Linux Desk Reference (2nd Edition)
Topics Covered
The topic of shell programming doesn't lend itself as neatly to a command-by-command reference as other subjects covered in this book. (There are a whole lot of little commands, most of which have few or no arguments.) Consequently, I'm going to break with the traditions of this book a little bit and arrange this chapter by subtopic.
| | The notation used in this chapter may be a wee bit confusing. Here are some examples that hopefully might clear things up: |
| Notation | Means |
| <Tab> | Press the Tab key on the keyboard. Do not try to type the letter sequence T-a-b. |
| <Ctrl>-P | Press the Ctrl key and the P key at the same time. |
| <Meta>-r | Press the meta key (on my keyboard it's the <Esc> key; yours may be different) and the r key at the same time. |
The subtopics covered in this chapter include the following:
| Invoking bash | Command line options for bash. |
| Startup Files | Conditions under which startup or shutdown files are sourced. |
| Aliases | Set and unset command line aliases. |
| Command History | Access and manipulate command history. |
| Command Completion | How to exploit command completion features. |
| Command Line Editing | How to manipulate the current command line. |
| Word Designators | How to specify individual words on a command line. |
| Shell Variables | Listing of shell variables. |
| Shell Prompt | How to customize your shell prompt. |
| Shell Arithmetic | Shell arithmetic operators. |
| Looping Statements | Shell looping statements. |
| Conditional Statements | Syntax and examples. |
| Shell Functions | Syntax and examples. |
| Builtins | Built-in bash commands. |