Product Description

The last full revision of the bookwas in 1992, and the new edition covers Solaris 7 as well as newerversions of shells (ksh, in particular), RCS, and GNU emacs. Toppingoff at over 500 pages, Unix in a Nutshellcontains--literally--everything you could want to know about thevarious commands, shells, and functions. Fifty new commands have beenadded to the already sizable lists, and even the most seasoned user islikely to find a discover a new timesaving command. --JenniferBuckendorff ... Read more

Customer Reviews (59)

It's a wast of money. Use the internet if you want a reference.
OK. This book can teach you NOTHING about UNIX. It's about 800 pages, and 90% of it is just a list of commands, or a list of different options each command takes.

If you actually want to learn something about UNIX this book is not for you. This book is just an unorganized reference.

A Desktop Constant
This is a great reference book.My only complaint is that I wish there was a section covering some BSD commands and in the sections already present, some networking commands as well (like another reader already mentioned).Otherwise a great all-around book.

A wonderful reference book about Unix OS
Let me start off by saying that if you are looking for a introductory book about Unix and you have no experience with Unix OS whatsoever, this is not a book for you.If you are new to Unix OS, then you should consider buying the O'Reilly book,"Learning the Unix Operating System."

Like the cover page says, this book is a reference book.This book covers GNU/Linux OS, Mac OS, Solaris OS, Unix commands, Bash Shells, Korn Shells, package management, emacs editor, and many other information that are very useful to Unix programmers, system administrators, and Unix users.

If you have a bit of experience with Unix, this book should be a must.

The perfect reference
This is in my opinion the best UNIX reference book on the market today. If you need to program or work in the OS you should own this book.

The only game in town, but...
I've got two versions of this book: the blue cover version and the one that came in my CD bookshelf. I'm usually quite positive about nutshell books. Usually.

While this is pretty much the only one-stop Unix reference in town when you don't have the man pages to hand, there are some perplexing omissions from the "unix command" section. Nothing to do with networking, for example. No netstat, ifconfig, nslookup. Odd, in a world when a non-networked computer is surely a rarity. Yes, the stuff is probably in the networking O'Reilly books (mine are on order as I type) but you'd think in this day and age...

Yesterday I was flipping through and noticed there was no entry for "mount" or "umount" either.

You should probably own one of these if you have a job in the Unix computing biz, but before long you might find yourself asking "what will I need today that won't be in a nutshell?"

Seriously, O'Reilly should be looking into rewriting this little gem to make it properly comprehensive again. ... Read more

Product Description

"This is the definitive reference book for any serious or professional UNIX systems programmer. Rago has updated and extended the original Stevens classic while keeping true to the original."

—Andrew Josey, Director, Certification, The Open Group, and Chair of the POSIX 1003.1 Working Group

The same trusted content from the Second Edition, now in paperback!

For over a decade, serious C programmers have relied on one book for practical, in-depth knowledge of the programming interfaces that drive the UNIX and Linux kernels: W. Richard Stevens' Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment. Now, Stevens' colleague Stephen Rago has thoroughly updated this classic to reflect the latest technical advances and add support for today's leading UNIX and Linux platforms.

Rago carefully retains the spirit and approach that made this book a classic. Building on Stevens' work, he begins with basic topics such as files, directories, and processes, carefully laying the groundwork for understanding more advanced techniques, such as signal handling and terminal I/O.

Substantial new material includes chapters on threads and multithreaded programming, using the socket interface to drive interprocess communication (IPC), and extensive coverage of the interfaces added to the latest version of the POSIX.1 standard. Nearly all examples have been tested on four of today's most widely used UNIX/Linux platforms: FreeBSD 5.2.1; the Linux 2.4.22 kernel; Solaris 9; and Darwin 7.4.0, the FreeBSD/Mach hybrid underlying Apple's Mac OS X 10.3.

As in the first edition, you'll learn through example, including more than 10,000 lines of downloadable, ANSI C source code. More than 400 system calls and functions are demonstrated with concise, complete programs that clearly illustrate their usage, arguments, and return values. To tie together what you've learned, the book presents several chapter-length case studies, each fully updated for contemporary environments.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment has helped a generation of programmers write code with exceptional power, performance, and reliability. Now updated for today's UNIX/Linux systems, this second edition will be even more indispensable.

Customer Reviews (18)

Top Unix Programming Book
If you are a serious Unix Systems Programmer or just learning to program on the Unix platform, this is the book you need. It is the bible of the Unix API. The 2nd edition covers all relevant topics and more. I reference mine so much it is starting to show some wear. It is a classic.

Excelente book
The explanations are very good
Very good examples (you can find the codes online)

A lot of proffesors recomended this book

APUE is a classic
nice, old school manual.
it is priceless for any Unix programmers.
many thanks to Stevens and Rago.

Efficient book
Despite of the book's size I have read more than a half in a short period of time. This book can be used as a reference and a textbook.

A book every serious programmer should have
This is the best $52 I have ever spent in my life. This book is really great. It provides very detailed information about UNIX functions.
I think every one should have this books at their desk. I love this book. :) ... Read more

Product Description

“As an author, editor, and publisher, I never paid much attention to the competition–except in a few cases. This is one of those cases. The UNIX System Administration Handbook is one of the few books we ever measured ourselves against.”   

–From the Foreword by Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media

 

“This book is fun and functional as a desktop reference. If you use UNIX and Linux systems, you need this book in your short-reach library. It covers a bit of the systems’ history but doesn’t bloviate. It’s just straightfoward information delivered in colorful and memorable fashion.”  

–Jason A. Nunnelley

“This is a comprehensive guide to the care and feeding of UNIX and Linux systems. The authors present the facts along with seasoned advice and real-world examples. Their perspective on the variations among systems is valuable for anyone who runs a heterogeneous computing facility.”  

–Pat Parseghian

The twentieth anniversary edition of the world’s best-selling UNIX system administration book has been made even better by adding coverage of the leading Linux distributions: Ubuntu, openSUSE, and RHEL.  

This book approaches system administration in a practical way and is an invaluable reference for both new administrators and experienced professionals. It details best practices for every facet of system administration, including storage management, network design and administration, email, web hosting, scripting, software configuration management, performance analysis, Windows interoperability, virtualization, DNS, security, management of IT service organizations, and much more. UNIX® and Linux® System Administration Handbook, Fourth Edition, reflects the current versions of these operating systems:

Ubuntu® Linux
openSUSE® Linux
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®
Oracle America® Solaris™ (formerly Sun Solaris)
HP HP-UX®
IBM AIX®

Customer Reviews (6)

Greatest Unix Book
This book is great compared to other UNIX that I have read. It has a good overview on every topic discussed in this book.

Easy to read and retain
This is one of the best admin books I have.Easy to read -- the knidle edition is well formatted and a lot lighter than the paper book.

Especially recommended for its easy language and candid approaches to common systems issues
The fourth updated edition of Evi Nemeth, et.al.'s UNIX AND LINUX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION HANDBOOK provides a winning edition of a classic reference, packing in approaches to Unix and Linux systems for new administrators and experienced pros like. 'Best practices' for all system management needs explore different options in configuration, scripting and virtualization, covering security and IT needs alike. From restoring systems after a failure to new options, this is a pick for any computer library, especially recommended for its easy language and candid approaches to common systems issues.

Not your average Linux book.
Also not designed to teach you how to run Linux in your basement (but you can take everything they say and still apply yourself to that if you choose.) I was almost scared off when I read that in the preface, since I didn't have large systems to test on.Fear not however, the book is a masterpiece and even non-pro users will find themselves discovering the power of Unix/Linux, and I mean the full power, they don't leave many stones unturned in this book.

However this book is targeted to larger system deployments and real world large systems.Which is fantastic, everything to get Linux users to the 'next' level is here.IT/IS professionals who have for the most part mastered basic *Nix commands will find this book extraordinary.I have the e-book version of this, but I really needed to get the paper one too.That is how good this is, and I have read just about everything in it at this point.

The book is well laid out, unlike my review it stays focused within each section.So much content is in here I can't even pull out half of the parts I found useful so I won't even try.

If you're a Unix/Linux user (IT/IS pro), buy it.If you're learning how to walk in Linux, you might want to stay away for a little bit, though it does do a reasonable job of refreshing the memory of most users, there is not THAT much introductory level information in this book to get you all the way up to speed.If you're ambitious enough I guess a new user could make use of this book, but I would suggest reading other material before this.

Best Linux book I have purchased ever to date.

It's the Bible for Unix & Linux Admins
The 3rd edition is great, the 4th edition updates that greatness. This book had been out for about a week when I noticed it and I had to get my hands on it!

