Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 3rd Edition

Producing Scripts for Database, Web, and E-Mail

IN THIS CHAPTER

Writing database shell scripts

Using the Internet from your scripts

E-mailing reports from scripts

So far we've covered many different features of shell scripts. However, there's still more! You can also utilize advanced applications outside your shell scripts to provide advanced features, such as accessing databases, retrieving data from the Internet, and e-mailing reports. This chapter shows how to use these three common features found in Linux systems all from within your shell scripts.

Using a MySQL Database

One of the problems with shell scripts is persistent data. You can store all the information you want in your shell script variables, but at the end of the script, the variables just go away. Sometimes, you'd like for your scripts to be able to store data that you can use later.

In the old days, to store and retrieve data from a shell script required creating a file, reading data from the file, parsing the data, and then saving the data back into the file. Searching for data in the file meant reading every record in the file to look for your data. Nowadays with databases being all the rage, it's a snap to interface your shell scripts with professional-quality open source databases. Currently, the most popular open source database used in the Linux world is MySQL. Its popularity has grown as a part of the Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP ...