Bash Scripting

Bash is a powerful Linux terminal application and bash scripting can be used to automate repetitive tasks easily. In this post, we will look at some basic bash scripting.

Create a script file

vim temp.sh

Enter the following into that file

#!/bin/bash
echo “Hello world…”
sleep 1
echo “How are you?”
read ans
echo “you typed $ans”

Make the script executable

chmod +x temp.sh

Execute the script

./temp.sh

How to run a bash script from anywhere

Create a directory say “bin” under your home directory and update your path variable to include this bin directory.
Include the following in .profile or .bash_profle file to make it permanent.

export PATH=$PATH":$HOME/bin"

Or use the following if you want the directory to precedent system directories

PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH;

create a script say, “hello” and keep it in your bin directory and give execute permission to the hello script.

#!/bin/bash
echo My first program

From any directory, you simply type:

hello

You will get the following output

My first program