There is a change I am bummed out about... They removed FreeBSD as one of their example systems but included OpenSolaris ( Oracle killed OpenSolaris after buying Sun). Thankfully FreeBSD has it's own Bible, Absolute FreeBSD: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD, 2nd Edition, by Michael W. Lucas ( must have for FreeBSD admins).

Besides the OpenSolaris/FreeBSD change, this is still a solid book worthy of 5 stars. Since this might be the last edition of The Handbook I am glad to see an update. There is more Linux in this edition compared to the 3rd, they added a great introduction to scripting chapter, updated chapters for with the latest technologies, and removed references and chapters on obsolete tech.

If this is their last edition good way to go out. I hope someone else can put together a similar book for the future that can live up to this classic. Again, MUST HAVE!!! ... Read more

Product Description

• UNIX For Dummies has been the standard for beginning UNIX references for nearly ten years, and this latest edition continues that tradition of success
• This unparalled resource is updated to cover the latest applications of UNIX technology, including Linux and Mac desktops as well as how UNIX works with Microsoft server software
• Thorough coverage of how to handle UNIX installation, file management, software, utilities, networks, Internet access, and other basic tasks
• Aimed at the first-time UNIX desktop user growing accustomed to the ins and outs of the OS, as well as the beginning administrator who needs to get a handle on UNIX networking basics
• Written by John Levine and Margaret Levine Young, longtime UNIX experts and highly experienced For Dummies authors

This book,along with its companion, More Unix forDummies, is the perfect choice for those who have no knowledgeof Unix and need to learn it quickly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

UNIX for Dummies
This book is VERY Helpful and entertaining, if a book on a computer language could ever be described that way.Best few dollars I ever spent.

Very confusing text
Figured i would buy this entry level text to learn some basics of unix on a Mac. Big Mistake! Entry level text books should be written on the lowest level, this seems to be written for intermediate level users.

Very disappointing. I will stay away from this ______ for Dummies books in the future.

Great reference book for a beginner!
I never worked with unix before and when I found myself suddenly unemployed I thought I needed to learn and learn quickly. So I got this book because I am very fond of all the "for dummies" books. This one is just like the others, it explains the topic clearly and makes it easy for everyone to understand with basics pointed out and examples to help make everything clear and understandable. This book most likely will be of no use to anyone that is a power unix user, but for a beginner it is a great book to get you started. I now have a job where I use unix commands daily and this book helped me learn the basics.

Great choice for UNIX begginers
This was my first UNIX book, back in 1998., and it was a great introduction. I always get sentimental when I see on the shelf! Ten years later, I can't imagine my life without Unix (in its various varieties) -- and I'm sure that this book deserves part of credit for that.

As I said, this is a great introduction -- but after reading it, you should immediately move to another, more advanced book.

UNIX for Dummies
UNIX for Dummies is a really good book for anyone who is learning about UNIX and how to do the commands and scripts. I used this book in college to help me get through UNIX.

Mary Carpenter ... Read more

Product Description

If you're in need of a tutorial to learn UNIX from the ground up, this is it. Sams Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours, Fourth Edition will let you experience UNIX through hands-on tutorials divided into 24 one-hour lessons so that you can learn the most common UNIX tasks at your own pace. The author will guide you through the basics of maintaining and manipulating a UNIX/Linux operating system. This hands-on approach will allow you to work through the exercises and grasp common UNIX/Linux concepts, including:

• Using the Command Line
• Listing Files and Managing Disk Usage
• Slicing and Dicing Command Pipe
• Shell Programming
• Printing in the UNIX Environment
• Using telnet, ssh, and ftp
• Perl Programming in UNIX

Customer Reviews (53)

Full of Beginner Information - yet useful
I have only recently been converted to Unix. But in my three months before I had this book I knew about 60% of what is already in this book. However the book has several subjects that I did not know that were of great interest to me and also I learned in greater detail a lot of core ideas.
This book is an easy read - I finished it by just reading a chapter or two a day in my spare time. I from time to time use it as a reference now too. For someone looking to learn more about unix that doesn't already know a whole lot this book is great. Other than that it will just be a good reference for a few of the more obscure things you use every once in a while.

LearningUnix
The book does a good job with stepping into the world of UNIX. I felt the book is a good beginner's guide that will prepare you for further indepth education of the UNIX environment.

A good place to start!
If your a UNIX virgin, (and I was!) this is a good working companion to practice your skills and achieve a better grasp of the UNIX command line utilities and tools. It has a good structured approach to working with the systems from day one. Don't try to blow through it. Do the reading and the practices and you'll get a better understanding of the systems.

Excellent addition to your UNIX sysadmin library!
As is the rule for the "Sams Teach Yourself ..." line, this book is a good addition to your library - both as a learning guide and a reference.Dave Taylor is very knowledgeable and a very clear writer.
I am probably not the typical reader as I have an extensive background with UNIX/Linux and have played "systems administrator" several times over my career.I have even developed several training syllabi for new UNIX users.Still, I found this to be a very useful book.There are some precious tidbits that were new to me, and his discussion of differences between various flavors of UNIX/Linux currently available is also helpful.

For a "self starter," this book and a UNIX/Linux playground is all you need to become a halfway decent system administrator.It isn't the only book you'll ever need, but it will get you a long way!

Excellent Introduction into Linux/Unix Command Line World
Having tried to get into the Linux/Unix world a few times unsuccessfully in the past.I found this book to be the much needed foundation to get started.

It is an excellent guide for someone wishing to obtain a firm foundation to the heady underworld of Unix/Linux.Particularly for those who have no idea where to begin there education/learning of Unix/Linux.The book explains everything from the, initially confusing, file structure to basic commands and how to complete what are mundane but essential tasks.i.e., copying files, file permissions, figuring out where you are in the file structure etc.

Be aware though that this book tries to be non-OS specific and is focused on the command line and functionality/structure of linux.It does not explain how to burn CD's, play music, setup networking etc.However it will give the much needed grounding in order to complete such "higher level" functionality.

I particularly found this book extremely useful in conjunction with the book "Ubuntu Unleashed by Andrew Hudson and Paul Hudson".As Ubuntu Unleashed supplied OS specific help and particularly help with "higher level" functionality e.g., DVD burning, music ripping. ... Read more

Product Description
Most of the book is devoted to discussions of individual tools, but throughout run the themes of combining programs and of using programs to build programs--emphasizing how they fit in the environment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

A required reading for all unix users
This book should be a required reading not only for beginning Linux, Mac OS X, and Unix programmers, but also for most unix users and all system administrators. Yes, this book is very out of date. Some shell and C language syntax in it might not be just out of date, it might be simply invalid under current implementations! Yet, amazingly, possibly +90% of the examples will still work on unix systems, even though the book was written more than 25 years ago. This text is not meant to be a cookbook-type source of shell and C language code snippets. The value of this text lies in its ability to convey the philosophy of the Unix environment, from users' and programmers' perspective. This book illustrates how one can combine the standard unix tools: the shell, the grep, the sed, and the awk languages to solve practical problems. It also introduces the unix toolkit for C programming and the unix documentation system.

Now, I do want to admit that some stuff in this text is embarrassingly out of date. There are some shell commands that will not work on modern Unix implementations. The C code is using the K&R C style. That's still valid syntax, but also relatively archaic and older than what's taught in the second edition of K&R. The desktop calculator written in C with help of lex and yacc is very neat, but the more advanced versions of it will not compile with a modern version of gcc (2.7.x and older). (Finding out why is a nice exercise in debugging C code, and may potentially drive you mad). The signal handling examples for the C language as presented in this book are out of date and unreliable (see APUE on the reasons for this). If the syntax of the code examples was updated to be in touch with 21st century, even without adding any new content to the book, that would still make this book the most awesome beginner Unix text written. Due to being out of date, I think it earns a score somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. This text should be followed by O'Reilly's "Unix Power Tools" and, if you intend to write Unix software, the most recent edition of APUE.

Great Unix Reference book
If are Unix or Linux geek, this book is for you...as a refernce book, specially for novice....ed

THE GOLD STANDARD!
With the growth of MacOS X and programmers looking how to take better advantage of the UNIX/Darwin/Mach underpinnings of the system, there is a great need for something to educate programmers on the basics of how to best take advantage of this environment. This book, affectionately known as K&P by some of us "old timers," continues to relevant, even after more than 20 years since its first publication.

Sure, there are more "up to date" books, but K&P's treatment of the basics are the best. The book is full of discussions on best practices and uses for common commands that are still in use today. They show how to build the constructs to make shell scripts fly, even on today's faster hardware.

The treatment of C programming under UNIX is classic. If you did not learn C by reading "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie (K&R), then the chapter on building a calculator with lex and yacc will be a difficult read. But other than that, this book is a must-have for anyone learning to program under UNIX!

