On occasion we create shell functions on the command line to facilitate system administration tasks. Their clear advantage is speed because they are stored in a computer's main memory. These functions can also be setup in a script file or in a .profile file.
Here's an example.#currentusers
{
date
echo Users currently on the system
who
}
Displays the the users who are currently logged on
#currentusers
To unset the function
#unset currentusers
And here's one more example.
#pingtest
{
date
for i in 1 2 3 4 5
do
ping wkstn$i
done
echo pingtest done
}
Shows workstation pings
#pingtest
To unset the function
#unset pingtest