Learning Shell Scripting with Zsh

by Gaston Festari

A step-by-step tutorial that will teach you, through real-world examples, how to configure and use zsh and its various features. If you are a system administrator, developer, or computer professional involved with UNIX who are looking to improve on their daily tasks involving the UNIX shell, ""Learning Shell Scripting with zsh"" will be great for you. It's assumed that you have some familiarity with an UNIX command-line interface and feel comfortable with editors such as Emacs or vi.

Genres: Computer Science

132 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2013

Reviews

[Norbert Ertugrul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only used the bash for my daily work as a System Operator but always heared that the Z shell should be more powerful and indeed. With this book as a good introduction to the alternative shell I mastered the shell very quick. This Book ist perfect if you have no knowledge of Zsh and maybe a bit bash knowledge, so if you are new or want to change the shell this should be the book of your choice. But it is not a Linux reference so if you want to learn Linux you should buy something else. The explanations are easy to understand and everything is also explained with at least one example. The only thing which can be a bit disturbing are the jokes, they can be funny but I won't
promise it.

So I can recommend this book to anyone who has at least a bit of Linux knowledge and wants to learn the Z Shell. I can't guarantee you that you will enjoy the jokes but you will certainly learn how to use the best shell in an easy and memorizable way.

[Commiepinkofag · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, the title is a baffling misnomer: “Learning Shell Scripting with Zsh” is not about shell scripting. The subject isn’t mentioned at all. There are no scripts in the book, and none of the lexical conventions of scripting are covered.

Instead, the book provides an introduction to the Z shell, and not a particularly outstanding one. The examples are often poorly conceived and the order in which information is presented and elaborated upon is confusing. The quality of the writing stays firmly in the mediocre standard for IT books.

Not a horror, but certainly a disappointment. Someone switching from another shell might find it useful, but there’s little in the way of either content or presentation that can’t be found on the web for free.

[Balamurugan Krishnamoorthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

relatively quick read (120 pages) to grasp the fundamentals of zsh

[Eelco den Heijer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to zsh, lots of really nice examples... I learnt a lot from this small book. Recommended!

[rhodeswarrior · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, kind of mixed. The style of the writer is very personal (which isn't my style, but hey, that's personal as well). It has some useful tips on Zsh but more examples, and/or a complete listing of options would be nicer.
It's also not on scripting, more on using Zsh itself. Not many comparisons between e.g. Bash or csh are given.
Still 3 stars as it could be overall a nice introduction for people to Zsh.