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Catalogue / Infrastructure & systems

Professional Bash scripting: automating Linux administration

Move from the small script that "works on my machine" to a reliable operations tool — expansions, arrays, error handling, options, logs, locks and scheduling — all the way to a production-grade backup script.

  • Intermediate to advanced
  • 12 lessons
  • 10 h 20 min

A MasterLinux course · Original text

What you will learn

  • Manipulate strings without external commands using parameter expansions
  • Master quoting, word splitting and globs so file names never break again
  • Write precise conditions with [[ ]], regular expressions and (( )) arithmetic
  • Build robust loops (NUL separators, subshells, last line, retries)
  • Organise code into reusable functions and libraries with controlled scope
  • Use indexed and associative arrays to count, group and build safe commands
  • Integrate grep, sed and awk into scripts, generate files with here-docs and write them atomically
  • Handle errors like in production with set -euo pipefail, trap and documented exit codes
  • Offer real options (getopts, long options), log, lock with flock and schedule with cron or systemd
  • Apply ShellCheck rules and deliver a complete, tested backup script

Course content

12 lessons · 10 h 20 min
Section 1 — The language in depth3 lessons · 2 h 30 min
  1. Variables, expansions and quoting: slice, replace and compute without ever breaking a file name Preview1 h
  2. Advanced tests and conditions: [[ ]], regular expressions, (( )) and number traps 45 min
  3. Robust loops: read without losing anything, odd names, subshells, waits and retries 45 min
Section 2 — Structuring your scripts4 lessons · 3 h
  1. Functions, scope and libraries: reusable code across all your scripts 45 min
  2. Indexed and associative arrays: lists, counters, grouping and safe commands 45 min
  3. grep, sed and awk in scripts: passing variables, reading and changing a configuration, going fast 50 min
  4. Here-docs, here-strings and generated files: configuration templates and atomic writes 40 min
Section 3 — Robustness and operations3 lessons · 2 h 30 min
  1. Production-grade error handling: set -euo pipefail in detail, trap, signals and exit codes 50 min
  2. Arguments and options: getopts, long options, built-in help and dry-run mode 45 min
  3. Logs, locks and scheduling: scripts that run alone, at night, without surprises 55 min
Section 4 — Quality and project2 lessons · 2 h 20 min
  1. ShellCheck and best practices: review, fix and harden an existing script 50 min
  2. Final project: ml-sauvegarde, a robust end-to-end backup tool 1 h 30 min

Requirements

  • The “Fundamentals” course (or able to write a small script with if, for, while and functions)
  • Comfortable with redirections, pipes and basic grep, sed and awk
  • A Linux machine (VM, WSL or test server) to reproduce the examples

Who is this course for?

  • System administrators and operations technicians who automate their daily tasks
  • Students preparing for an infrastructure, DevOps or level 2 support role
  • Developers who write deployment, backup or CI scripts