If you use UNIX, you probably use csh to type commands even if you've never heard of it. It's the standard shell (command line) on most UNIX systems. tcsh is an enhanced version that's freely available and highly recommended. Using csh & tcsh describes from the beginning how to use these shells interactively. More important, it shows how to get your work done faster with less typing. Even if you've used UNIX for years, techniques described in this book can make you more efficient. You'll learn how to:

• Make your prompt tell you where you are (no more pwd)

• Use what you've typed before (history)

• Type long command lines with very few keystrokes (command and filename completion)

• Remind yourself of filenames when in the middle of typing a command

• Edit a botched command instead of retyping it

This book does not cover programming or script writing in csh or tcsh because the tasks are better done with a different shell, such as sh (the Bourne shell) or a language like Perl.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 10 Ratings

I can explain the wide disparity in reviews of this book! - 2000-10-09
Reviewer Rating:
The five reviews of this book that have come in ahead of mine range from 1 star to 5! The reason is simple, but the people panning the book didn't explain (or understand?) the problem very well.

Here's the dope: a Unix shell is both an interactive command interpreter, and an environment for writing scripts, which are basically programs using the interactive commands and some logical control structures to automate tasks that don't really need to be run interactively.

The author of this book, Paul Dubois, is of the opinion that neither csh nor tcsh are appropriate environments for shell scripting. I happen to disagree with him, at least insofar as I teach a little shell scripting in tcsh in my sophomore level software course. However, his opinion is worthy...making the argument that csh and tcsh shouldn't be used for shell scripting. Dubois recommends sh and perl for scripting.

So it boils down to this: this is an excellent book for learning how to make the most of the interactive environment of csh and tcsh. It's loaded with neat tricks and good insights. And it's a particularly good reference for tcsh, which usually gets little mention in other books.

If, on the other hand, you want a book about shell scripting, save your money: THIS IS NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU. It has no material on shell scripting.

One of the best book on LEARNING to USE the shell - 2001-03-08
Reviewer Rating:
I've seen many books on unix shells, however almost all the other books focus on shell programming instead of actually using shell to work more effectively and efficiently. This book fills the gap (hence the name "Using...". I personally recommend Zsh if you are looking for the most comprehensive shell. However zsh is too comprehensive and there is no book on it. Tcsh shell is an EXCELLENT shell to do your work (type in commands, listing files, and etc). It has all the essential goodies: command line completion, command-line editor, history, and etc. It found it more friendly than ksh and less complex than bash and/or zsh. This book teaches you step by step how to use the shell to do your every day work effectively. The author explains everything clearly which is more than what I can say about many books that just touches a little bit of using the shell as a command interpreter aspect of the shell as if everyone spend more time writing the shell scripts than using the command line. These aspect of the csh/tcsh are the basis for similar utilities in the other shells: ksh, bash, and zsh. I find that even if you use bash or zsh, you'll appreciate the information in the book. The other reason the author didn't write much on programming is because c-shell is less frequently used in shell programming because of the now famous posting of "C shell programming considered harmful", which is also on the book's homepage. If you have the patience to read through the book, you will find it an excellent investment of time. (The only other book I would say this for sure is the "Learning the vi Editor."

Massive omissions - 2005-03-14
Reviewer Rating:
What the heck ? This book omits MOST of the commands of csh/tcsh.
I later realized that I could have found this from the other
reviews, but I fundamentally DON'T understand the purpose of a
book that leaves MOST of the details about csh/tcsh OUT of the
book. What is this, csh/tcsh for ignorant people who wish to
remain so ? Grrrr !

Misses the most fundamental concepts! - 2006-10-20
Reviewer Rating:
A book for the basic UNIX user. Does NOT include anything about writing scripts for this shell! Worthless! Don't waste your money.

Amazon likes to bury bad reviews because it negatively affects the sales of an item. When considering a product on Amazon you should ALWAYS look for the bad reviews. This will give you a more realistic impression of the quality of the product.

