Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

A keeper
I received a copy of this from the publisher, and boy am I glad I did.It's a wonderful book that's an absolute keeper.

I've done quite a bit of systems level programming with POSIX systems and Linux and I wish that I'd had this book earlier primarily because its descriptions of systems-level programming on Linux are incredibly clear and detailed.Critically, the book is well written and never boring.I found it a pleasure to dip into different sections where I did know the subject (e.g. TCP and sockets) and where I did not (e.g. memory mapped files).

I then passed the book around in my office and a couple of days later got feedback from people that it had been very useful and that people thought it was well worth getting an office copy.

I was worried when the back cover claimed that the book was a 'new classic', but I think it's likely to be justified.It's nicely written and fun to read, and covers topics in depth.The most important thing is that the author has achieved the right balance in his descriptions and is able to explain clearly a huge variety of topics.

An outstandingly good book
"Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" by Richard Stevens (2nd Edition updated by Stephen Rago in 2005) has been THE standard for UNIX system programming since the first edition came out in 1992. It is clear, correct and comprehensive. Another really excellent book is the updated edition of Marc Rochkind's "Advanced UNIX Programming." So it is unexpected that a new UNIX system programming book should come out that stands head and shoulders above the Stevens and Rochkind books, but Michael Kerrisk's "The Linux Programming Interface" does.

Kerrisk's book is more thorough, more comprehensive and just as well written as the Stevens and Rochkind books. It covers over 500 system calls in the SUSv3 and SUSv4 specification in 64 chapters, using 200 example programs, 88 tables, 115 diagrams and 1506 pages. It's a monumental work, and it's really very good. It is now easily THE standard book on Linux/UNIX system programming.

No work, no matter how good, is perfect, and I do have two small niggles, neither of which detract from its 5 star rating. (1) Some chapters have only one exercise. I wish there had been more. But, on the plus side, most chapters have at least one solution to an exercise. And, (2) the only treatment of debugging is a two page appendix on strace(1). I would have like to have had some discussion on the use of systemtap, gdb and other tools in debugging programs that use system calls.

All in all, an outstandingly good book and unreservedly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Need to learn Unix fast? Try a Visual QuickStart!

Thisbest-selling reference’s visual format and step-by-step, task-basedinstructions will have you up and running with Unix software in notime. In this completely updated edition of our best-selling guide to Unix, Second Edition: Visual QuickStart Guide, leading software application experts Deborah S. Ray and Eric J. Rayuse crystal-clear instructions and friendly prose to introduce you toUnix. Filled with step-by-step, task-based instructions and loads ofvisual aids, this book explains how to the most common Unix commands.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

An amazing catalogue of UNIX commands.
The book is fairly blunt, it gives a command and then shows you a simple example of it's use. One of the best ways to learn. Admittedly nothing is covered in any depth, but it provides a great launching point. Worth every cent in my opinion.

UNIX, Third Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide)
I bought this for my husband's personal library.He had checked this out of the library and enjoyed it so much, I was in fear of a large book fine if I didn't just go out and get one for his very own.
Since purchasing, I've had no regrets.He uses it more often than not for references, for something he might have over looked in work related, and just for enjoyment.So was this well worth the purchase?I say - yes.

Excellent Unix Book
This book is great for beginners and as a reference. I use it all the time, since it explains things in an easy fashion way. In addition, one can learn a great deal from reading it. It doesn't get into tedious details, or stuck in theory that does not mean, eventually, anything to the people, like me, that want to get down and dirty. Quick and easy reference book to teach you the basics and more about how to use Unix. What else can we ask for?

What are you waiting for
I was wondering through the Unix maze, untill this small title cleared everything up. A little delight to have. If only I had known it existed, I would not have had my butt kicked from title to title, on craps,who called themselves Unix learning guides.

Excellent book for beginners
I've been using various shell commands I picked up here and there over the past couple years. I decided it was time to buckle down and gain a deeper understanding of the what and the why. After spending a couple of hours with this book, I have the basics solidly under my belt. The writing is clear, concise, and entertaining. I only wish I would have started here instead of picking it up piecemeal (and painfully)via various websites.

I don't know if an experienced user would find it as compelling, but for a newbie, it's a godsend. ... Read more

Product Description
 As Unix spreads its tentacles across users' desktops, more andmore Mac users are starting to pop the hood and learn about theoperating system that's at the root of it all. And there's no betterway to conquer that fear than by consulting this Visual QuickPro Guide.Matisse Enzer, who wrote the first edition of this book, Unix for Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guidehas completely updated this guide to reflect all that's new in Tiger'sversion of Unix. Readers will learn everything they need to know tomake sense of the commands and technical jargon surrounding Unix. Inthe process they'll find out about useful utilities, editing andprinting files, security, and more--all through simple, step-by-stepinstructions that break the learning process into manageable chunks.Throughout, users will find plenty of the tips and visual referencesthat have become the hallmark of Peachpit's popular Visual QuickProGuides. Unix for Mac OS X 10.4: Visual QuickPro Guide is perfect for any Mac user interested in learning about the Unix operating system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

An excellent and easy to follow introduction to UNIX
this book explains all the important basic topic every UNIX user should know, even if she/he does not need to write scripts. In particular, if you have been a UNIX user since a long time, just using the basic commands (ls, cd etc - because at the university/college it was the OS by default and basically you had no choice ;) ) and now want/need to go a little bit further down the road, this is the book to start with. Title could have been "Everything you ever wanted to know about UNIX ... " because it also tells about the little stories behind the commands - origin of names, why, who, when etc. A good book, for sure.

