Once you're comfortable at a Linux terminal, the next step is making it do the work for you. DevOps is fundamentally about repeatable, reliable automation, and that starts with the humble shell script. This module covers Bash scripting — variables, control flow, and functions — along with cron for scheduling recurring jobs, and configuration management tools like Ansible that let you automate changes across many machines at once.
This module walks through those fundamentals with a short set of video lessons — watch them in order, then move on to Networking & Protocols once you're comfortable writing and scheduling your own scripts.
Why automate at all: turning repetitive command-line tasks into a saved, reusable Bash script, and running it with the right permissions.
Storing and reading values, branching with if/else, and looping over files, lists, and command output to process things in bulk.
Breaking scripts into reusable functions, reading command-line arguments, and using exit codes so other scripts and tools can react to success or failure.
Searching, filtering, and transforming text streams and log files from the command line — the backbone of most real-world automation scripts.
How PATH, exported variables, and shell startup files (.bashrc, .bash_profile) shape the environment every script and command runs in.
Reading and writing crontab entries, choosing the right schedule syntax, and logging output so scheduled jobs are easy to debug later.
Moving beyond one-off scripts to declarative, idempotent automation: inventories, playbooks, and applying the same configuration across a fleet of servers.