Course: Operating Systems Date: 30/09/2024
Lab: Shell Scripting
1. What is a Shell?
A shell is a command-line interface (CLI) that provides a way for users to interact with the operating
system.
Shell is a program that takes your commands (text-based) and sends them to the operating system
to execute.
Examples of shells include Bourne Shell (sh), Bash (Bourne-Again Shell), rbash, dash
2. Which shells does my system support?
Cat /etc/shells
Write the output
3. Where bash is located?
which bash
Write the output
4. On the command line interface, what is the current working directory of your system?
pwd
Write the output
5. Navigate to the current user directory and create a new directory called ‘ostasks’ and change the
directory to ostasks
cd /home/{user name}
mkdir ostasks
cd ostasks
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6. Create a new file with .sh extension named ‘firstprogram’
touch {file name}.sh
open this file in any editor for example gedit, nano, vim and display the following message “Hello”
Execute the file and see the output
7. Give the executable permissions to the ‘firstprogram.sh’ file
chmod +x {file name}.extension
8. Edit the same file and write a command that first saves the current date and time of the system and
then displays it.
#!/bin/bash
echo “hello”
current_datetime=$(date)
echo “Current Date and Time: $current_datetime”
9. To write a comment in a shell script use ‘#” hash symbol before the comment
# this is a comment
10. Two types of variables
a) System Variables (Upper case letters)
b) User defined Variable (lower case letters)
# Following are some system variable examples
echo “$BASH” #displays the name of the shell
echo “$BASH_VERSION” #displays the version of bash
echo “$HOME” #displays the home directory
echo “$PWD” #displays the current working directory
# User define variable
temp=10
echo “the value of temp = $temp”
11. Identify the name of user defined variable in section 8? [Reply: ]
12. How to read inputs from the terminal?
#! /bin/bash
echo “Enter name: ”
read name
echo “Entered name: $name”
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# how to read from the same line
read –p “username: “ username_val
# -p flag is use to get the input from the same line
read –sp “password: “ password_val
# -s flag is use to silently enter the password
echo “username : $username_val”
echo “password: $password_val”
13. Arrays
# reading the inputs and saving in arrays
echo “enter names: “
read –a names # -a flag is use to read inputs as arrays
echo “names: ${name[0]}, ${name[1]}”
14. If statement in bash script
#!/bin/bash
if [ condition ]
then
statement
fi
integer comparison operators
-eq is equal to if [ “$a” –eq “$b” ]
-ne is not equal to if [ “$a” –ne “$b” ]
-gt is greater than if [ “$a” –gt “$b” ]
-ge is greater than or equal to if [ “$a” –ge “$b” ]
-lt is less than if [ “$a” –lt “$b” ]
-le is less than or equal to if [ “$a” –le “$b” ]
< is less than if ((“$a” < “$b”))
<= is less than or equal to if ((“$a” <= “$b”))
> is greater than if ((“$a” > “$b”))
>= is greater than or equal to if ((“$a” >= “$b”))
string comparison operators
= is equal to if [ “$a” = “$b” ]
== is equal to if [ “$a” == “$b” ]
!= is not equal to if [ “$a” != “$b” ]
< is less than, in ASCII alphabet order if [[ “$a” < “$b” ] ]
> is greater than, in ASCII alphabet order If [ [ “$a” > “$b” ]]
-z string is null, zero length If [ -z “$string”]
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# comparing the two strings
word=”school”
if [ “$word” = “school”]
then
echo “condition is true”
fi
15. if else statement in bash
if [ condition ]
then
statement
else
statement
fi
16. if, elif, else statement in bash
if [ condition ]
then
statement
elif [ condition ]
then
statement
else
statement
fi
17. Logical AND, OR operator
if [ condition ] && [ condition ] # logical AND
then
statement
fi
if [ condition –a condition ] # logical AND
then
statement
fi
if [[ condition && condition ]] # logical AND
then
statement
fi
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if [ condition ] || [ condition ] # logical OR
then
statement
fi
if [ condition -o condition ] # logical OR
then
statement
fi
if [[ condition || condition ]] # logical OR
then
statement
fi
18. while loop in bash scripting
while [ condition ]
do
command 1
command 2
done
# for example the following while loop prints the values up to 10
n=1
while [ $n –le 10 ] OR (( $n <= 10 ))
do
echo “$n”
n=$(( n+1 ))OR (( n++ ))
done
19. for loop in bash scripting
for (( initialization; test condition; loop counter ))
do
command 1
command 2
done
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Task 1: Run the following command and explain its purpose. 'lshw'. If the command doesn't work, try to find
the solution.
Task 2: Write a bash script that finds the first 500 prime numbers.
Task 3: Write a bash script that displays the number of cores of your machine.
Task 4: By default, on your system, all cores are online. Online core means that the core is active. Find the
command that tells the status of the core.
Task 5: The system's cores are numbered from 0 to n. Find which is the default core of your system.
Task 6: Write a bash script using a for loop that disables or offline all the cores except the default core.
Task 7: Write a bash script using a for loop that enables or online all the cores except the default core.
Task 8: Write a bash script that reads the names of five files and creates five text files in the current working
directory.
Task 9: Write a bash script that deletes the files (created in task 7).
Task 10: Write a bash script that reads the integer input' n' from the keyboard. It displays the current date
and time system 'n' times with a delay of 2 seconds.
Task 11: Write a bash script that reads the two strings from the keyboard and compares them for equality.
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