Shell Scripting for Beginners: Control Flow, Functions and Real Automation (Part 2)

Series: Shell Scripting for Beginners | Part: 2 of 2 Level: Beginner–Intermediate | Time to read: ~18 minutes Part 1: Shell Scripting for Beginners: From Zero to Automating Your First Tasks Quick Recap of Part 1 In Part 1, we covered the building blocks: Writing and running your first script ( chmod +x , ./script.sh ) The shebang line ( #!/bin/bash ) and what it does Variables, curly brace syntax, and command substitution Passing arguments with $1 , $2 , $# Reading user input with read and read -p Arithmetic using $(( )) If any of that sounds unfamiliar, go through Part 1 first — everything in this article builds on it. In Part 2, we're adding the logic layer. By the end of this, your scripts will be able to make decisions, repeat tasks, handle errors, and be structured enough that you'd actually want to maintain them. Let's get into it. Conditional Logic (if Statements) A script that just runs commands top to bottom is useful. A script that can decide what to do based on conditions is