Bash Guide for Beginners Machtelt Garrels

Garrel’s is a leading figure in the world of Linux. She has made many contributions relating to Open Source and has been working on making Linux and Open Source more widely appreciated and accepted. She writes and contributions to the documentation surrounding Linux and Open Source, she is an active members of the Linux Documentation Project and also a training manager at Coresequence.

Garrel’s book, Bash Guide for Beginners provides users with a guide to Bash Scripting. However, the user does need to have some basic Bash knowledge in order to gain maximum understanding from the book. It begins with a discussion of shell building blocks and common practices. Then book also covers the grep, awk and sed tools which it later uses to create interesting examples which is explains and presents in an organised manor later on in the book. The book also covers shell constructs, for example loops, functions, conditional tests, traps, and interactive scripts.

The layout of the book is clear and easy to understand. The language is understandable and the text is relevant and to the point, without unnecessary waffle. Garrels communicates with the reader in a professional manner. The examples are fully tested and working.

A downside of this book is that it does not offer much in the way of advanced bash scripting, which is fine as it is only a book for beginners. However, a total beginner would not understand this book. In order to gain the maximum benefit from this resource, any users must already have some basic knowledge of Bash Shell scripting and Linux. This is because the book does not start from the absolute beginner, and it does not explain the very basics in as much detail as some other books. Nevertheless, it is a very good book for a scripter who has some basic knowledge. It could also be used in conjunction with another beginner book in order to gain maximum benefit.

Overall, on its own this is not a suitable book for an absolute beginner. However, it is extremely useful for a user with some basic knowledge of Bash Scripting. It is also useless for any advanced users wishing to purchase a book for reference. Bash Guide For Beginners is exactly that: a guide for beginners.

image from [www.amazon.com]

Summary:

Pros
Easy to read/coherent.
 Good for beginners
Clear explanations.

Cons
No advanced scripting.
Doesn’t cover the most basic commands

Our rating:
The book states that it is a guide for beginners, however it has some significant flaws. On its own, this book is not totally suitable for an absolute beginner as it does not start from the beginning of bash. Beginner would need to study this book in conjunction with another in order to fill in the gaps.  

3/5

Where to buy from:
This book can be bought from the following link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bash-Guide-Beginners-Machtelt-Garrels/dp/0974433942