Welcome to the Bash Scripting Tutorial! In this guide, we will explore the basics of writing scripts in Bash, a popular shell scripting language on Unix-like operating systems.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Bash

Bash is a command language interpreter that is used to execute commands in a Unix-like operating system. It is one of the most popular shells available and is widely used for scripting and automation tasks.

Basic Syntax

The basic syntax of a Bash script is quite simple. Here's a simple example:

#!/bin/bash

echo "Hello, World!"

This script will output "Hello, World!" to the console.

Variables

Variables in Bash are used to store data. Here's an example:

name="John"
echo "Hello, $name!"

This script will output "Hello, John!" to the console.

Control Structures

Control structures are used to control the flow of execution in a script. Here's an example of an if-else statement:

if [ $name == "John" ]; then
    echo "Hello, John!"
else
    echo "Hello, stranger!"
fi

Loops

Loops are used to repeat a block of code multiple times. Here's an example of a for loop:

for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
    echo "Number $i"
done

Functions

Functions are blocks of code that can be reused. Here's an example:

say_hello() {
    echo "Hello, $1!"
}

say_hello "John"

File Handling

File handling is an important part of scripting. Here's an example of reading from a file:

while IFS= read -r line
do
    echo "$line"
done < "example.txt"

Shell Scripts Best Practices

  • Always use meaningful variable names.
  • Comment your code to make it easier to understand.
  • Test your scripts thoroughly.

Further Reading

For more information on Bash scripting, we recommend checking out our Advanced Bash Scripting Guide.

Bash Shell