Customer Reviews

UNIX(r) Shell Programming, 4th Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I don't understand all the negative reviews here. Perhaps they're expecting something else out of this book: intro to programming, or hello world or something. Yes, it's a fairly advanced book, but that's what I wanted in the first place! I am writing this review because I came to this page to buy another copy of this book: I keep wanting a copy at home for hacking on my Linux box!

Any basic tutorial can show you how to do basic if/then/else and loops and basic syntax rules. You need a book when you want to do something harder: mathematics, complicated scripts, etc. Best of all, it doesn't just cover Bourne and C shells: it also covers the Korn and Bourne Again shells (ksh & bash).

This is not one of those books that was hacked out in four weeks because Technology X just became hot and every book publisher on the planet is scrambling to spit out 1600-page shelf-benders. The authors have taken a lot of time to put together a truly useful book.

Books don't reach a fourth edition if they are so bad!

I haven't seen the 4th edition, but I do have the third edition, and found it extremely useful when I was learning how to write shell scripts. I spent a lot of time looking for books on shell programming, and settled on this one. It provides an introduction to shell and unix for novices, and has lots of examples as it develops into more advanced techniques. Overall, I found it was quite clear, easy to read and even useful as a reference when I needed to figure out how to do something.

The "flow" in the book looks to be good. But the flaw is in explaining the examples. No explanation has been given for some important (atleast for me) examples! C shell examples are rarely discussed. The book says "It helps you to develop Bourne, C, or Korn Shell mastery step-by-step, whether you're a beginner or a ....", which I feel is not true.

This book almost reads like something that was once great and then was "improved" to something less than it once was. I found that there are some very useful tips in the text which are supplemented by inaccurate examples. I have found examples which are not related to the surrounding text as well as examples which contradict the text. I like the overall plan of the book and, strangely, I have found parts of it very helpful. There was a distinct point, however, where I started to focus more on the errors than on the information, which became a serious distraction and lowered my review from four stars to three, and then eventually to two.

If you want a book on unix shell programming...save your money and don't buy this one. The examples are faulty. Emailed the author regarding a question and up till now, he has not replied. You will spent a lot of time scratching the head because of how confusing the whole book is...tried to cover all 3 shells but in the end, gotten confused over them.

I went through a few different books before this one, including "Learning The Bash Shell" , which I found cryptic and incomplete at best. I have to say that I am at a loss as to why this book has gotten such negative reviews. I had no example problems, and the structure of the book really helps build on previous chapters. The approach is also extremely clear and pedagogic-- all of the concepts are clearly illustrated in examples in a clear context. Its the time-proven "if you want to do this... type this in" approach extremely conducive to make readers want to explore or on their own. Given the enormous volume of Unix books that fails to do so, I think this books deserves a little more credit.
I would say this is a good introduction to Unix shell programming. I would also get E.Q. Shells by Example.

I went through a few different books before this one, including "Learning The Bash Shell" , which I found cryptic and incomplete at best. I have to say that I am at a loss as to why this book has gotten such negative reviews. I had no example problems, and the structure of the book really helps build on previous chapters. The approach is also extremely clear and pedagogic-- all of the concepts are clearly illustrated in examples in a clear context. Its the time-proven "if you want to do this... type this in" approach extremely conducive to make readers want to explore or on their own. Given the enormous volume of Unix books that fails to do so, I think this books deserves a little more credit.
I would say this is a good introduction to Unix shell programming. I would also get E.Q. Shells by Example.

I was hopping from bk to bk until now. This book is next to my throne :o). I pick it up and always learn a thing or two. I love the way it teaches you shell but it always adds ksh and bash. Plus there are charts periodically that give you syntax and explanation for sh, ksh, and bash. The advanced section goes beyond what I thought would be covered, and in simple terms.

First I have been using this book for about 6 months. I have found myself back in the unix world, and no other book have I found with the syntax I was looking for. If your looking for an excellent reference book, THIS IS IT. If your looking for a more basic HOW-TO book, I recommend IDIOTS DELIGHT. nuff said.

Who wants to read a purely theoretical book on scripting? This book is good but it just contains syntax. There are no good examples to plug into a machine to understand and feel like you are accomplishing something. Reading this book is similar to trying to learn english by reading a dictionary. Save your money.