Fedora Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat Power Users [Paperback]

Christopher Negus (Author), Francois Caen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470082917 | ISBN-13: 978-0470082911 | Publication Date: November 28, 2007

In this handy, compact guide, you’ll explore a ton of powerful Fedora Linux commands while you learn to use Fedora Linux 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. Then, apply the skills you learn from this book to use and administer desktops and servers running Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or any other Linux distribution.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Explore a ton of powerful Fedora Linux commands

This handy, compact guide teaches you to use Fedora Linux as the experts do: from the command line. Try out over 1000 commands to find and get software, monitor system health and security, and access network resources. Apply skills you learn from this book to use and administer desktops and servers running Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or any other Linux distribution.

Expand your Linux 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

About the Author

Christopher Negus is the author of the bestselling Fedora and Red Hat Linux Bibles, Linux Toys II, Linux Troubleshooting Bible, and Linux Bible 2008 Edition. He is a member of the Madison Linux Users Group. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Chris served for eight years on development teams for the Unix operating system at AT&T, where Unix was created and developed. He also worked with Novell on Unix development and Caldera.

Francois Caen hosts and manages business application infrastructures through his company Turbosphere LLC. As an open-source advocate, he has lectured on OSS network management and Internet services, and served as president of the Tacoma Linux User Group. FranÇois is a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).

Product Details

• Paperback: 307 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (November 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470082917
• ISBN-13: 978-0470082911
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #388,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Book for Power Users Wanting to Extend Their Skills, December 30, 2007

By 

Thomas W. Weeks "Tweeks" (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fedora Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat Power Users (Paperback)

Hey folks... I've been an RHCE since 2000, training RHCEs since 2003, and "doing Linux" since 1996.

What I like:
The three big things that I like about Linux Toolbox are:
1) It concisely shows you how to use the Linux command line to solve many of the most common personal and administrative tasks.
2) It uses the proven "learn by doing" method to show the reader how to just "get stuff done" from the Linux command line.
3) What really sets this book apart from other "next level" type books is its well thought layout and how they organized the content in a quickly accessible way. Negus & Caen split the content out by Shell stuff, Working w/Files, Text Manipulation, Multimedia, Administration, Backups, Networking, etc.. . Well thought out and quickly useful as an on-hand reference.

So who should buy this book?
I see it being a "best fit" for two groups of people:
1) Technical users and admins who want to become more competent on the command line and be able to do ten times more work thought automation (scripting).
2) Windows power users who want to become more savvy on the Linux side (Linux power user wannabes). Especially those who need to get Linux CLI/shell proficient quickly (such as Windows sys-admins who have had Linux forced on them)

Old Timers Too:
The cool thing is that even if you've been using Linux for years (as I have), there are still useful "Oooo.. cool!" moments peppered throughout the book. Do you know how to properly (and quickly) get the most out of classic power tools like find, sed, awk, case, and tr? Are you armed with experience in all the newer über tools such as screen, dmidecode, growisofs? Do you know how to do software RAID from the command line (mdadm) or know how to build & control LVM via its command line tools? If you answered "no" to any of these.. you should check check out Linux Toolbox.

Negus and Caen have a winner here. Good job guys.

Tweeks

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good deskside book!, December 14, 2007

By 

Jesse Keating "Linux Ninja" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fedora Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat Power Users (Paperback)

This book is a very good desk side companion. This is not your typical "power users" book that is just a raw dump of a ton of esoteric commands that go in one eye and out the other. It is actually useful commands put into an understandable context, organized by classes of activity. I've been using Linux for many many years yet I'm learning, and using, new things from this book. I would highly recommend it.

If you're looking for a gift for your beloved Fedora/Red Hat geek, this is it. You'll be thanked when the gift is opened, and you'll be thanked each time as the book is used over and over.

--
Jesse Keating
Fedora Release Engineer

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing and Updated for Power Users, February 10, 2008

By 

Diego Bravo Estrada (Miami Beach, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fedora Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat Power Users (Paperback)

This book is practically "perfect" (sorry if sounds exaggerated) for the following reasons:

1 In less than 260 pages (340 considering appendixes) quickly covers a wide and useful selection of topics
2 The text is updated to the latest improvements in EVERY subject
3 Very easy to read and follow with or without a computer at hand
4 Command line oriented

Let me explain:

1 From the Table of Contents you may see the book covers practically everything most users will need when using a Linux as Server or Desktop; that selection of subjects was really well calculated and provides with a mix that is rarelly found. Also, the "depth" for the provided information was carefully calibrated in order to show the most useful situations (by the way avoiding being boring with nerdy configurations)

The authors provide with a minimal and informal introducion to every subject, and next use a good selection of samples for illustration.

2 Surprisingly, all chapters were written taking into account a lot of "modern" improvements in distro/commands/kernel. Every old-Linux user may appreciate here the giant advances made by Linux to the point that practically every subject is now simple to manage (or at least not esoteric.)

3 As I have several years using Linux, most of the material presented was familiar (with a lot of "modern" surprises), but the organization and style did let me follow all the text without needing to test the examples or configurations in order to understand anything. At least for me, it is a big bonus.

4 99% of the recipes and examples apply to the command line (with some mentions to the graphical front-ends). This may be sad for new users, but very important for administrators or users that look for "maximum flexibility", or "task automation" or work in "server environments" where the GUI is not allowed or discouraged.