🚀 Day 4 of My DevOps Journey: Bash Scripting for DevOps

Hello dev.to community! 👋

Yesterday, I explored Git & GitHub — the backbone of collaboration and CI/CD. Today, I’m diving into Bash scripting — the first step toward automation in DevOps.

🔹 Why Bash matters for DevOps

Most servers (Linux-based) rely on shell commands.

Automating tasks saves time and reduces errors.

CI/CD pipelines, provisioning, and deployment scripts often start with Bash.

🧠 Core concepts I’m learning

Variables: store values

NAME="DevOps"
echo "Hello $NAME"

Conditionals: run logic based on checks

if [ -f /etc/passwd ]; then
echo "File exists"
else
echo "File missing"
fi

Loops: repeat tasks (perfect for automation)

for i in {1..3}; do
echo "Iteration $i"
done

Functions: reuse scripts like building blocks

greet() {
echo "Welcome, $1"
}
greet "Engineer"

🛠️ Mini use cases for DevOps

Automate daily log cleanups (rm -rf /var/log/*).

Backup files with a single script (tar -czf backup.tar.gz /app).

Monitor services (check if nginx is running, restart if not).

Environment setup (install dependencies, export env vars).

⚡ Pro tip: Always start scripts with #!/bin/bash and give execute permissions:

chmod +x script.sh

./script.sh

🧪 Hands-on mini-lab (do this!)
Create a script called healthcheck.sh that:

Pings google.com

Logs result with timestamp

Alerts if unreachable

This is your first step toward monitoring and reliability automation.

🎯 Key takeaway
Before learning Python or YAML-heavy tools, Bash scripting is your first automation superpower. With just a few lines, you can automate repetitive DevOps tasks.

🔜 Tomorrow (Day 5)
I’ll cover Networking Basics (DNS, Ports, Load Balancing) — the invisible backbone of every modern system.