Linux Bash Shells and Scripts: Streamlining Tasks and Enhancing Workflows with Automation

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
Explain appropriate usage of shell scripts.
Use the Bash shell effectively.
Use Bash shell variables and control statements.
Automate a wide variety of command line scenarios.
Use shell parameters, functions, pipelines, and file redirection to write powerful command lines and scripts.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - The path to Bash shell mastery
02 - What you should know

1. Intro to Bash Scripting

03 - Exploring the Bash documentation
04 - Setting the script interpreter and permissions
05 - Date and time commands
06 - Shell variables
07 - Bash startup
08 - Sourcing and aliasing with Bash
09 - Displaying text with the echo command
10 - Challenge - Exported variables, sourcing, and echo
11 - Solution - Exported variables, sourcing, and echo

2. Variables, Control Structures, and Arithmetic

12 - The typeset and declare commands for variables and arrays
13 - Looping with while sequences and reading input
14 - Looping with for, the seq command, and backticks
15 - Defining functions and using return and exit
16 - Using file descriptors, file redirection, and pipes
17 - Here documents
18 - Open and close file descriptors
19 - Control-flow if-then-else with the test command
20 - Case statements
21 - Using arithmetic operators
22 - Challenge - Variables in functions, loops, and arithmetic
23 - Solution - Variables in functions, loops, and arithmetic

3. Using Filters and Parameter Expansion

24 - Defining filters and using head, tail, and wc
25 - The use of sed for powerful scripting
26 - Using AWK
27 - Positional parameters and curly braces for variables
28 - Shell parameter expansion
29 - Challenge - Looping and special variable operators
30 - Solution - Looping and special variable operators
31 - Challenge - sed and AWK
32 - Solution - sed and AWK

4. Advanced Bash

33 - Using the coproc command
34 - Debugging scripts with -x and -u options
35 - Signals and traps
36 - Using the eval and getopt commands
37 - Challenge - Debugging scripts and using trap and eval
38 - Solution - Debugging scripts and using trap and eval
39 - Challenge - getopt, trap, and coproc
40 - Solution - getopt, trap, and coproc

Conclusion

41 - Next steps

Linux Bash Shells and Scripts: Streamlining Tasks and Enhancing Workflows with Automation

Authors

Kevin Dankwardt