This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Srinivasaraju Tangella
“Why still invest time in learning Shell Scripting when we have Python or PowerShell?”
Let me give you a strong, clear, and well-balanced write-up that highlights the power, relevance, and unique importance of shell scripting, even in a world with Python, PowerShell, and Go (Golang).
1.Shell is Closer to the Operating System:
Shell scripting is natively integrated with Unix/Linux systems.
Commands like ls, ps, kill, top, chmod, grep, awk, sed, and systemctl are first-class citizens in shell β not wrappers.
No import, no module β just type and run.
Example: Restarting a service or checking disk space in shell is one line:
systemctl restart nginx && df -h | grep ‘/dev/xvda1’
2.Itβs Already Everywhere β No Setup Required:
Every Linux distro, container, and server already has bash or sh.
No need to install Python, Go, or PowerShell.
This makes shell the most portable language for DevOps tasks.
3.Shell is Lightweight and Fast for Short Tasks:
For small utilities, automation snippets, init scripts, and glue code, shell is faster to write and execute.
Starting a Python/Go process for simple tasks is often overkill.
Need to clean log files every day at midnight? Shell + cron is the go-to combo.
4.Shell is the Language of the System Admin:
All DevOps, SREs, and Linux engineers must eventually work at the system level:
File permissions
User management
Kernel modules
Logs
Package installation
You canβt manage these efficiently without shell scripting.
5.Shell Works Seamlessly with All Unix Tools:
Shell scripting naturally integrates with tools like:
awk, sed, cut, sort, find, tar, ssh, scp
You can create one-liners or robust scripts using pipe chaining (|) and redirection (>, >>).
Example: Count logins by user:
awk ‘{print $1}’ /var/log/auth.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr
6.Why Not Just PowerShell?
PowerShell is Windows-first, though itβs cross-platform now.
Most cloud-native stacks (Kubernetes, Linux VMs, containers, CI/CD tools) still rely heavily on bash/sh, not PowerShell.
Bash is default in:
Docker images
AWS EC2 user-data scripts
Jenkins and GitHub runners
Kubernetes init containers
PowerShell is excellent for Windows automation, but not the universal glue bash is.
7.Even Go Needs Shell to Bootstrap:
Even if you write a service in Go, youβll often:
Build it using shell scripts (go build, chmod, mv)
Package it into Docker using shell
Deploy it using shell hooks in Jenkins or GitHub Actions
So Go may power the app, but shell powers the platform.
8.Shell is the First Skill Needed in Any Outage:
During an outage or on-call situation:
You SSH into a server
You run diagnostics (top, netstat, ps)
You restart services or free disk space
You grep logs or kill zombie processes
All of this is shell. You canβt afford to Google βhow to use Python to kill a processβ at 2:00 AM.
9.Shell Scripts Are the Foundation of Cloud Infrastructure:
Shell scripting is used in:
Cloud-init scripts for AWS EC2, GCP, Azure
Bootstrapping Terraform & Ansible
Docker entrypoint.sh
Jenkins pipeline steps (sh, bash, execute)
Kubernetes lifecycle hooks (postStart, preStop)
CI/CD runners, agents, and image setup
Youβll never escape bash in DevOps β and thatβs a good thing.
Final Verdict: Shell Is the Foundation
Even with Python, PowerShell, or Go β you still need to know shell scripting to be an effective engineer in DevOps, SRE, Cloud, or ML infrastructure.
Mastering shell scripting makes you:
Faster
More self-reliant
More production-ready
Able to automate anything from a terminal
Thatβs why I started this book β to help you become truly fluent in the first language every systems engineer must speak: Shell.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Srinivasaraju Tangella