Pro Bash Programming: Scripting the GNU/Linux Shell (Expert's Voice in Linux) eBook Download

And you will see how, without assuming Unix lore, you can write professional bash 4.0 programs through standard programming techniques.

Complete bash coverage Teaches bash as a programming language Helps you master bash 4.0 features
What you?ll learn Use the shell to write new utilities and accomplish most programming tasks.

BASH is more than "just a scripting language"; I've always seen that but could not find a book that would teach it that way.

The bash shell is a complete programming language, not merely a glue to combine external Linux commands (as it is all too often presented).

The 230 page book is divided into the 15 chapters below, with each chapter ending with a summary of the commands covered and some well chosen exercises. Your first Shell Program
- how to create and run a script and establish good scripting habits
2 Input, Output and Throughput
- echo, printf, read and IO streams
3 Looping and Branching
- tests, conditional execution, looping constructs
4 Command-Line Parsing and Expansion
- quoting, brace, tilde, parameter, variable arithmetic and pathname expansion, command and process substitution, word splitting and parsing with getops
5 Parameters and Variables
- variable scope (essential reading), positional parameters and expansion using patterns, arrays - indexed and associative
6 Shell Functions
- how to define, use and set exit codes, use of compound commands, creation and use of function libraries
7 String Manipulation
- concatenation, processing character by character, case conversion, inserting, overlaying and trimming strings
8 File Operations and Commands
- reading, use of external commands, regular expressions with grep, sed and awk, file name expansion options
9 Reserved Words and Builtin Commands
- good coverage of builtin commands, particularly read (including into arrays) plus a very informative section on how to use builtin commands correctly
10 Writing Bug-Free Scripts and Debugging the Rest
- good scripting programming recommendations for bug free code plus a test and debug example
11 Programming for the Command Line
- manipulating the directory stack, filesystem and miscellaneous functions, managing man pages, games!
12 Runtime Configuration
- command line options and arguments, menus, configuration files, scripts with several names, using environment variables
13 Data Processing
- sorting and searching arrays, various ways of reading arrays into memory, grids (string and two dimensional), data file formats
14 Scripting the Screen
- using the screen as a blackboard or canvas, rendition modes and colours, text scrolling - rolling dice example
15 Entry-Level Programming
- single key entry, use of author's key-funcs library, sanity checking, form entry, reading the mouse!

Appendix: Shell Variables
- alphabetic listing of (1) variables set by bash and (2) variables used by bash

One of the strengths of this book is that the author explains the fastest way to accomplish many standard programming tasks through the appropriate choice of one of the many different bash methods available, including the choice between builtin bash commands and external commands. Source code for the included scripts is available from the publisher's webpage for this book at [...]

The 10 page index works reasonably well, but you may find it worthwhile grabbing the companion eBook so you can directly search through the book to make the best use of it as a reference source.


Neil Matthews


Helpful, could be better
I bought this for my husband and his opinion is that the book contains helpful information that could be better organized and that the author is 'pushing an agenda' so he would give the book three stars.

Computer science students, get this computer ebook by download itPro Bash Programming: Scripting the GNU/Linux Shell (Expert's Voice in Linux) from Rapidshare/Megaupload/Hotfile for free.