In this article, we are going to learn how to execute a shell script in Linux server.

Create Shell on Server & Run

We can easily create and run a shell script from SSH. Now we will create a shell script which will show the current date. Let’s see the procedure:

1. Create a new file called date.sh. We can make the file by using sudo nano date.sh command.

2. Add this code:

#!/bin/bash
# My first shell script
echo "Today is $(date)"

3. Make the shell script executable by hitting this command:

chmod +x date.sh

Our shell is ready to run. Let’s run by this command:

./date.sh

Upload Shell on Server & Run

We have created and run a shell script from the server. Now we will upload a shell to the server and then will run.

Create a file called date.sh using any text editor (Notepad, Sublime etc.). Then copy-paste the previous shell script and save the file.

After saving to local, upload it to the server using FTP. After doing this, let’s make shell script executable:

chmod +x date.sh

Now try to run the file:

./date.sh

If it works, then okay. But if it doesn’t work, you have to do an extra thing. You can get an error like this:

/bin/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

To solve this error, we can follow two methods.

Method 1

Run this command to fix the error and make a correct shell file:

cat date.sh | tr -d '\r' > date.sh.new

You will see a file called date.sh.new. Delete the date.sh and rename the date.sh.new to date.sh.

Now try to run the script. It should work.

Method 2

Install dos2unix:

sudo yum -y install dos2unix

Then run this command to convert the file to Unix format:

sudo dos2unix date.sh

Now run the script. It should run.