Great book on the foundations of the UNIX environment
In spite of its advanced age, this book is still relevant and explains many topics better than much newer books on the various flavors of UNIX. Although there are better books on the specific flavors of UNIX available today, no other book does as good a job of explaining the philosophy of generic UNIX and its intrinsic relationship to the C programming language. The book starts out talking about invoking common commands from the command line, the UNIX file system, and then moves on to "filtering"- which in this context means feeding the output of one command into the input of another command until you obtain the output you desire. Next shell programming is introduced along with sed and awk, which are the oldest of the UNIX scripting languages. Finally, we exhaust what can be done with sed, awk, and scripts consisting of UNIX commands already in existence. So, the authors show us how to "roll our own" UNIX commands by writing C programs and invoking their executable versions just like a UNIX command would be invoked. This part of the book is not meant to be a tutorial on the C programming language, so the reader should already know C or have another source for learning it. As an addendum to the section on C programming and UNIX, the authors illustrate how to use the UNIX system calls to build a richer set of commands. These system calls are interfaces to the UNIX OS kernel and provide a means for the programmer/user to access I/O, create and access files and directories, process errors, manage and create processes, and handle signals - which are the UNIX version of interrupts and exceptions. The book closes with a discussion of yacc and lex and illustrates how they can be used to build a calculator for use in the UNIX environment.
This is a very "hands on" kind of book, so you should have access to a UNIX based system that has a C compiler handy so that you can type in the commands and do the exercises as you read along in the book. If you are a beginner to the world of UNIX, regardless of the flavor that you are ultimately interested in using, this is a great book to get your feet wet and to understand the power of this operating system.

The bible of Unix
This book is the best book on programming on Unix. It is very practical, and it gives you a good understanding of the philosophy of the Unix system and how to use it.

Unix is a programmers environment. Once you understand the foundation it is a very productive environment. It will show you the tools, the philosophy behind the tools, and how to be productive in the Unix environment. People who hate Unix haven't read this book or aren't programmers... ... Read more

Product Description
If you're new to Unix, this concise book will tell youjust what you need to get started and no more. Thisfifth edition is the most effective introduction toUnix in print, covering Internet usage for email,file transfers, and web browsing. It's an ideal primerfor Mac and PC users who need to know a little aboutUnix on the systems they visit.The new edition also contains many major and minorupdates to help the reader navigate Unix'sever-expanding capabilities. In response to thepopularity of Linux, the book now focuses on thepopular bash shell preferred by most Linux users.A new chapter explains how to use ftp, pine for mail,and offers useful knowledge on how to surf the web.And the author has included tips throughout the texton security basics, especially in the Internet andnetworking sections. The book includes a completelyupdated quick reference card to make it easier forthe reader to access the key functions of the command line.Amazon.com Review
Part basic primer, part reference guide, this slim volume will make your life with UNIX much simpler. This book is specifically designed for those who are new to UNIX and contains neither introductory-level condescension nor advanced-level gibberish. Well-indexed and clearly mapped, Learning the UNIX Operating System will show you how to use and manage files and get your e-mail as well as how to perform more advanced tasks, such as redirecting standard input/output and multitasking your processes. Those new to the UNIX world will appreciate its concise presentation, and those reasonably familiar with UNIX will learn many new shortcuts, tricks, and tools. --Jennifer Buckendorff ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Perfect for Linux beginners
This book is absolutely perfect for Linux beginners who are yet to become familiar with the command line environment. I got this book when I was a college freshman, and even now, when I am in grad school, I often find myself going through it for a quick reference.

However, if you are looking for a deep detailed UNIX guide, then this would not serve your purpose.

I wouldn't if I were you
This was an optional text for an Intro Unix/Linux course.I am so glad the required book is a lot better than this one.Some of the code samples are in the paragraphs and it is hard to tell what is text and what is a unix command.If I only had this text, I doubt I could get through the class.It provides no new information.

Learnin Unix Op Sys
Excellent program - I just decided that I would not be able to use Linux while in school

Good stuff to start with
This book is a great book to start-up on your Unix commands.The examples re-iterate their meaning and I think this book is a great start to the world of Unix.

The X Win discussion though I thought could have been at the end of the book instead of the beginning.

Excellent Beginner Book!
I didn't know anything about Unix at all.After reading the reviews here, I decided on this book.It's for beginners like me.After finishing the book and practicing the exercises, I believe that I'm ready to go to the next level.And I didn't need any over-priced DVDs to go with it (and neither do you!) ... Read more

Product Description
Very occasionally a book is written about or for Unix System Administration, or Unix in general. If the author or publishers get the mix right it receives acclaim. Very, very occasionally one of those books achieves legendary status, by finding its way onto 98% of all Unix Sysadmins book shelves.This book is one of those legendary tomes. Just about every Unix Sysadmin I know has a copy of this sitting alongside books like Evi Nemeth's "Unix Sys Admin Handbook". OK so it has a lot of information that isn't new to most sysadmins, but that's not where the beauty of the book lies. The real treasure is found in the countless nuggets of Unix info that have been long since forgotten, or yet to be learned.In my humble opinion, a true Unix Classic! If like me, you earn a living from Unix, then think of this book as a carpenter would his set of chisels. You don't use them for every job, but when needed, can prove invaluable.Amazon.com Review
The mark of a craftsman is his familiarity with his tools, the speed with which he can use them to solve simple problems, and his cleverness in using them to solve more complicated challenges. The latest edition of Unix Power Tools explores the standard Unix tools in greater depth than ever, and with better coverage of Linux, FreeBSD, and even the Darwin environment of Mac OS X. It's also been improved by the addition of sections on Perl and Python, programming languages that can often solve Unix problems more adeptly than any specific utility. This detail-filled book distinguishes itself from other guides for Unix gurus with its organizational structure (it's a series of articles that can be absorbed sequentially or individually) and carefully designed and executed index. Like its esteemed predecessors, this book is one you will keep handy.

The authors have achieved a nearly ideal balance in the pages of this book. It's not just a collection of recipes (such collections tend to leave you hanging if you want to do something a little differently), it's not just a book of documentation (books like that have application mainly as references for people who know a lot already), and it's not just a conceptual how-to guide. Unix Power Tools is all of those things, and the overall effect is impressive indeed. If you work with any flavor of Unix, whatever your level of experience, you will benefit by having this book. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to work efficiently, elegantly, and creatively with the Unix tool suite, as well as (to a lesser extent) with Perl and Python scripts. Tips and strategies on customization, document generation, process management, and networking abound in this wisdom-rich volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (71)

My all time favorite Unix book
This is my all time favorite Unix book. If my house burnt down, this book would be high on the list for replacement. It's an older book, but then it's a true sign of quality when a computer book is still in frequent use, 8 years after it was first bought. I used to own the previous edition, and quickly bought this edition when it was published. There is so much extremely useful information packed into this book, you simply cannot go wrong buying it. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is getting serious about any Unix - Linux, AIX, HP-UX etc.

Great for Unix n00bs and as a reference guide
When I first bought this book I only knew how to do basic things like moving around directories, opening files with VI, and restarting servers. There were lots of other things I knew I wanted to do but didn't know the commands for. This book helped me learn the commands I needed.

Alternatively, I could have Googled for answers but I would have spent more time sifting through Experts Exchange than I would have finding what I needed. Unix Power Tools is well organized and has the answer to pretty much any basic question while also having intermediate and advanced content. Plus, when I did find an answer, it was usually concise yet informative with a few concrete examples.

One downside is that the sections are written by different people so some are better than others. Also, although I prefer concise answers, some may be a little too concise. Either way, I don't have experience with a lot of Unix reference books, but I can see why this one was so highly recommended. I can say for sure it has everything a Unix n00b needs.

Maybe not for everyone
While some might argue that this book is nothing more than some exerpts from man pages, I must say I really love it.
I always prefer a dead tree version over a digital one and this book is quickly becoming a cornerstone of my IT-related library.

Ultimate toilet book for the intermediate linux user
There's really nothing I can say in this review that isn't blatantly obvious from skimming the table of contents/sample pages from the product page here. It's a good book for understanding the low-level aspects of the common linux variants and how to do mundane, useful tasks from the command line, and I leave it in the john so I can skim through it and learn something while making my communion with nature.

However, what I find incredibly annoying and distracting is the authors' need to mindlessly put their initials after each paragraph that they write. The cover of the book says it all - there are four authors, and they wrote the book. Great. Good for them. They wrote a book. There's no need to remind the reader of every little inch of text that each of the four authors has individually contributed. It seems unprofessional, childish, and I've never seen anything like it anywhere before. The subject is not rocket science (most of the topics documented have been living in *nix systems for ages) and they didn't create any of it; they're simply telling us about it.

