Writing a Shell Script

To successfully write a shell script, you have to do three things:

1.Write a script
2.Give the shell permission to execute it
3.Put it somewhere the shell can find it

Writing A Script

A shell script is a file that contains ASCII text. To create a shell script, just use a text editor. Here is an example of a simple Shell Script:

#!/bin/bash
# My first script
echo "Hello World!"
Now save the file as helloworld

The first line of the script is important. This is a special clue, called a shebang, given to the shell indicating what program is used to interpret the script. In this case, it is /bin/bash. Other scripting languages such as Perl, awk, tcl, Tk, and python also use this mechanism.

The second line is a comment. Everything that appears after a “#” symbol is ignored by bash. As your scripts become bigger and more complicated, comments become vital. They are used by programmers to explain what is going on so that others can figure it out. The last line is the echo command. This command simply prints its arguments on the display.