Customer Reviews
A UNIX book that's actually clearly written !!!!! - By: Bluesbreaker, 01 Aug 2008 
If you're like me then you've bought a few UNIX books & are none the wiser as you seem to be on the outside lookingin at some 6th-form science club. You are, however , 'in IT' & 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 subjectin depth & 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 & 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. - By: Brice Fernandes, 26 Jun 2007 This book is incredibly well paced & written. The authors manage to writein a very approachable way without missing any of the essential, & 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 & how to build continually more complex programs.
Also apprecieated are examples throughout the book. These examples, unlike some similar titles, are therein just the right amount. You don't feel swamped by pages & 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 & 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 interestedin 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 - By: A. J. Trickett, 09 Apr 2007 
This is a very good introduction to the POSIX shell, as used on various Unix & Linux operating systems. The book covers the basics of how a shell works, how it can be used to write scripts & the standard Unix tool-kit that can be used to do powerful things quickly & easily.
The book is groundedin POSIX tools so does not take advantage of features presentin the very latest Bash, Korn & Z shells, but it does mention that sometimes if you are willing to trade portability you can do things easier & quicker.
The book does not require a deep understanding of the Unix philosophy, but it does help to have used the basic Unix/Linux toolsin the past. As well as shell, the book covers the standard tool-kit such as cut, head, tail, grep, sed & a large chunk of awk.
The book is well written & organised, & there are plenty of code snippets & 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 & Ruby. Some of the longer shell examples would have been much better writtenin 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 - By: , 20 Mar 2006 I like easy to read book & 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 & clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details & does not press too much. I also followed an advisein someone review & 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 & you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again & read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator & 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 & 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 & 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 - By: , 16 Sep 2005 This is a great book. I found the writing clear & precise & as a general introduction to all things Unix & 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.
