Shell Scripting , where to start....?
 

I am new at shell scripting and I need it urgently (job related)
...so few advises here and there would really help and especially - what is the fastest way to conquer "Everest" ?

There is no fastest way. You can begin with "OReilly.Learning.the.bash.Shell.3rd.Edition.Mar.2005.chm".

This site may help:

http://www.linuxconfig.org/Bash_scripting_Tutorial


A script can be something as simple as a command put in a script.
e.g. Say you type "ls -l" from command line to get a long listing. However, being lazy you'd rather type a single letter (e.g. "l").
Just "vi l" and add the line "ls -l" to it. Write and save. Make the file "l" executable with the chmod command.

The above is actually not a great example because it would be simpler to use bash's alias feature to do that but it gives you the idea.

If the job site uses AIX, Solaris or HP-UX, then you probably should learn the Korn shell (ksh) rather than bash.

If you're the book learning type, this is the one I originally learned with:
Unix Shell Programming (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
by Stephen Kochan, Patrick Wood

But, of course, I learned with 2nd Edition.

If you have a couple more specifics about distro, available/required scripting languages, etc. It might be a little easier to point you in a good direction. Shell scripting can be a lot of things and can be really complex, or very easy (as jlightner mentioned), depending on the task.

Edit: I've heard the O'Reily book, "Shell Scripting" by Arnold Robbins and Nelson H.F. Beebe, is also good.

http://tldp.org

Get the Bash Guide for Beginners by Machtelt Garrels

Yep tldp has good stuff (look for the Beginners Guide and Advanced guide), also this is a good tutorial for linux in general and bash:
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

@pedrilio: If you're already a programmer, Bourne/bash shell will likely be a snap. Add this to your list of resources: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

Thanks everybody, this is more than enough info to get the ball rolling....