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Shell Script Basics

Writing a shell script is like riding a bike. You fall off and scrape your knees a lot at first, but once you are sufficiently experienced, you’ll understand why people drive cars. If you have ever successfully trued a bicycle wheel, that’s similar to knowing the basics of shell scripting. If you don’t true your scripts, they wobble.

This chapter introduces basic concepts of shell scripting. It was not intended to be a complete reference on writing shell scripts, nor could it be. It does, however, provide a good starting point for beginners first learning this black art.

Contents:

Shell Script Dialects
She Sells C Shells
Tips for Shell Users
Shell Variables and Printing
Exporting Shell Variables
Shell Script Input and Output Using printf and read
Bulk I/O Using the cat Command
Pipes and Redirection
Basic Control Statements
Variables, Expansion, and Quoting

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