The Linux Command Line
This book includes an introduction to everything that can be done from the command line in Linux. If you run Linux then you need this book.
My Rating: 
Pros
- Covers everything that can be done from the Linux command line and demonstrates how much more powerful it is than the graphical interface.
- Follows a logical progression from simple commands at the start of the book through advanced scripting of your own commands at the end.
- Does not assume any prior knowledge of command line computing.
Cons
- The examples on page 27 include one that uses a pattern that the note at the bottom of the page describes as something to avoid.
- The phone number example on page 228 will reject most valid phone numbers because only one country uses the specified format.
Description
- First Edition: 2012
- 446 page paperback
- Published by No Starch press Inc
- ISBN: 978-1-59327-389-7
- A Complete Introduction
- Author William E Shotts Jr.
Review
There are two ways of doing anything on a computer - you can use the graphical interface or you can use the command line. Anything that can be done from the graphical interface can also be done from the command line provided you know what the command is to do it. This book teaches you all the commands in Linux as well as all the options that these commands make available to you - many of which are not available except through the command line.
Starting with how to access the command line and use the simplest commands and ending with how to write your own 'programs' using the scripting language built into the command processor, this book shows you how to do just about everything you are ever likely to want to do with a computer using nothing but the command line and a plain text editor. In many cases what it demonstrates as a single command with a few parameters cannot be done easily from the graphical interface.
The book's purpose is to teach you how to use the command line and so is designed to be read in order. It is not really intended as a reference book and so does not contain an exhaustive reference of every command and what can be done with it but it does tell you how to use the reference material built into Linux that will provide you with that information.
People who want to use a computer as just another appliance are unlikely to be running Linux. Those who have chosen to run Linux have done so because they want something beyond what Windows provides. This book will help toward achieving that goal.
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