Report generation script in Bash Scripting - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

Output of a simple report generation script

What is the output of this bash script that generates a report of file counts in the current directory?

Bash Scripting

#!/bin/bash
count=$(ls -1 | wc -l)
echo "Total files: $count"

A Total files: 5

B Total files: $(ls -1 | wc -l)

C Total files: 0

D Total files:

💡 Hint

The script counts files in the current directory and prints the total.

The command ls -1 lists files one per line, wc -l counts lines, so the variable count holds the number of files. The echo prints the total files count.

📝 Syntax

intermediate

Identify the syntax error in this report script

Which option contains the syntax error in this bash script that summarizes disk usage?

Bash Scripting

du -sh * > report.txt
echo "Report saved to report.txt"

A

du -sh * > report.txt
echo "Report saved to report.txt";

B

du -sh * > report.txt
echo "Report saved to report.txt""

C

du -sh * > report.txt
echo "Report saved to report.txt"

D

"txt.troper ot devas tropeR" ohce
txt.troper > * hs- ud

💡 Hint

Look for unmatched quotes or extra characters.

Option B has an extra double quote at the end of the echo line, causing a syntax error.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this report script fail to write output?

This script is supposed to write a list of running processes to a file named 'process_report.txt'. Why does it fail?

Bash Scripting

#!/bin/bash
ps aux > process_report.txt
cat process_report.txt

A The script lacks execute permission.

B The ps command is incorrect and produces no output.

C The script runs correctly and outputs the process list.

D The script runs but the output file is empty because of redirection order.

💡 Hint

Check if the commands are valid and redirection is correct.

The script runs correctly: ps aux lists processes, output redirected to file, then cat prints the file content.

🚀 Application

advanced

Which script correctly appends a timestamp to a report file?

You want to add the current date and time at the end of 'report.txt'. Which script does this correctly?

A echo "$(date)" >> report.txt

B echo "date" >> report.txt

C date >> report.txt

D echo date >> report.txt

💡 Hint

Use command substitution to get the current date output.

Option A uses $(date) to insert the current date and time as a string, appending it to the file.

🧠 Conceptual

expert

What is the number of lines in the report generated by this script?

This script lists all '.log' files and counts lines in each, saving output to 'log_report.txt'. How many lines will 'log_report.txt' contain if there are 3 '.log' files?

Bash Scripting

#!/bin/bash
wc -l *.log > log_report.txt

A 0

B 3

C 1

D 4

💡 Hint

The wc command outputs one line per file plus a total line.

wc -l with multiple files outputs one line per file plus a summary line, so 3 files produce 4 lines.