I mean, did these people say to themselves, "Wow! look at me! I wrote the section called 'The Superuser (Root)' and there are my initials to tell the world (and my grandma) about it; signed, '-ML.'" It's not like 'ML' actually had anything at all to do with creation of the concept of the superuser, so why does he/she feel the need to point out specifically to us that they wrote 3 little paragraphs describing it? I mean, if 'ML' was doing such great things, he/she probably would be doing far better things in life than writing books that folks like me read in the toilet.

If I bought a car, and everyone who'd designed every little piece of it felt the compulsion to put their initials on each little piece, people would laugh at me in such a car...but luckily this book lives in my bathroom where few people see it.

The consequent addition of maybe 50 pages that all of this superfluous initialing has created (ah ha! now I understand why they did it!) costs a star. Otherwise it would be a solid 4 star effort.

Highly recommended.
This book is a pleasure to flip through.

Unix Masters share tips that they use to save time and be more effective.

These precious jewels of information are not easily found on forums or in man pages.

This is an excellent book for the intermediate unix admin on the path to becoming a unix master. ... Read more

Product Description
With Unix, 4th Edition: Visual QuickStart Guide, readers can start from the beginning to get a tour of the Unix operating system, or look up specific tasks to learn just what they need to know. This task-based, visual reference guide uses step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots, and includes three years worth of new material based on the latest Unix developments. This reference guide details all Unix commands and options along with tips that put those commands in context. Leading Unix authorities Deborah S. Ray and Eric J. Ray leverage their expertise as technical writers and working in the industry (Sun Microsystems) as they take readers step-by-step through the most common Unix commands and options. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Transaction
Item arrived on time and in condition described.I would purchase from this seller again. ... Read more

Product Description

Unix Shell Programming is a tutorial aimed at helping Unix and Linux users get optimal performance out of their operating out of their operating system.It shows them how to take control of their systems and work efficiently by harnessing the power of the shell to solve common problems.The reader learns everything he or she needs to know to customize the way a Unix system responds.

The vast majority of Unix users utilize the Korn shell or some variant of the Bourne shell, such as bash.Three are covered in the third edition of Unix Shell Programming.It begins with a generalized tutorial of Unix and tools and then moves into detailed coverage of shell programming.

Topics covered include: regular expressions, the kernel and the utilities, command files, parameters, manipulating text filters, understanding and debugging shell scripts, creating and utilizing variables, tools, processes, and customizing the shell.

Customer Reviews (46)

good for recommendation to new programmers
i found this book very helpful in learning unix shell programming it is very illustrative with easy to understand examples.

Extremely good Unix book
Great Unix shell programming book.Focuses on unix commands and shell, not unix administration.

Book arrived quickly and in excellent shape.

Still the best
This is my second copy.I made the mistake of loaning out the previous copy, and it grew legs and disappeared.They got the old edition, and now I have the new one."Unix Shell Programming" is loaded with good information.I only get to write shell scripts once in awhile, and sometimes I really need the book as a reference to refresh my memory.And, there are plenty of examples in the book.Great for newbies, and great reference for us old-timers.

Great unix book
Great unix book. I had little unix experience and the book was just right for me. I've only read the first 4 chapters but have picked up a lot already.

Very well done introduction to shell programming
This book doesn't theoretically require one to know anything about programming. Still, it is quite helpful to have experience with some programming language, since comparisons with other languages (particularly C) are pretty frequent and often used to explain certain concepts.
More than that, experience with the UNIX/Linux environment definitely helps.

The book starts off with a basic review of some useful shell commands (from ls to grep passing thru regular expressions). It then goes on to explain how to link these commands together (pipes, variables, loops etc.) to make useful scripts to handle common and not too complicated system administration tasks.
At the end of the book there also is a quite useful summary of shell commands which works as some sort of reference.

The writing style is clear, and attention is paid to warn the user from falling in common syntax errors such as misuse of quotes, and how and why they can lead to results quite different to those one would expect.
The main drawback i found, is that the examples presented are most of the times way too simple. That can surely help people with little confidence in programming, but may bore people that do already have programming knowledge and wish to be introduced to more complex tasks more rapidly.

All in all, i surely like this book, both for how things are explained and for how they are organized. And it surely is high quality for the price. I wouldn't recommend it to an experienced programmer, which might be better of with a more technical approach, but if you fall anywhere between 'noob' and 'competent programmer' you will probably enjoy reading this book before you move on to something more advanced. ... Read more

Product Description

Explore a ton of powerful Mac OS X UNIX commands

This handy, compact guide teaches you to use Mac OS X UNIX systems as the experts do: from the command line. Try out more than 1,000 commands to find and get software, monitor system health and security, and access network resources. Apply the skills you learn from this book to troubleshoot networks, lock down security, and uncover almost anything you care to know about your Mac OS X system.

Expand your Mac OS X UNIX expertise in these and other areas:

• Using the shell

• Finding online software

• Working with files

• Playing with music and images

• Administering file systems

• Backing up data

• Checking and managing running processes

• Accessing network resources

• Handling remote system administration

• Locking down security

Customer Reviews (4)

Not for the beginner
To be fair I haven't finished reading this book yet but after reading the first few chapters its pretty clear that this is indeed a book for people who have used command line on other Unix systems or have a solid understanding on how systems operate. Although there appears to be a tonne of wealth here about OS X Terminal commands, the author only briefly explains the 'why' and then dives straight into the 'how'. For a newbie like me I was looking for a manual that would de-mystify the multitude of Terminal commands and throw in clear explanations on when and why. Having said that this book is still really easy to read even though it is assumed you know what is being talked about.

Title is misleading
There aren't 1000+ commands covered in the book. It's only 288 pages so unless there are 4 or 5 commands on each page (which there aren't) then it's not going to add up to 1000. There are probably more like 100 commands that, with multiple usage examples, may equal close to 1000 EXAMPLES but there are definitely not 1000 DIFFERENT COMMANDS covered in this book or any of the other books in the * Toolbox series.

Outside of that, the book is a good introduction to the Mac OS X command line.I would give it 4 stars if the title wasn't outright false advertising. A more accurate title would be "Introduction to the Mac OS X Command Line" which would better describe what this book really is.

Don't buy if you expect to learn 1000 new and exotic Unix commands because this book does not cover them. Do buy if you are looking for a simple introduction to the Unix core of Mac OS X.

Fully loaded
This booked is packed with well organized examples, but, the authors assume you already know a bit about about UNIX or Linux.However, the examples are so well done that even a complete newb to UNIX can figure it out (albeit with more effort and more slowly than someone who is already familiar with UNIX or Linux--difficult, but, not impossible).Great for a support tech, like me, who's been supporting Windows for years, but, has been suddenly (and joyfully) tossed some Macs to support.

I'm giving it 4 stars as the publisher, Wiley Publishing Inc., decided to go cheap and print the book on paper thats usually used for mass market paperbacks.For a reference book I think that's a bit unacceptable--especially for the price.

excellent book!
excellent book, lots of great commands to get you used to the command line. Only downfall is Amazon is not packaging their books well anymore, I ordered $100 worth of books that were all thrown in a box and arrived all banged up! This is the 2nd order in a row, I will think twice about ordering again as I dont care for my books being all banged up! They used to use a cellofane wrapper to hold them all together but guess it was a cost cutting measure, sad to see damaged books.. ... Read more

Product Description
The Art of UNIX Programming poses the belief that understanding the unwritten UNIX engineering tradition and mastering its design patterns will help programmers of all stripes to become better programmers. This book attempts to capture the engineering wisdom and design philosophy of the UNIX, Linux, and Open Source software development community as it has evolved over the past three decades, and as it is applied today by the most experienced programmers. Eric Raymond offers the next generation of "hackers" the unique opportunity to learn the connection between UNIX philosophy and practice through careful case studies of the very best UNIX/Linux programs.Amazon.com Review
Unix ranks among the great engineering accomplishments of the last half of the twentieth century, and its heir--Linux--seems already imposing and still on its way to achieving its full potential. Eric S. Raymond argues in The Art of UNIX Programming that the excellence of Unix derives as much from the fact that it was (and continues to be) a community effort as from the fact that a lot of smart people have worked to design and build it. Raymond, best known as the author of the open-source manifesto The Cathedral and the Bazaar, says in his preface that this is a "why-to" book, rather than a "how-to" book. It aims to show new Unix programmers why they should work under the old "hacker ethic"--embracing the principles of good software design for its own sake and of code-sharing.

