Shell scripting is a lot more powerful than many people realize. With the right commands, shell scripting can automate many tasks and even make life easier for the user. Here's why you shouldn't sleep on bash scripting and why it's worth learning.
Why Learn Bash Scripting?
Bash scripting is a type of programming language. "Scripting" is a list of commands and parameters that are to be executed one after the next in sequential order. Bash also has additional structures like if statements, while loops, and functions, making it closer to a fully-featured scripting language.
However, unlike many other languages, bash scripting doesn't use a compiler to run its code but instead relies on a command-line interpreter. The interpreter takes the commands from Bash and runs them as if they were commands typed into the terminal. Because of that, some people don't call Bash a programming language, although it could be considered such.
Learning Bash is really useful, especially if you want to unlock the full power of a Unix or Linux system. Here are some of the most compelling reasons to look at Bash scripting as something to learn.