The best Unix primer available for Mac OS X
This is the best primer on Unix for Mac OS X in print. While technically speaking slightly out of date (it doesn't cover Leopard), all the information in it is still valid and applicable to current models (and where there is a difference between Intel Macs and older PowerPC models, Enzer notes it and provides information and instructions for both), and very little apropos of X.5 makes much difference at the command line. Well-organized, Enzer progresses from the simple to the more complex, from the most common to the most specialized. The text is lucid and straightforward (free also of most of the inane, punning humor most computer primers suffer from), and topics are presented thoroughly and in depth, with frequent cross-reference to other sections for amplification and to other print and online resources for greater depth and specialized needs. I read it through, being a recent convert from Mac 9.2.2 (I must be among the last of the hold-outs, though my PowerBook Wallstreet still runs fine!). I now use this book as one of two primary desk references that rest beside my Macs, picking it up when I have a question or need to do something I am unclear on, or simply want to know more about a command, function, or application. It would be great if Enzer updated this book for Leopard, but it still stands up as a solid resource, and should continue to for some time (this is yet another glory of *nix: 15 year old documentation is still useful as the core logic and functionality doesn't change since it was so well designed at the outset, it is simply expanded and adapted to new needs, new environments). If you need to get grounded in Unix on your Mac, this is the book to start with, though you will find it goes well beyond 'dummies' type books (and is clearer and more direct than those as well) and most introductions to remain useful long after you have mastered the basics.

Best Unix book I've found
I've tried many times to find a book that clearly explains Unix in a friendly manner.I should have realized that the Apple ethos was the missing element in all the terse, disjointed treatments I found elsewhere. This book is a dream come true: a book about Unix that is as close to being enjoyable to read as the subject allows.It may not have everything there is to say about unix (I found a few things missing or covered too briefly for my tastes), but the book walks the reader through Unix so gently that I never once felt the blinding frustration that quickly overwhelms me during previous attempts.After this introduction other books (more comprehensive, less humane) can be read as references.Well done!

Excellent, easy to understand. You won't find better...
For those who are new to Unix, never fear, you won't find a better way to start. This book is very clearly written, easy to understand, and covers more than enough of the shell environment to give the user plenty to work with. Buy it! Get the most out of your Mac.

Fantastic
I loved the first edition of this book, but was thrilled when the updated version was released. (The original book was written before Mac OS X adopted the bash shell by default, so many of the examples were out of whack with later releases of the OS).
I use this as my primary Unix reference at work - where we do not use Macs! It is a comprehensive and easy reference.

I recommend this and O'Reilly's Learning Perl as the two best books (especially if you have a Mac at home) to build your professional Unix chops quickly. ... Read more

Product Description
An ideal tutorial and reference for both novice and experienced UNIX users, this new edition brings Sobell's bestseller up-to-date in several key areas, including graphical user interfaces and networking with electronic mail. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

book is in really good shape, only paper is very thick -so book is heavy
book is in really good shape, only paper is very thick -so book is heavy

Unix textbook
An excellent textbook. Clear explanations and then many real world examples. It was recommended by a friend and I, too, recommend it

This will be on my bookshelf for life
This book will no doubt be on the shelf next to my desk for the rest of my life. I have been a Unix/Linux user since 1999 and this is by far the best reference book available. I have specifically bookmarked the SED/AWK, Background, Uniq, and Word Count pages. In fact this book is so cheap when purchased used you could afford to give one as a gift to almost every "computer person" you know. Anyone getting started in Unix/Linux should certainly read this book. Time and time again I pull this book off the shelf for 10 minutes to solve a problem. This is essentially the swiss army knife of IT books.

PGUS saved my life
I was transferred to a remote location and, because help was at least a day away, I became the de facto system manager for a UNIX workstation, with zero UNIX experience.The book saved my life through all kinds of minor and major crises, including three reinstalls of the OS.As soon as the second edition came out, I bought it.I plan to buy the third edition, also, even though I now work in a location where we have good support.
As the other reviewers have said, the book nurses you along in the beginning, and continues to be useful as you learn.

Still my favorite reference
I agree with many of the reviewers (esprpclark), in saying that this is a wonderful introductory book. I can further add that I have owned this book for 5+ years and it is still the reference I refer to most often. I believe, a particular strength of Sobell's book is that it was useful to a newbie and is still useful at the sys admin level. ... Read more

Product Description
Ideal for students with little or no computer experience, this lab manual and learning tool is filled with skill-building exercises, materials lists and set-up instructions, step-by-step lab scenarios, and clear explanations. And, it's written by a leading UNIX and Linux curriculum developer and instructor, making it perfect for both learning -- and teaching -- the basics. ... Read more

Product Description
Ideal for UNIX users who hunger for technical--yet accessible--information,UNIX Power Tools consists of tips, tricks, concepts, and freeware (CD-ROMincluded). It also covers add-on utilities and how to take advantage ofclever features in the most popular UNIX utilities. This is a browser's book...like a magazine that you don't read from start to finish, but leaf through repeatedly until you realize that you've read it all. You'll find articles abstracted from O'Reilly Nutshell Handbooks(R), new information that highlights program "tricks" and "gotchas," tips posted to the Net over the years, and other accumulated wisdom.The goal of UNIX Power Tools is to help you think creatively about UNIX and get you to the point where you can analyze your own problems. Your own solutions won't be far behind.Amazon.com Review
UNIX documentation typically comes in one of two flavors: atone extreme, light and fluffy books that assume you are a terrified PCuser who needs to learn enough UNIX to get by at work, or massive andobscure tomes written for gurus, and indistinguishable fromthe most incomprehensible man pages.

This UNIX book, in contrast, assumes that you are basically acompetent and intelligent individual, and that you are sufficientlysecure in your self-image at work that you simply want to get thingsdone, simply, by taking advantage of the real power of UNIX without having to learn"man-speak". It doesn't skimp on clear introductions andoverviews, but the focus of the book is on practical examples of themost useful UNIX commands and utilities. A minor quibble: the enclosedCD-ROM is a bit heavy with utilities and packages that are probablyalready resident on your UNIX system (like Perl, Emacs, pbmplus), butit does contain scripts that are used throughout the book and thatyou'd probably rather not type in. Highlyrecommended for anyone who really wants to use UNIX, and not justcower or pose. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

I like this book
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3SQEDKV75C9PX This book is not an introduction to Unix or a tutorial about using Unix. For users who are comfortable with the basics this book offers a hundreds of tips and techniques how to work faster,safer and much better with Unix and some good Unix tools.
This is a must have book !

Jam packed with goodies!
This is one of the greatest computer books I've ever owned.

