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Wicked Cool Shell Scripts
Chapters are divided into an array of topics sure to catch the attention of any UNIX based system user: The Missing Code Library, Improving on User Commands, Creating Utilities, Tweaking Unix, System Administration: Managing Users, System Administration: System Maintenance, Web and Internet Users, Webmaster Hacks, Web and Internet Administration, Internet Server Administration, Mac OS X Scripts, and Shell Script Fun and Games.
In true "cookbook" fashion, each hack is numbered and divided into The Code, How It Works, Running the Script, The Results and Hacking the Script. Throughout, the author clearly describes the syntax and functionality of each script, often with additional notes in How It Works detailing the syntax process and interesting asides. But Hacking the Script is what gives Wicked Cool Shell Scripts true value; where applicable, the author uses this section to describe script modifications to achieve a variety of alternative real world, practical results. This additional section alone easily triples the total number of scripts the reader is exposed to.
This book enables the reader to get "up close and personal" with their UNIX based system and explore the possibilities afforded by becoming intimate with the command line interface. The reader will find themselves easily propelled into the world of scripting, thanks entirely to Dave Taylor's ability to take what some might describe as a fairly dry topic and translate it into a logical and user friendly construct. Just reading through the table of contents is inspiring and intriguing; did you know you could write a script to retrieve movie info from IMDb? or track the value of your stock portfolio? or that you can use a very simple script to check spelling on your web pages?
Sysadmins and webmasters will find this book fundamentally critical to day-to-day operations; there are dozens of invaluable, customizable scripts highlighted in this book to enable professionals to save time and add simple, elegant solutions to annoying issues in their work environment. User account management, rotating log files, cron scripts, web page tweaks, apache passwords, synchronizing via ftp, etc. are all eminently useful and tweakable.
Geeky home users will discover they can use these scripts to work with files and directories, create spell-checking utilities, calculate loan payments, create summary listings of their iTunes libraries, and of course, play games. Many of the sysadmin scripts would also be of interest to the power user: analyzing disk usage, killing processes by name and backing up directories, to name a few. Both types of users will find this book inspiring and truly fun!
One of the secret pleasures of a technical book reviewer is finding those wonky bits of code that suffer from misplaced or missing punctuation, misspelled words and other basic typographic errors inherent in the book publishing process. I randomly selected many of these scripts to try out in the process of doing this review and...dang, haven't found any errata yet. But be sure to check out the errata page on Dave Taylor's web site for any that more astute readers may find (there were none, as of this writing).
Also be sure to take a closer look at Dave's shell script library, which lists additional scripts that didn't make the cut for the book. As convenient as it is to download the entire script library, I would like to stress the value of buying the book, which will provide you with invaluable instruction and guidance in understanding the syntax of the scripts and it also illustrates how making small but significant tweaks can modify the output to match your specific needs.
(A special nod of appreciation to Dave Taylor's Tintin references!)
You can purchase Wicked Cool Shell Scripts - 101 Scripts for Linux, Mac OS X, and UNIX Systems from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
did you know you could write a script to retrieve movie info from IMDb?
Please please tell me it's not
#!/bin/sh
wget 'http://imdb.com/title/tt0151804/'
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
...everything looks like a nail
Actually, I agree that shell scripting is a powerful tool and well worth understanding. But 'a loan calculator' script? Gee, once you know the formula, a coupla minutes in a spreadsheet will do the trick.
I guess all people, myself included, fall into the hammer/nail trap. I know C very well, so I use it for just about every little app. Hmm... maybe I oughta buy this book.
-RatOmeter
Get a copy of Windows Admin Scripting Little Black Book, or something similar. I got a copy of the first edition at Borders for $5, you may find similar on ebay or half.com.
Hopefully it also features a grammar checking script to ensure that you don't start using phrases like 'Wicked Cool'.
There needs to be a chapter on bash prompts. I have seen some slick prompts. Displaying; uptime, current directory size, time, battery power, etc. I'm pretty satisfied with a user@host:~, but i do like to put color in mine.
If the script is not working as you want, put a
on the fist line and on the last line.You will see the exact execution path and variable expansion, very neat for debugging
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
A guy I know that is into Geocaching likes to use archaic shell scripting to scrape web pages for information. While the scripts work they require other applications and quite a bit of messy code.
Why would you use awk and sed along with a really ugly shell script to get something done when you could have just as easily used perl to acheive the same effect?
