Save time with shell scripts

In a rails project, I had to repeat the same steps very frequently, for example :

gco master

git pull

It was boring because I often forget some important steps for my project. I started to use shell scripts. A shell script allows us to automate series of command lines that we must repeat every times in a day of work.

Here the basic configuration I made :

1) Create a file.sh, inside the folder /bin, and add a line in the top of the page

cd bin

➜  bin git: touch name_of_the_file.sh

2) Inside the file, I write the command line LS to see all files inside /bin

#!bin/bash

ls

3) Test the script by running it inside the /bin folder

➜  bin git: ./name_of_the_file.sh

Unfortunately, we can see the file is not executable. To resolve it, run the command :

chmod +x name_of_the_file.sh

4) Great ! Add command lines you want to run, inside your shell file, for example

#!bin/bash

git checkout master
git pull

git push staging master:master
heroku run rake db:migrate --my_app

5) Execute the file with this syntax

In command line :

./bin/name_of_your_file.sh

Why using shell scripts can make us save time ?

  • Execute lot of commands in only one time.
  • Avoid to forget some important steps, as migrations.
  • Automate the repetition
  • Simplify the work in a project team. (You don’t need to explain all steps to do inside the README )