What a shell script is in Bash Scripting - Mini Project: Build & Apply

What a shell script is

📖 Scenario: Imagine you want to tell your computer to do a few simple tasks automatically, like saying hello and showing the date. Instead of typing commands one by one, you can write them down in a file and run it all at once. This file is called a shell script.

🎯 Goal: You will create a simple shell script that prints a greeting and shows the current date.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a shell script file with the correct first line (shebang).

Write commands inside the script to print a greeting message.

Write a command to display the current date.

Run the script to see the output.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Shell scripts help automate repetitive tasks on your computer, saving time and effort.

💼 Career

Knowing how to write and run shell scripts is useful for system administrators, developers, and anyone working with computers.

1

Create the shell script file with shebang

Create a file named greet.sh and add the first line #!/bin/bash to tell the computer this is a shell script.

Bash Scripting

# Your code here

Need a hint?

The first line #!/bin/bash tells the system to use the bash shell to run the script.

2

Add a greeting message

Add a line to the greet.sh script that prints Hello, friend! using the echo command.

Bash Scripting

#!/bin/bash
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo followed by the message in quotes to print text.

3

Add a command to show the current date

Add a line to the greet.sh script that runs the date command to show the current date and time.

Bash Scripting

#!/bin/bash
echo "Hello, friend!"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The date command shows the current date and time.

4

Run the shell script and see the output

Run the greet.sh script in the terminal using bash greet.sh and observe the output.

Bash Scripting

#!/bin/bash
echo "Hello, friend!"
date
# Run the script in terminal

Need a hint?

Use the command bash greet.sh to run your script and see the greeting and date printed.