Learning the Korn Shell (2nd Edition)

While not as popular (at least in Linux circles) as bash, ksh is a powerful language/tool. Put bluntly, this is one of the few O'Reilly books I have read cover to cover. That isn't to say that the others don't warrant a thorough perusal, but that this book was readily accessible and provided excellent information. I have used it as a reference countless times over the years and do not hesitate to recommend it to anyone using or considering using ksh. Moreover, if you are considering using ksh - or perhaps need a better background in Unix shell scripting - read this book.

When I started my current position, I had little to no experience in scripting. After reading this book I have become the top scripter on our team. Now when tasks need to be automated, I've become the go-to-guy (not always good but at least it is a form of recognition). I have recommened this book to new memebers of my team. In fact, I think someone has my copy now. Hummm... who was it?

If your job requires you to perform some tasks in UNIX but you know very little beyond the level a beginner's guide gave you (e.g. cd and ls) then Learning the Korn Shell will let you build on those basics to the point where you'll be able to program shell scripts. You'll start with a quick explanation of what a shell is (i.e. it's a user interface, not the OS itself) then useful key strokes (avoid CTRL-D) and how Korn parses the command line. The book then explains how you can set up your environment and then moves into basic shell scripting. By the end of the book, you'll be able to read and edit the scripts along with your more experienced colleagues. Highly recommended.

I gave it 5 stars partially because it was given just 1 star unjustly by a few reviewers. From a number of complaining reviews, one realizes that the book title is little misleading. It's not a book for a true beginner wanting to read about "simple" examples of shell programs and looking for detailed explanations line by line. This book is concise, to the point, and really explains "Korn" shell's features. Even as early as chapter 4 about Korn shell basics, things are explained that a long-time shell programmers may not know. If you do and have done serious, real world Korn shell programming, you'll appreciate it.There were also complains about hard to find things in the book. But from my experience, it's not the case if one really reads it from cover to cover and unerstands the topics presented chapter by chapter. I agree that the book may not be a great reference book, but it was not written as one.

This is a great book for someone new to ksh programmer. It should be treated as a work manual and not as a reference book. Read this book through from cover to cover and you'll soon be writing ksh scripts with ease.The book takes you though Korn shell basics from answer what a shell is to using files, I/O, and character quoting.From there it goes into command line editing, customizing your environment, and into basic programming. Once through that you learn flow control, arrays, advanced I/O, and process handling.Finally you learn how to debug the script you just wrote.As a reference manual this book is average. It's not meant to be a typical "nutshell" book and shouldn't be treated as one.The bottom line? Buy this book if you are truly interested in learning how to program in the Korn shell.