Wicked Cool Shell Scripts: 101 Scripts for Linux, Mac OS X, and Unix Systems

I'd recommend this book highly for anyone who wants to understand scripting even just a little bit, or just be more of a power-user of Linux, Unix, or OS X. It's written clearly and simply enough for almost anyone to understand it, and anyone will find some use for at least a few of the scripts presented. For more hardcore scripters, it may not have anything new in the code, but the book's approach to automating tasks is still pretty inspiring. I'm an IT Manager with a lot of experience in admin, less in programming. But how can you avoid having to understand shell scripting? You can't, but like everything else, if you do it rarely it's hard to remember everything--and you don't always think "I can write a script to do that" even when it's the best solution to a problem. Mostly in the past I've only edited existing scripts, or written half-baked ones to automate a single repetitive task (for file in * ...). Since buying this book, I'm saving myself time and even making a little money writing scripts, and I'm thoroughly enjoying every minute of it. I feel like I'm getting smarter again, and this book is a big part of that. I think it'll also be especially helpful to OS X users who want to be more knowledgeable about Unix and what their computers are capable of now. Other good targets are webmasters, administrators of small to medium-sized networks (including home networks), and anyone who just wants to be more of a power-user. You know what I like best about this book? It reminds me of the time when the computer users I knew ALL knew how to program--when the point of using a computer was to program it. We're still there, we just forgot about it. You can be that powerful of a user, still, and this book will get you there.

Kirk McElhearn's "The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood" recommended this book for those who want to take shell scripting deeper (along with a Perl book) and I'm glad he did. There's a lot of ground Dave Taylor covers and by design the 101 scripts are surprisingly helpful for day-to-day usage and computer management. As Mr. Taylor writes in his intro, the quality of the scripts in this book far surpass what you might find after spending a lot of time Googling and then tweaking for your platform. He understands the differences of the various platforms and how you should tweak accordingly. The author has a lively writing style (particularly for a computer book). This is one of those rare reference books that really needs to be on the reference shelf.

Another one of my goals this year is to get familiar with Linux and shell scripting. I have some "how to" books, but I also picked up Dave Taylor's Wicked Cool Shell Scripts - 101 Scripts For Linux, Mac OS X, and UNIX Systems (No Starch Press). Taylor's done a great job with this book. Chapter List: Introduction; The Missing Code Library; Improving on User Commands; Creating Utilities; Tweaking Unix; System Administration: Managing Users; System Administration: System Maintenance; Web and Internet Users; Webmaster Hacks; Web and Internet Administration; Internet Server Administration; Mac OS X Scripts; Shell Script Fun and Games; Afterword; Index Taylor didn't write this book as a tutorial on script writing. Rather, he wanted to provide a "cookbook" of scripts that people could learn from and use immediately. He also wanted something more interesting than the scripts normally found in the how to books on the market. I'd agree that he's accomplished his purpose. Each script starts with a listing of the code and an explanation of how it works. He shows you how to run the script and what the results of running the script should be. Finally, there's a "hacking the script" paragraph that explains how you might want to modify the script to do something different. This entire package of paragraphs in each script serves as a sort of "mini-lesson" on some aspect of script writing. As I mentioned above, I'm not quite ready for this book right now. When I pick up some fundamentals, I'll be heading into the Web and Internet Users section. There's code there on using Lynx and shell scripts to strip out information from websites. I have a project in mind I've wanted to do for some time, and I think I finally found the tools that will allow me to do it. As a side note: LinuxWorld Magazine voted this book the Best Shell Script Programming Book of 2004. So I'm not the only one who thinks it's pretty good... A well-written book packed with a ton of practical information. If you have a background in shell scripting and you want to stretch a little, this is the book for you...

I guess it's always difficult deciding on whether to buy a techy book like this one - particularly if you're ordering on the web. Fortunately, I bought my copy from one of those old-fashioned book shops and was able to browse through the scripts before making the decision :-) This book has some very useful scripts in it. They probably won't be *exactly* what you're looking for, but they are good examples that can easily be adapted and appended to help you work smarter/faster. The accompanying descriptions are written so that those who are unfamiliar with the shell will have enough information to get the scripts up and running - and those who are familiar with the shell won't feel patronized. Being a Mac scripter myself, I also like the fact that the author *likes* OS X and has included lots of OS X-specific information in the book. This would be a useful addition to the library of a Mac user who wants to move from plain *user* to *power-user* :-)

Folks, if scripts intimidate you in any way, this book is great! It brings practical scripts in a wide variety of areas to you. Once you learn these scripts, it's easy to customize them to meet your needs.If you're really interested in becoming a Linux Sysadmin, you need to know how to script. Once you learn these scripts, you'll be able to demonstrate your knowledge on any interview!