linux-bash

majiayu000's avatarfrom majiayu000

Expert assistance with Linux bash commands, shell scripting, system administration, file operations, and command-line utilities. Use this when working with bash scripts, Linux system operations, or command-line tasks.

⭐5stars🔀1forks📁View on GitHub🕐Updated Jan 11, 2026
[IT Helpdesk and Runbooks]

When & Why to Use This Skill

This Claude skill provides expert-level guidance for Linux Bash operations, shell scripting, and system administration. It empowers users to automate complex IT workflows, manage system resources efficiently, and perform advanced file and text processing using standard command-line utilities. By emphasizing best practices like error handling and script safety, it serves as a comprehensive resource for DevOps engineers and system administrators looking to optimize their command-line productivity.

Use Cases

  • System Administration & Automation: Creating robust, production-ready shell scripts for automated backups, system updates, and routine maintenance tasks.
  • Log Analysis & Text Processing: Utilizing powerful tools like grep, sed, and awk to parse large log files, extract specific data points, and generate system reports.
  • Process & Resource Management: Monitoring system health using top/htop and managing background processes to ensure optimal server performance.
  • DevOps & CI/CD Integration: Writing and debugging bash scripts for deployment pipelines, environment setup, and infrastructure orchestration.
  • File System Operations: Executing complex file searches, batch permission modifications, and secure data archiving using tar and find.
nameLinux Bash
descriptionExpert assistance with Linux bash commands, shell scripting, system administration, file operations, and command-line utilities. Use this when working with bash scripts, Linux system operations, or command-line tasks.

Linux Bash

Expert guidance for Linux bash operations, scripting, and system administration.

Core Commands

File Operations

  • ls -lah - List files with details, including hidden
  • find /path -name "pattern" - Find files by name
  • grep -r "pattern" /path - Recursive text search
  • chmod +x file - Make file executable
  • chown user:group file - Change ownership
  • tar -czf archive.tar.gz dir/ - Create compressed archive
  • tar -xzf archive.tar.gz - Extract archive

Process Management

  • ps aux | grep process - Find running processes
  • top / htop - Monitor system resources
  • kill -9 PID - Force kill process
  • nohup command & - Run command in background
  • jobs - List background jobs
  • fg %1 - Bring job to foreground

System Information

  • df -h - Disk usage human-readable
  • du -sh dir/ - Directory size
  • free -h - Memory usage
  • uname -a - System information
  • lsb_release -a - Distribution info

Text Processing

  • cat file | head -n 10 - First 10 lines
  • tail -f log.txt - Follow log file
  • sed 's/old/new/g' file - Replace text
  • awk '{print $1}' file - Print first column
  • sort file | uniq - Remove duplicates

Shell Scripting Best Practices

Script Template

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail  # Exit on error, undefined vars, pipe failures

# Script description
readonly SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"

main() {
    # Your logic here
    echo "Hello, World!"
}

main "$@"

Error Handling

# Check command success
if ! command -v tool &> /dev/null; then
    echo "Error: tool not found" >&2
    exit 1
fi

# Trap errors
trap 'echo "Error on line $LINENO"' ERR

Variables

# Constants (uppercase)
readonly CONFIG_FILE="/etc/app.conf"

# Variables (lowercase)
user_input="$1"

# Arrays
files=("file1.txt" "file2.txt")
for file in "${files[@]}"; do
    echo "$file"
done

Common Patterns

Check if file exists

if [[ -f "file.txt" ]]; then
    echo "File exists"
fi

Loop through files

for file in *.txt; do
    echo "Processing $file"
done

Read user input

read -p "Enter value: " user_value

Function definition

my_function() {
    local arg1="$1"
    echo "Received: $arg1"
}

Tips

  1. Quote variables: Always use "$variable" to prevent word splitting
  2. Use [[ ]] for tests: More features than [ ]
  3. Shellcheck: Use shellcheck script.sh to validate scripts
  4. Exit codes: Use $? to check last command status
  5. Debugging: Use set -x to trace execution

Safety First

  • Always test scripts in safe environment first
  • Use set -e to exit on errors
  • Validate input parameters
  • Quote file paths to handle spaces
  • Use absolute paths when possible