Question

I’m new in using scripting language. I come across 2 scripting languages called Perl and Bash shell script.

I would like to know what kind of things can be done using Perl script but cannot be done using Bash shell script?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Bash is a shell and its not meant to be a full fledge programming language, like Perl/Python. It doesn’t have things like modules or packages etc. However, bash shell comes with programming facilities such as arrays, flow control eg if/else, loops (for , while) etc that allows you to do simple scripting. To make the bash shell almost equivalent to the power of Python/Perl, you should use it together with unix tools like sed/awk, etc. With these combined, bash scripting/programming can be as powerful.

I don’t agree with poster Phillip about avoiding Bash because some things are better done with the shell and *nix tools than in other languages.

In conclusion, you should try to learn bash, as well as Perl or Python. Your knowledge of them will come in handy next time.