Comments for Advanced Bash Scripting Guide
URL changes
My main (free) web hosting site cut me off.
So, for now get the version 5.5+ pdf file
from: www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/a...
I'll post updates as I get them.
Thanks, everyone, for your patience.
Mendel (author of ABS Guide)
Nice Job.. Looks Good
I found this guide very usefull.. Thanks for working on it..
PDF Download Site
The URL of the preferred download site for the pdf version of the ABS Guide is:
This version is specially book-formatted for duplex printing
and is usually more up-to-date than the version you can download
from the LDP site. Note that it's a 2.6 MB download.
Re: Good job! Where is the PDF?
> There is indeed a pdf version
> available:
A mirror pdf download site is:
---
---
This is actually an "improved" pdf, formatted for two-sided printing.
Re: The Bash shell contains no debugger, nor even any debugging-specific commands or constructs?
> This sentence has long been overly
> unfair. When I contacted the author
> about this a long time ago, he
> eventually added what I think was a
> niggardly footnote about my debugger
> partially making up for this lack.
>
The above comment speaks for itself. I leave it to the readers to judge whether it is fair and objective or self-serving.
M.C.
The Bash shell contains no debugger, nor even any debugging-specific commands or constructs?
Chapter 29. Debugging starts out:
The Bash shell contains no debugger, nor even any debugging-specific commands or constructs.
This sentence has long been overly unfair. When I contacted the author about this a long time ago, he eventually added what I think was a niggardly footnote about my debugger partially making up for this lack.
In the past, I just chalked this comment up to inattentiveness of the author with respect to keeping the document up to date, (and possibly some ignorance) and feeling that perhaps the document was geared to the vast number possible people using BASH before version 2.05b.
But version 2.05b which came out over 4 years ago and this document has since undergone several revisions.
Bash 2.05b changed the semantics of TRAP DEBUG to run before a statement rather than after as happens in the other TRAP statements. That change was made to specifically support debugging.
My patched version of 2.05b also added a number of other of things specifically to add debugging support and/or better error reporting. These were incorporated into version 3.0 which came out over 2 years ago.
So if you look at the changes since 2.05a in the NEWS file that comes with BASH, you'll see a number of changes specifically to support debugging.
It is also a bit ironic that later revisions to this section of the scripting guide make use of TRAP DEBUG, and caller() while still maintaining at the outset that there are no such debugging-specific commands.
At the end of the debugging section is a box that reads "Version 3 of Bash adds the following special variables for use by the debugger". But gee, didn't we say there was no debugger? Anyway, that box is missing FUNCNAME.
For that Bash debugger which "partially makes up for this lack", see the bash debugger homepage (bashdb.sf.net) or the bash debugger documentation (bashdb.sourceforge.net....
Re: file sentas [text/plain]
> The tarball is served as a [text/plain]
> file so that it shows up as garbage in
> my browser.
Problems of this nature are *inevitably* caused by trying to download in text mode. You *must* download a binary file in *binary* mode. Or, try using 'wget' to download the file.
file sentas [text/plain]
The tarball is served as a [text/plain] file so that it shows up as garbage in my browser.
Re: Good job! Where is the PDF?
> I like your guide, tested it and found
> the answers!
>
> It would be very helpful if you had a
> PDF-version. PDF are easy to search and
> is just a single small file.
>
There is indeed a pdf version available:
www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/a...
Main ftp site back up
Seems to be working again.
So, you should be able to get the pdf version of the ABS Guide at:
personal.riverusers.co...
This is a pdf file formatted for duplex printing, with fancy features that the LDP site pdf (below) lacks, so I'd prefer that you download this one.
You can get the intermediate-update tarball with source
files and HTML from:
personal.riverusers.co...
Mendel