That said, a great deal of valuable practical information appears in this book. Very little of it is in the form of code; most of the practical material takes the form of case studies and discussions of aspects of Unix, all aimed at determining why particular design characteristics are good. In many cases, the people who did the work in the first place make guest appearances and explain their thinking--an invaluable resource. This book is for the deep-thinking software developer in Unix (and perhaps Linux in particular). It shows how to fit into the long and noble tradition, and how to make the software work right. --David Wall

Topics covered: Why Unix (the term being defined to include Linux) is the way it is, and the people who made it that way. Commentary from Ken Thompson, Steve Johnson, Brian Kernighan, and David Korn enables readers to understand the thought processes of the creators of Unix. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

mount /dev/sermon
As someone who's programmed on Unix for many years, I've known about esr for some time, and probably should thank him for being part of a chorus that encouraged me to learn things like Lisp.That said, my honest opinion of this book is that it's a waste of paper and approximately the quality of a typical esr blog post.

First of all, this book is not really about Unix programming.A full half of it is dedicated to rehashing the Unix philosophy, history, and community.Yes, these topics should come up, but at some point I want to read about Unix programming, which is why I am reading a book with that phrase in the title.None of this stuff has anything to do with programming, and is just as applicable to end users.

The other half is supposedly programming related, but upon closer inspection, mostly isn't.Major topics include things like tools, config file formats, and a lot of general stuff that applies in non-Unix development too (like VCS and network protocols).Where's the system programming tips, POSIX standards, standard libraries, ioctl, BSD sockets, security considerations, and any number of hundreds of other things anyone who's programmed on a Unix-variant encounters?Yes, the book claims to not want to talk about these things, but guess what, that's what Unix programming is all about.

Languages (you know, the thing you actually program in) are completely glossed over, except to just list a few common ones.Half of the ones mentioned are so portable, that programmers in them can ignore OS peculiarities the vast majority of the time (Java, Python, Emacs Lisp).C, C++, and shell are very tightly coupled to Unix, and much could have been said here, but isn't.Instead of code, we're treated to reams of config file examples and other filler.

The various aspects of The Unix Way could have been stated in a single chapter.Someone interested in becoming a Unix programmer needs to know where to go to find documentation, what development resources he has available, and other practical things.An MS programmer reading this book would be just as clueless on how to start programming on Unix as before.Go pick up Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment if you want to learn this subject.

I'd give it 6 stars if I could
I got a great deal out of this book - I switched to Linux fairly recently, and had reached the "state of maximum confusion."(I hope.)
By that I mean I had learned quit a lot, but hadn't been able to pull it all together. This book went a long way toward doing so. The sections on Design and Implementation could be expanded to a good book, they gave me an understanding of Linux, what to look for in software for Linux, and how to approach programming for Linux.
Design and Implementation both used case studies of specific packages, some of which I now use. I only wish this careful dissection was available for more software.
The other two sections, Context and Community would also make up a good free-standing book. They explains how Unix became what it is (Context) and where it is going now (Community).
Any way, great book, and I would give it 10 stars for two books if that ever happen.

Good Book, Good Principles
Eric S. Raymond is a controversial open source developer and evangelist.

The true is that he has a good points and ideias of how to develop using the unix pratices (eg. the practice of separation and program specialization).

I love unix (any flavor), it is by far the best operating system for a wise developers. The advice of Eric really makes sense for someone used to work with unix, and I put a lot of his advice to good use.

I recommend this book to an intermediate/advance unix programmer/analyst.

I wish I had read this book back in college
The author does a great job explaining the Unix tradition and where it came from. This book is filled with design considerations and high level concepts related to programming techniques. It gives a clear insight into what went in one's mind when designing many of the programs that are so common to Unix.

I think you will enjoy this book if you have had basic exposure to Unix (even as just a regular user), and some basic exposure to programming.

Unix is dead
This at least is the overarching message conveyed both directly and incidentally throughout Raymond's book. Unix in the concrete, non-abstraced sense has died and been replaced in practice by Linux and with the former solidly displaced from the market we can apparently begin to take to the bold liberty of refering to Linux interchangably with Unix's name. From the title the book advertises itself to be about Unix but from the opening chapters documenting the history and progression of Unix there is a clear effort to re-cast the decades long history and family tree of Unix operating systems into a footnote to the modern re-implementation in Linux and even the overall open-source movement at large. All of which the various originating UNIX architects solicited for in-line commentary seem to be conspicuously silent about. This is impressively maintained through the rest of the book without any substantial mention of BSD-derived operating systems or OSX beyond the opening of the text. Sadly, for what praises can be offered for this book, it's notable and distracting that Raymond suffers from a stark habit of inserting a number of personal biases and pet causes into his prose, as this book actually does otherwise serve a novel and admirable use in the valuable documentation of history and culture in passing eras of computing and development.

The close-knit communal spirit of timesharing on minicomputers in Bell Labs is seized on as a faint archetype of modern distributed OSS development while Ritchie, Thompson and the rest are curiously painted as disheveled and counter-cultural "hippies" "flipping a finger at the system", never mind these were the same hippies who would stay along for the ride on the side of Ma Bell and SVRx against the Berkeley Academia as the Unix market cannibalized itself in the late 80's. While nonetheless engrossing in its own right, there's some degree of romanticism and embelishment laced in the presentation of Unix history here, and unsurprisingly it tends to err quite clearly on the side of presenting the the earliest days of Unix as a directed progression toward the wider quasi-social movement of collaborative development and open-source software. This kind of disquieting historical reinterpetation and editorialization continues throughout in places both trivial and not: Raymond, for instance, clearly has a low personal opinion of Richard Stallman's attempted infusion of moral context into the realm of Free software development and regrettably manifests this, rightly or wrongly, in the unsubstantiated assertion that Stallman has been popularly marginalized, thereby imposing his personally-held disdain for FSF priniples on OSS developers at large. He can do this, you see, because he is authoring history.

Other varying idiosyncracies crop up: anywhere Perl is mentioned, Python (Eric's personal favorite scripting language) will appear by it's side. Emacs Lisp is inexplicably offered alongside established systems programming and RAD languages as a choice for a general-purpose programming language. And on the topic of Emacs, a partisan argument for rationalizing Emacs's notorious feature creep is presented in the form of describing it as a general extensible scripting framework in harmony with the Unix philosophy of modularity, rather than a conspicuously bloated but still useful text editor. This of course, is accompanied by apparently obligatory potshots taken at vi and Vim. It's less alarming that he'd reasonably arrive at a spirited opinion of this sort of thing than that minor personal convictions and editor war ammunation essays such as these would find their way into a text purporting to immortalize and document the Unix culture for all to refer to.

The less inflammatory parts of the book can laregly be summarized as case studies of the Unix spirit of design, effectively all of which can be distilled at some level as interpretations of the general KISS philosophy, which for the uninitiated basically translate to explicit warnings against overengineering. I'm suspicious of how much of this is simultaneously revelatory and actionable, but I suppose it's easy for ideas like these to be lost in the modern age of professional software development. Moreover, as this book explicitly aims to convey unquantifiable ideas and culture it's difficult to rate the book in terms of the knowledge imparted; it's a sometimes disjointed accumulation of essays on a wide range of topics spanning Unix history, various shell tools, predictable FOSS cheerleading, licenses and languages. And despite the above criticisms, much of the book actually makes for interesting reading despite the author's clear self-insertion into much of the book; it all actually makes for decent light reading even if the overall value is indeterminate.

But to end in the same manner as I believe other reviewers have, it is overall something to be taken with a grain of salt. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first, and still, the most comprehensive book to describe the sophisticated workings of the UNIX System V kernel--the internal algorithms, the structures that form the basis of the UNIX operating system, and their relationship to the programming interface. System programmers will gain a better understanding of how the kernel works and will be able to compare algorithms used in the UNIX system to algorithms used in other operating systems. Programmers on UNIX systems will gain a deeper understanding of how their programs interact with the system and can thereby code more efficient programs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Definitive guide for UNIX internals
This book is for anyone who wants to know what happens "under the hood" in a UNIX based operating system. I especially like the pseudocode given for various system calls and other important kernel functions. The exercises given at the end of chapters are thought provoking. This book is not about how to learn/work in UNIX. Some of the topics such as streams may not be relevant in some of the current implementations of UNIX (or clones of UNIX), but most of the book is still relevant.

