Overview

Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. In this course, you will learn how to enhance your shell scripting skills with advanced techniques that will empower you to write powerful and efficient scripts. You’ll master functions, libraries, graphical scripting, and the use of advanced tools like sed, awk, and Regular Expressions (RegEx) to manipulate data and automate complex tasks. The course starts by introducing you to functions and libraries in bash scripting, where you'll learn how to create reusable code and modularize your scripts. You will explore local vs. global variables, and how to return values from functions to make your scripts more dynamic. Then, we dive deep into sed and awk, two critical tools for text processing and data manipulation. From basic substitution to complex multi-line edits, you will become proficient in using these tools to handle text data with precision. Next, we cover the power of Regular Expressions (RegEx) for pattern matching and text transformation. This section will equip you with the ability to build advanced search and replace operations, making your scripts highly flexible and efficient. You will then delve into graphical user interface (GUI) scripting, learning how to create interactive scripts that engage users with text-based or graphical menus. The course is aimed at intermediate to advanced learners who are already familiar with basic shell scripting. It will benefit system administrators, developers, and anyone looking to enhance their scripting capabilities. No prior experience with GUI scripting or advanced sed/awk is required, but a solid understanding of bash scripting fundamentals is recommended.

Syllabus

Functions and Libraries

In this module, we will delve into advanced concepts of bash scripting by focusing on Functions and Libraries. You will gain a deeper understanding of defining and using functions, managing variables within them, and creating a library of reusable functions to enhance the efficiency and readability of your scripts.

sed and awk

In this module, we will dive into the powerful tools sed and awk to enhance your scripting capabilities. You'll learn the fundamentals of sed, including substitution, deletion, and text manipulation, as well as how to format and process data using gawk. By the end of this module, you'll be able to effectively carve out and modify specific data within your scripts.

RegEx

In this module, we will explore the intricacies of Regular Expressions (RegEx) and their application within sed and gawk. You'll gain a solid foundation in RegEx syntax, including special characters and character classes, and progress to more advanced concepts like negation, ranges, and expression grouping. By the end, you'll be equipped to perform complex pattern matching and text manipulation in your scripts.

GUI Scripting

In this module, we will focus on writing graphical scripts that improve user interaction within your shell scripts. You'll start by creating text-based menus for user input and progress to using the "dialog" program and its widgets to build more professional, visually engaging scripts. We will also explore modern GUI tools like kdialog and zenity for even more polished interfaces.

Advanced sed

In this module, we will explore advanced features of sed, focusing on multi-line commands and the powerful "Hold Space" for text manipulation. You will learn how to use commands like multi-line Next, Delete, and Print to handle complex text processing tasks. Additionally, we will cover command negation, providing you with more control over when specific sed commands should or should not be executed.

Advanced gawk

In this module, we will delve into the advanced features of gawk to enhance your scripting skills. You'll explore variable types, including built-in and user-defined variables, and learn to work with arrays for data organization. Additionally, you'll learn to use structured commands like conditionals and loops, and discover how to format output and create custom functions for more powerful, reusable scripts.