Introduction

You will be developing and maintaining a series systemScripts, you need to start here.

1. Script creation

1. You first need to create a script that you can develop:

$ mkdir -p Documents/Scripts/bash/
$ cd Documents/Scripts/bash/
$ touch systemsStats.sh

2. Basics

Bash is an interpreter and will execute each line one at a time, so in order to do that we need to specify that the script we are writing is designed for that.

2. Open the newly created file with the vim text editor

   Note

   $ vim systemStats.sh
   

   Tip

   press the lowercase i to enter INSERT mode...

3. Reproduce the following:

   Code

   #! /usr/bin/env cat
   
   echo Hello World, Goodbye World!
   

   Tip

   • press the ESC key to exit INSERT mode..
   • press the shift and the colon key to enter COMMAND mode
   • press w and q so the bottom of the vim looks like :wq and press the return key to write w and quit q.

4. Run the script:

   Output

   $ bash systemStats.sh
   > Hello world, Goodbye World!
   

   Explanation

   • bash command executes the content of the script as bash script regardless of the shebang #! /usr/bin/env bash this is correct behaviour as the bash runs the first line of code... echo ...

5. Lets change the file modifiers so that the systemStat.sh is now an executable.

   Output

   $ ls -lah
   > drwxr-xr-x dev users 4.0 KB Tue Oct 10 19:13:49 2023  .
   > drwx------ dev users 4.0 KB Tue Oct 10 12:40:13 2023  ..
   > .rw-r--r-- dev users   0 B  Tue Oct 10 19:13:49 2023  systemStats.sh
   

   Explanation

   • d stands for directory
   • modifiers are broken down into 3 octet sets,
     • user group rest-of-the-world
     • rwx r-x r-x
     • r = read, w = write, x = execute

6. Running the following to change permissions for this:

   Terminal

   ...
   > .rw-r--r-- dev users   0 B  Tue Oct 10 19:13:49 2023  systemStats.sh
   $ chmod +x systemStats.sh
   $ ls -lah 
   > ...
   > ...
   > .rwxr-xr-x dev users   0 B  Tue Oct 10 19:13:49 2023  systemStats.sh
   

7. Now that the file is an exectuable we can call it like this:

   Output

   $ ./systemStats.sh
   >#! /usr/bin/env cat
   >
   >echo Hello World, Goodbye World!
   

   Explanation

   This is because the file is an executable and the shebang runs the script with the program at the end of the line i.e cat

8. As proof lets use cat directly:

   Output

   $ cat systemStats.sh
   >#! /usr/bin/env cat
   >
   >echo Hello World, Goodbye World!
   

9. Changing the shebang to bash will ensure the bash program is called instead.

   Terminal

   $ vim ./systemStats.sh
   

10. Again remember to press i to enter INSERT mode, and reproduce the following

    Code

    #! /usr/bin/env bash
    
    echo Hello World, Goodbye World!
    

11. Run the program and you will get the same output as bash systemStats.sh

    Output

    $ ./systemStats.sh
    > Hello World, Goodbye World!
    

3. A more meaningful script

12. Scripting is useful for automating process and system admin. For example, getting lots of information from all over the OS using one script.

    Output

    $ cat /etc/hostname
    > Rock-c4-plus
    

13. Lets add that to our script:

    Terminal

    ```sh
    $ vim systemStats.sh
    ```
    

14. Reproduce the following:

    Code

    #! /usr/bin/env bash
    
    # echo Hello World, Goodbye World!
    hostname
    

15. Running this will look like:

    Output

    $ ./systemStats.sh
    Rock-c4-plus
    

    Explanation

    This is because we have commented out the echo ... witht the # hash symbol.

16. Running cat /etc/os-release will give you the following:

    Output

    $ cat /etc/os-release
    PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
    NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
    VERSION_ID="11"
    VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
    ID=debian
    HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
    SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
    BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
    

17. What we need to isolate is the OS's name, which is identifiable via the NAME=.... To do this will use two exta packages, grep and awk to get what we need.

    Output

    $ cat /etc/os-release | grep -w NAME | awk -F '=' '{print $2}'
    "Debian GNU/Linux"
    

    Explanation

    • Here we are piping, |, the output of cat ... into the command grep with option -w.
    • This option -w means "select only those lines containing matches that form whole word.".
    • So we are searching for NAME.

18. Next we pipe the result of that search, NAME="Debian GNU/Linux" into awk to grab only Debian GNU/Linux where we split the result based on a delimeter, =, with the option -F (Field delimeter). The delimited format is:

    

19. However we want the string between the ", so we modify the command to take more than one delimitter, order matters:

    Output

    $ cat /etc/os-release | grep -w NAME | awk -F '[="]' '{print $3}'
    Debian GNU/Linux
    

    Note

    Note the addition of [="] and $3:

    

    Explanation

    • Field 1 ($1): NAME
    • Field 2 ($2): (empty string, as there is nothing between = and ")
    • Field 3 ($3): Debian GNU/Linux

20. Now that we have isolated Debian GNU/Linux, we can add this functionality to our script, after the line cat /etc/hostname:

    Code

    #! /usr/bin/env bash
    
    # echo Hello World, Goodbye World!
    
    cat /etc/hostname
    cat /etc/os-release | grep -w NAME | awk -F '[="]' '{print $3}'
    

21. If you run this program now you should get the following output:

    Output

    $ ./systemsStat.sh
    Rock-c4-plus
    Debian GNU/Linux
    

22. Now we want the OS version from the VERSION="11 (bullseye)" output of cat /etc/os-release, using what you have learned above try to isolate bullseye.

    Terminal

    cat /etc/os-release | grep -w NAME | awk -F '[="()]' '{print $4}'
    

    Explanation

    • The first field, $1, is everything before the equal sign (=), which is VERSION.

    • The second field, $2, is everything between the equal sign (=) and the double quote ("), which is 11.

    • The third field, $3, is everything between the double quote (") and the opening parenthesis ((), which is a space character.

    • The fourth field, $4, is everything between the opening parenthesis (() and the closing parenthesis ()), which is bullseye.

    

23. Once completed add the code to the script like before, run to verify the expected output:

    Output

    $ ./systemsStats.sh
    Rock-c4-plus
    Debian GNU/Linux
    bullseye
    

    Success

    If you have completed the above the well done.