Shell Scripting: How to Automate Command Line Tasks Using Bash Scripting and Shell Programming Kindle Edition

This book is good for both beginners and those who have been automating on the command line for a while, as it intelligently focuses on many of the most important, sometimes long-forgotten fundamentals, with the goal of helping the reader apply the 101s to solve actual real-life problems or enhance practical workflows.It's easy to pick up some bad habits, or lose knowledge, over time, of useful practices or methods, and a read of this guide followed up by semi-regular reviews will be the WD-40 to many people's squeaky scripting practices, I think no matter the level of experience.While you won't find scripting examples beyond even just 50 lines, this book is a toolbox more than a preconstructed assembly line. Its aim seems to impart wisdom on how this piece can help you in this area, and reminds us all about this other piece, which we forgot about but begs to be included in our existing workflow. And over time, this toolbox will increase the efficiency of, and perhaps even size/capabilities of our own personal assembly lines.As toolbox as it is, it's like any other toolbox and assumes that the reader knows enough about most of the individual tools and has worked with enough of them over time to make use of what's included in the box ("book").Don't buy until you've written a few of your own scripts/functions and want to take the next step in actually becoming good at this.

Succinctly:In less than 100 pages, the author gets you up and running with [Bash] shell scripting. The entire book is precise, clear, and well structured. There is no divergence from the topic or the lessons, only short tips on common errors, style, and convention. In some cases I did look elsewhere to figure somethings out, but that was my own need for differentiated instruction. As such, I enrolled in the author's course on Udemy, which is cheap (link below).If, like me, you get distracted by implementation details and are looking for a book that will teach you shell scripting from scratch quickly (or quickly tie a bunch of disparate knowledge together), then this book is for you! I also highly recommend the Udemy course in addition to the book.Below is a reply to the author of "Shell Scripting", Jason Cannon, over at his course on Udemy [...]"Thanks for the this awesome course and your equally awesome book: "Shell Scripting"! I love that from pp 2 - 85 is basically no fluff or divergence from what you've set out to do: teaching shell scripting succinctly. I also love that I can switch in between your video lectures and the book, or go over sections from your video lectures in the book. Great flexibility and scaffolding for learning.It's really great that you've provided a straight forward and ​practical introduction to shell scripting. I will recommend this to anyone having the same problem as me with more traditional [Bash] scripting tutorials, which is that they have some amount of divergence from actual shell scripting. While I really am interested in things like Processes, Streams, and File Descriptors; I get really caught-up in the implementation side of things. I can focus on implementation later, as I progress in knowledge.So, again, thank you!"

This book is worth every penny! I learned more about BASH scripting from this book than any previous learning material I've sunk my time into. The sections of this book are logically organized, with each new section building off of the information presented in the previous sections. The material is concise and to the point, with direct examples provided throughout. The exercises at the end of each section really help you to start using what you've learned, and the solutions provided afterwards help you to see if you are on the right track or not.While this might not be the ultimate shell scripting bible, it certainly gives you a solid foundation to be comfortable reading and writing shell scripts.I would (and do) recommend this book to everyone interested in learning shell scripting.

This book is a great starting point for someone like me who already understands the basics of using bash commands, but wants to understand the often cryptic syntax of working shell scripts (your own or those you can find elsewhere). It doesn't assume a knowledge of basic programming skills, but if you've worked with python or some other scripting type language you will be able to understand the information more quickly.The examples were very good and easy to understand. I particularly like that they provide sample answers to the exercise questions at the end of each chapter.Minus one star only for not being quite as comprehensive as it could be, but still an excellent resource overall.

I am not new to shell scripting. I've been doing it for 20 years and have felt quite confident in it.Reading this, of course I found plenty that I knew already but there were gaps in my knowledge that I did not realize. This book is thorough in covering shell scripting and presents the material in an approachable and practical way.I highly recommend this book for new and experienced shell coders.

I saw the five-star reviews from other people. I saw that there were a limited number of people who reviewed the book. I was skeptical. I researched more, looked at the write-up provided by the author, and bought the book. The book is worth the five-star rating. The author knows how to present information well and can present information concisely. If you need to learn shell scripting, I highly recommend this book.

I've dabbled with scripting for a long time to help automate specific tasks (less prone to error if I just enter one command that then runs many). This book was able to help me get my mind around shell scripting in a way I couldn't before, and I was able to write several scripts that each turned hours worth of keyboard work into seconds of work via the script. Highly recommend. Wish, if anything, it had more content.

I really enjoyed skimming through this book, i'm an experienced linux engineer but i'm always interested in reading linux books of any detail. Jason also sends out regular emails which i really enjoy as they provide some bits of information on linux that you may have forgotten about or not used in a while. In an ever changing IT environment its useful to have a book like this lying around.

Easy to read.Should put full path on commands -- I find it easier to parse whilst watching the syntax .

Excellent book to learn how to script. Explains things in simple terms and it helps with having exercises so that the information learnt is remembered. Highly recommend if you want to learn bash scripting.

Just interesting

If you're just looking to get the job done, and happy to leave guru shell script status to others, then this book is an ideal first intro. Simple, short, concise.