Bash Scripting — Build Your First Real Projects

Updated: July 20, 2025, 09:28 PM IST

In Part 1, we learned about the most common Bash commands. Now it’s time to put them into action! In this post, we’ll walk through 3 small Bash projects you can build right now. These will help you: ✅ Practice basic commands ✅ Combine them into useful scripts ✅ Gain confidence using Bash

📌 What We’ll Cover

✨ Project 1: Create a Backup of a Folder

✨ Project 2: Make a Simple To-Do List Script

✨ Project 3: Check Disk Space and Warn if Full

Each example starts as a question/task, so you can think about how you'd solve it — and then I’ll show the solution.

💡 Project 1: Create a Backup of a Folder

📝 The task:

Write a script that asks the user for a folder name, then copies that folder to a new location with "_backup" added to its name.

💡 Project 2: Make a Simple To-Do List Script

📝 The task:

Write a script that lets the user add a new task to a text file called todo.txt. After adding, it should display all tasks so far.

💡 Project 3: Check Disk Space and Warn if Full

📝 The task:

Write a script that checks the disk space on your system. If disk usage is more than 80%, show a warning message

✅ Solutions

🌟 Project 1: Create a Backup of a Folder

bash

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#!/bin/bash

echo "Enter the folder name to back up:"
read folder

if [ -d "$folder" ]; then
  cp -r "$folder" "${folder}_backup"
  echo "Backup created: ${folder}_backup"
else
  echo "Folder does not exist!"
fi
#!/bin/bash

echo "Enter the folder name to back up:"
read folder

if [ -d "$folder" ]; then
  cp -r "$folder" "${folder}_backup"
  echo "Backup created: ${folder}_backup"
else
  echo "Folder does not exist!"
fi

✅ Backup Script Example Output

Enter the folder name to back up:
myfolder
Backup created: myfolder_backup

(or if folder doesn’t exist)

Enter the folder name to back up:
nofolder
Folder does not exist!

🌟 Project 2: Make a Simple To-Do List Script

bash

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#!/bin/bash

echo "Enter a new task:"
read task

echo "$task" >> todo.txt
echo "Task added!"

echo "Your to-do list:"
cat todo.txt
#!/bin/bash

echo "Enter a new task:"
read task

echo "$task" >> todo.txt
echo "Task added!"

echo "Your to-do list:"
cat todo.txt

✅ To-Do List Script Example Output

Enter a new task:
Finish homework
Task added!
Your to-do list:
Finish homework

(Next time you add another)

Enter a new task:
Call mom
Task added!
Your to-do list:
Finish homework
Call mom

🌟 Project 3: Check Disk Space and Warn if Full

bash

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#!/bin/bash

usage=$(df / | tail -1 | awk '{print $5}' | sed 's/%//')

echo "Disk usage: $usage%"

if [ "$usage" -ge 80 ]; then
  echo "⚠️ Warning: Disk usage is over 80%!"
else
  echo "Disk space is OK."
fi
#!/bin/bash

usage=$(df / | tail -1 | awk '{print $5}' | sed 's/%//')

echo "Disk usage: $usage%"

if [ "$usage" -ge 80 ]; then
  echo "⚠️ Warning: Disk usage is over 80%!"
else
  echo "Disk space is OK."
fi

✅ Disk Space Checker Example Output

Disk usage: 45%
Disk space is OK.

Disk usage: 85%
⚠️ Warning: Disk usage is over 80%!

Linux