Expert Shell Scripting (Expert's Voice in Open Source) (Paperback)

~ Ron Peters (Author)
Key Phrases: modified file, tar xvfp, output using cat, Line-by-Line Option, Days Since Epoch, The Ctrl (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

System administrators need libraries of solutions that are ingenious but understandable. They don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but they don’t want to reinvent filesystem management either! Expert Shell Scripting is the ultimate resource for all working Linux, Unix, and OS X system administrators who would like to have short, succinct, and powerful shell implementations of tricky system scripting tasks.

• Automating small to medium system management tasks
• Analyzing system data and editing configuration files
• Scripting Linux, Unix, and OS X applications using bash, ksh, et al.

What you’ll learn

• Debug shell scripts using existing debuggers, not inspection.
• Use and extend text–editing one–liners and learn to forget Perl.
• Manage files and filesystems using scripting, not inflexible utilities.
• Use scripts to build complete Linux systems.
• Script X Window without getting lost in configuration files.
• Ignore Python, and script in bash and ksh instead.

Who is this book for?

System administrators who need solutions to everyday problems.

About the Author

Ron Peters spent more than ten years administering Linux and Unix systems while building a very large library of shell scripts. He realized that the world is full of how–to documents, but not many seem to read them, nor can many system administrators lay claim to being shell scripting experts. He apologizes that it took him so long to make his efforts known to the world. He is married with two children and very happy that he found the time to write this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Apress (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143021841X
• ISBN-13: 978-1430218418
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #78,107 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good tool to have in your box, February 25, 2009

By	J. Pease (Odessa, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is not intended to teach you how to program nor the basics of shell scripting. The book identifies it's target audience as intermediate to advanced shell coders.

Much of the book is presented in a narrative style, looking at a problem, proposing a solution and explaining how the various parts of that solution work. There are also some 'recipe' style sections, specifically Chapter 24 "Text-Processing One-Liners".

I have personally found the book interesting from the very first chapter, which addresses some debugging techniques I was not aware of. So far it is proving handy to have nearby when I'm hacking on a shell script.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent detailed resource, just not for beginners, March 8, 2009

By	Zaine Ridling (Missouri, US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ron Peters does not explain many basic programming structures here, but that's okay, because the main purpose of this book is to combine some of the most unique tools, code snippets, and scripts that go beyond the level of basic scripts. This is essentially a cookbook of lesser-known recipes and fairly advanced algorithms, commands, and scripts that have proved useful to the author over time.

Peters demonstrates a few very useful complex command line commands, like those found on the Command-line-fu site. The scripts are tailored to be useful at multiple levels. Most times, however, there is little or no error-checking since that is not necessarily the point of a [specific] script. The reader must be prepared to make modifications to fit his local environment. The reason you want this book is that Peters goes into great detail about how and why the scripts were written in their present form, and he includes sound explanations of how to avoid certain problems. He notes that most shell scripting sources are heavy in obfuscation and light on clarity, therefore he is as explicit as possible in this book, and favored explaining too much rather than too little. Many chapters included can be read as shell scripts with extremely detailed commentary. I'm glad I bought it.

4.0 out of 5 stars Adds context and ties concepts together, June 20, 2009

By	Katrina Owen (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Expert Shell Scripting helps bridge the gap between following a recipe and truly solving problems.

It's not a cookbook, and it doesn't teach basic programming structures. As such, it would probably frustrate beginners. Where this book shines is that it adds context and ties concepts together beautifully.

A full chapter on debugging, for example explores different approaches to troubleshooting, comparing and contrasting the various approaches, discussing where each approach might be appropriate, pointing out pitfalls and gotchas along the way. Another chapter deals with comparisons and tests, making sense of the intricacies and subtleties of comparing different types of things and the myriad of ways of doing it well, or doing it wrong. The book covers a wide range of topics, from command line switches and options, variable setting, date/time manipulation, text processing, and data redirection, scheduling, interaction, and automation.
The progression is swift, and the book ends with a section of gems that the author has spent years accumulating.

It is perfect for the programmer who has never written shell scripts (or just dabbled), since it quickly takes you beyond syntax and structures and bring you to the point where you can actually DO stuff in the shell. If you are an intermediate shell scripter it will probably fill in many gaps and catapult you to a higher level of competence.

Highly recommended.