No Starch Press has released “Wicked Cool Shell Scripts” by Dave Taylor, a new book that helps users of Mac OS X, Unix and Linux get the most out of the main scripting languages their operating systems use. The book offers 101 different ways to customize the Unix shell.
“Harnessing the power of UNIX is often perceived as a job for complex programming languages (e.g. Perl, C, C++), but if readers can type a command at the command line, they can create shell scripts and customize their UNIX environment,” said Taylor.
The book is aimed at home users and sysadmins alike looking to get the most out of the Unix shell. The scripts have been written in Bourne Shell (sh) syntax, and include an interactive spell checker; disk backup utility; Web logfile analysis tool; weather tracker, shell script games and dozens more. The book includes explanations of syntax and techniques.
“Wicked Cool Shell Scripts,” ISBN 1593270127, costs US$29.95. Visit the Web site for details and example scripts.