The pinacle of OS books
I'm something of an OS freak (not an expert though) and I collect OS books. I've read many of the classics of the field but I think this book is the crowning achievement of OS literature. Here are the arguments to support my claim:

a) It does not go into explaining general OS theory, thus all space can be dedicated to explaining the details of one operating system (Unix System V Release 2). This of course makes it unsuitable for begginers as it assumes you have a good understanding of basic concepts like race conditions, mutual exclusion, data structures, etc. If you're a begginer don't buy this book yet; get "Operating Systems - Design and Implementation" by Tanenbaum & Woodhull or "Operating System Concepts" by Silberschatz, Galvin and Baer.

b) It details EVERY algorithm with C-like pseudocode and adds verbal explanations exemplifying operations running through the algorithms. This is unlike other OS books which sometimes just give general descriptions of algorithms with no examples.

c) Explanations are complemented by many diagrams of data structures in various states of manipulation by the algorithms. This is possibly the most valuable feature of the book as it does wonders to help you understand what the kernel is doing; you get to 'see' how the algorithms work. This sets it apart from practically all other OS books I've read that just mention in passing "... then function 'x' manipulates data structure 'y'" and leave you to find out the implications of these manipulations. Diagrams also make the book superior to mere code listings.

d) Each chapter 'uses' the algorithms explained in the previous chapter to explain higher level functionality. This is much unlike other OS books which are just unstructured and make you loose the big picture of how the various pieces fit together. Chapters also start with an introductory overall view of the current topic.

So, what is not to like about this book? The only thing I can think of is that it deals with a 'dead' OS. Unix System V only runs in a handful of computer installations these days (if any), while its derivatives have changed too much to serve as a reference while reading the book. Still, System V binaries and source are available on the internet, legally of course. Search for The Unix Heritage Society archives. If you want to get really hardcore you can even get a PDP-11 emulator and set up Sys V in it. There are, of course, other books that delve into present day operating systems; "Solaris Internals" , for instance.

Also, Unix-haters might point out this is just another book on Unix. Well, unfortunately there are no books that explain, say MS Windows, at this level of detail; blaim MS. But still, while dealing with the specifics of one single OS, you do get a general understanding of how other OS's might work.

In my humble opinion this book is the 'King of the Hill' of OS literature; it has helped me finally understand things like context switching and memory mapping. An absolute feast to read, particularly if you like Unix.

magnificent discussion of internal architecture of UNIX
While there may be more detail to be found in "The Magic Garden," or more up-to-date coverage in the likes of Vahalia or Schimmel, Bach's opus is, in the view of this twenty-plus-year UNIX guru, unmatched. I say this because only while reading Bach's book do I experience the sense of philsophic structural perfection, of tool-orientation, of practicality-versus-theoretic-efficiency tradeoff, that characterizes the earliest UNIX monographs (Ritchie, Kernighan, Bourne, Lycklama, Ossana; that sort of thing) that busied me as a freshman. Bach imparts to the reader a glorious--and gloriously holistic--depiction of the structure of the UNIX kernel as a unit. Algorithmic details are provided where appropriate. Exceptionally well thought-out exercises stimulate the reader to extend the textual material where meet. The material is assuredly out of date, but I dare you to critize, say, Lions as being "out of date" (whether or not it describes a 25-year-old, 9K-LOC kernel, it is a scripture of paramount importance, a cornerstone of my computer engineering [n.b.: I didn't say "computer science"] library).

For those who are wont to compare Leffler and Bach--if for no other reason than that they are coevals--I heartily endorse Bach over its competitor. It's nice. It's clean. It's precise. You just couldn't ask for more. And, BTW, stay away from "The Magic Garden." I'm not sure that five hundred pages worth of out-of-context code excerpts, inundating the reader with thousands of kernel variables, accomplishes much by way of imparting conceptual understanding.

(I'm reminded: a customer of mine--an older gentleman with a Ph.D. in physics--once asked me for a concise description of the workings of UNIX, something that introduced the basic concepts at a scholarly but not overweight level. I told him I had a recommendation in mind. "You're going to give me 'The Magic Garden'," John complained; "Don't bother. It stinks!" Was John ever surprised when I pointed him to the third entry in Tanenbaum's Modern Operating Systems series. It has concise thirty or forty-page entries on UNIX, MS-DOS, and a handful of others. For those who want to know--from a scientist's viewpoint--what the fundamentals of the UNIX OS and superjacent environment are, what it can do, how one navigates within it, etc., at a _conceptual_ level that trucks not with the details of Bach or Leffler, seek ye Tanenbaum II.)

Awesome book on UNIX Internals
It is one of the greatest books that I have ever read on UNIX. It is a comprhensive yet simple depiction of Unix Operating System. This book is a MUST READ for UNIX / UNIX LIKE Operating System Engineers. It is worth possesing a copy as it can come handy quite regularly. I give it a full go go!

A model for how technical books should be written
Maurice Bach's The Design of the Unix Operating System still holds the place of honor on my technical reference bookshelf.After almost 20 years, it provides a clear overview of basic Unix organization and operations and is a model for how technical books should be written.Readers who complain that the text is dated evidently did not bother to notice the 1986 copyright date.Its age, however, has not diminished its clarity of content or usefulness in understanding the Unix operating system. Bach deserves an award for excellence in technical writing. ... Read more

Product Description
This is THE guide to UNIX network programming APIs. Whether you write Web servers, client/server applications, or any other network software, you need to understand networking APIS-especially sockets in greater detail than ever before. You need UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1, Third Edition. In this book, the Authors offer unprecedented, start-to-finish guidance on making the most of sockets, the de facto standard for UNIX network programming with APIs - as well as extensive coverage of the X/Open Transport Interface (XTI). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Best
I'm still reading this book, but this is the best one on the subject that I've found - very informative, explains in
a very concise, complete and clear way the semantics of the sockets' layer under Unix type OSes. Reading it, the
user will acquire the necessary knowledge, needed to understand the relations between protocol (TCP/IP/SCTP/...) implementation/details and the socket layer functionality.

A Fundamental Reference on IP Network Programming
If you are interested in UNIX network programming, this book is THE essential reference.

The writing is clear, comprehensive and interesting for what otherwise have been a very dry topic.

A must have for any developers library.

Mr Stevens is no longer with us, and he will be sorely missed.

Very Good Book
I bought this book for work.It left me with a good understanding of Multicast and Raw Sockets, the two subjects I was mostly interested in.

Comprehensive.
The Best series of books to learn Network programming from. The BEST in the world. Nothing comes close.

This is the one I have been looking for.
If you are reading this review you probably are looking for a comprehensive text on socket programming. Look no further. This is the One. You can stop reading reviews trying to find the perfect one and go hit the Add To Shopping Cart button with confidence. Detailed, comprehensive and clear. A favorite.
... Read more

Product Description
Written with a clear, straightforward writing style and packed with step-by-step projects for direct, hands-on learning, Guide to UNIX Using Linux, 4E is the perfect resource for learning UNIX and Linux from the ground up. Through the use of practical examples, end-of-chapter reviews, and interactive exercises, novice users are transformed into confident UNIX/Linux users who can employ utilities, master files, manage and query data, create scripts, access a network or the Internet, and navigate popular user interfaces and software. The updated 4th edition incorporates coverage of the latest versions of UNIX and Linux, including new versions of Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, and Uuntu Linux. A new chapter has also been added to cover basic networking utilities, and several other chapters have been expanded to include additional information on the KDE and GNOME desktops, as well as coverage of the popular OpenOffice.org office suite. With a strong focus on universal UNIX and Linux commands that are transferable to all versions of Linux, this book is a "must-have" for anyone seeking to develop their knowledge of these systems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Unix using Linux
Not a complete review, however for those of us who struggle with getting Unix shell scripting off the ground and understanding how to put a script together from scratch - this book is about a close as I have come across to explaining how to do it. I have read books, done tutorials online, went to classes and still could not grasp how to write a script from scratch, without ripping someone else's script and modifying it.
The book teaches you the core of the system and that's what makes it worth the price.

Unix boock
this is a great book, it was used buy in great conditions almost to new. It included both CD's. Im really satisfied with this book

Great book for any UNIX Admin
Book was for a class and was so good I decided to keep it.The software that comes with it is great too.

I love this book, it gave me time to practice a lot of programming and get the feel of a professional programmer! Buy now!
I love this book, it made me get the feel of a professional programmer! You won't regret of buying it. So buy now! ... Read more

Product Description

The Most Useful UNIX Guide for Mac OS X Users Ever, with Hundreds of High-Quality Examples!

Customer Reviews (10)

Good as expected!
This author has become a sure bet for the books I've purchased from him in the past. The only thing I would mention is there is alot of repeated material in the separate titles. I own the "Linux Commandline Shell practical guide" and also the Red Hat/Fedora practical guide. There is probably more then three quarters of the content that is exact. I guess with all instances the OSes are the same but it is just difficult to spend fifty bucks on three or four books only to have som much repeated content.

But as I said this author's books are very dependable!

Good Speed and Services
I received the book in a good timely manner and in neat professional packaging. Good Job!

Extremely Useful Volume For CLI
I recently switched over to using a Mac. I have experience with Windows and Unix, but was confused by the differences in the Mac CLI until I found this book. It has been a real timesaver as well as an education. It is so much faster to use the CLI on a Mac and this book tells you how to get started. It is clearly written and easy to learn from. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a good grounding in the Mac CLI.