If you are a beginner, you can open this book, and find all kinds of great tools and techniques you never knew about before.Everything is described briefly, in just a page or two, so you can immediately get something out of it.If you are more advanced, you will find yourself flipping through pages, saying, "Yes, I knew that.Yes, I knew that.Oh, I didn't know that!"

This book is jam packed with tips, techniques and tutorials.If you're a serious UNIX user or shell programmer, this is an extremely handy book to have around.It's only negative might be that there is just so much in here, it is sometimes overwhelming.On the up side, there is an excellent index at the back.

An easy to follow, brick sized book
This book is the best investment I have made and it applies to a lot of things you'd want to do, but never have thought about. 'Hyperlinked' contents point to other parts of the book if you need to know more isreally a cool concept. It my Linux companion. I also used it to help thoseHP admins on some issues.

The ultimate Unix book.
If you're an experienced Unix administrator or advanced Unix user, this is the book to have. The book goes one step beyond the usual books and goes into detail about getting things done in Unix.

In particular there is alot of info here on shell scripting showing the differences between theKorn, Bourne and C shells.

What is good about this book is that it' notjust a refernce but shows you the steps in getting really difficult thingsdone. ... Read more

Product Description
Authoritative reference for programmers and system architects interested in building networked and distributed applications for UNIX System V. DLC: Operating systems (Computers) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great book!! Start here, then read Stevens.
This book and "Practical UNIX Programming" by Kay A. Robbins are a better place to start for UNIX programming than the Stevens' books. Once you complete this book, you can move on to Stevens.

This book deserves your attention if you are learning UNIX
I have the 9th edition of this book.The author definitely knows how to teach UNIX programming.If you are busy at work for Java, ActiveX, C++ like me, you will appreciate its concise while accurate content to get youstarted. ... Read more

Product Description
UNIX Primer Plus begins by placing Unix in a technical and historical context. The book then quickly walks you through the basics of the Unix operating system: logging in, passwords, and initial prompts. After the basics, you are taught about various Unix Editors, files and directories, and Mail. Panel drawings throughout the book help you understand concepts better, and exercises at the end of each chapter reinforce what you have learned in the chapter. Topics include email, files and directories, the vi. screen editor, the ex line editor, the emacs editor, information processing, and advanced editing techniques. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Ann Arbor is wrong
Well for the person who stated that the command line syntax in this book is incorrect, is completely wrong for the fact that Solaris is pretty much Suns's version of unix.She is correct about them not working on Solaris though. This book is excellent and well indepth.If you are looking for a great place to begin your foundation on unix, this is it.But I would recommend using it on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HP UX, and a few others, Solaris is not recommended

avoid
Check out the vi search and replace commands they use. The examples. Try using them on Solaris. Notice how they don't work & are completely wrong?

Great book for the beginner and intermediate alike
I use this book to teach Unix Introduction at a community college.

It is one of the best books that I have found that teach the concepts of UNIX as well as providing a great overview of UNIX.

I would suggest this book toANYBODY who wanted to get a firm foundation of the UNIX operating system.

not a bad exercise for a unix newbie
as a unix newbie(job forced me into it) if found working thru the exercises a very helpful drill and practice.I'd recomend it to any new unix user.It was much easier than plowing thru man pages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

a useful book.
I do like this book for all things it show to us.. Especially there are treated in a very good order the way how to be connected in a few days with the most usefull commands of Unix. But, the editing joe command not exist./however really good book..

Good overview for the experienced user
the book is fine for people in a course studying the Unix OS. For an end user just wanting to get their feet wet it is a little advanced. I found the general information to be helpful but a little more explaination wouldbe needed. Overall it is well laid out but too advanced.

Have u got depressed from UNIX ? TRY THIS
I was one of the guys who thought that UNIX is such an operating systems that's so difficult to understand and work with as a Network OS. I even was disturbed in choosing the NOS that I should work with. Lots of peopleadvised not to use unix because of its difficulties in understandingalthough its powerfull capabilities. But when I began reading this book, Iknew that all of those ideas were rubbish. Although it was writen since1992, but I guess they replaced 8 by 2 -> 1998 .. GO FOR IT.

Learn Unix the easy way
This book teaches you UNIX in a very well organized fashion. Unlike many UNIX books that claim teaching UNIX through a light coverage of the basic commands and concepts, this book makes a balanced coverage between dailynormal user needs and advanced system concepts in a very clear andunderstandable language.The examples are very well written and the coverageof concepts such as shell programming or the different system utilitiesthough not very much detailed but enough to put you on track. As areference, I keep it always beside when I get stuck in poorly written oroverly detailed manpages. I don't know if this book is very well known inthe UNIX community but for all whom I recommended this book, it was a greatdelight.

A great book!
This was not the suggested text for a systems programming course I took, but thank god I used it anyway! The book is very well written in clear, easy-to-understand language (unlike the suggested text). The sample source code really clarifies the concepts he covers. I got to grips with UNIX quickly with Mr Glass' book. I would heartily recommend it to students and users. ... Read more

Product Description
The most complete guide available on the practical applications of UNIX Threads—one of the most exciting breakthroughs in advanced computing. The first part covers multiprocessing and multithreading then progresses to more difficult programming problems. Details the application programming interface with numerous C language examples. Includes reference material essential to support the programming principles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good book but no online source
very good book on Thread programming for beginners as well as advance developers. But without the online software its doing a dis-service to the book !

The book gives the web site which has the software but that's incorrect.

Concepts are very well covered
Well written book with lot of details. If a CD was included or if a web site was given to find the source code it would have been better.

Where's the source code?
Despite the fact that this book covered the subject at a level I found to be appropriate, the lack of source code availability severely restricts the usefulness of this book. In this day and age, not providing the source codeis inexcusable. There are other equally good sources of information on thissubject, source code included.

