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.
Table of Contents (6 chapters)

Command-Line Building Blocks

Learning Objectives

By the end of the chapter, you will be able to:

  • Use redirection to control command input and output
  • Construct pipelines between commands
  • Use commands for text filtering
  • Use text transformation commands
  • Analyze tabular data using data-processing commands

This chapter introduces you to the two main composing mechanisms of command lines: redirection and piping. You will also expand your vocabulary of commands to be able to perform a wide variety of data-processing tasks.