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bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for bash Users
The key to mastering any Unix system, especially Linux and Mac OS X, is a thorough knowledge of shell scripting. Scripting is a way to harness and customize the power of any Unix system, and it's an essential skill for any Unix users, including system administrators and professional OS X developers. But beneath this simple promise lies a treacherous ocean of variations in Unix commands and standards. bash Cookbook teaches shell scripting the way Unix masters practice the craft. It presents a variety of recipes and tricks for all levels of shell programmers so that anyone can become a proficient user of the most common Unix shell -- the bash shell -- and cygwin or other popular Unix emulation packages. Packed full of useful scripts, along with examples that explain how to create better scripts, this new cookbook gives professionals and power users everything they need to automate routine tasks and enable them to truly manage their systems -- rather than have their systems manage them.
628 pages, Paperback
First published May 24, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 5, 2014
O'Reilly's "Cookbook" series sometimes gives complex recipes for large tasks, but unfortunately a lot of its listings are just the basic commands of the language in question. That's the case with its Bash Cookbook.
Thus one finds recipes like "How to separate variable names from surrounding text" (consisting of nothing more than an encouragement to use ${...}), "How to export variables" (which is only a mention of the "export" syntax), or "Renaming many files" (the solution is a simple for loop). These are real basics of bash, or shells in general. So, if you have already read O'Reilly's Learning the bash Shell and Classic Shell Scripting, which I would strongly recommend, then this book will not be of much use to you. A proficient bash/Unix user would already know the vast majority of stuff in here.
If you have *not* read those or a comparable introduction to bash and Unix piped commands in general, then you won't really understand much this book, you would just be blindly copying commands. And if you just want to cargo-cult code, then there are innumerable free resources on the web to do so, which you can reach with just a quick Google search of the form "bash" + problem.
The book, already large, is padded with some appendices that are quite out of date: how to build bash from source (surely nearly every reader is using the version of bash shipped with his Linux distro), how to use version control (only the ancient RCS, CVS and SVN systems are described).
There is some meaty, still useful stuff in here like how to secure a shell script, so I cannot entirely knock the book, but mostly it duplicates content in the two rigorous bash/shell-scripting textbooks that I mentioned above.
Thus one finds recipes like "How to separate variable names from surrounding text" (consisting of nothing more than an encouragement to use ${...}), "How to export variables" (which is only a mention of the "export" syntax), or "Renaming many files" (the solution is a simple for loop). These are real basics of bash, or shells in general. So, if you have already read O'Reilly's Learning the bash Shell and Classic Shell Scripting, which I would strongly recommend, then this book will not be of much use to you. A proficient bash/Unix user would already know the vast majority of stuff in here.
If you have *not* read those or a comparable introduction to bash and Unix piped commands in general, then you won't really understand much this book, you would just be blindly copying commands. And if you just want to cargo-cult code, then there are innumerable free resources on the web to do so, which you can reach with just a quick Google search of the form "bash" + problem.
The book, already large, is padded with some appendices that are quite out of date: how to build bash from source (surely nearly every reader is using the version of bash shipped with his Linux distro), how to use version control (only the ancient RCS, CVS and SVN systems are described).
There is some meaty, still useful stuff in here like how to secure a shell script, so I cannot entirely knock the book, but mostly it duplicates content in the two rigorous bash/shell-scripting textbooks that I mentioned above.
August 1, 2009
Um... a good overview, with lots of little details on how bash works. There are places it isn't SUPER in depth, but for the most part it points you to other references then.
September 29, 2021
The actual content of this book is around 300 pages. The other 600 pages are filled by:
* too much-repeated info between chapters
* too many repeated links in each chapter
* too much reference and links to official and non-official and other OReilly books
The format of this book is question and answer. That's not good for learning, but only for reference. It's much easier and faster to find a solution for a problem by web search. Probably with much more depth and with multiple solutions or better solutions.
* too much-repeated info between chapters
* too many repeated links in each chapter
* too much reference and links to official and non-official and other OReilly books
The format of this book is question and answer. That's not good for learning, but only for reference. It's much easier and faster to find a solution for a problem by web search. Probably with much more depth and with multiple solutions or better solutions.
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April 27, 2016Książka dosyć gruba, przy tym dosyć droga. Mam wrażenie, że od ilości stron wydawcy ustalają cenę i tych stron dali za dużo na siłę. W każdym rozdziale znajdują się odnośniki, czasem treści kodów źródłowych itd, to rozdmuchuje lekturę. Np są 3 odnośniki i jest już 1 strona. Jest też dużo dodatków. Mimo, że wydana w 2007 roku i jest dosyć stary Bash, lektura jest świetna. Jak ktoś się uczył programowania skryptów w Bashu i czegoś nie wie, z niej się dowie. W niej jest praktycznie wszystko co było robione do 2007 roku. Wrócę jeszcze do ceny. 90 parę zł to za dużo. Na szczęście była wysprzedaż i lekturę można było kupić za coś koło 20 zł.
May 20, 2016
A well-written book with plenty of juicy technical details, that is strongly recommended to those who may find themselves writing BASH scripts longer than 50 lines on regular basis. A must read for SysAdmin and DevOps professionals.
July 20, 2021
There is a new edition of this slated to be released shortly. I hope all the examples that fail to quote variable expansions will be fixed in there.
Other than that, I found a few nice practices to incorporate into my own workflows.
Other than that, I found a few nice practices to incorporate into my own workflows.
December 6, 2010
This book is perfect. There's no single page you read that you don't end with a real 'I didn\'t know that' feeling or at least a little piece of new information.
January 26, 2012
Accessible to bash newbies, with good explanations of commands' origins.
December 3, 2015
This is a reference text, not a book one would normally read cover-to-cover. I've used it half-a-dozen times so far and it's proved useful. *** [three stars].
April 15, 2017
Don't fear the command line!
A large part of the time I spend using computers is spent on the command line. This is partly because I look after various servers, and partly because I choose to use a command line heavy interface.
Bash is my command line of choice, and this book is full of handy scripts and guidance on how to write your own in order to make the most of its abilities.
Well written and mostly well formatted (not always easy on kindle versions of coding books). The examples are also well paced.
A large part of the time I spend using computers is spent on the command line. This is partly because I look after various servers, and partly because I choose to use a command line heavy interface.
Bash is my command line of choice, and this book is full of handy scripts and guidance on how to write your own in order to make the most of its abilities.
Well written and mostly well formatted (not always easy on kindle versions of coding books). The examples are also well paced.
Read
March 5, 2019Skimmed. Mostly a reference, but gave me a couple of ideas
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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