Shell Scripting Interview Questions and Answers

Last updated on Jan 09, 2023
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Shell Scripting Interview Questions

Most Frequently Asked Shell Scripting Interview Questions

Here in this article, we will be listing frequently asked Shell Scripting Interview Questions and Answers with the belief that they will be helpful for you to gain higher marks. Also, to let you know that this article has been written under the guidance of industry professionals and covered all the current competencies.

Q1. Write the difference between Bourne Shell and the C shell?
Answer
C Shell Bourne Shell
C shell denoted as CSH Bourne shell denoted as BASH
The c shell family is a typical Programming language The Bourne shell family has a much richer programming language.
C shell programming is easier to learn. Bourne shell programming is difficult to learn.
It was developed by Bill Joy in the late 1970s It was developed by Brian Fox.

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Q2. Can you separate hard and soft links in shell scripting? How?
Answer

Shell scripting is an effective perspective that uses links to create shortcuts, just Like windows. However, soft connections do not have any particular location, can be Anywhere on the same file system, and are usually related to the file name.

The same file time and hard links are on the same file system.

Hard Links are usually related to nodes with a specific fixed location. For example, let's say you have a file called a.txt. If you create a hard link to a file and then delete the file, you can still access the file using the hard link.

However, if you create a soft link to a file and then delete the file, the file becomes inaccessible through the soft link, and the soft link dangles. This is because hard links increase the reference count of a location, while soft links act as shortcuts (like in Windows).

Q3. Why is a shell script needed?
Answer
  • Keeping repetitive tasks to a minimum.
  • can be used by system executives for procedure backups.
  • adding new functions to the shell.
  • system admin can automate daily tasks.
  • shell script permits you to make your tool.
  • Monitoring the system.
Q4. What do you mean by metacharacters?
Answer

In a data program, metacharacters are particular characters that give information about other characters. In shells, they are called regular expressions. A character, not a letter or a number, is usually considered a metacharacter. Using shell metacharacters, you can group commands, redirect and pipe input/output, put commands in the background, reduce the size of file names, etc.

Q5. What is the shebang line in shell scripting?
Answer

Shell scripts or programs often contain a shebang at the top. In general, the shebang is used to indicate the operating system uses a particular interpreter to process the rest of the file. Here, the symbol '#' is referred to as hash, and "!" is called bang. This generally aids developers in ignoring repeated work.

The engines generally execute scripts; therefore, shebang determines the location of the engine that will be used to run the script.

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Q6. Write the difference between $$ and $!?
Answer

$$ specifies the process ID of the currently running process

$! specifies the process ID of the currently running process. Display process IDs of processes that have recently been back grounded.

Q7. What are the different commands available to check disk usage?
Answer
Df command It shows the amount of disk space used and available on the Linux file system.
Du command It shows the amount of disk space used by the specified files and for each and every subdirectory.
Btrfs fi df/device/ That shows disk space usage information for a btrfs based mount point/file system.

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Q8. What are the different blocks of a file system? Explain in brief.
Answer

The core concepts are superblocks, inodes, data, directories, and indirect blocks. The superblock contains information about the entire filesystem. B. Its size (exact information depends on the file system). The inode contains all information about the file except its name.

Q9. What are the three security provisions UNIX provides for a file or data?
Answer
  • Read (r): Read permission allows you to open and read the file's contents.
  • Write (w): Write permission will enable you to edit, delete, or rename the file.
  • Execute (x): A program cannot be run or executed on Unix systems unless the execute permission is set.
Q10. Why would we use CLI over GUI?
Answer

The CLI is preferred by professionals looking for performance and speed. However, the GUI requires navigating through various icons. This makes the GUI slow. But with the CLI, you can use your keyboard to navigate the user interface.

Conclusion

All these above Shell scripting interview questions allow you to explain what makes you stand out among all the other candidates and how you will be an asset to that particular company. After going through the above questions and their answers, you have the perfect opportunity to convince the interviewer why you are the right candidate for the job. In addition, you will be able to show the interviewer what you have to offer the company if you are hired and present when the shell script is running and inherits the parent's environment.

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