100 lessons published

Stage 01 · Shell automation

Bash for DevOps

Portable command-line automation, pipelines, functions, error handling, and production shell practices.

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20chapters

100lessons

Beginnerstarting level

Hands-onlearning mode

Course state100 published · 0 planned

Course brief

A complete Bash automation curriculum for DevOps engineers.

This course is organized as a progressive operational curriculum. Chapter 1 is fully published in this package, while later lesson paths are reserved in curriculum.json so the course can grow without changing URLs or navigation.

By the end

You will be able to

Write predictable Bash scripts with disciplined quoting and argument handling
Compose pipelines, functions, text tools, files, processes, and network commands safely
Handle failures with explicit exit status, strictness, traps, cleanup, retries, and logging
Automate CI/CD, containers, APIs, remote systems, and common DevOps CLIs
Test, lint, secure, profile, and maintain production shell automation

Complete syllabus

20 chapters in prerequisite order.

The structure is deliberately broader than shell syntax. It covers portability, reliability, security, testing, CI/CD, APIs, remote operations, performance, and production design patterns.

01

Chapter 1

Bash and Shell Foundations

5 lessons

What Is Bash and Why DevOps Engineers Use It?Published lesson

Terminals, Shells, Processes, and the Bash Execution ModelPublished lesson

Running Bash on Linux, macOS, WSL, and Git BashPublished lesson

Command Syntax, Quoting, Expansion, and Exit StatusPublished lesson

Help, History, Environment, and Safe Interactive PracticePublished lesson

02

Chapter 2

Scripts, Shebangs, Variables, and Shell Data

5 lessons

From Interactive Commands to Executable Bash ScriptsPublished lesson

Shebangs, Execution Permissions, and Script Launch MethodsPublished lesson

Variables, Environment Variables, readonly, and exportPublished lesson

Parameter Expansion and Default ValuesPublished lesson

Integer Arithmetic, Strings, and Bash's Dynamic Data ModelPublished lesson

03

Chapter 3

Standard Streams, Redirection, and Pipelines

5 lessons

stdin, stdout, stderr, and File DescriptorsPublished lesson

Output Redirection, Append, noclobber, and teePublished lesson

Input Redirection, Here Documents, and Here StringsPublished lesson

Pipelines, pipefail, and Pipeline Exit StatusPublished lesson

Process Substitution and Multi-Stream WorkflowsPublished lesson

04

Chapter 4

Tests, Conditions, and Boolean Logic

5 lessons

Exit Status as Bash's Fundamental Boolean SignalPublished lesson

test, [, and [[ ]] ExpressionsPublished lesson

File, String, and Numeric Condition TestsPublished lesson

if, elif, else, and Compound ConditionsPublished lesson

case Patterns and Defensive BranchingPublished lesson

05

Chapter 5

Loops, Functions, and Reusable Logic

5 lessons

for Loops over Words, Files, and SequencesPublished lesson

while and until LoopsPublished lesson

Reading Streams Safely with readPublished lesson

Functions, Local Variables, and Return StatusPublished lesson

Breaking Large Scripts into Reusable ComponentsPublished lesson

06

Chapter 6

Arguments, Options, and Command-Line Interfaces

5 lessons

Positional Parameters and Special Bash ParametersPublished lesson

shift and Robust Argument ProcessingPublished lesson

Parsing Short Options with getoptsPublished lesson

Designing Usage, Help, and ValidationPublished lesson

Building Predictable DevOps Command-Line ToolsPublished lesson

07

Chapter 7

Arrays and Structured Shell State

5 lessons

Indexed ArraysPublished lesson

Associative ArraysPublished lesson

Safe Array Expansion and QuotingPublished lesson

Reading Command Output into Arrays with mapfilePublished lesson

When Bash Data Structures Are the Wrong AbstractionPublished lesson

08

Chapter 8

Text Processing for Automation

5 lessons

grep and Regular Expressions in AutomationPublished lesson

cut, paste, tr, sort, uniq, and wcPublished lesson

sed for Stream EditingPublished lesson

awk for Field-Oriented ProcessingPublished lesson

Composing Text Pipelines without Fragile ParsingPublished lesson

09

Chapter 9

Files, Directories, and Filesystem Automation

5 lessons

Safe Path Handling and Filename Edge CasesPublished lesson

Creating, Copying, Moving, and Removing ContentPublished lesson

find, xargs, and Null-Delimited WorkflowsPublished lesson

Temporary Files and Directories with mktempPublished lesson

