Beginning Shell Scripting

by Eric Foster-Johnson

Covering all major platforms-Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows-this guide shows programmers and power users how to customize an operating system, automate commands, and simplify administration tasks using shell scripts Offers complete shell-scripting instructions, robust code examples, and full scripts for OS customization Covers shells as a user interface, basic scripting techniques, script editing and debugging, graphing data, and simplifying administrative tasks In addition to Unix and Linux scripting, the book covers the latest Windows scripting techniques and offers a complete tutorial on Mac OS X scripting, including detailed coverage of mobile file systems, legacy applications, Mac text editors, video captures, and the Mac OS X Open Scripting Architecture

530 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 400+ page book that could have been written in less than 200 pages. Shell scripting in the unix environment is not a difficult task if you're used to programming in other languages. There are some quirky things to overcome in shell scripting but those items do not need 400 pages to cover them. And, in fact, this book doesn't spend 400 pages doing that. Instead, the authors add several chapters that demonstrate scripting techniques already discussed. I think they could have wrapped this book up around chapter 11.



I did find some of the examples quite useful, but there were a lot of typos and outright errors. The scripts worked as shown if run on the same flavor of unix. Certain techniques discussed only worked on linux and the last chapter on AppleScript focused solely on Mac OS X.



If you have already been exposed to Linux, Ubuntu or Mac OS X, this book will not expand your knowledge base greatly.