OK, but too low-level. Source for examples NOT available!
Source code for the examples is NOT available via the Internet, as the book states. Publisher/Author acknowledges this. This book is geared more toward systems/low-level programming use of UNIX threads rather than application level use of threads. This book is written on an advanced level. It does provide thorough explanations of the principles of threads programming. ... Read more

Product Description
This handbook has become well known as clear, concise and readable resource for the technically oriented UNIX user who doesn't want to wade through verbose tutorials, but who isn't already an expert. The CD contains all the proven features of the book in hypertext format, and includes software so users can set up their own UNIX system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Quick reference for the experienced
I have used this book as a reference time and time again, and own both the first and second editions.This is not an "idiot's guide to UNIX," nor is it a reprint of man pages.It falls somewhere in between, and seems to be aimed at technical professionals who find themselves in a variety of operating systems at a moments notice such as Digital Unix (formerly OSF/1), Linux, Solaris, and AIX.You name it, I've been there.

This book won't hold your hand and teach you what a file or directory is.It is not a tutorial.It is assumed that you know the basics.I have referred to this book on numerous occasions when I had to write CGI scripts, or assigned to quick and dirty projects involving some flavor of UNIX, or porting applications to UNIX from Windows/Win-32.

So, if you are like me, and don't want to spend a few hours plowing through a UNIX man pages just to remember the syntax of gzip, tar, or locating a command you used before and don't really remember what it was, this book is for you.

Great resource for UNIX neophytes
My main experience is in Microsoft technologies and one day I cautiously embarked on a UNIX learning adventure, so to speak.
I purchased this book for a Beginning UNIX course, since it was a required course material. I was surprised by how well this book is structured and how easily it can be used as reference. It's impossible to fit all that is UNIX into 900 pages of text, although the author provided more than enough information for this UNIX novice.

"UNIX for the Impatient" patiently takes you through the most rudimentary topics like shells, kernel, and file permissions to the utilities, editors, and scripting. The section on mailers and newsreaders was most interesting to me, since I work with the Microsoft-based messaging applications.

The best thing - after reading this book, I was able to use various funky terms like "grep", "Emacs", "chmod" and "kill" which are usually not understood by the rest of the uninitiated MCSEs.

One of the best UNIX books I've seen
This book is a wonderful resource for someone comfortable with computers but new to UNIX.It covers a lot of introductory topics with minimum wasted space.The authors don't go into any single subject too deeply, so it's not overwhelming to someone who just needs to get around on a UNIX system, but it's nonetheless very information-rich, and by the end of the book they cover some surprisingly complex topics.

I highly recommend this book to anyone starting off in UNIX, be it user or sysadmin.

Ideal quick reference for an experienced IT professional
If you just need to get something done--using Emacs to write some C++, or zipping up some files on a Unix box and ftp'ing them somewhere else--then this is the book you need.The authors assume that you know what a file,or a directory, or a compiler is.The target audience is someone for whomUnix is the third or fourth (or more) operating system they've had to workwith.

The book is indexed by function, not just by command.For example,suppose you want to compress a bunch of files.Looking up compress takesyou to p.140; reading the possibilities you soon discover that gzip and tarare probably the programs you want to use.You can check out tar anddiscover the alternatives, cpio and pax, and find out which might be mostportable in your situation.

I use this book for several projects at aclient site where I had to write Perl and Tcl/Tk apps.I found itinvaluable for everything from help with Emacs to locating utilities.

Ishould also add that the book is written very much in the style of areference manual, *NOT* of a tutorial or guide.You should be comfortablewith digging in reference books before you buy this, or you might find it afrustrating book to work with.I think most programmers pick up this skillvery quickly, so I think this will exclude mostly beginners.

Great for the not-quite-beginner
This is a great book, but it's not for the Unix novice.For them, there's Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours.After you get through that, buy this book.I'm a 20-year mainframe veteran who last saw Unix in college,before it had nice things like shell scripts.This book was overwhelmingwhen I first returned to the Unix world; however, after a littleexperience, this book is an easy and incredibly informative read. ... Read more

Product Description
Offering accumulated observations of interviews with hundreds of job candidates, these books provide useful insights into which characteristics make a good IT professional. These handy guides each have a complete set of job interview questions and provide a practical method for accurately assessing the technical abilities of job candidates. The personality characteristics of successful IT professionals are listed and tips for identifying candidates with the right demeanor are included. Methods for evaluating academic and work histories are described as well. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Conducting the UNIX Job Interview: IT Manager Guide with UNIX Interview Questions (IT Job Interview series)
I bought this book because I get job interview anxiety and several interviews coming up.The book I really wanted on Amazon for IT UNIX technical interviews was backordered.So I orderd this book instead and used the book to try and understand how I might be interviewed.The first part of the book is silly nonsense and you can skip past it and go directly to the meat of the interview questions.I found that most of the questions I was asked in several interviews were in this book.I was able to have the confidence going into the interview to not have my brain freeze up like I normally do when faced with several IT staff seated across from me waiting for an answer.I got three job offers and I had a hard time deciding which one to take!

Great and has some good interview questions
I went through this book quickly. Reading the first few pages I have not seen great differences between this book and the other one on Oracle job interview. The only part of this book that I found very useful is the interview questions. The "SYSADMIN" job interview questions are well-written.

Great UNIX and Linux job interview questions and answers

This is an excellent book for any IT manager who needs to find a unix systems administrator or Linux systems administrator.I was impressed with the coverage for the pre-interview stages and how you can identify those job candidates that are most-likely-to-succeed in the job role.

Better still, I was impressed with the UNIX job interview questions and Linux interview questions and answers.The job interview questions are designed for a telephone interview, and the IT manager can just ask the questions and compare the responses to the "ideal" answer.

Overall, this book is a real timesaver for anyone hiring a UNIX SA or a Linux System Administrator.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A good "time saver"
I've been using UNIX on and off for a couple of years, but didn't systematically learn the powerful C shell tricks. This little book just fits in for this task: truely a "learn it in 24 hours" type (if you have some experience) --- don't call it that name in the 2nd edition though! ---It also solved some of my mysteries about why certain commands are used in that way.

Overall this is a good book. It can save you a lot of time, both from learning C Shell AND from work in using C shell. One thing could be added: a summery of all the commands.

