How to learn Bash

Bash is a very powerful Unix shell and command scripting language, but it does have a fairly steep learning curve.

• The man page for Bash is a well written and informational document. It is very "dense" though, and requires reading and re-reading.

• Additional guides, information, and examples can be found at

  • Greg's Wiki,
  • the Bash Hackers Wiki,
  • the bash tag info page on Stack Overflow,
  • and expanding on the man page, the GNU Bash Manual is the source of information for bash.

• shellcheck.net provides a web interface (and binary for some distros) that checks shell scripts for errors or common issues and provides information on how to best correct them.