third: good shell programming books? frankly, i haven't found any. and i'm still looking for one to use as a student text in a shell programming class. so far, i use my own manual and include the POSIX standards as a printed supplement. but i'd still like to find a decent book, ideally POSIX-oriented.
I got the most value out of the first edition of Stephen Kochans and Patrick Wood's "unix Shell programming".
I have the 3rd edition now, which i sometimes reference when im using utils I dont typically use and have long since forgotten the exact syntax. (When I have either not installed the MAN pages.. or just dont feel like using google)
It's also the first gift I give to clients or co-workers who are stuck in the world of windows and want to "use" linux.. Instead of trying to import all of their data to excel and use the crappy sorting and processing functions there.. they quickly realize the power of bourne and its friendly gnu utils. I call it the 'gift of efficiency'
Anyway. the book is really good for what it is, its 30 bucks at borders for the 3rd edition.. it covers all of the normal gnu utils, bash, scripting, and a little tiny bit of sed/awk.. the basics that you need. I've never had someone read it and not understand it, and not gain a plethora of information from it.
The book is very easy to read.. its still good for reference. I highly recommend it.
