“When beginning to read LINUX & UNIX Shell Programming, I
was a bit confused to find I was reading about shell basics and not
programming. My conclusion was, Mr. Tansley is writing for the true
beginner to UNIX and so is first providing background and command
information that will be needed when the user actually begins
writing scripts. He is covering the basic or Bourne shell, which is
common to all UNIX flavors including Linux, so scripts will be
portable. More than once, he emphasizes the fact that his scripts
are not the most efficient design, but are easy to understand and
reuse.”
“This book needed better editing; the mistakes I found should
have been caught. Mr. Tansley has been a UNIX system administrator
for some time and clearly knows his subject. But run-on sentences
with improper punctuation, extra words, omitted words and
misspellings (e.g., directory) make understanding the material
harder than it should be. An entire chapter is devoted to the find
command, and it contains two serious editing problems…”
“LINUX & UNIX Shell Programming is a good introduction
to the shell as well as scripting. With a good editor, it will
be even better in a section edition. Right now, I hesitate to
recommend it to complete beginners, even though they are its target
audience; however, for someone who has used UNIX for a short while
and has the ability to sort out any confusions caused by typos, it
could provide a useful reference.”