Purpose

This is intended to help you develop your understanding of shell scripting in both a Windows and Unix environment.

Deliverables

For both the first and second opportunities, you are required to write TWO shell scripts, one which executes in a Unix environment and one which executes in a Windows environment.

Your scripts must satisfy the following requirements:

1. They must perform some useful system administration function. Some examples of useful system administration functions are given below.

2. It must be possible to run them and hence demonstrate them using the facilities available in the labs used by this module. Alternatively, you may use your own hardware (e.g. personal laptop) and software provided that they are both legal (e.g. licensed) and you are able to bring them to the University for the purposes of demonstration.

3. They may be written in whatever shell scripting  language you choose provided that they comply with point 2 above, and that you do not use the same scripting language for both the Unix and Windows scripts. There are a significant number of scripting languages available for Unix including Bash, Perl and Python and for Windows including Powershell, VBScript,

JScript and the traditional batch file language. In addition, there are Windows versions of many of the scripting languages that are available for Unix including Perl and Python (see above for details of their availability). Whilst you are free to choose any shell scripting language you like, the module leader RECOMMENDS that you use Bash for your Unix script and a batch file for Windows. These are the simplest scripting languages for beginners.

4. You may use examples of scripts that you find in printed documentation and on the Web as the starting point for your own scripts. If you do so, you must include a copy of the original script in your submitted documentation (failure to do so will lead to a mark of zero and charges of plagiarism) along with details of its source. You must also be in a position, when you demonstrate your script to your tutor, to explain how you have enhanced/changed the original script.