For a simple introduction to bash scripting see the online document: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html
For Tcl resources we give the standard set of references:
The power point slides for a Tcl/Tk class I gave at the NSCl are at: http://www.nscl.msu.edu/~fox/talks.htm
J.K. Ousterhout Tcl and the Tk Toolkit Addison-Welsey Professional Computing Series
B.B. Welch, K. Jones, J. Hobbs Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk
To set up ssh password-free logins on remote systems, at the NSCL see: https://intra.nscl.msu.edu/departments/computer/twiki/bin/view/Main/SshNoPasswordSetup Note that this link will only work for NSCL users. Other people should consult the man pages for ssh and ssh-keygen and look at the discussion of the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.