You need to package up a bunch of files, send them somewhere, and do something with them at the destination. It isn’t an uncommon scenario. The obvious answer is to create an archive — a zip or tar ...

Oh happy day! I got an e-mail from a reader with a shell script question that didn't appear to be homework from a programming class or anything to do with hacking passwords. The reader wrote: I am ...

Shell scripting is one of those skills that are absolutely invaluable on especially UNIX and BSD-based systems like the BSDs, the two zillion Linux distributions as well as MacOS. Yet not every shell ...

Linux, known for its robustness and flexibility, has been a favorite among developers, system administrators, and technology enthusiasts. One of the pillars of Linux's capabilities is its inherent ...

Regarding the ability to create a double-clickable Terminal script (see previous item), Scott Lahteine notes that: AppleScript Menu can do more than just run AppleScripts. It allows you to run Perl ...

The enchanting power of Nix.

A file of executable commands for Unix and Linux. Created in a text editor, when the file is run, each command is executed until the end of the file is reached. After the shell script is written, it ...

How a simple script can transform your desktop cleanup.

We have the user-friendly AppleScript and now Automator. But long before either of these existed, there were shell scripts —series of Unix commands saved as mini-programs. By learning how to write ...

Scripts are part of the foundation for efficient network administration. Network administrators are generally not programmers, but they need tools that will let them automate certain tasks and ...