Hey everyone! I've been diving into shell scripting through some awesome tutorials, like those from yousuckatprogramming and LearnLinuxTv. However, I'm feeling stuck because I seem to be just passively absorbing info rather than actively practicing. I'm preparing for a technical school entrance exam and need to find practice problems or cases, preferably in POSIX-compliant bash or bin/sh.
I'm particularly interested in:
- **Practice Platforms**: Are there any websites similar to DataLemur that focus specifically on shell scripting?
- **Real-World Scenarios**: For those of you who aren't in DevOps or SysAdmin roles right now, how do you come up with mini-projects? I want to go beyond simple "Hello World" examples and work on actual tasks like file manipulation, parsing, and automation.
My aim is to shift from watching to doing. If you have any scripts you wish you'd had when you started or know of any challenge repositories, I'd love to hear about them!
Thanks a bunch! By the way, I'm using Linux Mint Cinnamon (just started last week) after years of being a Windows user.
2 Answers
Don't forget to check out [Codewars](https://www.codewars.com/). It's a great platform to practice coding challenges, including shell scripting! You'll find lots of interesting problems to solve.
You definitely want to master these essential tools:
```
- grep
- awk
- sed
- find
- xargs
- cut
- sort/uniq
- tr
```
Check out some fantastic practice sites:
- [OverTheWire Bandit](https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/)
- [CMD Challenge](https://cmdchallenge.com/)
- [Exercism Bash Track](https://exercism.org/tracks/bash)
- [Sad Servers](https://sadservers.com/)
- [LabEx Linux Journey](https://labex.io/linuxjourney)
Oh, and if you’re adventurous, you can install a Linux userspace on your unrooted Android phone like I did. It gives you access to all the command-line tools you need! Here's a peek at my setup from my Samsung A25: [View Image](https://imgur.com/a/JV636Zb).
😀
These tips are fantastic! I had no idea we could run Linux on a phone—how clever! Thanks for the detailed resources!