Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 3rd Edition

Authors: Christine Bresnahan; Richard Blum

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

4 parts and 2 appendices.

Part 1: The Linux command line

Part 2: Shell scripting basics

Part 3: Advanced shell scripting

Part 4: Creating practical scripts

The first part is a broad introduction to the world of Linux, including the part that deals with shells. File systems, environment variables, software installation basics and an overview of alternative text editors.

Part 2 explains the basics of script programming – structured commands, user input, presenting data and script control (including signals, modes, job control and cron).

Part 3 talks about functions, regular expressions, sed and awk, alternative shells and graphical desktop libraries.

Part 4 shows practical examples of useful scripts for system administration, database work, internet access and email.

This is a very accessible basic-level introduction to shell scripting in Linux, concentrating mostly on bash, though with a good overview of other shell interpreters is included as well.

A very good basic introduction to Linux shell programming.