Product Description

Shell scripting skills never go out of style. It's the shell that unlocks the real potential of Unix. Shell scripting is essential for Unix users and system administrators-a way to quickly harness and customize the full power of any Unix system. With shell scripts, you can combine the fundamental Unix text and file processing commands to crunch data and automate repetitive tasks. But beneath this simple promise lies a treacherous ocean of variations in Unix commands and standards. "Classic Shell Scripting" is written to help you reliably navigate these tricky waters. Writing shell scripts requires more than just a knowledge of the shell language, it also requires familiarity with the individual Unix programs: why each one is there, how to use them by themselves, and in combination with the other programs. The authors are intimately familiar with the tips and tricks that can be used to create excellent scripts, as well as the traps that can make your best effort a bad shell script. With "Classic Shell Scripting" you'll avoid hours of wasted effort. You'll learn not only write useful shell scripts, but how to do it properly and portably. The ability to program and customize the shell quickly, reliably, and portably to get the best out of any individual system is an important skill for anyone operating and maintaining Unix or Linux systems. "Classic Shell Scripting" gives you everything you need to master these essential skills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104519 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 558 pages

Linux Format Magazine, September 2005 - Paul Hudson
officially our new favourite text...it’s a jazzy, practical and fascinating book that totally took us by surprise.

From the Publisher
An essential skill for Unix users and system administrators, shell scripts let you easily crunch data and automate repetitive tasks, offering a way to quickly harness the full power of any Unix system. This book provides the tips, tricks, and organized knowledge you need to create excellent scripts, as well as warnings of the traps that can turn your best efforts into bad shell scripts.

About the Author
Arnold Robbins, an Atlanta native, is a professional programmer and technical author. He has worked with Unix systems since 1980, when he was introduced to a PDP-11 running a version of Sixth Edition Unix. He has been a heavy AWK user since 1987, when he became involved with gawk.

Nelson Beebe is a long time Unix user and system administrator, and has helped for years on Usenet newsgroups.

Customer Reviews

Excellent guide to the POSIX shell
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!

Possibly one of the best introduction to UNIX/LINUX out there.
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.

A UNIX book that's actually clearly written !!!!!
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.