Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible

by Richard Blum, Christine Bresnahan

Advance your understanding of the Linux command line with this invaluable resource  Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 4th Edition  is the newest installment in the indispensable series known to Linux developers all over the world. Packed with concrete strategies and practical tips, the latest edition includes brand-new content Written by accomplished Linux professionals Christine Bresnahan and Richard Blum, Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 4th Edition teaches readers the fundamentals and advanced topics necessary for a comprehensive understanding of shell scripting in Linux. The book is filled with real-world examples and usable scripts, helping readers navigate the challenging Linux environment with ease and convenience.  The book is perfect for anyone who uses Linux at home or in the office and will quickly find a place on every Linux enthusiast’s bookshelf.

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

832 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2008

Reviews

[Miglen Evlogiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for beginning with shell scripts and some command line tools, but mostly general book. If you want to advance you'll need to write lot's of stuff and I would suggest Awesome shell repo for beginning and refference: https://github.com/alebcay/awesome-shell

[. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has 25 chapters.

Chapters 1 and 2 wasted too much space for very simple things like:

* How to open an application by searching its name in the main menu
* previous step listed also in multiple desktops like KDE plasma, gnome, ...
* multiple large pictures for steps listed above
* multiple tables that list shortcuts of software that all of those listed in the main menu !!!

I use Debian with KDE a lot of the listed shortcuts are wrong.

Chapters 3 to 10 for various shell commands. These chapters are like Linux man pages with much much lower depth. It can't use as a reference. It's basic for advanced users and at the same time too much info that does not concern new users of Linux. author waste space for many tables that list switches for selective commands

Chapters 11 to 18 focused on shell programming.

chapters 19, 21, and 22 are cover sed and awk. (very basic)

chapters 20 regular expression. (too basic)

chapter 23 overview of alternative shells like dash and zsh.

chapter 25 is about git. This one is lower depth than most free tutorials online.

in one of the chapters, it talks about text editor and wastes a lot of pages with pictures for very simple GUI apps like kwrite, kate, and gedit.

It does not clear what the audience for the book is. the topics covered are too broad and not anything covered in depth.
I strongly recommended using the below list instead of this book(all free):

https://www.linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php
https://debian-handbook.info/get/now/

https://www.gnu.org/manual/manual.html
look for manual of coreutils, findutils, diffutils, bash, tar, grep, sed, awk

https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linux and Command Line Shell Scripting

This is a great book on learning and perfecting your usage of the Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting.

I already know a good portion of this book, but it is a great reference for some of those more niche commands and usage.

I would very much recommend checking out this book if you are interested to get more into Linux commands.

Glad I got it!

4.8/5

[Gonzalo Fernández-Victorio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings with this book. On one side, I've learned a few things I didn't know about the shell (my first contact with a Unix was probably 25 years ago). On the other, my perception is that it doesn't have a clear goal. It starts with very basic stuff (which may be important so that people can catch up), but at many times it provides too much options. Many times I was left considering whether to skip complete pages filled with options that may make more sense when using man or --help.

The better sections are the sed and awk, which I perceive are great. But again, this was not the perfect book for me.
Final note for future versions. Maybe not in 2015 (the edition I read), but today, jq and docker should probably be included

[Glenn Meyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blum and Bresenham provide a long look at bash, but fail to even mention a shell that I use every day alongside bash: tcsh. For a C and C++ programmer tcsh is a useful CLI, even when that programmer uses bash for shell programs. A good book that covers both bash and tcsh in detail, and clearly identifies the differences, is Mark Sobell's 4th edition of A Practical Guide to Linux. For me tcsh is a great CLI, even though it's not a good programming language. tcsh is what I use for the command line. bash is what I use for shell programming. Completely ignoring that fact and focusing solely on bash and bash derivatives means this is not a Bible, it's just another bash book. For a book that is more comprehensive about what can be done from the command line, try Sobel.

[Bryan Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic in-depth guide for beginners of Linux. Much of the first part of the book is what is linux, various essential commands, various file structures of Linux distros over the years, formatting and mounting drives from the command line and much more. The second half of the book takes those concepts and applies them to shell scripting.

This book has been an amazing reference and easy to follow. I feel that this book is essential to anyone wanting to do more with the command line in Linux.

[Brian Salehi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is the command line Bible!
The book mainly focuses on Bash which is the most popular shell and it's worth learning it as the first shell.
The book is supposed to be a command line only book but it also introduces many Linux commands and tools alongside Bash.
At the end of the book a very comprehensive introduction to Sed and Awk is written which suffices to say after reading it, you're an advanced user of these tools.
Totally this book is suggested to expert users.

[Obione_TdG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overall overview on bash scripting, with a good pace. It has however most of the problem of similar books, such as dry descriptions, useless and instantly obsolete sections, as well as near the end very long example listings heavy to read and of little utility.

[Kerszi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Przeczytałem wydanie IV. Książka jak tysiące książek o Linuxie. Ale to co mnie zaciekawiło, a jest mało w innych książkach, to jest bardzo dobrze opisany Sed i Awk. Książka dobra dla osób zaczynających przygodę z Linuxem, ale profesjonaliści też coś znajdą dla siebie. Polecam.

[Chris Lapa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really good book, I am addited to Linux from a long time, this book provide with a good command line of Linux.

If you want to begin with Linux, you can try this book. My website after reading this book: https://terusvn.com

[Ietrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a bible. More of a very beginner guide.

[Erik Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de los 2 libros necesarios para comenzar a comprender Shell Scripting

[KerbenII]

mentioned in UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (4th edition)

[Apoorva Uplap · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book for the basics of linux from simple commands to shell scripting to sed and gawk.
A chapter a day is easily doable whilst writing the scripts on your own.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource for anyone interested in learning or mastering Linux shell scripting.

[Asher Manangan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can learn a lot of things especially in Scripting

[Luong Hai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book to learn about Linux.

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5

[zygimantus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about Linux Shell Scripting. Well structured and organized, topics are separated beginners and advanced users.

[Tony B · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are 2 ways to classify books : theoretical & practical. The former is ignored by 95% of the population while the latter is read by 40% of the population( I really don't know what remaining 55% reads). This books falls in the practical category. Imagine it like the Spumoni ice cream for Linux;gives the taste of all good flavors. Good part is that it gives a list of all useful tools and introduces each one of them.The bad part is that if you know all popular tools, it is not for you. I recommend reading about gawk & sed. Even sections about zsh and database are interesting.
Target audience : Beginner - Intermediate

[Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the perspective of someone from a non-IT background but wanting to learn more, this is an excellent guide. Yes you can pick up a few basics from Linux support forums and online tutorials, but this book gives you more background info to understand what you're doing rather than just blindly following instructions.
Might not be stictly necessary for a home user just trying out an alternative to Microsoft (as I once was) - but once you've tried out a few different distros and started to wonder what more you could do with the system, this book is a very worthwhile investment.