Good information, but poor presentation
This book contains a lot of good information.I learned a great deal.However, it contains quite a few typographical errors which could have fooled me if I hadn't already had a basic knowledge of the C shell.Italso uses typefaces which make it difficult to understand.For instance,the reader cannot distinguish the forward single quote (') from thebackward single quote (`) in the typeface used throughout the book.Thisdifference is critical given the context!It needs another printing aftera lot of proofreading and reformatting. ... Read more

Product Description
Taking a broad view of distributed programming within a UNIX enivronment, this guide explains, compares, and contrasts the underlying support offered by UNIX for manipulating processes for inter-process communication. It covers a wide range of issues--from simple pipes to traditional client/server network applications to the exploitation of true concurrency and parallelism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

10 years on and still refering to this book
I originally bought this book back in 1997 and used it to aid my development into writing client server (mostly server) applications running under UNIX.

This book has been heavily used, and many of the server applications I wrote under unix (up until working with windows 3 years ago) using examples from the book on Signals, Pipes and Sockets (while also using Avanced Unix Programming).

Today I dusted off the book as I wanted to write a quick TCP server program using Winsock. I took the example from the book in Sockets and with a couple of very minor tweaks and the stuff to setup winsock I wrote a very simple windows console server application.

OK, some of the commands, like close is closesocket, have changed for windows BUT the majority of code came from the book. This book is still aiding me even today.

This maybe an old book but well worth that cost (and these days its a fraction of the cost I bought it for).

It is indeed easy and well defined
Chris Brown has written a clear book on the Distributed Progrmming under the UNIX environment. When I started to look into this subject I faced so many barriers cause of lack of clarity and easiness of the other books andmaterials covering this subject. I have to admit also that I sometimesdecided to give the whole thing up. Fortunately, I came across this bookand it revived my hope. It is really a good book to start with and deservesof studying. Particular attention should be paid on Sockets. I wouldhowever suggest some matterials on the web which could be covered beforereading this book. Many examples have worked for me. The way he providesthe code examples (which are in C) is also comprehensive and anyone withexperience in C should not have problems with understanding them. I would,however, recommend other books (such as Stevens Unix Network Programmingand Advanced Programming under the UNIX environment as well as Comer's and Steven's Internetworkingwith TCP/IP III) to read as a flow-up manuals. One should also testavailable code (the coplete ones) to have some hands on experience on thesubject. Some of the thing did not seem consistent with the author to me.

Excellent introduction, but not the deepest book.
This book has very nice explanations. Sometimes they almost seem too simple, but you can count on it not being over your head.It has lots of illustrations and is fairly easy to read.I think the author takes acomplex topic and explains it very, very well.It's also a lot shorterthan some of the books by W. Richard Stevens.Both this book and Stevens's"UNIX Network Programming" are too old to include POSIXsemaphores. If you get your hands on a book on UNIX distributedprogramming, look in the index for "sem_init" or posix to see ifit has the latest technology.I think everyone who programs in a unixenvironment should read this book to get a broad introduction to thistopic.If you have the time to read 2 books on this topic, I recommendthis one 1st to understand the concepts and another book with more examplesto get more ideas for coding.

Perfect guide to UNIX distributed programming for beginners
This book has helped me a lot with my assignments in a graduatedistributed systems course. Even if you are not familiar with UNIXdistributed programming, after reading this book, you will start writingexcellent programs for UNIX distributed environment. (You need to befamiliar with programming in C) ... Read more

Product Description
Now, the #1 guide to Oracle tuning on UNIX platforms has been thoroughly updated for Oracle 8i. Oracle Senior Performance Engineer Ahmed Alomari covers every relevant optimization technique for every leading application and development approach -- including Web-centered development! Alomari presents in-depth coverage of both OLTP and OLAP/DSS applications, covering optimization of the UNIX kernel, memory, processors and I/O, key benchmarking and lifecycle issues, and all these major Oracle8/8i performance enhancements: Partitioning, star queries, parallel DML, the Connection Manager, connection pooling, multiple buffer pools, Parallel query enhancements, I/O slaves, multiple DBWR processes, optimizer and PRO*C enhancements, and more. Discover Oracle8/8i and UNIX installation options that supercharge performance. Learn new techniques for optimizing object-relational databases. Ruthlessly eliminate the bottlenecks in your SQL code. No matter how long you've been running Oracle and UNIX, you'll run them faster -- and smarter -- with Oracle8i & UNIX Performance Tuning. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Kind of random
A weird book. Bit outdated, some semi helpful tips included in the text. Not a bad buy for the money. It looks cool on my desk too!

The book ROCKS!
The book title is 8i and Unix Performance Tuning. The year is 2005. You might think the book is not applicable these days because of the "8i". Not true.

I have been working in Oracle for several years. I have administered Oracle on Windows. I have worked on Unix and have done some Oracle administration. I know commands like ls, find, vi,...But I learnt a LOT from this book on Unix side of Oracle performance tuning. I wish I had read this book few years ago when our databases started to have big IO problems. If I had, I now realize that I would have solved the problems rather than our company paying $$$ to a high priced consultant.

The book covers the Unix side of Oracle very well, like no other book does. There are so many good books out in the market for Oracle, but not many (infact none) that I know of for Oracle/Unix combo, given that most serious Oracle installations are on Unix.

If you are new to administering Oracle on Unix, please read this book before you jump in (the Unix part - first 150 pages). You may learn new things even if you are experienced, depending on your level of knowledge. It was a tough read for me, but I did it. It gives basics of Unix kernel, memory and processor tuning, configuring and tuning I/O in Unix.

An update of the book that covers 9i/10g part of Oracle would be better. And also an update of the storage systems including modern storages like SAN, NAS etc. would be great. An explanation on basics of things like shared memory segment parameters (like SHMMAX, SHMMIN,.. Why is it that no oracle book covers them?), semaphores, and **anything** UNIX for Oracle will be great too.(how about Linux?)

I hope Ahmed reads this review :)

Real world Oracle Tuning Book...
The book covers Oracle,Unix and Hardware issues in equal depth. It is very much detailed (though there are very few errors) and better than most of the Oracle Tuning books.