Excellent resource
My first attempt at learning UNIX. Well-written overview with many pearls.
I would highly recommend it to others seeking to understand the basis for Mac OS X.

Excellent intro and reference.
This is a solid introduction and reference book for folks who are GUI-literate but not UNIX folks.(I learned UNIX back around 1982 and have desperately tried to ignore it since.)Much more useful than a general UNIX or Linux book, because it includes the specific aspects of OS X that you need to know about: where things are put, what special utilities are available, how the file system is laid out, OS X system management, etc.

The only significant complaint I have is that the book devotes a LOT of space to vim, emacs, and other pure-text editors.The terminal is fine when you need it, but why would you edit text in a non-GUI environment?If you are a serious programmer, you'll want to work in an IDE (integrated development environment) with syntax coloring, hints, debug, etc.These chapters seem like a waste of time. ... Read more

Product Description

Topics covered: How to get around in Darwin, the UNIX implementationbuilt into Mac OS X. Sections deal with basic maneuvering at the command line, LDAP services, C programming, and graphical user interfaces under Aqua. There's a short section on building the kernel itself, but it's limited in scope. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Makes the transition easy (mine, anyway)
Bought this after a co-worker let me borrow their copy ... had to have my own.Definitely helped to understand some of the inner-workings and to correlate with what I'm accustomed to.

Very useful!
I am very happy to have found this book.I have been using BSD and Linux based platforms for many years now, and I was a little bit blown away by how much there is to adjust to on OS X.This book provided a fantastic set of hints as to where I should look to discover the OS X way of doing things.Highly recommended!

Exactly what the title announces
As the title say, this is a book to facilitate the transition of Unix
experts (or at least, proficient users) to OS X, and it certainly does.
We recently bought a Mac Pro to be used as a server but it came with the
usual OS X (not the server version) installed. I have worked before in
Linux an other Unices. Since our needs are restricted (serve file systems
via ssh, open remote desktops and serve web pages) the client version of
OS X (which, as Linux, is also server is some capabilities are enabled)
can be used. The book gives tips to make this and many other things,
apart from pointing to the most useful packages of software to be installed in a machine that is to be used for desktop, server and
programming.
Summarizing, an excellent book.

Some good information, some fluff
I am a longtime Unix/Linux user/expert. I also used MacOS before switching to Windows (partly so I could dual boot into Linux) in ~1998. I just switched back to Mac, largely because Macs now have Unix under the hood and let me run (via virtualization) Windows and Linux simultaneously. I wanted a book to help me understand the things that are similar and different between Mac OS X and Linux. This book was generally good, but had some fluff that I wasn't interested in. In general the book had enough technical details to be useful and I could just skip the fluff.

Learn how to compile code, install open source software through Fink and MacPorts, and more
Brian Jepson, Ernest E. Rothman and Rich Rosen's MAC OSX FOR UNIX GEEKS, 4TH EDITION now covers Leopard and offers a fine survey of the 'geekier' side of Mac OS X. This book bridges Apple's Darwin OS and traditional Unix systems, offering insights on how to perform common Unix tasks in Mac OS X's different environment. Learn how to compile code, install open source software through Fink and MacPorts, and more.
... Read more

Product Description
UNIX expert Randal K. Michael guides you through every detail of writing shell scripts to automate specific tasks. Each chapter begins with a typical, everyday UNIX challenge, then shows you how to take basic syntax and turn it into a shell scripting solution. Covering Bash, Bourne, and Korn shell scripting, this updated edition provides complete shell scripts plus detailed descriptions of each part. UNIX programmers and system administrators can tailor these to build tools that monitor for specific system events and situations, building solid UNIX shell scripting skills to solve real-world system administration problems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

A Practical Reference Guide to UNIX Shell Scripting
Unix Shell Scripting 2nd edition is a practical reference book to UNIX shell scripting. There are 954 pages committed to various scripts appropriate for any type of production environment: research, banking, web hosting, personal, security or system administration. Each script is well written. His style is concise and consistent, with shell scripting notation, control statements, and choice of commands commented throughout. You will find that his techniques are sampled over and over.
Randal proves a point that there's not one way to write a script but there is one choice better than the rest. In Chapter 2 Randal demonstrates 24 ways to process a file line-by-line. Of the 24 some are slower than others. He shows that with existing UNIX systems functions there are ways to time script execution. Even though the execution time is important he does not forget to mention the importance of system availability and personal identity management.
Some script writers don't know how to handle sensitive personal information well. Randal provides a tid-bit on concealing personal identity from eavesdroppers, validating file ownership, and secure data transmission over encrypted protocols. Having any biasness over less secure alternatives is important to mention when a company's asset confidentiality must be 100% reliable and aligned with corporate Security policy.
There are chapters on UNIX system availability. Resource availability ensures that services are available for business process to continue. Michael does a good job of providing a holistic approach of application and system availability by providing references to: rysnc, dirvish, oracle database testing, process monitoring, disk capacity monitoring, and swap file monitoring; all the while participating in some sort of notification.
I suggest UNIX Shell Scripting by Randal Michael to beginners and non-beginners learning UNIX. Learning by example is an effective way to actually learn the shell. The author provides solutions to very common problems that all industries face and that many default packages don't handle. A moderate background in UNIX command line, configuration, and protocol analysis is recommended; although the author helps to lead the reader through technical obscurity with detailed thoughts. A beginner should take more time to read the fine print and use other sources to complement difficult areas.

You will use Google to fill in the blanks, but this is a great book
Thank goodness for this book.It's a big, 3" thick book, that's more of a reference guide to do a bunch of really useful tasks.Example, you "could" start at page 1, but there's no point.Check the TOC or Appendix, pick what you want to learn, and just go directly to it.

I'm not as versed in other Unix areas as I'd like to be, thus why I got the book, but it does seem to have a good examples of what's going to work w/ one shell vs. another.

It's helped my career out in a big way.Heh, I mean, just tucking my shirt in and carrying a big 3" thick book around makes me appear smart.:-) "Dude, look at that 'Shell scripting' book, it's big, and he has his shirt tucked in today, he means business".Yeah buddy, you got that straight!

I don't think this is for beginners, like me, it doesn't "explain" a lot of what you're doing, at least in the detail that my cat-like brain needs, but hey, that's what Google's for.What it does give the beginner, is lots of questions to take else where, and I learned from those other areas.Example, I joined "unix.com's" forums because of this book, there I met a bunch of people that are so insanely smart, it's "insane", (seriously, how in the world do people know this stuff?One of the coolest websites I've been to was "nobodyisbornwithlinuxknowledge.com", or something like that).It also gives us beginners the concept behind what it's doing, therefore, you're now smart enough to ask the mighty oracle called "Google" the right question, to get the right answer.

I love this book, period, and I hate 3" books, particularly 3" books that are of a technical content.The information in this book is very valuable, moreso, it encouraged me to spread out to other areas, and it opened me up, to the open source world.Am I a scripting genius w/ this book in my hands, no, did I write 3 scripts w/in a month that is going to save my group a lot of money and man power, yes, yes yes!Did it make this lazy man's job easier, oh my yes.

... I love this book, and I'm a beginner, w/ his shirt tucked in now, (well at least Mon-Wed).:-)

can do better
This book is OK in the sense that it teaches scripting with examples, but it lacks in completeness. It is good for learning (tutorial type), but it is not good for a reference book. Shop around if you already know scripting but want to master it.

This book is awesome!
I have been a Unix Systems Administrator for ten years but am weak in creating my own Unix shell scripts. I currently administer hundreds of enterprise class Unix servers with AIX, Solaris and RHEL for a major corporation. I bought this book to help me understand scripting more and to help me learn how to write my own scripts instead of copying other peoples scripts. After reading this book, I now can create my own scripts, from scratch and completely understand other peoples scripts. This book explains the syntax of every scripting technique, character...etc. The examples in this book are great and provide many real world techniques to help any System Administrator do their job more efficiently and ultimately faster. Thank You Mr. Randal Michael! I would highly recommend this book to the new Unix System Administrator all the way up to the seasoned expert!

wide span of topics for sysadmins and programmers
[A review of the 2ND EDITION, where the latter was published in June 2008.]

Perhaps you are a programmer or sysadmin of a heterogeneous network of unix and linux machines. Where the unixes hail from different vendors. Think Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and the Macintosh. (Yes, the Mac runs a descendent of Mach, which is a dialect of unix.) And maybe the linux boxes have different distros. This book spans the gamut of most unixes (I include linux in this). Helping you easily write shell scripts, without taking sides over which unix or linux version is better.

The second ecumenical aspect is that it also avoids favouring any of the 3 major unix shells - Borne, Korn and bash. In some newsgroups, there has been a tedious and interminable debate about the relative virtues of these shells. While one shell might indeed be better than others for a given task, in general they have equivalent functionality. The book's evenhanded approach is one worth emulating.

