Introduction to Shell Scripting

Shells are what allow a user to access the kernel. Shells are actually programs that interpret command lines and run other programs. A shell can read command lines from a terminal or from a file (called a shell script or shell program). Because the shell itself is a program, scripting is possible without using a programming language such as Perl or C. Any command that can be typed after a prompt can be used in a shell script.

The script is simply a file that holds a sequence of commands. Unix is basically composed of separate utilities that can run from a shell prompt. These utilities can be combined with tools like pipes and I/O redirection. Shell scripting allows users to combine utilities and create programs that meet specific needs.

Which shell to use for scripting is, for the most part, a matter of preference. However, as the Bourne shell is the one distributed with Unix operating systems, it will be the most consistently available.

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