Adventures with the Linux Command Line, First Internet Edition

I've just released the first Internet edition of my new book, Adventures with the Linux Command Line. This 250+ page volume is a sequel/supplement to The Linux Command Line (TLCL).  With 14 action-packed chapters, it covers a variety of skill-enhancing topics intended for makers, students, and anyone who wants to take their knowledge of the command line and shell scripting to the next level. 

The First Internet Edition is available in two forms. First, as a series of web pages in the Adventures section of LinuxCommand.org and second, as a PDF book like the Internet edition of The Linux Command Line. The PDF book is released under the same Creative Commons license (BY-NC-ND) as TLCL.

The book is available now for free download. You can get it in the Books section of LinuxCommand.org.

Happy keyboarding!

Adventure: SQL

Structured Query Language (SQL) is the lingua franca of the database world. It's also a useful and important skill. In this adventure, we will look at its major features and techniques, as well as discover a command-line tool that makes SQL easy to use with our scripts and projects.

http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_adv_sql.php

Adventures: Coding Standards, Parts 1 and 2

Good news everyone! I have just posted 2 new adventures! In this two-part series we look at bash script coding standards.

In Part 1, we review what a coding standard does and how they work. We next create our own standard called the LinuxCommand Bash Scripting Style Guide.

In Part 2, we look at the new_script program, a bash shell script template generator that makes using our new coding standard fun and easy. Enjoy!

Coding Standards Part 1
Coding Standards Part 2

Adventure: source

We looked at the source builtin a little in TLCL when we were examining how the shell's environment is established with the .profile and .bashrc files. In this adventure, we will delve further into how to use this feature to support configuration files and shareable function libraries for our bash scripts.

http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_adv_source.php

(Not so new) Adventure: Vim, with Vigor

A few months ago I wrote an adventure but I forgot to announce it. In it, we advance our skill with the vim text editor from the beginner level to an intermediate level. This adventure is one of my favorites so far. I learned a lot while writing it.

Vim is a very capable and configurable program. For example, it's easy to configure vim to behave differently according to the type of file it is editing and in this adventure we will configure vim to be optimized for writing shell scripts and plain text documentation files making vim a useful partner when working on the command line. We also introduce a number of powerful editing tricks that make using vim a lot more fun.

You can find the Vim, with Vigor adventure here.

Adventure: Other Shells and Power Terminals

Two new Adventures! First, we'll look at some of the other shell programs available to Linux users. Most are of historical interest, but one attempts to do bash one better. Learn more about Other Shells.

Second, we'll explore some of the often overlooked features of our most frequently used command line tool-- our terminal emulator. Explore Power Terminals.

Enjoy!

Adventure: AWK

Another new Adventure! The AWK programming language is one of the truly classic Unix tools still in wide use today. Often embedded in shell scripts or employed directly at the command line, this powerful and elegant text processing and pattern matching language is a must-have for every Linux user's toolbox. In this adventure, we'll try it out.

Adventure: dialog

Another new Adventure! dialog is a program that, as the name might suggest, creates dialog boxes in text mode. We can use it to give our scripts a friendly face. In this adventure, we will look at what it does, and how to use it.

Adventure: More Redirection

Another new Adventure! This time we look at some of the hidden power of I/O redirection.

Adventure: tput

Another new Adventure! Tired of looking at the same old text? Learn how to add color and text effects to your scripts with tput.

Adventure: Less Typing

Another new Adventure! Fingers getting tired? Making more mistakes than you should? You should learn to do more with Less Typing!

Adventure: Terminal Multiplexers

I have just posted another Adventure! This one explores terminal multiplexers; programs that allow your terminal to perform clever tricks. Enjoy!

Adventures

I have just posted the first unit of a new series on LinuxCommand.org called Adventures. These are tutorials that supplement my book, The Linux Command Line.

The first tutorial in the Adventures series is Midnight Commander. Midnight Commander is a text-based directory browser and file manager. A very powerful and useful program.

Look for more Adventures in the coming weeks. Enjoy!