Rating: 
Summary: Excellent single volume coverage of the shell options...
Review: (This is a review of the 4th edition)
As I start playing around more with Linux, I'd like to get into some shell programming. After reviewing Unix Shells By Example (4th Edition) by Ellie Quigley (Prentice-Hall), I think I've found the book I need to get started.
Chapter List: Introduction to UNIX/Linux Shells; Shell Programming QuickStart; Regular Expressions and Pattern Matching; The grep Family; sed, The Streamlined Editor; The awk Utility; The Interactive Bourne Shell; Programming The Bourne Shell; The Interactive C And TC Shells; Programming The C And TC Shells; The Interactive Korn Shell; Programming The Korn Shell; The Interactive Bash Shell; Programming The Bash Shell; Debugging Shell Scripts; The System Administrator And The Shell; Useful UNIX/Linux Utilities For Shell Programmers; Comparison Of The Shells; Index
I know that there are a number of different shell scripting platforms, but I really don't know enough to understand what is different between them. In a single book, Quigley covers all the options so I can start to make some decisions about what direction I'd like to go in. And regardless of whatever choice that might be, she covers all the different platforms in equal depth so I don't have to go out and buy another book to get started. Each chapter is filled with a number of examples, immediately followed by an explanation of how the example works. So not only do you have the benefit of reference material on how something like the grep utility works, but you also have the benefit of seeing working examples in order to translate theory into practical knowledge. Her style of writing is clear and concise, and I really think that with a little time on my part, this book will take me well down the road to where I want to be.
An excellent choice if you're looking to get into command line scripting of your UNIX or Linux systems...
Rating:
Summary: Good text
Review: As has been pointed out, the book has four foci: grep/awk/sed, Bourne shell, Korn shell, and C shell. If you're not familiar with the ins and outs of these areas, it's an excellent book. Instead of buying four different books for each area, this will allow you to become comfortable with each one. It's not a reference book; the charts and tables are occasionally incomplete and not well-organized for reference, since their purpose is generally to illustrate a point. If you're already familiar with shell programming and just need a reference or an advanced book, look elsewhere, but if you need to get up to speed quickly, this is far superior to many other, similar textbooks.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy to read and use; watch for typos
Review: For persons looking for an easy to read and easy to understand guide to shell programming, this is the best one I have found. I blame the publisher, not the author, for failure to rein in typographical errors, but I do not agree with some other reviewers that this is a big problem with this book. If a few typos are going to put you off, then shell programming in Unix may not be what you should be doing. The strength of this book is in its organization and presentation, which is uniform and clear throughout. This makes the book fatter than most, but if brevity and cryptic descriptions are what you seek, just use "man" and don't waste your money on a book at all. The book makes it easy to compare the three common shells. For the programmer new to Unix, I could not recommend a better Shell guide. Ellie Quigley is a teacher and this book is an excellent teaching tool.
Rating: 
Summary: Need Go Beyond "*** by Example"
Review: I am a "not-so-proud" owner of "Shell By Example" and "Perl by Example" - let me tell you why. First, the "Perl" book is boring and unfocused. The "Shell" book is even worse, it has several typos and the book is inflated to 600+ pages - the author uses the same data file in every example and prints it out in every example every time (There are a lot of examples, as indicated by the book title)! Second, it (the "Shell" book) does not provide some useful, interesting, long examples, most of the examples (scripts) are "baby talk" types - you are more likely to read them and forget them later. There is no problem-solving section. There is no reader involvement. In addition, the paper used in manufacturing of this book is so heavy, it makes this book look like a 1000+ page book. I bought these books at the same time in a "normal" bookstore - which means I did not take advantage of 20 % discount from AMAZON.COM and paying high California Sale Tax
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Necessary
Review: I cannot imagine anyone tryng to learn UNIX shell scripting without this book. I've used this book countless times to teach shell scripting to programmers and neophytes alike. Plenty of books provide shell script examples, but none give such thorough, line-by-line explanations of what the examples are doing.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Necessary
Review: I cannot imagine anyone tryng to learn UNIX shell scripting without this book. I've used this book countless times to teach shell scripting to programmers and neophytes alike. Plenty of books provide shell script examples, but none give such thorough, line-by-line explanations of what the examples are doing.
Rating:
Summary: Good layout, but way too many typos in examples.
Review: I had to write a review, because this book has way too many errors in the examples. I have tested at least 15 examples in different chapters, and the output is NOT what the example said it would be. It's hard to learn from a book you can't trust. Otherwise, I do like the layout, but I would advise looking elsewhere for a solid Shell book to learn from.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for beginngers as well as advanced users
Review: I have been working with shells since about 5 years, and besides the "man" pages, this book has been the only one I ever used when writing shell scripts.I rarely comment on books, but I really felt this one needs my appreciation. The highlights of this book in my opinion are:
- a large and very well index--it really helps you finding your answer quickly
- very good introduction to shells and environments
- very good introduction to regular expressions
- very good introductions to the very important utilities grep, sed, and awk
- detailed sections with many examples for interactive usage of shells as well as programming shell scripts For many people the sections on the c shell, korn shell and TC shell may seem unnecessary, since (I assume) the majority is using the bash shell. However, some things in those sections apply to the bash shell as well, and besides that one never knows which shell one has to work with one day--so by having it all in one book, you should be set. Last but not least I would like to add that there is no need for reading this book from start to finish, you can just jumpt right into any section, as I have always done ;) Get this book if you want a great all-round book on shells, and should you still get stuck, type "man ..."
Rating:
Summary: Great book for beginngers as well as advanced users
Review: I have been working with shells since about 5 years, and besides the "man" pages, this book has been the only one I ever used when writing shell scripts. I rarely comment on books, but I really felt this one needs my appreciation. The highlights of this book in my opinion are:
- a large and very well index--it really helps you finding your answer quickly
- very good introduction to shells and environments
- very good introduction to regular expressions
- very good introductions to the very important utilities grep, sed, and awk
- detailed sections with many examples for interactive usage of shells as well as programming shell scripts For many people the sections on the c shell, korn shell and TC shell may seem unnecessary, since (I assume) the majority is using the bash shell. However, some things in those sections apply to the bash shell as well, and besides that one never knows which shell one has to work with one day--so by having it all in one book, you should be set. Last but not least I would like to add that there is no need for reading this book from start to finish, you can just jumpt right into any section, as I have always done ;) Get this book if you want a great all-round book on shells, and should you still get stuck, type "man ..."
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I have the second edition. I've used the book to teach classes, and it has been an excellent tool.
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