Every system administrator using Linux/Unix systems needs a working knowledge of shell scripting. But knowing just the how-to isn't always enough. Having readymade scripting recipes for various situations, environments, and challenges can make the job much easier. Shell Scripting provides just that. It covers shell programming, with a focus on Linux and the Bash shell, and provides a host of plug and play recipes for immediate use in addition to small variations that can make them useful in other environments.
The book uses realistic recipes to hold the pieces together, which provides credibility, real-world relevance, as well as providing the reader with flexible tools to get started immediately.

About the Author

Steve Parker is an IT consultant specializing in Solaris and GNU/Linux. He has been providing consultancy services for 13 years, largely on Solaris for Sun Microsystems, also on Linux, as well as AIX and HP-UX. He is the author of http://steve-parker.org/sh/sh.shtml, which sees around 3000 visitors per day (just over 1 million/year). This tutorial has also been the basis of an internal training course at Google and is cited by many Universities' Computer Science courses around the world.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION PART I: ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS. · THE HISTORY OF UNIX, GNU, AND LINUX · GETTING STARTED · VARIABLES · WILDCARD EXPANSION · CONDITIONAL EXECUTION · FLOW CONTROL USING LOOPS · VARIABLES CONTINUED · FUNCTIONS AND LIBRARIES · ARRAYS · PROCESSES · CHOOSING AND USING SHELLS PART II: RECIPES FOR USING AND EXTENDING SYSTEM TOOLS. · FILE MANIPULATION · TEXT MANIPULATION · TOOLS FOR SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION PART III: RECIPES FOR SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION. · SHELL FEATURES · SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION · PRESENTATION · DATA STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL · NUMBERS · PROCESSES · INTERNATIONALIZATION PART IV: REFERENCE. APPENDIX: FURTHER READING GLOSSARY INDEX