Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 3rd Edition

Writing Simple Script Utilities

IN THIS CHAPTER

Automating backups

Managing user accounts

Watching disk space

Nowhere is shell script programming more useful than writing script utilities for the Linux system administrator. The typical Linux system administrator has many various jobs to do daily, from monitoring disk space to backing up important files to managing user accounts. Shell script utilities can make these tasks much easier! This chapter demonstrates some of the capabilities you have writing script utilities in the bash shell.

Performing Archives

Whether you're responsible for a Linux system in a business environment or just using it at home, the loss of data can be catastrophic. To help prevent bad things from happening, it's always a good idea to perform regular backups (or archives).

However, what's a good idea and what's practical are often two separate things. Trying to arrange a backup schedule to store important files can be a challenge. This is another place where shell scripts often come to the rescue.

This section demonstrates two methods for using shell scripts to archive data on your Linux system.

Archiving data files

If you're using your Linux system to work on an important project, you can create a shell script that automatically takes snapshots of specific directories. Designating these directories in a configuration file allows you to change them when ...