find_average()
{
sum=0
i=1
len=$#
x=$((len + 1))
while [ $i -lt $x ]
do
arg=${!i}
sum=$((sum + arg))
i=$((i + 1 ))
done
avg=$((sum / len))
return $avg
}
find_average 10 20 30 40
echo $?
Code language: PHP (php)
I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.
I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.
Find Trusted Cardiac Hospitals
Compare heart hospitals by city and services — all in one place.
Explore Hospitals
A commonly missed point in shell scripting functions is that they become truly important only when scripts are used in real production automation such as CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure provisioning, where structure, reuse, and reliability matter far more than simple script execution. In practice, functions help organize complex scripts into manageable blocks, but if they are not designed properly, large automation scripts quickly become difficult to maintain, debug, and scale across multiple environments. Another key issue is proper handling of return codes and error propagation inside functions, because inconsistent exit status management can allow pipelines to continue running even after a critical failure, resulting in incomplete or unstable deployments. In real DevOps scenarios, functions are also commonly used to standardize repetitive tasks like logging, input validation, and retry logic, which are essential for stability in unpredictable systems. However, excessive reliance on global variables or loosely structured function design can introduce hidden dependencies and side effects that are hard to track in complex workflows. Overall, shell functions are not just a coding convenience but a core building block for writing reliable, maintainable, and production-ready automation scripts.
thanks for sharing shell scripting blogs. keep writing blogs that helps no of software developer