls: List files and directories.
  • cd: Change directory.
  • cp: Copy files and directories.
  • mv: Move or rename files and directories.
  • rm: Remove files and directories.

Advanced Topics

For more advanced topics, you can explore the following resources:

Resources

Shell Scripting