Hello, what are some good books for learning shell programming? I'd like a book that is good enough to be readable and understandable by someone who is new to shell programming but which also has enough information to be used by a experienced shell programmer as well, basically something that covers both spectrum's of new and old shell programmers. It is understandable that that may be best achieved via two or more separate books which is fine, if that is the case please let me know what the two or more books are. Thanks!

For the Bash shell, there is the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide, and the Bash Guide for Beginners. Both can be downloaded from the internet.

There is also a guide the the zsh shell (A Users Guide to the Z-shell).

www.google.com/linux may turn up guides to other shells as well.

Classic Shell Scripting (O'Reilly)

O'reilly has many interesting titles, some of which deal explicitly with system administration and bash.

I got that one, but what kind of worried me is how it said that if you don't know expressions (which I don't, never had to use them before) you should get some other books and so I thought that rather go on a continuous book purchasing binge (next book covers expressions but skimps on something else and recommends another book, that book covers that subject but skimps on yet another topic and recommends yet another book, etc, etc) it'd be better to ask the experts on what they recommend...I am looking for something that is for system administration, if there's a (or a set) book that covers all the shell programming for system administration bases I'd love to know what that is (but I'd prefer for it not to be meant solely as a reference, more as something meant to be used for learning), thanks

I dunno what ather people might think but I recommend Linux in a nutshell
It's great for basic stuff and it goes into all the different commands that you might use

I'm thinking of getting these books:

http://www.amazon.com/DNS-BIND-5th-C...8603622&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-A...8604447&sr=1-1

comments/suggestions on selection are welcome

Looks OK. Another book I found very useful to start from is "A Practical Guide to Linux". Linux in a Nutshell is great but it's not the sort of book you would read from cover to cover; it's more of an encyclopedia/reference book that lists each and every imaginable option for a vast range of commands, although it covers shells, vim, emacs, etc as well.

Is this the "A Practical Guide to Linux" book you're referring to: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guid...8612915&sr=1-2 ? If so, isn't it a bit old: Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (June 25, 1997)? If that isn't the book you had in mind would you please provide me with a link to the book you had in mind? Thanks!

I meant this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guid...8612915&sr=1-2

It's the same book but a later edition. Have a look at reader reviews to learn more. btw, ignore remarks that imply that the book covers Red Hat / Fedora only; those must be referring to a different book by Mark Sobell because I can testify that the book is perfectly distro neutral.

I asked for this book for Christmas. I didn't get it, but I did ask for it; so you've got my vote for "it's a good book".


sleepy