It's simple: if you want to interact deeply with Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unix-like systems, you need to know how to work with the Bash shell. This concise little book puts all of the essential information about Bash right at your fingertips. You'll quickly find answers to the annoying questions that generally come up when you're writing shell scripts: What characters do you need to quote? How do you get variable substitution to do exactly what you want? How do you use arrays? Updated for Bash version 4.4, this book has the answers to these and other problems in a format that makes browsing quick and easy. Topics include: Invoking the shell Syntax Functions and variables Arithmetic expressions Command history Programmable completion Job control Shell options Command execution Coprocesses Restricted shells Built-in commands

When processing text files, the awk language is ideal for handling data extraction, reporting, and data-reformatting jobs. This practical guide serves as both a reference and tutorial for POSIX-standard awk and for the GNU implementation, called gawk. This book is useful for novices and awk experts alike. In this thoroughly revised edition, author and gawk lead developer Arnold Robbins describes the awk language and gawk program in detail, shows you how to use awk and gawk for problem solving, and then dives into specific features of gawk. System administrators, programmers, webmasters, and other power users will find everything they need to know about awk and gawk. You will learn how to: Format text and use regular expressions in awk and gawk Process data using awk's operators and built-in functions Manage data relationships using associative arrays Define your own functions "Think in awk" with two full chapters of sample functions and programs Take advantage of gawk's many advanced features Debug awk programs with the gawk built-in debugger Extend gawk by writing new functions in C or C++ This book is published under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual. Royalties from the sales of this book go to the Free Software Foundation and to the author.

Among the text editors being used in the programming community, perhaps the most important family is vi and its derivatives. With this updated edition, Unix and Linux users will learn text editing basics for both vi and Vim ("vi improved") before moving on to advanced editing tools for each editor. Authors Arnold Robbins and Elbert Hannah cover the latest major releases of Vim, including 8.0 and 8.2. If you're a programmer or computer analyst, or you work with browsers or command-line interfaces, using Vim can speed up your work and make complex tasks easier. You'll examine multiwindow editing, global search and replacement, and power tools for programmers, and learn how to write interactive macros and scripts to extend the editor--all in the easy-to-follow style that's made this book a classic. Go beyond the basics to learn which vi commands fit your specific needs Learn advanced vi tools that shift most of the editing burden to the computer Explore Vim tools that provide major improvements over vi Examine Vim's multiwindow editing feature, a significant upgrade over vi Use Vim scripts to customize and tailor Vim to your needs Look at Vim in modern GUI environments with Graphical Vim (gvim) See Vim in the broader programming milieu, including using it as an IDE

The sed & awk Pocket Reference is a handy, quick reference guide to frequently used functions, commands, and regular expressions used for day-to-day text processing needs. This book is a companion to both sed & awk, Second Edition and Effective awk Programming, Third Edition.

vi and Vim are immensely powerful tools for anyone working with Unix, Linux, or Mac OS X, but there are far too many commands for anyone to remember. Author Arnold Robbins (vi and Vim Editors in a Nutshell) has chosen the most important and valuable commands for vi, Vim, and their main clones -- vile, elvis, and nvi -- and packed them into this convenient pocket reference. Fully updated and with greatly expanded Vim coverage, this handy little book puts all of the essential information about vi and Vim at your fingertips, in a format that makes browsing easy. You'll find commands to help you program, fix important system files, work on articles and other texts that use mark-up, and do any other kind of text editing. vi and Vim Editors Pocket Reference includes: * Command-line options * Command mode commands * Ex commands and options * Regular expressions * Other pertinent information for using vi and Vim * Additional features in vile, elvis, and nvi

Shell scripting skills never go out of style. It's the shell that unlocks the real potential of Unix. Shell scripting is essential for Unix users and system administrators-a way to quickly harness and customize the full power of any Unix system. With shell scripts, you can combine the fundamental Unix text and file processing commands to crunch data and automate repetitive tasks. But beneath this simple promise lies a treacherous ocean of variations in Unix commands and standards. "Classic Shell Scripting" is written to help you reliably navigate these tricky waters.

