UNIX Shell Programming

Course Code: SP

Duration: 2 days

 
 
 
 

UNIX Shell Programming Course Overview

This Unix Shell Programming training course is designed to give delegates practical experience in developing and writing UNIX shell scripts Most of the built-in shell commands are introduced together with the main program control structures. This course is not suitable for C shell programmers.

Exercises and examples are used throughout the course to give practical hands-on experience with the techniques covered.

Course Objectives

To provide the skills needed to develop and customise UNIX shell programs.

Who will the Course Benefit?

Programmers, administrators and support personnel who need to understand existing shell scripts, automate procedures and write their own utilities.

The UNIX Shell Programming course assumes knowledge of the UNIX Operating System to the level covered in the Introduction to UNIX Course. Some programming experience may also prove advantageous.

Skills Gained

The delegate will learn and acquire skills as follows:

  • Script naming conventions, locations and best practises
  • Writing simple scripts to enhance basic command output
  • Using the various shell quoting mechanisms
  • Manipulating shell variables and user-defined variables
  • Performing arithmetic within scripts
  • Script interaction and arguments
  • Implementing conditional execution facilities
  • Iteration with constructs
  • Performing multi-branch decisions
  • Implementing AWK within scripts
  • Trapping user interrupts
  • User defined Functions
  • Creating menu-driven scripts

UNIX Shell Programming Training Course

Course Introduction

  • Administration and Course Materials
  • Course Structure and Agenda
  • Delegate and Trainer Introductions

Session 1: UNIX COMMAND REVIEW

  • Basic Unix commands
  • General commands
  • File and directory handling commands
  • Filename generation and regular expressions characters
  • I/O Redirection features
  • Other commands

Session 2: GETTING STARTED

  • What is a shell script?
  • Development guidelines
  • Creating and editing shell scripts
  • Naming and storing shell scripts
  • Executing shell scripts
  • Exercise: Write a simple shell script

Session 3: USING VARIABLES

  • Environment variables
  • Local variables
  • Assigning values to variables
  • Assessing variable values
  • Using quotes
  • Delimiting variable names
  • Echo control sequences
  • Exercise: Add variables to a script

Session 4: INTEGER ARITHMETIC

  • Using the expr command
  • Using the (( )) notation
  • Exercise: Add integer arithmetic to a shell script

Session 5: HANDLING RUN TIME DATA

  • The read command
  • Command line arguments
  • Exercise: Writing a generic shell script
  • Exercise: Writing an interactive shell script

Session 6: CONDITIONAL EXECUTION

  • The if statement
  • The test command
  • Exercise: Adding validation to previous scripts

Session 7: ADDITIONAL KORN, BASH & POSIX SYNTAX

  • Other test notations
  • Default and substitute variables
  • Exit status codes
  • Exercise

UNIX Shell Programming Training Course

Session 8: LOOP CONSTRUCTS

  • The while loop
  • The until loop
  • The for loop
  • The while true and until false loops
  • Loop control commands
  • Exercise: Enhancing the previously written scripts
  • Exercise: Writing a script to copy files using a 'for' loop
  • Exercise: Writing a script to generate numbers with the 'while' loop

Session 9: MULTI-BRANCH DECISIONS

  • The case statement
  • Menu driven applications
  • Exercise: Developing and writing a menu system

Session 10: SCRIPTING WITH AWK

  • Fundamentals of AWK
  • Basic AWK scripts
  • AWK within Bash constructs
  • Exercise: AWK scripts

Session 11: FUNCTIONS

  • What is a function?
  • Syntax
  • Examples
  • Creating a Function Library
  • Exercise: Add a function to a script

Session 12: INTERRUPT HANDLING

  • Interrupt signals
  • Trapping interrupts
  • Exercise: Adding traps to the menu script

Appendix A: ADDITIONAL FEATURES AND FACILITIES

  • The exec commands
  • The includes notation
  • More about loops
  • Arrays

Appendix B: VIM QUICK REFERENCE

Appendix C: UNIX COMMANDS QUICK REFERENCE

Appendix D: ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

Notes:
  • Course technical content is subject to change without notice.
  • Course content is structured as sessions, this does not strictly map to course timings. Concepts, content and practicals often span sessions.

Requirements

The UNIX Shell Programming course assumes knowledge of the UNIX Operating System to the level covered in the UNIX Introduction course. Some programming experience may also prove advantageous.

Pre-Requisite Courses

Course Reviews

I found this course very insightful and brushed up on a lot of skills I haven't used in quite some time. Mark is a very good instructor that is always asking if anyone needs help, and is happy to go over to explain parts that may have confused some delegates (…)

Matt - Government

Excellent course, just at the right level for what I needed. Will go away with plenty to practise and further my own knowledge. Thanks very much

Sarah - Training Manager

Great instructor. He is extremely knowledgeable in the subject course. He is very friendly and fosters a positive and rewarding learning environment in the classroom. I would definitely recommend this course.

Kenneth - Software Engineer - Defence

Helped me gain a much better understanding of content within scripts that I run every day and provided me with confidence in being able to go back to my work and make changes / enhancements.

Neil - Lead Analyst Programmer - Utilities

Over all course is nice and helps me in my job role. Instructor is friendly and helped me in understanding the concepts well. Thank you.

Veera - Technical Analyst - IT

The course was well presented in an excellent manner. Plenty of examples made it easier to understand.

Will - IT Operations Analyst - Finance

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