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Full Discussion: 100 interesting shell scripting problems
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting 100 interesting shell scripting problems Post 302849409 by nickednamed on Sunday 1st of September 2013 09:57:27 AM
Old 09-01-2013
100 interesting shell scripting problems
Hi all,

I'm just learning to write shell scripts (new to the whole UNIX thing) and I'm wondering if anyone would like to help me create a resource to help me, and others like me, learn scripting. It would be something like "100 interesting shell scripting problems".

All I need are suggestions for interesting problems to solve using shell scripting.

My motivation / reasoning is this: I've been learning for a while, but as I'm doing it for pleasure (not for work), I don't really need to write a lot of shell scripts. I've already written a few simple scripts to automate some of my daily tasks, but I want to take my scripting to the next level.

I've got a lot of great books, tutorials, web pages, etc. to help me learn, but they are mostly used for reference, as the examples they include are rather general / trivial, and they don't have many exercises.

Basically, I have a lack of "interesting problems to solve" and therefore a lack of real learning opportunities and practice. I know that others have the same problem too.

So, I'm looking to create a list of practical, interesting, real-world problems which gradually increase in difficulty. It will be similar to thekarangoel's git repo "Projects" where you can learn Python by solving the problems given (sorry, can't post links yet).

As an example, in case I'm not making myself clear, there could be a list of categories, such as:
- Account Admin
- Backup
- Games
- Networking
- File manipulation
- etc.

Each category would contain a number of problems to solve. Some (rubbish) examples might be:
- Create a script which counts the number of users currently logged in.
- Create a script which backs up all the dotfiles for the current user.
- Create a script which converts all file names to lowercase and removes whitespaces.
- Create a script which converts Markdown formatted text into HTML files.

It will be a kind of learn-by-doing system. The learner will be responsible for finding the information and resources necessary to solve the problem, and may upload his solution for others to study. The problems could include difficulty ratings, hints / tips, suggestions or links to solutions or helpful resources to aid the learner, if need be.

I would make the resource available online as a webpage, wiki, git repo, ebook, or whatever else people want.

As I said, I'm happy to do the heavy lifting myself, but lack of knowledge / experience stops me from creating meaningful problems, or even decent categories of problems / tasks.

Any feedback, help or suggestions would be very much appreciated, but as stated at the beginning all I need to get started are suggestions for interesting problems to solve using shell scripting.

Thank you,

Nickednamed
Last edited by nickednamed; 09-01-2013 at 03:35 PM.. Reason: Grammar, style
 

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LEARN ABOUT SUSE

arithmetic

ARITHMETIC(6)							 BSD Games Manual						     ARITHMETIC(6)

NAME

     arithmetic -- quiz on simple arithmetic

SYNOPSIS

     arithmetic [-o +-x/] [-r range]

DESCRIPTION

     arithmetic asks you to solve problems in simple arithmetic.  Each question must be answered correctly before going on to the next.  After
     every 20 problems, it prints the score so far and the time taken.	You can quit at any time by typing the interrupt or end-of-file character.

     The options are as follows:

     -o      By default, arithmetic asks questions on addition of numbers from 0 to 10, and corresponding subtraction.	By supplying one or more
	     of the characters +-x/, you can ask for problems in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, respectively.  If you give
	     one of these characters more than once, that kind of problem will be asked correspondingly more often.

     -r      If a range is supplied, arithmetic selects the numbers in its problems in the following way.  For addition and multiplication, the
	     numbers to be added or multiplied are between 0 and range, inclusive.  For subtraction and division, both the required result and the
	     number to divide by or subtract will be between 0 and range.  (Of course, arithmetic will not ask you to divide by 0.)  The default
	     is 10.

     When you get a problem wrong, arithmetic will remember the numbers involved, and will tend to select those numbers more often than others, in
     problems of the same sort.  Eventually it will forgive and forget.

     arithmetic cannot be persuaded to tell you the right answer.  You must work it out for yourself.

DIAGNOSTICS

     ``What?'' if you get a question wrong.  ``Right!'' if you get it right.  ``Please type a number.'' if arithmetic doesn't understand what you
     typed.

SEE ALSO

     bc(1), dc(1)

BSD
								   May 31, 1993 							       BSD
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