COMP2101

Working With Data In Bash

Introduction

In this lesson, we cover the different kinds of data we use and how to manipulate it in the bash shell. We also introduce conditional execution to enable our scripts to recognize command pass-fail conditions and act on them.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this lesson, students will know how to:

• use literal data, including knowing how to work with special characters on command lines
• use variables to store and retrieve temporary data
• send data from one command to another
• test for command success
• get user input
• do simple arithmetic using shell builtins
• work with jobs and understand how process forking affects scripts
• manage the shell environment
• recognize automatic and special variables

These objectives are in support of Learning Outcomes 2, 5, and 6 in the Course Outline.

To do List

• Read through the presentation
• Perform the lab activities as described below
• Do the quiz for this topic

Lesson Material

• Working With Data In Bash Presentation
• Resource links in the presentation
  • Manipulating Strings - Advanced Bash Scripting Guide

Learning Activity

Participate in the class and review the presentation. Briefly review any materials available online mentioned in the presentation.

Do the Working With Data In Bash Lab.

Graded Activity

Most of the lab is designed to give you hands-on experience and allow you to research and practice the details of the tasks in the lab. Only specific tasks in the lab are graded and the lab instructions tell you what parts of the lab activity are graded. In order to be graded, your work must be pushed to your github repository, and after you click submit on the lab assignment item on blackboard with the URL for your github repository in the comments, you must show your work to the professor to receive your marks.

Quiz

When you have participated in the class and completed the lab, you will be prepared to write the quiz. The quiz is found on Blackboard under Assignments & Tests. The quizzes provide your testing mark for this semester.

Summary

In this module, you have been introduced to creating usable scripts using bash. The tasks you should now be capable of include:

• Using literal data
• Generating, storing, and manipulating dynamic data from commands and interactive users
• Using variables of various kinds

Completing the quiz will provide you with a measure of your knowledge in these areas. For the next class you should have your computing environment available with access to Ubuntu and your github repository.