Wicked Cool Shell Scripts, 2nd Edition: 101 Scripts for Linux, OS X, and UNIX Systems

by Dave Taylor

All computers running Linux, Mac OS X, or Unix-like operating systems have a command line interface that gives users a powerful alternative to managing their computers and learning programming basics. Users can write small programs, or scripts, that run in the command line "shell" to perform everyday tasks like renaming files or processing text. Like the best-selling first edition, this revision of Wicked Cool Shell Scripts provides the full source code for over 100 short shell scripts that solve common problems, can be used to personalize a user's computing environment, and are just plain entertaining. The tools include an interactive calculator, a stock tracker, a password manager, a weather checker, and a website search engine. This revision includes 22 brand-new scripts, a new chapter on image-processing, and a suite of scripts to work with cloud-based services like Dropbox and iCloud.

Genres: Computer Science, Programming, Reference, Technology, Technical, Computers, Software

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2004

About the author

Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since it was the ARPAnet and is recognized globally as an expert on technical and business topics. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startups, written more than twenty business and technical books and has an MBA and MS Ed.

He runs the popular YouTube consumer electronics review channel AskDaveTaylor, is a columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera and appears in other publications both online and in print. Dave teaches undergrad and graduate courses on marketing, public speaking, film, and media & society at the University of Denver, where he's also a recognized Leader in Teaching Excellence.

Based in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought-after conference and workshop participant, and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs, an active member of his community and father to three young adults who are themselves also avid readers.

You can find Dave online at AskDaveTaylor.com and catch up on his latest film, game, and car reviews at PlanetDave.com.

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Taylor's style. These scripts are not really "wicked cool" anymore (dated), but they are good for showing syntax in context, and for sparking ideas. With a bit of hacking skill, you could put together a simple script to automate some menial task. If you don't already have programming skills, the key is knowing what tools (small programs) are available to you and having a clear idea of what you want to accomplish.

[Marc]

Really good so far. Probably best for intermediate shell scripters, or beginner/intermediate.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm mentioned in this book, helped dave test these scripts on mac, linux, hp-ux and solaris... lots of great scripts and ideas...

[Chris Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not read every line in the book, but rather dug deep into a few areas of interest to me. This will be a great reference for me plus there are some very useful ready-to-use scripts included.

[Elie De Brauwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wicked Cool Shell Scripts feel a bit like it missed the opportunity when going to a second edition. For a book updated around 2016 I'd expect much more curl, wget and json handling than lynx for example. Also a lot of these scripts focus on external utilities (the awks and cuts, ...) while some of these activities could also happened in bash itself which feels like a missed opportunity to me. That being said it remains and interesting and entertaining read.