https://lug.mtu.edu/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Minutes_2026-10-29Minutes 2026-10-29 - Revision history2026-11-08T16:46:31ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.39.17https://lug.mtu.edu/w/index.php?title=Minutes_2026-10-29&diff=8182&oldid=prevSimone: fix formatting... oopsie2026-10-29T23:54:30Z<p>fix formatting... oopsie</p>
<a href="https://lug.mtu.edu/w/index.php?title=Minutes_2026-10-29&diff=8182&oldid=8181">Show changes</a>Simonehttps://lug.mtu.edu/w/index.php?title=Minutes_2026-10-29&diff=8181&oldid=prevSimone: create page with the notes2026-10-29T23:53:57Z<p>create page with the notes</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>BASH scripting by Freya!<br />
<br />
Scripting?<br />
Executables are not binary<br />
Files start with #! (Shebang)<br />
Defines what binary to run the file in<br />
Usually /bin/bash<br />
Can do it with other programming langues or anything!<br />
Good for automation/customization<br />
What languages?<br />
Any<br />
Can even do auto-compiled C with GCC<br />
Usually POSIX shell like bash<br />
env/bin/bash is more 'proper'<br />
Python<br />
Some scripts on your system<br />
Pacman<br />
Other shells<br />
fish, csh, zsh<br />
Shell (server) uses ZSH<br />
Other shells come with their own languages since that's just what they are<br />
All high-level<br />
All terminal commands are shell commands<br />
Pipes (part of bash language)<br />
Bash is part of POSIX standard so it's common on Linux/UNIX<br />
Bash language<br />
It's old<br />
Bounre shell<br />
Dates back to 60s<br />
Use cases<br />
Run scripts on keybind<br />
You can bind any executable to a keybind<br />
Shortcuts (open apps) as well<br />
See the weather<br />
Interactive menus<br />
dmenu<br />
Take in a list of things and sort through them<br />
Useful for menus<br />
Repetitive tasks<br />
Examples:<br />
Transferring pictures off a camera<br />
Freya found a Youtube channel with a lot of cool shell scripts<br />
Videos edited with scripts<br />
Automated FFmpeg scripts<br />
Stringing together data<br />
Screenshots<br />
Can use slurp/grim on Wayland<br />
Usually scripted<br />
Can make it dynamic<br />
Process data<br />
Basics of bash<br />
No built in functions<br />
Just call commandline applications<br />
Built on commands like cs, ls<br />
Familiar if you use CLI a lot<br />
Bash environment is entirely dependent on what you have installed<br />
JSON parsing (bad) and dependent on system packages<br />
Lots of cool programs to do nice things<br />
Environment variables<br />
Just a bash variable<br />
East to access in shell environments<br />
They can be complicated on other languages<br />
Awful syntax but decently powerful<br />
Good for stringing commands together with pipes<br />
Variables<br />
Assign a string to a name<br />
Easy to access with $<br />
Echo<br />
Print statements<br />
Read lines from standard input<br />
Grab user data<br />
If statements must end in fi<br />
Some bash statements are ended with themselves backwards<br />
Really weird getting arguments<br />
Square brackets with required spaces<br />
Brackets are technically a command...<br />
Typical programming languages things (Loops, brackets, else-if)<br />
Bash is a mess....<br />
Is this how professors feel teaching Java 8 to students?<br />
Or C89?<br />
Exit codes are like return statements to exit or give errors<br />
Built-in things<br />
$n gets number 0 to 9<br />
$? gets error codes<br />
See if program failed unless it's being weird<br />
$@ gets arguments as arrays<br />
$! gets PID of background commnand<br />
Lets you run things asynchronously<br />
Environment values<br />
Home directory<br />
Current username<br />
PATH variable<br />
XDG variables<br />
.config<br />
cache home<br />
local home<br />
Don't hardcode paths, use variables instead<br />
Better for portability<br />
Things to remember<br />
Commands make life easy<br />
Learn to use awk, sed, and jq<br />
Text replacement<br />
JSON parsing<br />
Curl for internet stuff<br />
Or wget<br />
There's functions<br />
Make things easy for yourself<br />
But nobody uses them except for fork bombs<br />
Demo time!<br />
Window manager mishaps...<br />
Example scripts<br />
National weather service provides prerendered radar GIFs<br />
Just a URL<br />
Always updated<br />
Can grab them with a script<br />
Downloads the gif to /tmp and plays it<br />
Make widgets?<br />
Uses just curl and mpv<br />
QR generator script<br />
Save text<br />
qrencode then print as image<br />
Scan QR from screen or camera<br />
All very simple, just stringing shell commands together<br />
Aurora script<br />
Shows it on a map in a window<br />
Free API from NOAA<br />
Graph of probability<br />
Script to add todo list item<br />
Doesn't work...<br />
Brightness control<br />
Drivers for brightnessctl may be broken<br />
Complaining about chromeOS?<br />
Converts value to percentage<br />
Hardcoded path.....<br />
Waybar extension<br />
Outputs todo status to the bar<br />
Just a loop to show items<br />
Cronjobs<br />
Do custom things on schedules<br />
Weather alerts<br />
Scripting Magnum Opus<br />
Grabs days of weathers<br />
Pulled from weather services<br />
Only took 2 hours<br />
Very easy<br />
It's free!<br />
Don't pay for weather APIs<br />
National weather service is free and good<br />
Raw model data is also free<br />
Even the notes they're taking<br />
Forecast function takes in URLs and outputs JSON<br />
Freya also wrote scripts for brightness and volume<br />
Wants to bind it to a shortcut<br />
Inspiration<br />
Bread on Penguins<br />
Videos showing scripts<br />
Automated with ffmpeg<br />
Cool things<br />
One more thing<br />
LUG lan party 3 on Sunday<br />
End</div>Simone