Permissions, Ownership, and Atomic File UpdatesPublished lesson

10

Chapter 10

Processes, Jobs, Signals, and Concurrency

5 lessons

Processes, Subshells, Background Jobs, and PIDsPublished lesson

wait, Job Coordination, and Exit StatusPublished lesson

Signals and Graceful TerminationPublished lesson

Timeouts and Long-Running CommandsPublished lesson

Controlled Parallelism with xargs and Background WorkersPublished lesson

11

Chapter 11

Error Handling, Strictness, Traps, and Cleanup

5 lessons

set -e, errexit, and Its Surprising Edge CasesPublished lesson

set -u, nounset, and Safer Variable AccessPublished lesson

pipefail and Reliable Pipeline Failure DetectionPublished lesson

trap, Cleanup, and Signal-Aware ScriptsPublished lesson

Designing Explicit Error Paths and DiagnosticsPublished lesson

12

Chapter 12

Reliable Production Automation

5 lessons

Idempotency and Convergent Shell OperationsPublished lesson

Retries, Backoff, and Transient Failure HandlingPublished lesson

Structured Logging, Timestamps, and Verbosity LevelsPublished lesson

Locking, Mutual Exclusion, and Duplicate-Run ProtectionPublished lesson

Safe Temporary State, Checkpoints, and RecoveryPublished lesson

13

Chapter 13

JSON, YAML, CSV, and API Data

5 lessons

curl Fundamentals for HTTP AutomationPublished lesson

Parsing JSON Safely with jqPublished lesson

Working with YAML using yqPublished lesson

CSV, Delimited Data, and Quoting HazardsPublished lesson

Building Resilient API-to-Shell WorkflowsPublished lesson

14

Chapter 14

Networking and Remote Automation

5 lessons

DNS, TCP, and Endpoint Checks from BashPublished lesson

SSH for Non-Interactive Remote CommandsPublished lesson

scp, sftp, and rsync Transfer WorkflowsPublished lesson

Quoting Across Local and Remote Shell BoundariesPublished lesson

Fleet Automation without Turning Bash into a Config ManagerPublished lesson

15

Chapter 15

Integrating DevOps Tools from Bash

5 lessons

Automating Git Safely from ScriptsPublished lesson

Driving Docker and Container CLIsPublished lesson

kubectl and Kubernetes AutomationPublished lesson

systemctl, journalctl, and Service WorkflowsPublished lesson

Wrapping Cloud and Infrastructure CLIsPublished lesson

16

Chapter 16

Bash in CI/CD Pipelines

5 lessons

Non-Interactive Shell Behavior in CI RunnersPublished lesson

Environment Variables, Secrets, and Masked OutputPublished lesson

Artifacts, Workspaces, and Cross-Step StatePublished lesson

Fail-Fast versus Best-Effort Pipeline StepsPublished lesson

Writing Portable CI Helper ScriptsPublished lesson

17

Chapter 17

Testing, Linting, Formatting, and Debugging

5 lessons

Tracing with set -x, PS4, and Selective Debug OutputPublished lesson

Static Analysis with ShellCheckPublished lesson

Formatting Bash with shfmtPublished lesson

Unit and Integration Tests with BatsPublished lesson

Test Fixtures, Golden Files, and Failure InjectionPublished lesson

18

Chapter 18

Security, Trust Boundaries, and Portability

5 lessons

Command Injection and Untrusted InputPublished lesson

Secrets, Credentials, and Process-Table ExposurePublished lesson

Secure Temporary Files, Permissions, and CleanupPublished lesson

Bash versus POSIX sh and Portability TradeoffsPublished lesson

Dependency Checks, Version Gates, and Safe DegradationPublished lesson

19

Chapter 19

Performance and Parallel Execution

5 lessons

Avoiding Needless Processes and Useless PipelinesPublished lesson

Streaming versus Buffering Large DataPublished lesson

Profiling Shell Scripts with time and TimestampsPublished lesson

Parallel Workers, Bounded Concurrency, and OrderingPublished lesson

Knowing When to Replace Bash with Python, Go, or Another ToolPublished lesson

20

Chapter 20

Production Design Patterns and Capstone

5 lessons

Script Architecture, Modules, and Configuration LayersPublished lesson

Observability, Metrics, Logs, and Machine-Readable OutputPublished lesson

Deployment, Versioning, and Backward CompatibilityPublished lesson

Operational Runbooks, Rollback, and Incident-Friendly AutomationPublished lesson

Capstone: Build a Production-Grade Release OrchestratorPublished lesson

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Support free, practical DevOps education.

Every lesson is designed to remain readable in a browser, downloadable from GitHub, and usable without a paid learning platform. Contributions help expand and maintain the curriculum.

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