Bash for Archivists

Two years ago, Reto Kromer prepared a Bash programming course for audio-visual archivists of the SEAPAVAA community, but finally could not hold it, because of health problems. COVID-19 gives us now a good reason to offer an expanded flavour of the course as a series of webinars. Joshua Ng from the Archives New Zealand is co-leading the sessions.

• We believe that the only way to really learn scripting is to write scripts, therefore lessons and hands-on will alternate. The examples are mainly focussed on FFmpeg automation techniques, but also other open-source tools are considered.
• The webinars are free, but a registration was required … which is now closed.
• You are very welcome to make a voluntary donation to the “COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund”, supporting World Health Organisation’s work. Thank you!
• We will use a Jitsi-based platform. The full link will be provided to the participants in proper time.

Summary

• Beginner Level
• Intermediate Level
• Advanced Level
• Bibliography

Beginner Level

Anticipated content includes:

• command-line interface;
• parsing input and formatting output;
• flow control: branching with if;
• variables;
• functions;
• data processing.

First Session

On Tuesday 23^rd June 2020 from 08:00 to 10:00 CEST (or from 06:00 to 08:00 UTC).

• “Hello, World!” (script)
• prompt the installed versions of Bash and FFmpeg (script)
• program in fieri (script)

Second Session

On Thursday 25^th June 2020 from 08:00 to 10:00 CEST (or from 06:00 to 08:00 UTC).

• Second Session (PDF)
• final program (script)

Intermediate Level

Anticipated content includes:

• customising your environment;
• flow control: looping with while and until;
• arrays;
• file processing;
• flow control: branching with case;
• process handling, redirections.

Third Session

On Tuesday 30^th June 2020 from 08:00 to 10:00 CEST (or from 06:00 to 08:00 UTC).

• Third Session (PDF)
• program in fieri (script)
• FFmpeg: Image sequence into ProRes
• FFmpeg: Video into H.264
• FFmpeg: Probe and generate JSON report
• FFmpeg: Play an image sequence

Fourth Session

On Thursday 2^nd July 2020 from 08:00 to 10:00 CEST (or from 06:00 to 08:00 UTC).

• Fourth Session (PDF)
• final program (script)

Advanced Level

Anticipated content includes:

• debugging techniques;
• flow control: looping with for;
• regular expressions;
• command substitution;
• flow control: branching with select;
• asynchronous execution.

Fifth Session

On Tuesday 7^th July 2020 from 08:00 to 10:00 CEST (or from 06:00 to 08:00 UTC).

• Fifth Session (PDF)
• program in fieri (script)

Sixth Session

On Thursday 9^th July 2020 from 08:00 to 10:00 CEST (or from 06:00 to 08:00 UTC).

• Sixth Session (PDF)
• final program (script)
• Appendix: Install or update the current FFmpeg HEAD (script from our Bash AVpres set)

Bibliography

From AV Preservation by reto.ch:

• Bash Cookbook for Archivists
• Bash Script for Audio-Visual Preservation

From the “Linux Documentation Project Guides”:

• Mendel Cooper: Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide, version 10, 2014-03-10 (HTML and PDF)
• Machtelt Garrels: Bash Guide for Beginners, version 1.11, 2008-12-27 (HTML and PDF)
• Gareth Anderson: GNU/Linux Command-Line Tools Summary, version 1.2, 2006-04-15 (HTML and PDF)

Using Bash in AV archives:

• Nicole Martin: twoBit Digital Preservation: Bash Script Library, ca. 2020-05-07
• Dave Rice and Annie Schweikert: Microservices in Audiovisual Archives, International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) Journal, n. 50 (August 2019), p. 53–75
• Joanna White: Using bash scripts to automate #AVpres workflows, 2020-03-31

Other resources:

• Rico Sta. Cruz: Bash scripting cheatsheet
• Saron Yitbarek: Heroes in a Bash Shell (podcast)

For macOS users

• Daniel Weibel: Upgrading Bash on macOS, 2019-01-13

2024-12-05