Exploring the Linux shell

Back in Chapter 2, The Linux Shell and Filesystem, we introduced you to the shell by exploring the available virtual consoles, command types, and the filesystem. This gave you a fair foundation for what we are about to explore in this chapter. By now, with everything we have been showing you in this book, you are already well versed in using the command line; you know some of the most common and useful commands available in Linux as we explored file operations, package, user, and disk management, all the way up to network administration. All this knowledge will eventually be put to use in this chapter, where we will explore advanced shell features, shell variables, regular expressions, and how to take advantage of the powerful programming and automation features of the Bash shell.

In the next section, we will begin discovering the advanced features of the shell.

Bash shell features

The shell not only runs commands but also has many more features that...