Good shell scripting guide

Question

I have the Orielly's "Learning bash". I also refer to Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide(tldp.org/LDP/abs ).

Any other good books on the subject ?

Answer 1

Learning the Bash Shell along with Classic Shell Scripting, followed by Bash Cookbook.

I would suggest charging through the first two books, without worrying too much about remembering it all. Reference them as you want to do something that you remember reading about but don't recall how to actually do. And come back to them a few a months later and learn new things from them.

Note, this is coming from the perspective of a linux admin, so I lean toward the niceties of bash over the more pure sh. It is only the rare script that I bother to actually make sh compatible. Also, I don't consider tcsh to be a legitimate scripting language.

Answer 2

Not a book, but a must have.

Keep BashPitfalls under your pillow because it'll teach you how you should NOT code in bash.

Answer 3

When you say "shell scripting" it appears you mean bash scripting?

If you mean "shell" are you worried about writing portable shell code?

Answer 4

I prefer "The Korn Shell" book by Anatole Olozak. Korn shell and Posix shell are almost identical. This is very handy for writing portable shell scripts. The books serves as both a good tutorial and long(er) term reference.

+1 to all the suggestions about BashPitfalls, and the various Shell Cookbooks.