Document Sample scope of work template
System Administration
Course Notes #17  Shell Scripts You have already examined shell
scripts in various labs. A shell script is a program that, when
run, is interpreted in the Bash shell. This means that the
program is not compiled, but instead each instruction is read by
the shell interpreter and executed as if you were typing the
commands in from the command prompt. Shell scripts can be as
basic as a sequence of Linux commands or as complex as Java
programs with input and output, loops, nested if-else clauses,
variables (including arrays but not objects), functions
(methods) and parameters. You will find some aspects of Bash
shell scripting to be easy since you already know how to
program, but you will most likely find the syntax very awkward
(the Bash shell is based on Algol syntax, a programming language
from around 1960!)  Why would you write a shell script? There
are many tasks that you