Learning the Korn Shell, 2nd Edition
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The Korn shell is an interactive command and scripting language for accessing
Unix® and other computer systems. As a complete and high-level programming
language in itself, it's been a favorite since it was developed in the mid 1980s
by David G. Korn at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Knowing how to use it is an essential
skill for serious Unix users. Learning the Korn Shell shows you how to use the
Korn shell as a user interface and as a programming environment.
Writing applications is often easier and quicker with Korn than with other
high-level languages. Because of this, the Korn shell is the most often used
shell in commercial environments and among inexperienced users. There are two
other widely used shells, the Bourne shell and the C shell. The Korn shell,
or ksh, has the best features of both, plus many new features of its own. ksh
can do much to enhance productivity and the quality of a user's work, both in
interacting with the system, and in programming. The new version, ksh93, has
the functionality of other scripting languages such as awk, icon, Perl, rexx,
and tcl.
Learning the Korn Shell is the key to gaining control of the Korn shell and
becoming adept at using it as an interactive command and scripting language.
Prior programming experience is not required in order to understand the chapters
on basic shell programming. Readers will learn how to write many applications
more easily and quickly than with other high-level languages. In addition, readers
will also learn about Unix utilities and the way the Unix operating system works
in general. The authors maintain that you shouldn't have to be an internals
expert to use and program the shell effectively.
The second edition covers all the features of the current version of the Korn
shell, including many new features not in earlier versions of ksh93, making
it the most up-to-date reference available on the Korn shell. It compares the
current version of the Korn shell to several other Bourne-compatible shells,
including several Unix emulation environments for MS-DOS and Windows. In addition,
it describes how to download and build ksh93 from source code.
A solid offering for many years, this newly revised title inherits a long tradition
of trust among computer professionals who want to learn or refine an essential
skill.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1. Korn Shell Basics
What Is a Shell?
Scope of This Book
History of Unix Shells
Getting the 1993 Korn Shell
Interactive Shell Use
Files
Input and Output
Background Jobs
Special Characters and Quoting
Chapter 2. Command-Line Editing
Enabling Command-Line Editing
The History File
Emacs Editing Mode
Vi Editing Mode
The hist Command
Finger Habits
Chapter 3. Customizing Your Environment
The .profile File
Aliases
Options
Shell Variables
Customization and Subprocesses
Customization Hints
Chapter 4. Basic Shell Programming
Shell Scripts and Functions
Shell Variables
Compound Variables
Indirect Variable References (namerefs)
String Operators
Command Substitution
Advanced Examples: pushd and popd
Chapter 5. Flow Control
if/else
for
case
select
while and until
Chapter 6. Command-Line Options and Typed Variables
Command-Line Options
Numeric Variables and Arithmetic
Arithmetic for
Arrays
typeset
Chapter 7. Input/Output and Command-Line Processing
I/O Redirectors
String I/O
Command-Line Processing
Chapter 8. Process Handling
Process IDs and Job Numbers
Job Control
Signals
trap
Coroutines
Shell Subprocesses and Subshells
Chapter 9. Debugging Shell Programs
Basic Debugging Aids
A Korn Shell Debugger
Chapter 10. Korn Shell Administration
Installing the Korn Shell as the Standard Shell
Environment Customization
Customizing the Editing Modes
System Security Features
Appendix A. Related Shells
Appendix B. Reference Information
Appendix C. Building ksh from Source Code
Appendix D. AT&T ast Source Code License Agreement
Index
About the Authors
Bill Rosenblatt is president of GiantSteps/Media Technology
Strategies, a consulting firm in New York City. Before founding GiantSteps,
Bill was CTO of Fathom, an online content and education company associated with
Columbia University and other scholarly institutions. He has been a technology
executive at McGraw-Hill and Times Mirror, and head of strategic marketing for
media and publishing at Sun Microsystems. Bill was also one of the architects
of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), a standard for online content identification
and DRM.
Arnold Robbins, an Atlanta native, is a professional programmer
and technical author. He has worked with Unix systems since 1980, when he was
introduced to a PDP-11 running a version of Sixth Edition Unix. He has been
a heavy AWK user since 1987, when he became involved with gawk, the GNU project's
version of AWK. As a member of the POSIX 1003.2 balloting group, he helped shape
the POSIX standard for AWK. He is currently the maintainer of gawk and its documentation.
He is also coauthor of the sixth edition of O'Reilly's Learning the vi Editor.
Since late 1997, he and his family have been living happily in Israel.
Customer Reviews
Customer Reviews: 1 Average Customer Rating: May 14, 2008 kah00na from Topeka, KS
Highly recommened great book!
I read this entire book. I purchased this book not knowing anything about korn shell except how to "cd" around the directory structure. After reading through the first half of the book, I was able to write my own good scripts that others could use too. I was also able to read and fix most scripts that others on my team had written. After a few months, I went ahead and finished the rest of the book and became known as the Scripting King on our team. This book has saved me HOURS of manual work. I would highly recommend this book for anyone. If you keep tabs, or notes in the book, it makes for a good reference book as well.
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