Great for Indepth Oracle tuning on UNIX
This is the only book that covers indepth tuning for Oracle databases in UNIX environments. The author cover tuning from a hardware, OS perspective as well as OLTP and DSS. This edition is better than the previous two. Topics convered include Volume Management, RAID, CPU, Memory for UNIX and all aspects of Oracle tuning. I recommend this book for experienced administrators (UNIX Admins and Oracle DBAs) because the author assumes good knowledge of Oracle architecture.

Good overview for Oracle on Unix
This book is an excellent overview of how the Oracle RDBMS runs on the various flavors of the Unix operating system.Knowledgeable Oracle DBA's will take away many performance tuning tips with a complete understanding of why, when, and how to implement.The first two chapters on The Unix Kernel and Paging/Swapping should be required reading for anyone administering Oracle on Unix. ... Read more

Product Description
Unlike so many books that focus on how to use Linux, Linux and the Unix Philosophy explores the "way of thinking that is Linux" and why Linux is a superior implementation of this highly capable operating system.

This book is a revision and expansion of a computer science classic. Every chapter has been thoroughly updated with Linux coverage.

Linux and the Unix Philosophy falls squarely between the "softer" texts on iterative software design and project management andthe "how-to" technical texts. Thus far, no one has come out with a book that addresses this topic, either in the Unix space or the Linux space. Linux and the Unix Philosophy covers the same ground as the first edition, while it also presents bold new ideas about Linux and Open Source.

· Concise list of philosophy tenets makes it a handy quick reference
· Anecdotal examples personalize the book for the reader
· Conversational style makes it easy and joyful to read ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Everyone is on a learning curve
The author was a programmer before, so in writing this book, he draw both from his personal experience and his observation to depict the software world.

I think this is more of a practice and opinion book rather than "Philosophy" book, however I have to agree with him in most cases.

For example, here is Mike Gancarz's line of thinking:

1. Hard to get the s/w design right at the first place, no matter who.
2. So it's better to write a short specs without considering all factors first.
3. Build a prototype to test the assumptions
4. Use an iterative test/rewrite process until you get it right
5. Conclusion: Unix evolved from a prototype.

In case you are curious, here are the 9 tenets of Unix/Linux:

1. Small is beautiful.
2. Make each program do one thing well.
3. Build a prototype as soon as possible.
4. Choose portability over efficiency.
5. Store data in flat text files.
6. Use software leverage to your advantage.
7. Use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability.
8. Avoid captive user interfaces.
9. Make every program a filter.

Mike Gancarz told a story like this when he argues "Good programmers write good code; great programmers borrow good code".

"I recall a less-than-top-notch software engineer who couldn't program his way out of a paper bag. He had a knack, however, for knitting lots of little modules together. He hardly ever wrote any of them himself, though. He would just fish around in the system's directories and source code repositories all day long, sniffing for routines he could string together to make a complete program. Heaven forbid that he should have to write any code. Oddly enough, it wasn't long before management recognized him as an outstanding software engineer, someone who could deliver projects on time and within budget. Most of his peers never realized that he had difficulty writing even a rudimentary sort routine. Nevertheless, he became enormously successful by simply using whatever resources were available to him."

If this is not clear enough, Mike also drew analogies between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and Elvis. The book is full of inspiring stories to reveal software engineers' tendencies and to correct their mindsets.

Learning Linux is an incredible intelligent investment
If you're considering purchasing this book - let me make this easy. At sixteen years old (1986) I was using DOS with my younger brother on an IBM PC. All I got were beeps and control characters.I had no mentors that understood DOS better than me.Unix had been cooking for 16 years!Why couldn't Unix have been ported to the PC? Fast forward ten years and I had a Bachelor's in Computer Information Systems and I earned a living using MVS/JCL/COBOL II/DB2/CICS/ROSCOE/FILEAID.It took me days to slice and dice text files with JCL/FILEAID - it was like using a screw driver to remove nails.I still remember these JCL and Fileaid syntax.Unix would have made these tasks child's play.Today, my JCL and Fileaid syntax knowledge is worthless.If I'd learned grep awk instead - my skillset would be highly prized for the foreseeable future!In short, learning Unix/Linux syntax is an awesome investment.Why?In case you didn't know Unix/Linux will be going strong when your children's children are dead!This book actually made me sad.Sad that I was 37 years old before I encountered a Mike Gancarz's book that tells the Unix/Linux narrative.If only I'd gotten the message sooner when my mind was a sponge - I'd be so much farther along today!So here goes.If you're an old fart - maybe you should forget Linux - keep paying Microsoft a small fortune to re-badge their OS every 5-7 years.This book will make you see things from a brotherhood perspective.Your brothers want you to use their OS free.Yeah I want more Linux games too.Give them time.But in the mean time invest some time in learning the command line.I swear to you that Linux is logical, and even approachable, regardless how cryptic the command-line flags look at first.Every minute you invest in learning Linux can be passed-on to your kids, grandkids, & so on.Linux is eternal.This book tells you nothing of the syntax but you'll learn the Unix/Linux mindset.I skimmed at parts, but this is a necessary first step.This is where you should start your journey to learn Linux.I share your pain.Chin up - we're in this together.

compatible cultures
Often you can consider unix and linux to be interchangeable. The common linux commands have the same names as their earlier unix counterparts. And, gosh, a linux system overall is really not so different from a unix box. Gancorz explains this in detail. He discusses similarities and differences. The biggest of the latter being that each unix is a proprietary operating system. But even before linux began, many unix shell scripts and commands had migrated to most other unixes. The lesson here is that there really isn't a big culture shock in going from one to the other.

There is a section in the book advocating storing data in flat text files, as opposed to some binary format. Hear, hear! Though the book could have added several remarks to further strengthen the case. XML has been widely adopted, in no small wise because it is expressed as text. Ditto for HTML. The easy reading and editing of HTML also helped push its success.

Another section talks about how often portability is more important than efficiency. As in a shell script that is more portable than a slightly faster C executable, which produces the equivalent output. Just like the use of Java byte codes, versus native binaries.

Gancarz is a philosopher
* * * * *

Five stars for "Linux and the Unix Philosophy" because foremost it is an excellent discussion of the importance of the Open Source revolution.

Also, what this text does is not to repeat the basic Unix design's principles e.g. 'everything in Unix is a file' e.t.c., but instead it focuses in some inspiring and innovative approaches to software engineering, mostly applied in the GNU/Linux world.

