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+README File for Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting - Second Edition
+
+Author: Randal K. Michael
+
+========
+Publisher's note:  Please note when downloading the compressed 
+files from our website, some versions of IE may rename the file.
+If your browser renames the archive file, please make sure you 
+change the name  back before extracting the original files
+from the archive.
+========
+
+
+The Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.Z and Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.gz files
+are compressed tar archives that contain sample code from the 
+second edition of Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting. Please note 
+that there is an errata (a description of an error in the book's 
+edited code) posted in the next paragraph, followed by some notes. 
+Please be assured that the shell scripts and functions in this
+package were never affected by the mistake in the book's edited
+code pertaining to the word "Bash".
+
+I hope you gain some knowledge from this book, shell scripts,
+and the set of functions packaged here.
+
+ERRATA:
+
+(This is the errata for the first 4,000 copies of this book.)
+
+During the course of editing this book, a global search-and-replace was
+conducted that changed all instances of "bash" to "Bash" in the code.
+Given that UNIX is case-sensitive, references in the code should be to
+"bash". Note that all the original code available at the Downloads tab
+of this page was never affected.
+
+The result was limited to the first line of Bash shell scripts, 
+defined as:
+
+#!/bin/Bash
+
+Instead, the correct declaration should be:
+
+#!/bin/bash
+
+In the book you may also see some Bash shell script filenames 
+incorrectly named with a ".Bash" filename extension instead of
+the correct ".bash" filename extension. 
+
+For example, the filename:
+
+my_shell_script.Bash
+
+should actually be:
+
+my_shell_script.bash
+
+Thanks for your understanding.
+
+
+AUTHOR NOTES:
+
+I) Extracting the shell scripts and functions to your system:
+
+The Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.Z and Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.gz files
+are compressed tar archives of the shell scripts and functions 
+in the book, and some extras in a few areas. When you extract 
+this archive, you will see chapter directories that contain the 
+code in each chapter in the book that has downloadable code. 
+For example, when you untar the archive, the following 
+subdirectories will be created (assuming you have the file 
+permissions, that is).
+
+chapter1
+chapter2
+chapter4
+chapter5
+
+Notice there is not a "chapter3" subdirectory. This is because there
+is no downloadable code in this chapter.
+
+To extract the archive, first create a directory, or just change 
+the directory to where you want extract the archive. 
+
+Option 1: Extracting the compressed Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.Z archive.
+
+Copy the Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.Z file to your desired top-level 
+directory, and then execute the following commands.
+
+The following uncompress command will uncompress the archive image file:
+
+       uncompress ./Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.Z
+
+The following tar command will untar the archive image file to the
+current directory:
+
+       tar -xvpf ./Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar
+
+Option 2: Extracting the gzipped Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.gz archive.
+
+Copy the Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.gz file to your desired top-level 
+directory, and then execute the following commands.
+
+The following gunzip command will uncompress the archive image file:
+
+       gunzip ./Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar.gz
+
+The following tar command will untar the archive image file to the
+current directory:
+
+       tar -xvpf ./Mastering_UNIX_SS.tar
+
+Both archives contain the same information.
+
+II) Using the echo command in Bash shell:
+
+The echo command executes differently depending on the UNIX
+shell you are executing it in. A specific situation is using the
+echo command's backslash operators, such as:
+
+echo "\n"  # To produce a newline
+
+echo "\c"  # To continue on the same line without a
+           # carriage return or line feed
+
+and many others.
+
+Of all the methods covered in this book to properly use the
+echo command when Bash shell is involved, the most reliable
+method is aliasing the echo command for use in a Bash shell
+environment. Many Korn shell scripts will execute in a default
+Bash shell if /bin/ksh is not installed.
+
+By adding the following case statement to the top of your code, it 
+will not be necessary to use echo -e when dealing with the echo 
+command's backslash operators if your ksh script should happen
+to execute in a Bash shell. This is common on many Linux systems.
+You can also use this in your Bash scripts if you want to omit
+adding the -e to your echo statement when writing your shell scripts.
+
+case $(basename $SHELL) in
+bash) alias echo="echo -e"
+      ;;
+esac
+
+Now anytime the echo command is used in a script that is 
+executing in Bash shell, echo -e will be substituted,
+enabling the backslash operators \n, \c, \t, and so on.
+
+III) How individual functions are separated into individual files:
+
+When this book's script/function archive is installed to your system,
+each function that is its own file will have the following filename
+format:
+
+"function_" followed by the name of the actual function in the script.
+
+For example:
+
+If the real function name in the script or book is:
+
+check_file_system
+
+Then the filename for this individual function would be:
+
+function_check_file_system
+
+----
+
+Thanks for buying my book. I hope the answer to every scripting problem
+you encounter will be intuitively obvious when you finish
+reading this second edition!
+
+
+Cheers,
+
+Randy
+