In the previous weeks, I was working on some improvements to the development experience of my team that involved some shell scripting. It was a while since my last adventure in the wonderful world of the terminal, and I realised how much I love it. ❤️ Here is a collection of reasons I think shell scripting is a skill worth learning for every engineer. There are probably many more, these are the ones that come to my mind right now.
First of all, when you are done and invoke your shell script, it feels like magic. 🤩
There is no need to write tons of lines of code to get a reward. Even a short shell script can make you feel like you accomplished a lot, especially if it solves a problem hindering your team’s productivity.
The shell script is easy to share with everyone, and they can run it straight away. No need to install depencencies or go through complex configuraitons.
I agree that the syntax can be tricky if you are not used to it. But there is plenty of resources online, and you can be sure someone else faced the same problem and shared a solution.
Thanks to the Unix philosophy, writing a shell script feels like building something with Lego blocks, and I love playing with Lego. 😄 OK, it is not always the case, but when it is, that’s just amazing.
awk is one of the most incredible tools ever built. Even though I always have to Google how to use it. 😅 That’s my bad.
Last but not least, shell scripting is a skill that can be useful in a broad range of roles. Operations, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, and even a manager can gain a lot from knowing how to write a shell script. And you can be sure it is not a skill that will become useless with time. 😉
That’s all! I hope to have inspired you to improve your shell scripting skills and have a lot of fun! 🚀
photo by Brett Jordan