[SOLVED] how would i make a shell script into a command?

lapishater276 · 07-03-2014, 12:40 PM

i am trying to create a shell script that can be used as a command in the bash terminal. the script compresses files, and the command is to be called compressor. how would i do this?

UPDATE: the problem has been solved. thanks to everyone who helped

Hungry ghost · 07-03-2014, 12:47 PM

You could name the script any name you desire ('compressor', in this case), and put it inside say /home/<user>/bin (or /usr/local/bin, if you want it to be available by every user in your system). Then you'd simply need to call the script from the CLI like you do with any other command (provided the directory you used to store it is in your path).

Philip Lacroix · 07-03-2014, 01:03 PM

Either copy the script file in one of the directories included in the '$PATH' environment variable (do 'echo $PATH' in order to see them), or add to '$PATH' the directory where the file itself is located. '$PATH' is usually defined system-wide in '/etc/profile', or in '~/.bashrc' at a user's level. Finally, make your script executable with 'chmod +x <path-to-script>/compressor'. That's it.

Hungry ghost · 07-03-2014, 06:58 PM

Since this is now marked as solved I guess it worked? In that case, you're welcome...

the dsc · 07-17-2014, 08:21 PM

If one doesn't want for some reason to add more folders to the PATH variable, it still can be achieved by an alias that includes the path in the command.

alias myscriptcommand='/whatever/path/I/dont/want/to/be/part/of/PATH/myscript.sh even-parameter-if-applies'

And that line goes into something like .bashrc or something similar, wherever one prefer to have aliases working.

But unlike having it on PATH, the "command" won't work from within other scripts, only from a terminal session.