Customer Reviews

Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a linux enthusiast for 7 years, a system administrator for 4. This provides concise explanations with outstanding illustrations that provide a comprehensive list of switches for each of the commands discussed, I really wish there was an electronic copy available.....
This should be the first book you purchase when looking to become a command line ninja.

A good introduction to the Linux back end and a thorough description of all the basic Linux commands. From my perspective I would have liked to see less on alternate shells and more on the additional commands available as open-source routines, but on the whole this covered the field extremely well for beginners and occasional scripters who need reminding.

I'm a computer science student but I have not previously focused much on shell scripting, but this book has greatly aided me in:
- understanding the history of command line interfaces and exactly what the Linux terminals are emulating
- the basics of the major shells
- administrating a Linux system with shell scripts

I find myself referencing this book more often then the textbook I was assigned for class.

I purchased this book as a guide when I had to teach myself the basics of Linux and shell scripting for a project at work. I needed to quickly learn how to use the Linux command line inferface and to extract and organize several lines of relevant data from 100,000+ lines generated for each run of my software program. Trying to manually organize this data in a spreadsheet program such as Excel would have been a nightmare to say the least!

I bought this book from Amazon based on the other favorable reviews, and want to add my two cents that it is an excellent resource to learn the Linux command line functions and shell scripting commands! I was especially impressed with how well the information was presented, and it was clearly understandable to a person without any previous experience with Linux, programming, or knowledge of programming syntax such as myself. Examples are abundant and helpful, and the idiosyncrasies between the different Linux shells are also explained in detail.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is new to Linux, and/or wants to use Linux and shell scripting to automate data processing. It takes some time to get proficient in scripting, but it will save you time in the long run!

I wish this book had been out 4 years ago before I started working in a NOC (Network Operations Center). So far, I've been very impressed with the layout and information contained in this book. The command line switches are very detailed yet, this information would be a great reference for somebody starting out as long as they have a system in front of them to experiment with. Even an old $200 computer would work!

This book is excellent for the beginner in Linux. It has everything to introduce a new user to the world of the Linux command line. The shell scripting section is the largest section in the book and the only place that is rated a 4, and may well deserve better. The shell scripting section starts out very well in introducing a newbie into the world of scripting. It gives detailed explanation of what the script actually does. However, after getting deeper into the script section, there is an explanation of what the script accomplishes but there is no line by line detail, which would reduce confusion and instill a greater understanding. If this were accomplished with each statement, perhaps it would have greatly increased the size of the book as well. The use of equations are used a bit too much, and other common Linux commands are not used enough in scripts. Some of the scripts contained discrepancies but that is to be expected. Perhaps scripts should have been kept to a minimal for beginner purposes or published in a second book would be much better! Overall though, this book is an excellent source for the beginner. One cannot go wrong with Blum's knowledge and experience! This will make a wonderful reference for anyone's Linux library! Excellent book! You will not be disappointed!

I'm Fedora user since Fedora Core 6.
After reading this books I've impreved not only my bash scripting skill, but also console manipulation.
Great book for beginners in bash, but you should have some experience in GNU/Linux.

I am taking a Linux class in grad school for my Computer Information Technology degree. The textbook we have was written in 2005 and really isn't user friendly. On top of that we have a professor who is a first year professor who I am not sure is fully knowledgeable about the topic. So basically, I have to teach myself Linux. This book has been a great help to grasp the confusing lectures and useless book...and then make the concepts understandable to me. Bravo!

I've only reached up to the beginning of the shell scripting section. There is plenty of material covering linux basics that lays the groundwork for shell scripting to come. I've seen linux in passing for a long time, but never ventured far from the Windows world for too long. This book provides some of the key command-line commands and explains them in enough detail to get you started (with man pages to get you the rest of the way). Following along with the book with my old laptop that has Ubuntu linux installed on it, I've been able to faithfully reproduce many of the commands found in the text. So far it appears to deliver on its promises. Some of the material about details concerning the menu selections for graphical text editors seems a bit unnecessary, but I suppose that in its claim to being a "bible" it should attempt to cover as many bases as possible. In the spirit of the indomitable Roger Ebert, I give this book an emphatic 2 thumbs up!

I've read the first 10 chapters of the books and so far it's amazing. The book has a lot of information and covers a lot of useful Linux commands. The book has tons of code examples to help you see the results of the things you're doing and the author does a very good job at explaining everything in depth. Love this book, will be on top of my desk for many years.