Sometimes you should just use what is best for the job. I really don't think that using shell scripts to pull IMDB movie info is the best way to go.
YMMV,
Just use cygwin.
Yet Another Web Site
No. You do not have to settle for less. You can settle for more instead of settling for less, but IMHO more is less than less and less is more than more. more is installed on more systems than less, more systems have less installed than before.
rm -rf *
:)
A better idea is to write "rm -rf ~/*", name the script "ls" and put it in your home directory to punish people with "." in $PATH . Now _that's_ teh funnay.
if you use a good enough junk-filter, slashdot.org will display a single, *blank*, page
You might want to read imdb's robot.txt before using wget.
Very recently, after reading a (Score:5, Insightful) idea on what would "make Linux four times what it is today" I decided to write a shell script which does exactly that. Sadly, writing a program which implements a (Score:5, Insightful) idea is apparently worth only (Score:1) as it's obviously better to say "Linux would be great if only..." than just doing it. Anyway, I have released it under the GNU General Public License. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
(i) Many people, like myself, don't know perl, and don't see the point in learning when shell scripts are perfectly adequate for their purposes.
(ii) Sometimes it's just easier. viz. this quote from bash.org:
Jurisprudence Fetishist Gets Off On A Technicality --theonion.com
I can hardly wait for: Wickity Wacked Scripts PHPhat Programs 101 Scripts With Bling Bling /bin/Shizzle Your Scripts
Sucka MC Unix Administration in a Nutshell
-w
I know where you can get a wicked cool .PIF file... Hold on, I'll email it to you. Look for the subject "Your Details".
Is there a shell script included that makes it look like you are working? Isn't that the purpose of all good shell scripts?
Freedom is trouble :)
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
Here's other stuff I have grouped by sections in my .cshrc
First, I have my shell variables. The comments say what they do. The most important one is autolist.
Second, bindkeys are pretty neat. I rebind the up and down arrow keys. By default they scroll up and down one at a time through the history. You can bind them to search the history based on what you've typed so far.
Third, completes allow for customizing tab completion. When I change directories, tab only completes directory names. This also works for aliases, sets, setenvs, etc.
Fourth, I have all my aliases. I had to cut a bunch because of the lameness filter.
The ultimate goal of science is to unify all forces of nature to a single law that can be silk-screened onto a T-shirt.
Quick! Somebody pick this up for Taco!
That's true, but the fallacy is that you're assuming Windows should be scripted in the same fashion as *nix. That's simply not the case. Batch/Command scripting is nice for small bits, and can actually be fairly powerful in an obtuse sort of way, but the real power in automating Windows comes by using the Windows Scripting Host, JScript or VBScript, and all of the ActiveX/COM interfaces into the functionality of the OS and other applications. A classic example is iterating through users. In *nix, you write a shell script to parse through /etc/passwd. In Windows, you write a jscript to instantiate the objects that deal with Active Directory, and iterate through user objects (each of which you can perform actions upon, wherein *nix you'd have to invoke other applications). One approach is not necessarily "better" than the other, but you can't assume that your *nix administration experience will directly translate into Windows administration. You'd laugh if a Windows admin felt the reverse was true. What really gets me is when people complain about Windows not being automation-friendly because they're used to *nix scripting. Yes, you cannot pipe notepad.exe into winword.exe, for example, but Word has a very rich automation interface that you can hook into and use from a simple JScript.
What? Try running "help del" from a cmd.exe window some time. Also, look at "help rd". If you want to remove a directory tree, you use the "remove directory" command. "del" deletes files. "rd" deletes directories (and can delete files within directories if you tell it to).
Consider cmd.exe to be the functional equivalent of csh. It's a decent interactive shell, and has some good functionality (especially later versions of cmd.exe in win2k and xp), but you'd have to be nuts to do any extensive scripting with it. Just as you'd pull out bash or perl to do more complex tasks in *nix rather than using csh, you should use WSH in Windows for more complicated tasks.
From the site:
This tutorial assumes no previous knowledge of scripting or programming, but progresses rapidly toward an intermediate/advanced level of instruction (...all the while sneaking in little snippets of UNIX wisdom and lore). It serves as a textbook, a manual for self-study, and a reference and source of knowledge on shell scripting techniques. The exercises and heavily-commented examples invite active reader participation, under the premise that the only way to really learn scripting is to write scripts.
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.