Classic Shell Scripting: Hidden Commands that Unlock the Power of Unix

If you're like me then you've bought a few UNIX books and are none the wiser as you seem to be on the outside looking in at some 6th-form science club. You are, however , 'in IT' and have to get to understand shell-scripting rather than just copy other peoples code. Get this book. It's normal !! It achieves twin aims of covering the subject in depth and being easy to understand. It covers shell scripting very well ( all the curly brackets stuff as well as some very simple , but extremely useful , sed and awk code); it also covers all the usual UNIX stuff - it is entirely self contained. 'UNIX shell commands plus scripting' would be a better , if less snappy , title. I don't usually 'do' reviews - this is , however, a deserved exception.

Possibly one of the best introduction to UNIX/LINUX out there. (3/3 people found this helpful)

This book is incredibly well paced and written. The authors manage to write in a very approachable way without missing any of the essential, and without patronising the reader.

The title may mislead some into thinking that this book covers only scripting or isnt suitable for starting to learn the *NIX shells. Nothing could be further from the truth. Taking the reader through the classic tools of unix, the authors then show how to bring those tools together and how to build continually more complex programs.

Also apprecieated are examples throughout the book. These examples, unlike some similar titles, are there in just the right amount. You don't feel swamped by pages and pages of code, neither lost with nothing to demonstrate what is being said. What these examples are, however, is highly relevent, allowing you to learn important principles and start writing your own code.

Overall, even if advanced users might not benefit as much from this book, it is still highly recommended read to anybody interested in using the power of the unix shell, either totally new to command line, or seasoned with more experience. And suprinsingly, This book remains accessible to both.

Excellent guide to the POSIX shell (3/3 people found this helpful)

This is a very good introduction to the POSIX shell, as used on various Unix and Linux operating systems. The book covers the basics of how a shell works, how it can be used to write scripts and the standard Unix tool-kit that can be used to do powerful things quickly and easily.

The book is grounded in POSIX tools so does not take advantage of features present in the very latest Bash, Korn and Z shells, but it does mention that sometimes if you are willing to trade portability you can do things easier and quicker.

The book does not require a deep understanding of the Unix philosophy, but it does help to have used the basic Unix/Linux tools in the past. As well as shell, the book covers the standard tool-kit such as cut, head, tail, grep, sed and a large chunk of awk.

The book is well written and organised, and there are plenty of code snippets and explanations to keep you going. The book does not really cover the interactive use of shell, it really is all about scripting with shell as the title suggests.

If I have one problem with the book it is that there is an almost pathological avoidance of the dynamic languages such as Perl, Python and Ruby. Some of the longer shell examples would have been much better written in a more complete language such as Perl which are better suited to the larger tasks that shell is not designed for.

Combined with a good introductory books such as "Learning the Bash Shell" or "Learning the Korn Shell" you are well on the way to driving a Unix/Linux system without a mouse!

nice first UNIX book (8/10 people found this helpful)

I like easy to read book and I also had assumed that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. I also followed an advise in someone review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start there much of more advanced reading that will take over you with a time however these two provide you with the BASIS!
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, there is a chance you will surprise many people around!

Shell scripting as an introduction to Linux (10/12 people found this helpful)

This is a great book. I found the writing clear and precise and as a general introduction to all things Unix and Linux invaluable. The aim as stated by the authors is to be able to write clear, secure, cross platform scripts for any Unix system.

I would also recommend that as a starting point for any new Linux user just getting beyond the X interface into the shell. I wish I had this when I started on Linux.

Classic Shell Scripting: Hidden Commands that Unlock the Power of Unix

Arnold Robbins, Nelson Beebe

Reader Reviews:

A UNIX book that's actually clearly written !!!!! (2/2 people found this helpful)

Possibly one of the best introduction to UNIX/LINUX out there. (3/3 people found this helpful)

Excellent guide to the POSIX shell (3/3 people found this helpful)

nice first UNIX book (8/10 people found this helpful)

Shell scripting as an introduction to Linux (10/12 people found this helpful)

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