Bash Cookbook for Archivists

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Variables (and Arrays)
• Functions
• Flow Control
• Redirections
• Built-in Commands
• Regular Expressions
• External Utilities
• Appendix: Examples

Preface

• Introduction
• Conventions
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright, License and Disclaimer

Variables (and Arrays)

• Variable substitution
• Pattern matching
• Built-in shell variables (and arrays)
• Other shell variables
• Special prompt strings

Functions

• Functions

Flow Control

• The CASE statement
• The FOR statement
• The IF statement
• The SELECT statement
• The UNTIL statement
• The WHILE statement

Redirections

• Simple redirection
• Redirection using file descriptors
• Multiple redirection
• Process substitution
• Special filenames

Built-in Commands

• Built-in Shell commands
• Built-in Bash commands

Regular Expressions

• Regular Expressions

External Utilities

• awk – Pattern-directed scanning and processing language
• cat – Concatenate and print files
• comm – Select or reject lines common to two files
• curl – Transfer a URL
• diff – Compare files line by line
• grep – File pattern searcher
• patch – Apply a diff file to an original
• sed – Stream editor
• split – Split a file into pieces
• which – Locate a program file in the user’s path

Appendix: Examples

• Bash_AVpres is a set of Bash scripts for audio-visual preservation

2026-01-02