It finaly proves in many ways the superiority of GNU/Linux - and Unix in general - in contrast to the other "desktop" systems.

One thing I enjoyed the most is the parallelism between some Unix tenets and corresponding real life examples. Having read a lot of texts about Unix and Open Source Software I deeply recommend this book.

Brilliant Read
Few books can really do a proper job of talking about philosophy vis-a-vis software development. Mike Gancarz finally delivers--and wonderfully--on such an attempt. It can not only broaden your mind, but also improve the quality of the software you develop (if you're a programmer).

You needn't necessarily be a programmer to appreciate this book, there is no code or assumption that you have any development skills whatsoever. You should at least really appreciate software systems as works of architecture. I'll leave it at that.

My *only* criticism is that at times I wasn't quite in tune with the author's sense of humor, but that's my only criticism.

I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was the first and only approved reference on UNIX System V Release 4.0 internals. It responds to the hundreds of requests for solutions to the exercises. The solutions are complete and full explanations with appropriate examples of code offering real value. More than simple answers, the Solutions offer insight and practical information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Good book to learn UNIX internals
I purchased this book recently. Though a little outdated, the concepts covered in this book are invaluable for anyone who wants to understand UNIX internals. I would also recommend Maurice Bach Design of the UNIX Operating System (Prentice Hall Software Series)

Excellent book on UNIX internals.
Excellent book on UNIX internals. Somewhat confusing at places. But still a good read for any CS student or programmer.

Highly Precious Book
Kinndly arrange to send the info for purchase this book
within india , city and location OR Bookseller address
also how it will be purchased thru the Cheque /DD
Please tell me i will Go for it at any cost

Highly Precious Book for me
Arrange the information for me to purchase the Magic Garden
from india on net

The Magic of UNIX is completely explained
The entire UNIX OS is expalined in a cogent manner to be understood completely. For any serious kernel writers this book is a great assert to understand the mysterious kernel.Great book to keep in hand. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (13)

Good book
Maybe the comparission between bash features and python features are not very good.

When Autor try to demostrate python is better, he give some bad examples.

Seems like Autor doesn't like bash syntax. For various tasks bash is really better, because it was dessign for do it.

Later, the book is improved and give you some very good tips

Got me hooked on Python
I felt this was a much better book for me than two other Oreilly titles for picking up Python.That being said, I do believe having a background in another language (Perl/Bash/etc.) and being a Linux/*nix admin is required to get the most from it.

It gave great examples that made practical sense and covered a ton of topics.

My only knocks would be I wish the iPython chapter was not included and the final chapter "Pragmatic Examples" was extended.

If you have never used Perl, or another language, the intro section may not be enough to get you to follow along - that being said, most admins I'm sure have already been exposed to a language of some sort.

Not a bad book at all, but it didn't inspire me either
I have four Python books on my shelf. I like the language, at least in theory. It is easy to read, clear, and powerful. In practice, I really don't program much. I was hoping that this book might push me over the edge from writing shell and PHP scripts for my simple needs into Python land. So many of my friends love the language.

I read the book this week. There are a lot of great ideas in there that would be useful for a sysadmin. The examples chosen are generally practical and useful. I was a bit disappointed by the occasional typographical or capitalization error, especially in code examples and discussion, which are not uncommon in first edition books, but are generally uncommon from O'Reilly books. I also found the early emphasis on iPython to be a bit excessive.

This is a little shorter than my usual review, mainly because I can't think of much else to say about the text. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. A sysadmin who is motivated to use Python will find it useful as a foundation. A veteran Python programmer who wants to use the language for systems administration will probably find the book filled with stuff they could have figured out anyway. I wanted to love the book, but I didn't. I didn't hate the book, either. I just feel a bit "meh" about it.

A good book with some typos
I recently got my hands on a copy of "Python for Unix and Linux System Administration". After reading it, I felt the time I've invested in reading it was well spent. The author introduced the reader to many different situations where python would help make their lives as system administrators easier, without confusing the reader with some complex forms or statements. My feeling is that this book is aimed at people who want to use Python to solve their problems quickly and efficiently, but only have a limited experience with the language - and the books fits that purpose well with its rather superficial approach that the reader can later extend later on with various available resources. It would only be fair that I too mention some of the shortcomings that I noticed while reading this book.

Pros:
1) The author introduces the reader to ways that Python can be used.
2) Most of the time there will be more than one way to accomplish a task. The author at times presents a scenario and showed the reader how to do the same task with different modules. This places the choice of which to use back where it belongs, with the reader.
3) The book has a website (most do these days) where the code examples can be downloaded. http://py4sa.appspot.com/

Cons:
1) More time was spent on iPython than was really needed.
2) The case of a word is important in Python. For instance "import Sys" and "import sys" are two completely different things. There were quite a few occasions where a module name was used as the first word in the sentence and because of that it was capitalized.
3) There was once instance that I saw where a script example had no indentation at all. Trying to run it would have resulted in complete failure.
4) It would have been nice if the script examples were named instead of leaving it to the reader to figure it out based on the imports used in another example.

When all is said and done I think I would recommend the book to others if I knew that they had at least some background with Python. And I would highly recommend that they check the addendum and errata pages.

Examples aren't working
The example scripts in the PDF don't always work and have errors. Check out this snippet from page 210 of the PDF:

def create_checksum(path):
"""
Reads in file. Creates checksum of file line by line.
Returns complete checksum total for file.
"""
fp = open(path)
checksum = hashlib.md5()
while True:
buffer = fp.read(8192)
if not buffer:break
checksum.update(buffer)
fp.close()
checksum = checksum.digest()
return checksum
Here is an iterative example that uses this function with IPython to compare two files:
In [2]: from checksum import createChecksum

In [3]: if createChecksum("image1") == createChecksum("image2"):
...: print "True"
...:
...:
True
In [5]: if createChecksum("image1") == createChecksum("image_unique"):
print "True"
...:
...:

The first example defines create_checksum and the second calls createChecksum. But that's not all, the indentation is off and there is no main method in the first example. I'm spending more time figuring out why the examples don't work than learning Python. If you like proof reading and troubleshooting syntax, this is the book for you.

