Bash Scripting Basics Every DevOps Engineer Should Know

✅ Introduction

As a DevOps engineer, automation is life. Whether you’re setting up servers, deploying containers, or scheduling cron jobs—Bash scripting helps you do it faster, better, and repeatably. In this blog, I’ll walk you through the core concepts of Bash scripting, ideal for beginners and a quick refresher for experienced engineers.

📘 What is Bash?

Bash (Bourne Again Shell) is a command-line interpreter and scripting language used on Linux/Unix systems. It allows you to automate sequences of commands, making daily tasks faster and more efficient.

🚀 Basic Bash Script Structure

#!/bin/bash
# This is a sample script

echo "Hello, DevOps World!"

#!/bin/bash – Shebang tells the system to use Bash
echo – Prints output to terminal

Save this in a file like hello.sh and run it with:

chmod +x hello.sh
./hello.sh

🧠 Common Bash Concepts

1. Variables

name="Ram"
echo "My name is $name"

2. Conditionals

if [ $name == "Ram" ]; then
  echo "Welcome back!"
else
  echo "Access denied!"
fi

3. Loops

for i in {1..5}
do
  echo "Loop $i"
done

4. Functions

greet() {
  echo "Hello $1"
}

greet "Ram"

⚙️ Real DevOps Use Case: Create a Backup Script

#!/bin/bash
src="/var/www/html"
dest="/backup/$(date +%F)"

mkdir -p $dest
cp -r $src $dest

echo "Backup completed to $dest"

🛠 Use this in a cron job to back up your website every day!

🧪 Tip: Debugging Scripts

Run with:

bash -x script.sh

This shows each line as it’s executed.

🔗 Internal Link Suggestions:

✅ Conclusion

Bash scripting is the gateway to real DevOps automation. From simple tasks to complex CI/CD pipelines, learning Bash gives you a massive edge in server management and cloud orchestration.