Book Image

Command Line Fundamentals

By : Vivek Nagarajan
Book Image

Command Line Fundamentals

By: Vivek Nagarajan

Overview of this book

The most basic interface to a computer—the command line—remains the most flexible and powerful way of processing data and performing and automating various day-to-day tasks. Command Line Fundamentals begins by exploring the basics, and then focuses on the most common tool, the Bash shell (which is standard on all Linux and iOS systems). As you make your way through the book, you'll explore the traditional Unix command-line programs as implemented by the GNU project. You'll also learn to use redirection and pipelines to assemble these programs to solve complex problems. By the end of this book, you'll have explored the basics of shell scripting, allowing you to easily and quickly automate tasks.

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Table of Contents (6 chapters)
Preface
Preface
About the Book
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to the Command Line
Introduction to the Command Line
Introduction
Command Line: History, Shells, and Terminology
Exploring the Filesystem
Shell History Recall, Editing, and Autocompletion
Shell Wildcards and Globbing
Summary
2
Command-Line Building Blocks
Command-Line Building Blocks
Introduction
Redirection
Pipes
Text-Processing Commands
Summary
3
Advanced Command-Line Concepts
Advanced Command-Line Concepts
Introduction
Command Lists
Job Control
Regular Expressions
Shell Expansion
Summary
4
Shell Scripting
Shell Scripting
Introduction
Conditionals and Loops
Shell Functions
Shell Line Input
Shell Scripts
Practical Case Study 1: Chess Game Extractor
Tips and Tricks
Practical Case Study 2: NYC Yellow Taxi Trip Analysis
Summary
Appendix
Appendix
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Command Line
Chapter 2: Command-Line Building Blocks
Chapter 3: Advanced Command-Line Concepts
Chapter 4: Shell Scripting

Summary

We have covered a large amount of material in this chapter and practiced with real-world examples and longer scripts. You should now have got a fairly comprehensive idea of how to program with the shell and also got a hint of how to go about solving real-world problems with it.

There is a lot more material that is beyond the scope of an introductory book, but we hope that students will investigate and learn more as they gather experience and seek more knowledge.

Shell scripts have been automating a large number of servers for more than 40 years now and the shell, even if a bit rough on the edges and somewhat archaic in its approach, is the workhorse and Swiss-army knife of all system administrators and serious developers.

In this fairly brief book, we have learned quite a bit about how to use the command line, as well as the popular tools associated with it. Just like a workshop can be extended with new tools to build more complex things, this framework of the...

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