Writing shell scripts requires more than just a knowledge of the shell language, it also requires familiarity with the individual Unix programs: why each one is there, how to use them by themselves, and in combination with the other programs. The authors are intimately familiar with the tips and tricks that can be used to create excellent scripts, as well as the traps that can make your best effort a bad shell script. With "Classic Shell Scripting" you'll avoid hours of wasted effort. You'll learn not only write useful shell scripts, but how to do it properly and portably.

The ability to program and customize the shell quickly, reliably, and portably to get the best out of any individual system is an important skill for anyone operating and maintaining Unix or Linux systems. "Classic Shell Scripting" gives you everything you need to master these essential skills.

As an open operating system, Unix can be improved on by anyone and everyone: individuals, companies, universities, and more. As a result, the very nature of Unix has been altered over the years by numerous extensions formulated in an assortment of versions. Today, Unix encompasses everything from Sun's Solaris to Apple's Mac OS X and more varieties of Linux than you can easily name. The latest edition of this bestselling reference brings Unix into the 21st century. It's been reworked to keep current with the broader state of Unix in today's world and highlight the strengths of this operating system in all its various flavors. Detailing all Unix commands and options, the informative guide provides generous descriptions and examples that put those commands in context. Here are some of the new features you'll find in Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition: * Solaris 10, the latest version of the SVR4-based operating system, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS X * Bash shell (along with the 1988 and 1993 versions of ksh) * tsch shell (instead of the original Berkeley csh) * Package management programs, used for program installation on popular GNU/Linux systems, Solaris and Mac OS X * GNU Emacs Version 21 * Introduction to source code management systems * Concurrent versions system * Subversion version control system * GDB debugger As Unix has progressed, certain commands that were once critical have fallen into disuse. To that end, the book has also dropped material that is no longer relevant, keeping it taut and current. If you're a Unix user or programmer, you'll recognize the value of this complete, up-to-date Unix reference. With chapter overviews, specific examples, and detailed command.

Everything you need to know about Linux is in this book. Written by Stephen Figgins, Ellen Siever, Robert Love, and Arnold Robbins -- people with years of active participation in the Linux community -- Linux in a Nutshell, Sixth Edition, thoroughly covers programming tools, system and network administration tools, the shell, editors, and LILO and GRUB boot loaders. This updated edition offers a tighter focus on Linux system essentials, as well as more coverage of new capabilities such as virtualization, wireless network management, and revision control with git. It also highlights the most important options for using the vast number of Linux commands. You'll find many helpful new tips and techniques in this reference, whether you're new to this operating system or have been using it for years. * Get the Linux commands for system administration and network management * Use hundreds of the most important shell commands available on Linux * Understand the Bash shell command-line interpreter * Search and process text with regular expressions * Manage your servers via virtualization with Xen and VMware * Use the Emacs text editor and development environment, as well as the vi, ex, and vim text-manipulation tools * Process text files with the sed editor and the gawk programming language * Manage source code with Subversion and git

Many Linux and Unix developers are familiar with the GNU debugger (GBD), the invaluable open source tool for testing, fixing, and retesting software. And since GDB can be ported to Windows, Microsoft developers and others who use this platform can also take advantage of this amazing free software that allows you to see exactly what's going on inside of a program as it's executing. This new pocket guide gives you a convenient quick reference for using the debugger with several different programming languages, including C, C++, Java, Fortran and Assembly.

The GNU debugger is the most useful tool during the testing phase of the software development cycle because it helps you catch bugs in the act. You can see what a program was doing at the moment it crashed, and then readily pinpoint and correct problem code. With the "GDB Pocket Reference" on hand, the process is quick and painless. The book covers the essentials of using GBD is a testing environment, including how to specify a target for debugging and how to make a program stop on specified conditions.

This handy guide also provides details on using the debugger to examine the stack, source files and data to find the cause of program failure-and then explains ways to use GBD to make quick changes to the program for further testing and debugging.

The ability to spot a bug in real time with GDB can save you hours of frustration, and having a quick way to refer to GBD's essential functions is key to making the process work. Once you get your hands on the "GDB Pocket Reference," you'll never let go!