Customer Reviews

The Korn Shell: Unix & Linux Programming Manual

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Each "piece" of ksh syntax is presented with a good, full explanation and a tiny example. This makes it an "easy read" for me, and easy to jump on the particular bit of syntax which I'm interested in at the moment. There's [just] a few longer examples of useful scripts in an appendix. I like the inclusion of the man(1) page for ksh & pdksh (in an appendix). Overall, a fully worthwhile purchase (although nothing earth-shaking beyond what you could probably get from the online man page.)

I'm not a heavy duty shell programmer... Perl, and especially Python, are my preferred scripting languages. However, every once in a while the appropriate tool for the job is a shell script.

I've found that this book covers all the bases, but doesn't go deep. I was frustrated by the book yesterday when I need to write a script to check all the executable files in a directory for what libraries they were linked to.

On page 172 the author says: "Because manipulating files is so important in programming, the Korn shell provies a whole range of file operators." Absolutely right. He then shows examples of only 5 of the tests in small code examples. No others are mentioned or even alluded to. My "Learning Perl" book (O'Reilly) has a table listing 25 file tests (including the one I needed).

I also needed to do some string comparisons and manipulations. A pretty common task. Head for the index and look for entries for "string". You get one: string length.

What is in the book is well presented and an easy read, but the lack of depth will limit your productivity.

I purchased this book as a quick reference that has enough detailed explanation.
It does exactly that - but only for a limited number of system calls/commands.
And for others, they aren't even mentioned.
I guess it might be a good "beginner" book, but not a reference.

This book has several code examples broken down into their smallest form. It has an easy to read, easy to learn lay-out. It is a great book for beginners to read or for experts to use as a reference. This is the best computer book which I have ever bought.

The time that the book took to arrive was so long,but it was an international order, so it is fair. My only rejection is that the book has some pages that are little hurt and it used to belong to an university library.