Linux: Bash Shell and Scripts

Course details

Bash scripting can help you automate routine tasks and save valuable time, whether you're a Linux user, sys admin, or software developer. Kevin Dankwardt has written thousands of bash scripts, short and long. Here he teaches you how to read and write scripts, and provides a series of scripting challenges to help you test your new skills. Learn about the bash environment, local variables, functions, loops, case statements, string operations, and coprocesses. Plus, learn how to use the text processing utilities sed and AWK to read and edit data in text files. The topics covered in this course are vital for Linux administration, and required for many Linux certifications.

Learning objectives
Exploring the Bash documentation
Setting the script interpreter and permissions
Sourcing and aliasing with bash
Displaying text with echo
Using the typeset and declare commands for variables
Looping
Reading input
Defining functions
Using operators
Using filters and parameter expansion
Advanced bash scripting techniques

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - What you should know
03 - Using the exercise files

1. Intro to Bash Scripting

04 - Exploring the Bash documentation
05 - Setting the script interpreter and permissions
06 - Time commands and set variables
07 - Bash startup
08 - Sourcing and aliasing with bash
09 - Displaying text with the echo command
10 - Challenges - Scripts with exported variables, sourcing, and echo
11 - Solutions - Scripts with exported variables, sourcing, and echo

2. Variables, Control Structures, and Arithmetic

12 - The typeset and declare commands for variables
13 - Looping with for while sequences and reading input
14 - Defining functions and using return and exit
15 - Using file descriptors, file redirection, pipes, and here documents
16 - Control-flow case statements and if-then-else with the test command
17 - Using arithmetic operators
18 - Challenges - Using local variables in functions, loops, and arithmetic
19 - Solutions - Using local variables in functions, loops, and arithmetic

3. Using Filters and Parameter Expansion

20 - Defining filters and using head, tail, and wc
21 - Using sed and AWK for more powerful scripting
22 - Positional parameters and operators with braces
23 - Challenges - Looping, special variable operators, sed, and AWK
24 - Solutions - Looping, special variable operators, sed, and AWK

4. Advanced Bash

25 - Using the coproc command
26 - Debugging scripts with -x and -u options
27 - Signals and traps
28 - Using the eval and getopt commands
29 - Challenges - Debugging scripts using trap, eval, getopt, and coproc
30 - Solutions - Debugging scripts using trap, eval, getopt, and coproc

Conclusion

31 - Next steps

Linux: Bash Shell and Scripts

Authors

Kevin Dankwardt