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System Information Collector — Task 4.1

A Bash script that collects hardware, OS, and network interface information from a Linux host and writes it to a structured output file.

Overview

Script: task4_1.sh
Output: task4_1.out
Target OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial) — runs as root

Output Format

The script produces task4_1.out with the following structure:

--- Hardware ---
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2675
RAM: 8192 MB
Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-M PRO
System Serial Number: S15747127820237
--- System ---
OS Distribution: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
Kernel version: 4.4.0-116-generic
Installation date: Tue Mar 27 14:40:35 UTC 2018
Hostname: myserver.example.com
Uptime: 5 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes
Processes running: 142
Users logged in: 2
--- Network ---
lo: 127.0.0.1/8
enp0s3: 192.168.1.37/24
virbr0: 192.168.122.1/24
virbr0-nic: -

Field Reference

Hardware

Field Description Example
CPU Processor manufacturer and model (frequency, cores allowed) Intel Xeon E5-2675
RAM Physical memory with unit (KB, MB, or GB — uppercase) 8192 MB
Motherboard Baseboard manufacturer + product name; Unknown if unavailable ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-M PRO
System Serial Number dmidecode -s system-serial-number; Unknown if unavailable S15747127820237

System

Field Description Example
OS Distribution Distro vendor, version, and optional code name (one line) Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
Kernel version Kernel version string — no spaces 4.4.0-116-generic
Installation date Human-readable date, parseable by date -d Tue Mar 27 14:40:35 UTC 2018
Hostname FQDN — characters: a-z A-Z 0-9 - ., no spaces myserver.example.com
Uptime Time since last boot, to the minute 5 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes
Processes running Total process count at script runtime (including the script itself) 142
Users logged in Count of unclosed user sessions 3

Network

One line per interface (including loopback, VLANs, TAP, etc.):

<interface>: <IP>/<prefix>
  • Multiple addresses on one interface are comma-separated: 192.168.1.37/24, 10.0.0.1/8
  • Interface with no IPv4 address: -
  • Allowed characters per line: digits, . / - , and spaces

Requirements

  • Format: Every line must follow <Field>: <value> — exactly one space after the colon.
  • Order: Sections and fields must appear in the exact order shown above.
  • No blank lines between fields within a section.
  • The script must be idempotent — running it multiple times must always produce a valid task4_1.out.
  • Any additional packages required must be installed automatically by the script (the VM starts from a clean Ubuntu 16.04 image with internet access).

Validation Rules

The output file is validated automatically after each run. A field fails validation if:

  • There is more than one space after the colon.
  • The field name casing does not match exactly.
  • A field contains characters outside the allowed set for that field.
  • There are extra blank lines between fields.
  • The output file is missing, has a different name, or is in a different directory than the script.

Environment

Property Value
Base image ubuntu/xenial — cloud-img
Run as root
Internet access Yes
Additional packages Allowed (must be auto-installed)

Windows equivalents

Two additional scripts collect the same information on Windows machines. They are not part of the graded task — they are supplementary material.

Script Runtime Output
sysinfo_windows.ps1 PowerShell 3+ (built into Windows 8 / Server 2012 and later) sysinfo_windows.out
sysinfo_windows.py Python 3.9+ · auto-installs psutil via pip sysinfo_windows.out

Run the PowerShell version:

# From the repo root (no elevated prompt required for most fields)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\sysinfo_windows.ps1

Run the Python version:

python sysinfo_windows.py

Both scripts write to sysinfo_windows.out in the same directory. The output format is identical to task4_1.out, with two Windows-specific adaptations:

Field Linux (task4_1.sh) Windows equivalents
Kernel version Linux kernel (4.4.0-116-generic) Windows build (10.0.26200.0)
Installation date Filesystem creation date via tune2fs Win32_OperatingSystem.InstallDate

How each field is sourced on Windows

Field PowerShell source Python source
CPU Win32_Processor.Name Win32_Processor via PowerShell subprocess
RAM Win32_ComputerSystem.TotalPhysicalMemory psutil.virtual_memory().total
Motherboard Win32_BaseBoard.Manufacturer + .Product Win32_BaseBoard via PowerShell subprocess
Serial Number Win32_BIOS.SerialNumber Win32_BIOS via PowerShell subprocess
OS Distribution Win32_OperatingSystem.Caption Win32_OperatingSystem via PowerShell subprocess
Kernel version [Environment]::OSVersion.Version platform.version()
Installation date Win32_OperatingSystem.InstallDate Win32_OperatingSystem via PowerShell subprocess
Hostname $env:COMPUTERNAME socket.gethostname()
Uptime Win32_OperatingSystem.LastBootUpTime psutil.boot_time()
Processes (Get-Process).Count len(psutil.pids())
Users Win32_LogonSession (type 2 + 10) len(psutil.users())
Network Get-NetAdapter + Get-NetIPAddress psutil.net_if_addrs()

Testing

The repo includes a Vagrantfile and a validate.sh script so the solution can be verified locally against the same Ubuntu 16.04 environment used by the grader.

Prerequisites

Run the script inside a clean VM

# From the repo root — spins up Ubuntu 16.04, runs the script, prints the output
vagrant up

The provision step runs task4_1.sh as root and prints the resulting task4_1.out to the terminal. The file is also available at task4_1.out in the repo root (synced from /vagrant/task4_1.out inside the VM).

To re-run the script without rebuilding the VM:

vagrant provision
# or
vagrant ssh -c "sudo /vagrant/task4_1.sh && cat /vagrant/task4_1.out"

To destroy the VM when done:

vagrant destroy -f

Validate the output format

validate.sh checks field order, exact names, spacing, and allowed characters — the same rules the grader applies.

# Run locally after copying task4_1.out out of the VM
bash validate.sh task4_1.out

Or run it inside the VM directly:

vagrant ssh -c "sudo /vagrant/task4_1.sh && bash /vagrant/validate.sh /vagrant/task4_1.out"

Expected output when everything passes:

OK:   Line 1: --- Hardware ---...
OK:   Line 2: CPU: ...
...
All checks passed.

Alternative: multipass (no VirtualBox required)

multipass launch xenial --name task-vm
multipass transfer task4_1.sh task-vm:/home/ubuntu/task4_1.sh
multipass exec task-vm -- sudo bash /home/ubuntu/task4_1.sh
multipass exec task-vm -- cat /home/ubuntu/task4_1.out
multipass delete task-vm --purge