UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

how do i create scripts while in unix? Could someone tell me in the format of:
commands
script
commands
or something like that or even however you feel comfortable but could you try to explain it thoroughly. just want something where i can look at it and be able to put anything i want in there. I am just going to stop typing before i confuse anyone but if anyone knows what im talking about and can help please do?

Shell programming in sh.

1) Every shell file gegins with #!/[path to shell]/[name of shell]! to use bash, for example you would begin your shell script with

Code:

#!/bin/sh

to use tcsh you could use

Code:

#!/bin/tcsh

2) When you declare variables just type the variable name followed by the = sign. For example to create a variable named NAME and set it to "ME" enter

Code:

NAME="ME"

3) When using a variable in an expression (like an if, and so forth) precede the variable name by $. For example, to ser a variable caled VAR2 to NAME enter:

Code:

VAR2=$NAME

4) You can use commands in shell scripts as you do the shell. The advantage of shell scripts is that you can use macros. For example to list all files and all directories in the current directory that begin with NAME enter

ls $NAME*

The following file gets all of the files returned by ls and stroes them in foo. after that, it takes the last file listed by ls and stores it in final value. Then it prints the value of finalvalue.

Code:

finalvalue=""

for foo in `ls`
do
  echo $foo
done

finalvalue=$foo

echo "$finalvalue"

I would list more, but I ran out of time. Hope this helps.

Here are some links to shell scripting:
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/
http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/UNIXhelp/scrpt/index.html

You would have found this in the FAQs if you had checked: Unix Tutorials/Programming Tutorials/Shell Scripting Tutorials. On this page, check the Shell Scripting Tutorials section.