How to run multiple Unix commands in one time?

Question

I'm still new to Unix. Is it possible to run multiple commands of Unix in one time? Such as write all those commands that I want to run in a file, then after I call that file, it will run all the commands inside that file? or is there any way(or better) which i do not know?

Thanks for giving all the comments and suggestions, I will appreciate it.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13077241/execute-combine-multiple-linux-commands-in-one-line — user3526905, Jan 22 '15 at 05:05

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 13 '11 at 02:14

Short answer is, yes. The concept is known as shell scripting, or bash scripts (a common shell). In order to create a simple bash script, create a text file with this at the top:

#!/bin/bash

Then paste your commands inside of it, one to a line.

Save your file, usually with the .sh extension (but not required) and you can run it like:

sh foo.sh

Or you could change the permissions to make it executable:

chmod u+x foo.sh

Then run it like:

./foo.sh

Lots of resources available on this site and the web for more info, if needed.

hi, may i know why "history" is not working? I searched in the web and i saw we can execute command "history" in the shell script if use ". script_name", what if for my machine the permission is denied? — keifer, Jul 13 '11 at 05:59

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 13 '11 at 02:15

22

echo 'hello' && echo 'world'

Just separate your commands with &&

answered Jul 13 '11 at 02:15

adlawson

6,303
1
35
46

1

Nice answer for the _title_ of the question, but missed the three references to "file" in the _body_ of the question. :) – sarnold Jul 13 '11 at 02:30
No, that's the AND operator. You need a single `&` to run in the background. Also, this isn't the answer to the real question. – Keith Jul 13 '11 at 02:57
Keith, he meant the AND operator. It will execute them consecutively and that's what we want here. Else we would have thread safety issues. – Sep 10 '12 at 13:53
@sarnold OP suggested using a file _might_ be a way, but the `&&` operator is also a great way to run multiple commands. – Emile Bergeron Oct 18 '17 at 20:02
1

@EmileBergeron no worries, I'm not the one who downvoted this answer :) – sarnold Oct 19 '17 at 19:30

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 04 '14 at 12:52

7

We can run multiple commands in shell by using ; as separator between multiple commands

For example,

ant clean;ant

If we use && as separator then next command will be running if last command is successful.

answered Jun 04 '14 at 12:52

minhas23

9,291
3
58
40

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 13:10

3

you can also use a semicolon ';' and run multiple commands, like : $ls ; who

answered Jun 06 '13 at 13:10

Kernal

53
6

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 13 '11 at 02:16

2

Yep, just put all your commands in one file and then

bash filename

This will run the commands in sequence. If you want them all to run in parallel (i.e. don't wait for commands to finish) then add an & to the end of each line in the file

answered Jul 13 '11 at 02:16

Sodved

8,428
2
31
43

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 18 '17 at 20:04

2

If you want to use multiple commands at command line, you can use pipes to perform the operations.

grep "Hello" <file-name> | wc -l

It will give number of times "Hello" exist in that file.

edited Oct 18 '17 at 20:04

Emile Bergeron

17,074
5
83
129

answered Jul 13 '11 at 09:35

crazy_prog

1,085
5
19
34

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 25 '18 at 18:52

To have the commands actually run at the same time you can use the job ability of zsh

$ zsh -c "[command1] [command1 arguments] & ; [command2] [command2 arguments]"

Or if you are running zsh as your current shell:

$ ping google.com & ; ping 127.0.0.1

The ; is a token that lets you put another command on the same line that is run directly after the first command.

The & is a token placed after a command to run it in the background.

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 13 '11 at 02:31

0

Sure. It's called a "shell script". In bash, put all the commands in a file with the suffix "sh". Then run this:

chmod +x myfile.sh

then type

. ./myFile

or

source ./myfile

or just

./myfile

edited Jul 13 '11 at 02:31

sarnold

102,305
22
181
238

answered Jul 13 '11 at 02:15

Jack BeNimble

35,733
41
130
213

1

Note that ending the file with a suffix of `"sh"` has absolutely no effect whatsoever. The `chmod` only makes a difference if you include a [shebang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_%28Unix%29) and you execute the file -- the `./myfile` instead of `source myfile` or `. myfile`. – D.Shawley Jul 13 '11 at 02:30

How to run multiple Unix commands in one time?

8 Answers8

Linked