The book is supposed to have an image of all the scripts somewhere but there is not link in the PDF. At least not in the first 200 pages. ... Read more

Product Description
An extended reference guide and glossary covering not only all UNIX commands but 3,000 actual examples for those commands—one for each variation. Features a unique organization with a built-in keyword dictionary, a cross-reference section for every command and other useful information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

An essential book in any UNIX library
I am a user of BSD UNIX and this book is the most important text purchase I have made.Easy to follow, concise and with excellent descriptions, it is written in such a way for users to find solutions to their problems quickly and easily.U&XCC has excellent appendices and a generous, well written index.NEW USERS... if you are frustrated by using the Man pages, this book is the answer, the commands are all here, all 2200++ of them.Higher level users will find this text invaluable.The front cover perfectly describes what this brilliant book is.

I bought U&XCC on the strength of the other reviews and I'm not disappointed, I wish I had known about it earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time.I have already found answers to problems and I've only had the book a short while.U&XCC makes using the shell even more interesting and it encourages you to try more sophisticated commands than you would otherwise normally think of using.Far more useful and flexible than just the "point and click" restrictions of a GUI environment.Combine U&XCC with a book on scripting and you will have a great reference base.

A credit to it's authors; if anyone is wondering why this masterpiece has not been updated, the answer may be found on page vii under the Acknowledgments paragraph.U&XCC is serving as a testament to one of the authors and 16 years after the book's release, it's age has not diminished it's brilliance.

Unique among UNIX books, even if it does need updating
There are plenty of books that will tell you how to write UNIX scripts, and there are plenty of books on the UNIX operating system itself. This book is unique because it gives you building material for those scripts. It is basically a flavor-neutral listing of UNIX and X commands along with their options and a brief description of how to use these commands along with examples. Everyone knows about grep, awk, and sed, but if you need a wider vocabulary of UNIX commands for a script, look no further. Along with the grep Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)), it is one of my most useful UNIX reference books.

It does need updating, but after fifteen years it is still one of the most useful books in the UNIX section of my technical library. Highly recommended.

Higher Level Computing
This book is great when working with various platforms like I do in Customer Support. The only problem is they have to update it from 1994 to include more and/or less terms and their definitions. Otherwise most of the terminology is good, accurate and concise when one is trying to work with scripting or just using the commands in the book. Otherwise, an excellent book. I hope they come up eventually with an update on it.

Great UNIX reference
If you want to do something in UNIX this book has the command. It won't hold your hand and teach you unix step by step, but it is an excellent reference. The book lists zillions of commands - from common to obscure - and clearly explains what they do (in different flavors even). Anyoneworking with UNIX should have a copy.

My most valuable and most used UNIX book, five years running
This is my most valuable UNIX book.The real-life examples, both stand-alone commandsand piped-together commands always come though when I don't remember exactly how to do something.The keyword index is groupedby functional categories, so, if you know that you want to do "jobcontrol" and not a "printing" command, then you are 80% ofthe way to finding the command that you want in the index. The authors didthe work, so I don't have to. What a great, great book for anyone dealingwith UNIX. ... Read more

Product Description
An extended reference guide and glossary covering not only all UNIX commands but 3,000 actual examples for those commands—one for each variation. Features a unique organization with a built-in keyword dictionary, a cross-reference section for every command and other useful information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

An essential book in any UNIX library
I am a user of BSD UNIX and this book is the most important text purchase I have made.Easy to follow, concise and with excellent descriptions, it is written in such a way for users to find solutions to their problems quickly and easily.U&XCC has excellent appendices and a generous, well written index.NEW USERS... if you are frustrated by using the Man pages, this book is the answer, the commands are all here, all 2200++ of them.Higher level users will find this text invaluable.The front cover perfectly describes what this brilliant book is.

I bought U&XCC on the strength of the other reviews and I'm not disappointed, I wish I had known about it earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time.I have already found answers to problems and I've only had the book a short while.U&XCC makes using the shell even more interesting and it encourages you to try more sophisticated commands than you would otherwise normally think of using.Far more useful and flexible than just the "point and click" restrictions of a GUI environment.Combine U&XCC with a book on scripting and you will have a great reference base.

A credit to it's authors; if anyone is wondering why this masterpiece has not been updated, the answer may be found on page vii under the Acknowledgments paragraph.U&XCC is serving as a testament to one of the authors and 16 years after the book's release, it's age has not diminished it's brilliance.

Unique among UNIX books, even if it does need updating
There are plenty of books that will tell you how to write UNIX scripts, and there are plenty of books on the UNIX operating system itself. This book is unique because it gives you building material for those scripts. It is basically a flavor-neutral listing of UNIX and X commands along with their options and a brief description of how to use these commands along with examples. Everyone knows about grep, awk, and sed, but if you need a wider vocabulary of UNIX commands for a script, look no further. Along with the grep Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)), it is one of my most useful UNIX reference books.

It does need updating, but after fifteen years it is still one of the most useful books in the UNIX section of my technical library. Highly recommended.

Higher Level Computing
This book is great when working with various platforms like I do in Customer Support. The only problem is they have to update it from 1994 to include more and/or less terms and their definitions. Otherwise most of the terminology is good, accurate and concise when one is trying to work with scripting or just using the commands in the book. Otherwise, an excellent book. I hope they come up eventually with an update on it.

Great UNIX reference
If you want to do something in UNIX this book has the command. It won't hold your hand and teach you unix step by step, but it is an excellent reference. The book lists zillions of commands - from common to obscure - and clearly explains what they do (in different flavors even). Anyoneworking with UNIX should have a copy.

My most valuable and most used UNIX book, five years running
This is my most valuable UNIX book.The real-life examples, both stand-alone commandsand piped-together commands always come though when I don't remember exactly how to do something.The keyword index is groupedby functional categories, so, if you know that you want to do "jobcontrol" and not a "printing" command, then you are 80% ofthe way to finding the command that you want in the index. The authors didthe work, so I don't have to. What a great, great book for anyone dealingwith UNIX. ... Read more