Working with the command line system is one of the most recurring tasks people in the respective tech field do almost on a daily basis. But why do they go for this old school way of communicating with a system while they have GUI (Graphical User Interface)? Since they are professionals in the tech field, don’t they know there is a thing called GUI? It would be so foolish to even assume something like that since all of these people spent their life with computers and they know it very well, this is why they work with command line and not rely on just GUI.
Advantages of using a command line and scripting
Command line can get things done efficiently and sometimes through layers of security so that the work remains authentic and away from any middlemen and this is just one example from the tip of the iceberg. Assuming you know how to work with the command line and know great deal of commands of some fundamental commands, let’s look at the use of a scripting.
So, what is scripting and why would you need scripting though? Let’s look at one scenario, you are new in the tech field but you have gotten pretty good at using command and know how to get certain things done. You are either using lot of single command or sometimes two, and you soon realise that you are doing this over and over again and this is becoming greatly tedious. So, you wish there would have been a way to deal with this without having to repeat the whole process every time. Yes, there is and this is where the scripting come in so handy.
What is a script and shell?
A script is a small programme that you can use to help automation process task easier. At its simplest level, you can make a shell scripting right away by copying bunch of shell commands that you use or find useful and save it to a new file. Wait a minute! Did we mention shell script? Shell command? What on earth are those?
So, Shell command is basically every time you are working at the command prompt. The interpreter who interprets what you are saying is the shell. Each shell has its own scripting language and the right extension for it.
There are many types of shells available for different operating systems and depending on their choice, there are specific types of scripting languages one can use for writing short programmemes or scripts which are particularly helpful for solving repetitive and tedious tasks. Scripting can easily automate such tasks.