Creating Backup Folder

Now let's extend the backup script to create a backup folder where the files will be stored.

Rewrite backup.sh from scratch so it holds the complete, updated script. Use > for the first line to replace the file, then >> to append each following line:

echo '#!/bin/bash' > backup.sh
echo 'read -p "Enter source directory: " source_dir' >> backup.sh
echo 'echo "Backing up: $source_dir"' >> backup.sh
echo 'backup_dir="backup"' >> backup.sh
echo 'mkdir -p "$backup_dir"' >> backup.sh
echo 'echo "Created backup folder: $backup_dir"' >> backup.sh

Each line is wrapped in single quotes so the shell writes $source_dir and $backup_dir into the file literally instead of replacing them with their values.

Then make it executable:

chmod +x backup.sh

Finally, run your script with documents as the input. This terminal is not interactive, so pipe the answer into the script instead of waiting to be asked:

echo "documents" | ./backup.sh

Your output should be:

Backing up: documents
Created backup folder: backup

Verify the folder was created by running ls to list the directory contents. The output should show the new backup folder alongside your other files.

Hint: The -p flag in mkdir -p prevents errors if the directory already exists. Make sure to use quotes around your variables (e.g., "$backup_dir") to handle them safely.