Book Image

Learning Linux Shell Scripting - Second Edition

By : Ganesh Sanjiv Naik
Book Image

Learning Linux Shell Scripting - Second Edition

By: Ganesh Sanjiv Naik

Overview of this book

Linux is the most powerful and universally adopted OS. Shell is a program that gives the user direct interaction with the operating system. Scripts are collections of commands that are stored in a file. The shell reads this file and acts on commands as if they were typed on the keyboard. Learning Linux Shell Scripting covers Bash, GNU Bourne Again Shell, preparing you to work in the exciting world of Linux shell scripting. CentOS is a popular rpm-based stable and secured Linux distribution. Therefore, we have used CentOS distribution instead of Ubuntu distribution. Linux Shell Scripting is independent of Linux distributions, but we have covered both types of distros. We start with an introduction to the Shell environment and basic commands used. Next, we explore process management in Linux OS, real-world essentials such as debugging and perform Shell arithmetic fluently. You'll then take a step ahead and learn new and advanced topics in Shell scripting, such as decision making, starting up a system, and customizing a Linux environment. You will also learn about grep, stream editor, and AWK, which are very powerful text filters and editors. Finally, you'll get to grips with taking backup, using other language scripts in Shell Scripts as well as automating database administration tasks for MySQL and Oracle. By the end of this book, you will be able to confidently use your own shell scripts in the real world.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)

Working with the do – while loop

Similar to the for command, while is also the command for loop operations. The command next to while is evaluated. If it is successful or 0, then the commands inside do and done are executed.

The purpose of a loop is to test a certain condition or expression and execute a given command while the condition is true (the while loop) or until the condition becomes true (the until loop):

while condition

do

commands

done

until condition

do

commands

done

The following is the while_01.sh script in which we read a file and display its
content:

#!/bin/bash 
file=/etc/resolv.conf 
while IFS= read -r line    # IFS : inter field separator 
do 
   # echo line is stored in $line 
  echo $line 
done < "$file" 

Let's test the program:

    $ chmod +x while_01.sh
    $ ./while_01.sh
  

The following will be the output after executing...