The first thing users of the Linux operating system come face to face with is the shell. "Shell" is the UNIX term for a user interface to the system -- something that lets you communicate with the computer via the keyboard and display. Bash, the Free Software Foundation's "Bourne Again Shell," is the default shell for Linux, the popular free UNIX-like operating system. It's also a replacement for the standard UNIX Bourne shell, which serves both as a user interface and as a programming language. Like the FSF's other tools, bash is more than a mere replacement: it extends the Bourne shell in many ways. Features include command line editing, key bindings, integrated programming features, command completion, control structures (especially the select construct, which enables you to create menus easily), and new ways to customize your environment.

Whether you want to use bash for its user interface or its programming features you will find Learning the bash Shell a valuable guide. The book covers all of bash's features, both for interactive use and programming. If you are new to shell programming, Learning the bash Shell provides an excellent introduction, covering everything from the most basic to the most advanced features, like signal handling and command line processing. If you've been writing shell scripts for years, it offers a great way to find out what the new shell offers. The book is full of examples of shell commands and programs that are designed to be useful in your everyday life as a user, not just to illustrate the feature being explained. All of these examples are freely available to you online on the Internet.

For many users, working in the Unix environment means using vi, a full-screen text editor available on most Unix systems. Even those who know vi often make use of only a small number of its features.

Learning the vi Editor is a complete guide to text editing with
vi. Topics new to the sixth edition include multiscreen editing and coverage of four
viclones: vim, elvis, nvi, and vile and their enhancements to vi, such as multi-window editing, GUI interfaces, extended regular expressions, and enhancements for programmers. A new appendix describes vi's place in the Unix and Internet cultures.

Quickly learn the basics of editing, cursor movement, and global search and replacement. Then take advantage of the more subtle power of vi. Extend your editing skills by learning to use ex, a powerful line editor, from within vi. For easy reference, the sixth edition also includes a command summary at the end of each appropriate chapter.

If you're in need of a quick, concise tutorial to learn Unix and get on your way, this is it. Sams Teach Yourself UNIX in 10 Minutes, Second Edition will help you quickly and easily learn UNIX essentials and review UNIX features and functions. You will master components of UNIX programming through clear, concise learning modules and step-by-step instructions without having to wade through a lot of fluff and theory. You will learn to:

• Get onto the system and use the command line
• Move about the file system
• Create, move, rename and delete files and directories
• Slice and dice command pipe data
• Use the vi Editor
• Print in the UNIX environment
• And more!

For advanced system administrators, author Kirk Bauer focuses solely on how UNIX and Linux system administrators can use well-known tools to automate tedious daily tasks, even across multiple systems. Automating UNIX and Linux Administration provides real-world examples and explores the existing tools that will help with this task. Although the book provides brief overviews of tools and technologies that are covered, the author assumes that the reader knows how to edit a configuration file or mount a file system. Learn to put these tools to use in the real world, such as how to use a set of Perl scripts to manage your user accounts across 1000 machines. This book will not show you how to write a basic 'Hello World' program in Perl nor contain a Perl function reference or summary. The techniques, methods and tools covered in this book will help on a single system, but will be much more useful across multiple systems. Whether you are managing 2 or 5,000 systems, whether they are desktops, servers, or a Beowulf cluster, you will benefit from this type of automation. Although some of the book is be Linux-specific, most of it will apply to any UNIX system, including automating tasks across multiple variants of UNIX.

UNIX application programming requires a mastery of system-level services. Making sense of the many functions-more than 1,100 functions in the current UNIX specification-is a daunting task, so for years programmers have turned to Advanced UNIX Programming for its clear, expert advice on how to use the key functions reliably.
An enormous number of changes have taken place in the UNIX environment since the landmark first edition. In Advanced UNIX Programming, Second Edition, UNIX pioneer Marc J. Rochkind brings the book fully up to date, with all-new, comprehensive coverage including:
POSIX
Solaris™
Linux®
FreeBSD
Darwin, the Mac™ OS X kernel
And more than 200 new system calls

Posted by Alexander Arkander