Red Hat® Linux® 7 Unleashed

Chapter 26. Automating Tasks

In This Chapter

• First Example—Automating Data Entry

• Tips for Improving Automation Technique

• Shell Scripts

• Scheduling Tasks with cron and at Jobs

• Other Mechanisms: Expect, Perl, and More

• Concluding Challenge for an Automater—Explaining Value

"[T]he three great virtues of a programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris."

—Wall and Schwartz, in Programming Perl

Automation enlists a machine—a Linux computer, in the present case—to perform jobs. What makes this definition live, however, and the true subject of this chapter, is attitude. The most important step you can take in understanding mechanisms of automation under Red Hat Linux is to adopt the attitude that the computer works for you. After you've done that, when you realize ...