The vast majority of users utilize the Korn Shell or some variant of the Bourne Shell, such as bash. Sams Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours covers these shells. It begins with a generalized tutorial of Unix and tools and then moves into detailed coverage of shell programming. Sams Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours is one of the best values because it provides readers with more information for less money. This book uses the effective and proven 'Teach Yourself' format to instruct the reader how to make their shell work for them. It covers useful information including: managing input/output, manipulating text filters, understanding and debugging shell scripts, creating and utilizing variables, tools, processes, and customizing the shell.

Sams Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours is a tutorial aimed at assisting Unix and Linux users to get optimal performance out of their operating system. It shows them how to take control of their systems and work efficiently by har4nessing the power of the shell to solve common problems.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 24 Ratings

Good to have - 2005-05-29
Reviewer Rating:
I have not used shell scripting in the long time. I ordered this book and it helps me refresh a lot about Unix and shell scripting leanrt in school many years ago as undergraduate student. The book is well-written and will keep you excited. One important thing is: practice as you are reading. By the time you finish the book you should be able to grab much from the book. I downloaded the Sun Solaris 9 that I installed on x86 computer and I am playing with some flavors of shell writing small shell scripts.

Great Intro Book for Real Beginners - 2005-05-02
Reviewer Rating:
I came from purely Windows environment and I know nothing about UNIX or Linux except a few C commands many years ago. I tried a few books like shell scripting, learning the shell and by example, but I gave up as their speed was too fast for a beginner like me. Only after a few intro pages, these books started to write complex commands which I was confused and unable to continue. The worst thing is, most of them don't explain in details what those commands do and expect readers to know. This book does not assume you know basic UNIX commands, and it covers the basics in first section. It has short chapters and each of them tries to teach you the basic concepts in one area with simple examples. This is the book that gives you confidence to move on and it does not try to feed you with too much knowledge at a time. After reading this book, you are equipped with basic idea of what shell scripting is and able to move on with advanced books. A very good step-by-step book for beginners who know very little or nothing about UNIX shell programming.

The power of the shell! - 2005-01-05
Reviewer Rating:
Becoming thouroghly proficent in various shells and being able to write shell scripts whether simple or of vast complexity is a fundemental requirement for becoming *NIX savvy. Whatever your flavor, Linux, OpenBSD, Solaris - you must know shell scripting to be taken seriously.

The title of this book, "Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours" is no joke. Even if you know nothing of this subject, a couple passes through this book will bring you all the way up to a moderate and respectable level of proficency. While this book only covers a tiny part of a massive skill, you will leave this book with the confidence and the ability to learn more and more without the help of another book. Of course, there are more advanced books out there, and it can't hurt to look, but I STRONGLY reccomend starting here.

Great! Better than the 6 Sams books i've already read. - 2003-11-05
Reviewer Rating:
Very helpful book. I first tried using unix a year ago, it seemed really hard. Now after i read this book i understand how to use most of the commands in the shell terminal even though im only 12 years old! Really.
P.S. : No, I am not a nerd.

Good hands on practice! - 2006-11-30
Reviewer Rating:
What I like best about this book (I only have the 1st edition) is that there are practice exercises and analysis at the end of each chapter. For example, the book will ask you to create some scripts to do a certain task. Or, the questions will show you some scripts and ask you want you need to modify to make it work a certain way. The answers and explanations are in the back of the book in case you get stumped or want to check your answers. Going hands-on is the BEST way to learn scripting and programming!

I found the reading easy to absorb, but I do have a little background in BASIC and Visual Basic programming so it definitely helps. I think a completely new user to the Unix/Linux world would benefit from this book.

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