• perform similar tasks many times

• flow control (i.e., conditional execution) supported

• parameters (arguments, switches) may be passed

• variable manipulation supported

    Example:

    %>  cat script1
    #!/bin/csh
    # script1 — R.A.Jansen, Oct 23 2002 — rename a bunch of image files
    if ( $#argv < 5 ) then
       echo "Syntax: script1 <inproot> <outroot> <imexten> <old1 new1> [old2 new2]"
       echo "                [[old3 new3] [old4 new4] ...]"
       exit
    endif
    set inp = "$1"
    set out = "$2"
    set ext = "$3"
    shift ; shift ; shift

    while ( a == a )
        if ( "" != "$1" && "" != "$2" ) then
            echo "\\cp −p $inp$1$ext $out$2$ext"
            \cp −p $inp$1$ext $out$2$ext
            shift ; shift
        else
            break
        endif
    end



    %>  chmod +x script1
    %>  script1 im NGC3710_ .fits 001 B 002 V 003 R
    \cp −p im001.fits NGC3710_B.fits
    \cp −p im002.fits NGC3710_V.fits
    \cp −p im003.fits NGC3710_R.fits