Practical UNIX

Chapter 28. Writing Bourne Shell Scripts

Gordon Marler and Steve “Mor” Moritsugu

Writing/executing a simple script Supplying script input on the command line Executing code based on test results Performing arithmetic calculations Debugging your script Looping through a list of items Selecting from a menu of items

Tip for Beginners Writing your own Bourne shell scripts may sound difficult, but they are easy to create as long as you can use a text editor under UNIX (such as vi). Any time you have to type in the same commands frequently, you can save yourself all that typing by creating a shell script to run those commands for you. If you are familiar with any programming language, you should be able to handle with little difficulty simple shell ...