Thoughtfully, the book suggests topics that might be typically useful to sysadmins, and others more suited to programmers. It is not a strict divide. But for sysadmins, you can see discussions about how to monitor disk partitions, or system load and swap space usage. These are often issues germane to your duties.

The bulk of the book is more on programmer-related topics. Much. Note that the book is largely random access, unlike a science textbook for example, which is serial access from the front. In other words, with just a minimal acquaintance with basic scripting, you can dive straight into any chapter, without reading its predecessor. ... Read more

Product Description
This pocket reference puts within easy reach the commands that Oracledatabase administrators need most when operating in a Unix environment.If you are an Oracle DBA moving to Unix from another environment such asWindows NT or IBM Mainframe, you know that these commands are fardifferent from those covered in most beginning Unix books. To jump startyour learning process, Don Burleson has gathered together in this handybook the Unix commands he most often uses when managing Oracledatabases. He begins by showing you how to combine simple commands to performcomplex tasks. The book also covers process management commands that youcan use to display and manage Oracle processes, as well as commandsrelated to memory, CPU, semaphore management, monitoring, and diskmanagement.Amazon.com Review
The Unix for Oracle DBAs Pocket Reference has a remarkably tight focus. It's about making Oracle database management systems run optimally under various Unix operating systems, including HP-UX, Sun Solaris, and IBM AIX (there's also some specialized coverage of IRIX and DEC Unix). Author Donald Burleson assumes readers know how to get around the Unix command shell, and that they're quite familiar with Oracle database administration. To put it simply, to get the most out of this book, you should already know what you want to do, and need only to be told concisely how to do it. This book is ideal for people moving from Oracle administration under Windows to the same job under Unix.

As a byproduct of its careful focus, the book is tiny. It almost fits in a shirt pocket, and is about as thick as a standard pencil. A typical entry documents a single command (there are separate entries for different operating systems when commands differ), and includes a bit of text followed by the relevant command and a listing of typical output. Utility scripts with Oracle relevance are listed with minimal comments. This isn't traditional man-page-style Unix documentation, but rather advice on how to accomplish various Oracle goals inside Unix. Most readers will likely turn first to the index to find the entries that they need. --David Wall

Topics covered: Making Oracle database management systems run well under HP-UX, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, IRIX, and DEC Unix. Ways of examining and adjusting Oracle's use of processes, memory, processor cycles, files, disk resources, and other aspects of the Unix system. Information is presented in recipes, in type-this-to-do-that format. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Useful Tips and Tricks
This booklet contains a collection of shell script code snippets and other UNIX tips for the DBA. Not everything will be useful for everyone, but only the most experienced UNIX geek will fail to find one trick or the other that he did not know before. And what else is UNIX expertise if not knowledge about such little tricks?

I especially liked the sections about commands to collect performance statistics for the UNIX boxes your databases run on. You do not normally find these commands in general UNIX books (not even in the meatiest ones) and would have to turn to special UNIX admin books, which might be sort of an overkill for a mere DBA.

The book also introduces into some very basic UNIX concepts like piping commands and changing file permissions. This is superfluous as this booklet does by no means repalce a full-fledged UNIX introduction. But if you are a DBA who has already read his "UNIX for Beginners" or the like and who wants to delve a little bit deeper into HP-UX or AIX, than this book is for you.

Most useful for Oracle DBAs
This is a very helpful book which provides a basic overview of using Unix running Oracle. Perhaps the best feature of this book is that the author has spent lot of time providing only the most useful and salient Unix scripts for the Oracle DBA. You will not find any unnecessary or redundant information in this book. In fact, I highly recommend all Oracle DBAs to read this book and memorize all its ideas.

Here are some of the best tips:
1)Script to kill all Oracle processes.
2)Place a SQL * Plus script in a Unix Shell Wrapper
3)Ensure that only the Oracle user can run a Unix shell script
4)Execute a SQL*Plus Script on all the instances in the enterprise.
5)Automatically delete old trace and audit files
6)Copy TNSnames.ora to all the Unix servers in the enterprise
7)Detect when Oracle is not accepting connections and send alert

Good reference book for Unix newbies
This booklet is full of usefull Unix commands, most of them at the junior level and just a few more are complex. I used this book maybe 10 times since I bought it a couple of years ago, so I am not sure that I have utilizied my purchase well.

Still, I would recommend the book to any DBA who is new to Unix.

Good for the UNIX Novice
Decent reference - at least pointing out some interesting options and some things to watch out for at the OS level. As mentioned in other reviews - its HP-UX oriented with nearly as much focus on AIX, but lacks detail on Solaris (and Linux).
Fairly well written - but mainly pretty simple content. Just keeps you from looking up the syntax in some cases. If you are new to UNIX its probably worth the purchase. If you are an experienced UNIX professional - find it used to make it a worth-while purchase.

A valuable book for Oracle dbas who are new in unix
This is a book that should be in the pocket of all Oracle dbas
beginners in unix, and specially those fighting with several
flavors of unix.
If you are an experienced oracle dba working with Windows NT
or Open VMS and new in unix, thesebook can help you.
It's reading is easy ç, since the book contains the basics that an oracle dba need to know in order to begin working with unix as soon as possible. ... Read more

Product Description

The world’s #1 shell programming book—now fully updated for Linux and more!

UNIX Shells by Example is the world’s #1 shell programming book, from the world’s #1 shell programming instructor: Ellie Quigley. In UNIX Shells by Example, Fourth Edition, Quigley has thoroughly updated her classic and delivers the information today’s shell programmers need most—including comprehensive coverage of Linux shell programming with bash!

Topics covered: C, Bourne, and Korn Unix shells; grep, sed,and awk utilities; regular expressions; and shell programming. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (49)

Best reference for shell scripting
Of all the computer books I own (I am a UNIX/Linux system administrator so I have a large library), this is the only book that I kept buying the newest edition when it came out (this is the 5th time I have bought the book). The 1st edition and this edition are the only books I have ever worn out. If you write shell scripts this book is a MUST HAVE for your library. The examples are plentiful and well explained. I am currently training a few junior system admins Linux in general and shell scripting. I have come close to ordering them to buy this book.
I admit, I only really use about 1/2 of the book for BASH, SED, and AWK but still, I can not recommend it enough.

Great for review or reference
This book is broad-based in its approach to Unix shells and shell programming, and because it covers so much ground I'm not sure I'd recommend it to new users. However, if you are experienced and don't want to thumb through a dozen different books on Unix, this is the one to own. It has clear and simple examples that will refresh your memory quickly, as well as good illustrations of what is going on as your programs execute. I started out with the 1999 edition of this book, and I've updated as new editions have come along.

If you are a newcomer to Unix, I suggest Unix Programming Environment (Prentice-Hall Software Series). It's an oldie but a goodie and takes you from the ground up. That's really something this book doesn't do so well. Once you finish that book, move on to this one. There is some overlap, but I think the added attention will serve you well if you want to be proficient in shell programming and really know what is going on and how to handle various sets of tasks.

an amazing book
Amazing book, got it in excellent conditions saving a lot from the normal price.

The book is written in an easy and smooth way, giving the reader the choice to start anywhere he prefer, since the book has various sections that can be studied in any order (if you have at keast the basics of unix or linux, otherwise is better to start from the beginning); and i never found a book like this; where i can find the answers in one place, instead of getting 4 different books plus google :)

ultra suggested, in particular for who has courses in unix and shell scripting at the college like me

A Must Have For Shell Programming
An excellent and comprehensive book for unix shells and scripting. Not a tutorial book like just mentioning about shells and their structures, but also shows application of information that it gives. Examples and explanations teach you all the aspects of a command's or utility's behavior.
These give precious hints to the reader.
And the answer of the question in your mind : Yes, one can be a good equipped shell programmer nominee if this book is read throughly and carefully.
As a last note; this book is the number one education source for new product test engineers in my company.

A great intro to UNIX power tools
Had to learn awk for a work assignment, so the natural choice was the O'Riely book. After struggling with it I had realized that as a novice UNIX power tools programmer, I needed a basic-to-intermediate level text with lots of examples. That's where Quigley's came to the rescue.

Some positives about the text are as follows

1, every concept and programming construct is followed by an example
2, the sample data file (to try the different programming techniques against) are repeated multiple times. This saves time and effort and avoids the hassle of flipping back and forth in the book
3, the material has been covered in just the right depth & breadth

The plan going forward is to use "Unix by example" as the stepping stone to advanced awk, sed, and Korn shell programming texts.
The second phase of the plan is to buy, read, and try every example from Quigley's Perl text before investing in Oreily's counterpart text.

All in all, a great introduction to the Unix power tools ... Read more