I think that's right if you already know how to use a shell, but if you don't yet know how to use any shell, or even know what a shell is, the bash book is not

I think that's right if you already know how to use a shell, but if you don't yet know how to use any shell, or even know what a shell is, the bash book is not going to do you any favors. Imagine handing this to a person who's never heard of a shell, doesn't know how to `cd` or `ls`: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/What-is-a-shell_003f.html https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/What-is-a... > 1.2 What is a shell? > At its base, a shell is simply a macro processor that executes commands. The term macro processor means functionality where text and symbols are expanded to create larger expressions. > A Unix shell is both a command interpreter and a programming language. As a command interpreter, the shell provides the user interface to the rich set of GNU utilities. The programming language features allow these utilities to be combined. Files containing commands can be created, and become commands themselves. These new commands have the same status as system commands in directories such as /bin, allowing users or groups to establish custom environments to automate their common tasks. "Macro processor?" "Expressions?" "Unix?" "Command interpreter?" "GNU utilities?" "Directories?" (you mean folders?) "/bin?" "Environments?"