Mastering Unix Shell Scripting

Unix Shell Scripting 2nd edition is a practical reference book to UNIX shell scripting. There are 954 pages committed to various scripts appropriate for any type of production environment: research, banking, web hosting, personal, security or system administration. Each script is well written. His style is concise and consistent, with shell scripting notation, control statements, and choice of commands commented throughout. You will find that his techniques are sampled over and over. Randal proves a point that there's not one way to write a script but there is one choice better than the rest. In Chapter 2 Randal demonstrates 24 ways to process a file line-by-line. Of the 24 some are slower than others. He shows that with existing UNIX systems functions there are ways to time script execution. Even though the execution time is important he does not forget to mention the importance of system availability and personal identity management. Some script writers don't know how to handle sensitive personal information well. Randal provides a tid-bit on concealing personal identity from eavesdroppers, validating file ownership, and secure data transmission over encrypted protocols. Having any biasness over less secure alternatives is important to mention when a company's asset confidentiality must be 100% reliable and aligned with corporate Security policy. There are chapters on UNIX system availability. Resource availability ensures that services are available for business process to continue. Michael does a good job of providing a holistic approach of application and system availability by providing references to: rysnc, dirvish, oracle database testing, process monitoring, disk capacity monitoring, and swap file monitoring; all the while participating in some sort of notification. I suggest UNIX Shell Scripting by Randal Michael to beginners and non-beginners learning UNIX. Learning by example is an effective way to actually learn the shell. The author provides solutions to very common problems that all industries face and that many default packages don't handle. A moderate background in UNIX command line, configuration, and protocol analysis is recommended; although the author helps to lead the reader through technical obscurity with detailed thoughts. A beginner should take more time to read the fine print and use other sources to complement difficult areas. This comprehensive book takes you step-by-step through the process of writing shell scripts to solve real-world Unix problems and tasks. Each chapter begins by presenting a typical Unix challenge that you'll most likely experience at your job. With each challenge, you'll learn how to identify a specific goal and start the shell script by defining the correct command syntax to solve the problem. You'll find out how to build the shell script around the commands, filter the commands output to strip out the unneeded data, and add options that give users more flexibility on the command line. The approach used will teach you how to attack problems logically. It will also empower you to take the basic command syntax and turn it into a shell scripting solution. Throughout the book, you'll find end-to-end shell scripts that you can use to automate repetitive tasks and solve real-world system administration problems.

• Provides readers with end-to-end shell scripts that can be used to automate repetitive tasks and solve real-world system administration problems

• Targets the specific command structure for four popular UNIX systems: Solaris, Linux, AIX, and HP-UX

• Illustrates dozens of example tasks, presenting the proper command syntax and analyzing the performance gain or loss using various control structure techniques

• Web site includes all the shell scripts used in the book