A great book for command line usage of tcsh and csh - 2008-05-18
Reviewer Rating:
This book is for learning how to use the tcsh and csh shells from the command line, not for scripting. If you want scripting look elsewhere. You will be as disappointed as all of the one and two star reviewers you see here. However, in particular if you want information on the turbo C shell (tcsh), this is one of the few books on the subject, even if it is 13 years old. As with all O'Reilly books on Unix, in particular the ones written before the year 2000, this one knows its audience and has plenty of practical information. Turbo refers to speed though, not clarity. If you are not willing to memorize some shortcuts that are not exactly straightforward looking, maybe you should stick with plain old C shell (csh). The table of contents can be hard to find for this old book, so I include it next:

Part I, Learning the Basics
Chapter 1, Introduction, discusses the purpose of the shell and describes how to change your login shell to one of those discussed in this handbook.
Chapter 2, A Shell Primer, provides a summary of introductory essentials. If you already know something about running commands, you can skim this chapter as a review or skip it.
Chapter 3, Using the Shell Effectively, is an overview of many of the facilities that the shell provides to help you work more efficiently--easy, practical ways to get more out of the command line. Often, even experienced users are not aware of all of these features. This chapter gives you a glimpse of the kinds of techniques that are covered in detail in the rest of the book.

Part II, Becoming More Efficient
Chapter 4, The Shell Startup Files, describes ~/.cshrc and ~/.login, the files that the shell uses to initialize your working environment. This chapter also provides guidelines for modifying the startup files to suit your preferences.
Chapter 5, Setting Up Your Terminal, discusses how to find out what your terminal's special characters are (e.g., for backspacing) and how to change them if you don't like the default settings.
Chapter 6, Using Your Command History, discusses how to type less by using your command history.
Chapter 7, The tcsh Command-Line Editor, describes the facilities offered by the editor which enable you to edit commands interactively.
Chapter 8, Using Aliases To Create Command Shortcuts, discusses how to type less by using the shell's alias mechanism to create command shortcuts.
Chapter 9, File-Naming Shortcuts, describes ways in which the shell can supply filename arguments for you so that you don't have to type them all out yourself.
Chapter 10, Filename and Programmed Completion, describes how to use the shell for completing filenames after you type just the leading prefix. It also discusses how tcsh can complete other types of words besides filenames and how to set up programmed completions.
Chapter 11, Quoting and Special Characters, describes the shell's quoting rules. By following these rules, you can type any characters in a command line, even special ones, without having them misinterpreted.
Chapter 12, Using Commands To Generate Arguments, discusses command substitution, a facility that lets you construct pieces of a command line from the output of other commands.
Chapter 13, Navigating the File System, describes how to move around in the file system efficiently.
Chapter 14, Keeping Track of Where You Are, describes how to stay informed about your current location in the file system.
Chapter 15, Job Control, shows how to suspend, resume, and kill jobs; switch between jobs; and move jobs between the foreground and background.

Part III, Appendixes
Appendix A, Obtaining and Installing tcsh, describes how to make tcsh available on your system if you don't have the current version.
Appendix B, csh and tcsh Quick Reference, is a summary of those features and capabilities of csh and tcsh described in this handbook.
Appendix C, Other Sources of Information, contains pointers to other documentation. The most important of these references is the tcsh manual page. It's available in several forms, one of which can be navigated via hypertext links with a World Wide Web browser.

All readers should start with Chapter 1. If necessary, change your login shell to csh or tcsh, using the instructions there. If you're a beginner, unfamiliar with the shell, or just want to review the basics of executing simple commands, you should then proceed to Chapter 2. If you're also having trouble figuring out how to do things like getting your terminal to backspace correctly, you may find it helpful to read Chapter 5.

Chapter 3 is designed to "jump start" you into better use of the shell by presenting lots of shortcuts that save you time and effort. You'll quickly become a more fluent command-line user by applying the information you find here. For a more systematic and topical approach to the shell's capabilities, look at the chapters in Part II. They explain in greater detail the features of the shell that were briefly demonstrated in Chapter 3.

Finally, use the index. The shell's features interrelate, so you'll often find that a particular capability can be applied in many different contexts, and most likely will be discussed in several places.

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