|
|
|
|
+++
|
|
|
|
|
title = "Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook - Shantanu Tushar"
|
|
|
|
|
date = 2016-01-13
|
|
|
|
|
updated = 2021-02-12
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[taxonomies]
|
|
|
|
|
tags = ["books", "shantanu tushar", "reviews", "it", "shell script",
|
|
|
|
|
"stars:2", "published:2011"]
|
|
|
|
|
+++
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10370134-linux-shell-scripting-cookbook):
|
|
|
|
|
This cookbook is for beginners or intermediate Linux users who want to master
|
|
|
|
|
writing Bash shell scripts. Intermediate/advanced users, system
|
|
|
|
|
administrators, developers, and programmers can use it as a reference when
|
|
|
|
|
they face problems while coding. Each recipe contains step-by-step
|
|
|
|
|
instructions about everything necessary to execute a particular task. The book
|
|
|
|
|
is designed so that beginners can read it from start to end while advanced
|
|
|
|
|
users can just open it at any chapter and start following the recipes as a
|
|
|
|
|
reference. It covers most of the commands on Linux with a variety of use cases
|
|
|
|
|
accompanied by plenty of examples and guides you on implementing some of the
|
|
|
|
|
commonest Linux commands with recipes that handle operations or properties
|
|
|
|
|
related to files like searching and mining inside a file with grep. It also
|
|
|
|
|
shows how utilities like sed, awk, grep, and cut can be combined to solve text
|
|
|
|
|
processing problems. The focus is on saving time by automating activities with
|
|
|
|
|
a few lines of script.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- more -->
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
{{ stars(stars=2) }}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I don't know why, but when I saw the title, I expected to be a book only about
|
|
|
|
|
bash. Bash is a shell for *nix based systems and, as VIM, is one of the apps
|
|
|
|
|
you can use for 10 years and, after reading something about it, you find
|
|
|
|
|
something completely new.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thing is, this is not just about bash. This book is about tools in the GNU
|
|
|
|
|
system that can help write shell scripts. And even if you're pissed about
|
|
|
|
|
Stallman asking to call the system GNU/Linux, this *is* about GNU tools: tr,
|
|
|
|
|
expect, find... All GNU tools.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So "GNU Shell Scripting Cookbook" would be a more appropriate title.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
About the content itself... It's mostly a miss than a hit. Some things are
|
|
|
|
|
some wrong it hurts (Git does *not* add a `.git` directory inside every
|
|
|
|
|
directory, it creates one at the base directory of the project) and some are
|
|
|
|
|
so utterly stupid to the point of being dangerous (you don't need root to
|
|
|
|
|
chown a file!). Some points are so strange, they seem like the authors used a
|
|
|
|
|
GNU/Linux for only two months and decided to write a book about it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The book have two authors and it shows. Lots of repeated information, some
|
|
|
|
|
things not building on things already said (really guys? Not matching pipe
|
|
|
|
|
with stdin/stdout redirection?) will give you the impression that they never
|
|
|
|
|
spoke about the book or had a roadmap for it. And there is a shitton of "as
|
|
|
|
|
follows" (seriously, you'll get sick of reading "as follows" over the book).
|
|
|
|
|
It says in the cover that, besides the two authors, there were at least 5
|
|
|
|
|
reviewers. But it seems none of them actually read the book -- and I'm not
|
|
|
|
|
talking about easy things to find in a 1 minute Google search (like the git
|
|
|
|
|
thing), but things like "this 'as follows' is getting through my nerves,
|
|
|
|
|
you're using it every-fucking-where".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The content gets better in the end, when it gets over the "teaching phase",
|
|
|
|
|
but you'll still have the bad taste of things wrong from the previous
|
|
|
|
|
chapters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So, basically, the book tries to cater to two different audiences -- the
|
|
|
|
|
beginner and the master -- and doesn't seem to be able to provide a good
|
|
|
|
|
content for any.
|
