Learning the Bash Shell

Learning the bash Shell, Third Edition, is the definitive guide to bash, the Free Software Foundation's "Bourne Again Shell." It's a freely available replacement for the UNIX Bourne shell, and is the shell of choice for users of Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, and other UNIX systems.

You'll find this guide valuable whether you're interested in bash as a user interface or for its powerful programming capabilities. This book will teach you how to use bash's advanced command-line features, such as command history, command-line editing, and command completion.

This book also introduces shell programming,a skill no UNIX or Linus user should be without. The book demonstrates what you can do with bash's programming features. You'll learn about flow control, signal handling, and command-line processing and I/O. There is also a chapter on debugging your bash programs.

Finally, Learning the bash Shell, Third Edition, shows you how to acquire, install, configure, and customize bash, and gives advice to system administrators managing bash for their user communities.

This Third Edition covers all of the features of bash Version 3.0, while still applying to Versions 1.x and 2.x. It includes a debugger for the bash shell, both as an extended example and as a useful piece of working code. Since shell scripts are a significant part of many software projects, the book also discusses how to write maintainable shell scripts. And, of course, it discusses the many features that have been introduced to bash over the years: one-dimensional arrays, parameter expansion, pattern-matching operations, new commands, and security improvements.

Unfailingly practical and packed with examples and questions for future study, Learning the bash Shell Third Edition is a valuable asset for Linux and other UNIX users. --back cover