Execute shell scripts in Ubuntu

In this article, we would cover how to execute shell scripts in Ubuntu. Shell scripts are nothing but a group of commands, functions etc. which we can otherwise execute directly from a shell. Sometimes, we just have to run a particular set of commands regularly. Its unproductive if do it all by ourselves. Therefore, we just bunch those commands together in a file and automate it.

Here, we will discuss two methods to execute shell scripts –

  1. Passing script as an argument to the shell,
  2. Making the Script executable.

Execute shell scripts in Ubuntu

Method I. Passing script as an argument to the shell.

Let’s say we have a script – exscript.sh

To execute exscript.sh, we can issue the following in terminal –

bash exscript.sh

Here, we are making Bash to execute the script. If you have other shell installed, for instance Zsh (or Z shell) then we may use that as well,

zsh exscript.sh

Method II. Making the script executable.

Continuing with the above example – exscript.sh. We need to make our script executable first. This can be done through chmod command-line utility. Furthermore, if you want to know more about chmod. So, open a terminal and issue the following –

chmod u+x exscript.sh

Use ls -l to analyze the permissions –

ls -l

If you haven’t made changes to permissions earlier then, after making changes it would look something like –

-rwxrw-r--

See, the user has been granted execute permissions. Alternatively, we can also set permissions through graphical interface. Just right-click the script file you want to grant execute permissions. And, under Permissions tab, grant the necessary permissions. We always prefer to use a terminal.

Lastly, to execute the script –

./exscript.sh

In conclusion, we have covered how to execute shell scripts using two methods – first was passing script as an argument to the shell and other one by making the script executable using chmod command-line utility.

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