panel 1: a script’s arguments are in $1, $2, $3, etc

./script.sh panda banana

$1 is "panda" and $2 is "banana"

panel 2: arguments are great for making simple scripts

Here’s a 1-line svg2png script that I use to convert SVGs to PNGs:

#!/bin/bash
inkscape "$1" -b white --export-png="$2"

I run it like this:

$ svg2png old.svg new.png

(arrow pointing to "$2": “always quote your variables!”)

panel 3: get all the arguments with "${@}"

ls --color "${@}"

panel 4: you can loop over arguments

for i in "${@}"
do
    echo "$i"
done

panel 5: 1 line shell scripts are great

person: “I can write a tiny script so I don’t have to remember a long command!”