Bash scripting commands are as varied as the command set that Unix's terminal has. Bash commands can also use parameters, expanding their usability and making them a powerful way of controlling Linux.

The most arcane shell commands and options are explained with plenty of examples. “Here” documents, a way to feed input to a script or command within the script itself, are explained thoroughly.

If you're not yet comfortable with writing scripts on Unix and Linux systems, this post might get you off to a healthy start.

Unlike shell scripts on Unix systems, batch files are run by typing their names without their extensions. So to run a batch file named mapdrive.bat, you would type only “mapdrive”.