I've a MacBook and I'm not that good to this Unix kind of a operating system, could you guys please suggest me some Unix Beginner type book to learn all the shell scripting and the whole UNIX environment (something for intermediate level)...there are thousands of books available and i don't know where to start from...
Helpful hints:
Always have a working backup of your boot volume,
Learn basics about navigation (cd, pwd,..),
Know your directory structure (ls -al /),
Learn about posix permissions (user, group, other [aka world]),
Learn how to change ownership and permissions (chown, chmod) and most importantly - the ramifications of making such changes,
There is no undo in unix. Pay attention to the possible effects of the command/s you might issue,
Also, there are Mac specific commands that you will become familiar with over time, but you will need to ask lots of questions along your journey.
Oooo. Beginners should be very careful about any "recursive" commands.
chown or chmod a single file or folder and it's easily undone. chown or chmod recursively can cause a world of hurt. Remember the first hint!
This site has stuff "for dummies" and up, so don't be afraid to try some of the non-system related stuff on test files and folders. See hints 2 and 3.
Good hunting!