macOS Learning BASH scripting for Mac

[oxfordguy]

Hi - I've not done any programming for a while, I used to do some PHP and a tiny bit of Perl, but that was ages ago. I'd like to learn some BASH scripting, mostly just for my own use with my Mac, and would like quite a bit of hand-holding along the journey, so was wondering if I could be pointed to some good, beginner-level (i.e. no assumptions of lots of prior knowledge) tutorials and other resources?

Also are there any good BASH scripting intros that are written with the Mac in mind or would just any BASH scripting tutorial do for most purposes?

I found this on Apple's website:

I've also come across this tutorial by Mendel Cooper but it seems to assume quite a lot of prior knowledge...

There's also this tutorial at linuxcommand.org

Are any of these resources any good or could someone point me to something better, especially anything more Mac oriented?

Is the O'Reilly book "The Bash Shell, 3rd Edition" worth getting?

BTW I was thinking of using the Sublime Text 2 editor, which has nice syntax highlighting unless someone has any better recommendations (apart from Vi and Emacs...)?

 

[jiminaus]

Quote from the Intended Audience for Learning the bash shell, 3rd ed.

This book is designed to address casual UNIX and Linux users who are jsut above the "raw beginner" level. You should be familiar with the process of loggin in, entering commands, and doing simple things with files. Although Chapter 1 reviews concepts such as the tree-like file and directory scheme, you may find that it moves too quickly if you're a complete neophyte.

In terms of editors, check out TextWrangler http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/. It's a free, native Mac OS X editor. There's also TextMate http://macromates.com/, which is what I personally use.

 

[oxfordguy]

Quote from the Intended Audience for Learning the bash shell, 3rd ed.

Okay, I've picked up this book now, looks useful. Are there any other resources worth checking out? Thanks

 

[jiminaus]

Okay, I've picked up this book now, looks useful. Are there any other resources worth checking out? Thanks

Don't scatter yourself. Start by just reading the book. If you get to section of the book the you're not grokking, Google around for the specific topic to get additional perspectives, then if it's still not clicking start a thread here.