Hi Nick,
> I've dabbled with both Bash scripting and Python, mainly from using
> tutorials off the net. I don't usually get very far as I find it hard
> to recall commands etc.
I think that just comes with using them enough. On something that's new
to me, I find I can recall that X is possible, e.g. the standard library
has a function for it, or several in PHP's case, but until I've typed it
out enough times I keep having to go and search. (A case for typing
rather than IDE menu selection?)
> I'm thinking I need something in book form (as opposed to a pdf on my
> computer) - something I can refer back to easily...
I'm not sure if you want a tutorial or reference...
> Can anyone recommend me some good starting books please or share how
> they got started, methods etc?
In some ways, I think Linux (Unix) today is pretty complex to try and
learn because it's had decades of stuff piled on top. Some of the
really old bits still peek through, e.g. your terminal window's tty has
a baud rate shown by `stty', and modern bits are heavily influenced by
what came before but seem obscure in isolation.
Then there's the underlying kernel. Having a mental model of how it
works makes a lot of higher stuff easier to understand, e.g. variable
scope in shells and subshells, and following through `exec {t}>&1 1>&2
2>&$t {t}>&-'. bash isn't an arbitrary scripting language, it's a way
of manipulating the kernel, and having a poor model of the kernel is a
source of a lot of the "Why doesn't this work?" questions I see.
So my normal recommendation is the old original _The Unix Programming
Environment_ by Kernighan and Pike. Still in print after 28 years! Now
pricey as a new book from Amazon but they show other new sellers at
quite a bit less and there are used ones too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/013937681X/ysk-21
It doesn't go into every option of every command, and there's no Perl,
Python, or Lua, obviously, but it does try and get across the philosophy
of Unix, its essence, with a bit of shell and C.
Cheers, Ralph.
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