Become a shell script expert the fun and easy way!

The Unix shell is the main scripting environment of every Linux, Mac OS X and Unix system, whether a rescued laptop or a million-dollar mainframe. This cookbook of useful, customizable, and fun scripts gives you the tools to solve common Linux, Mac OS X and Unix problems and personalize your computing environment. Among the more than 100 scripts included are an interactive calculator, a spell checker, a disk backup utility, a weather tracker, and a web logfile analysis tool. The book also teaches you how to write your own sophisticated shell scripts by explaining the syntax and techniques used to build each example scripts. Examples are written in Bourne Shell (sh) syntax.

Author Dave Taylor has a Masters degree in Education, an MBA, and has written a dozen technical books, including "Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther" (O'Reilly), "Solaris for Dummies" (Hungry Minds), and "Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours" (SAMS). An enthused Unix user since 1980, he was an official contributor to BSD 4.4 Unix, and his software is included in many major Unix distributions.

The most important thing that you should know about "Wicked Cool Shell Scripts" is that it's written both for neophytes just starting to explore more sophisticated shell scripts and for "guru" experts who already think they know all that can be done within the realm of shell scripting. If you peruse the table of contents you'll quickly see that there are dozens of new and innovative applications of shell scripts, including ways to simplify your life as a webmaster, cool additions to your web site through scripting, and much more.

Just as importantly, "Wicked Cool Shell Scripts" is a really fun book to read. In addition to many thoughtful and informed comments about the differnces between the many different types of Unix OS on the market (with a particular emphasis on commercial Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X), there are lots of amusing sections too, and the very last section of the book is all games too! Ever thought that it'd be fun to have a version of hangman written as a shell script? Sure you have. With this book, you'll see how it can be done in less than 75 lines total. Wicked cool.

Also, if you're interested in receiving a review copy or would just like to drop me a note to say hi, please don't hesitate to pop over to my contact page, or explore my blog, always full of some interesting and enlightening discussion or 'tother.