Linux Pocket Guide [Paperback]

Daniel J. Barrett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596006284 | ISBN-13: 978-0596006280 | Publication Date: March 1, 2004 | Edition: 1st

O'Reilly's Pocket Guides have earned a reputation as inexpensive, comprehensive, and compact guides that have the stuff but not the fluff. Every page of Linux Pocket Guide lives up to this billing. It clearly explains how to get up to speed quickly on day-to-day Linux use. Once you're up and running, Linux Pocket Guide provides an easy-to-use reference that you can keep by your keyboard for those times when you want a fast, useful answer, not hours in the man pages.

Linux Pocket Guide is organized the way you use Linux: by function, not just alphabetically. It's not the 'bible of Linux; it's a practical and concise guide to the options and commands you need most. It starts with general concepts like files and directories, the shell, and X windows, and then presents detailed overviews of the most essential commands, with clear examples. You'll learn each command's purpose, usage, options, location on disk, and even the RPM package that installed it.

The Linux Pocket Guide is tailored to Fedora Linux--the latest spin-off of Red Hat Linux--but most of the information applies to any Linux system.

Throw in a host of valuable power user tips and a friendly and accessible style, and you'll quickly find this practical, to-the-point book a small but mighty resource for Linux users.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Whilst there does seem to be a trend amongst many publishers to deliver ever more comprehensive titles, cramming details of almost every command-line switch and GUI option across a huge range of tools and packages, O'Reilly can always be relied upon to publish works that deal concisely with one aspecty of GNU/Linux or excel in offering a psecific functionality. Linux Pocket Guide is exemplary in this respect, cleverly avoiding the unnecessary bloat associated with titles that share the same subject matter - Fedora Linux. Indeed, this highly portable volume manages to kill two birds with one stone, funcitoning both as handy quick reference and an essential introduction to basic everyday tooks and commands. And though Fedora specifics such as desktop and package managerment are covered in some detail, nearly all of the material here could well be applied to almost any distro." Martin Howse, Linux User and Developer, Issue 40 "Can't memorise man pages? This is for you." Linux Format, Oct (top stuff award)

About the Author

Dan Barrett has been immersed in Internet technology since 1985. Currently working as a software engineer, Dan has also been a heavy metal singer, Unix system administrator, university lecturer, web designer, and humorist. He has written several O'Reilly books, as well as monthly columns for Compute! and Keyboard Magazine. Dan and his family reside in Boston.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596006284
• ISBN-13: 978-0596006280
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Unix > Shell
  • #2 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Computers & Internet > General
  • #9 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Linux

More About the Author

Thanks for looking at my books on Amazon. I've been writing about technical/computer topics since the early 1990s.

These days my interests focus on the intersection of technology and people. Great software isn't enough: you need to get people to use it, and use it efficiently and productively. Wikis are a great example, particularly in corporate environments.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great things in small packages..., September 7, 2004

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Linux Pocket Guide (Paperback)

I've always been more of a GUI-type user, and even the old DOS commands never did much for me. But now that I'm moving into the world of Linux, I need to understand the power of the command line. To that end, I got a review copy of the Linux Pocket Guide by Daniel J. Barrett (O'Reilly). I have a feeling this will become a dog-eared favorite on my bookshelf.

Normally I'd list a chapter breakout, but there's just too many "chapters" here to do so. Suffice it to say that if it's a shell command in Linux, it's in here somewhere. The great thing is that you get the command and a list of the useful options, along with the syntax in less than half a page (and the book is small!). So instead of hauling down the large volume and scrolling through multiple pages, you can get right to the command you need with the options you're probably looking for.

For a beginner like me, it will help to make me more comfortable with many of the basics of command line work. For experts, it will be the quick reference for that particular option that you can't remember the capitalization rules for...

Short, concise, easy to understand, and packed with meat... What more could you want in a reference manual? This is a keeper.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent guide for all Linux users, April 15, 2004

By 

Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Linux Pocket Guide (Paperback)

Anyone who uses Linux will benefit from this handy pocket guide which lists general Linux commands for various tasks, ranging from directory operations, file commands, locating files, doing backups, controlling various processes, to working on the Internet (web browsing, Usenet news, email, and network connections). There are lots of commands listed here. No, this is not a general reference book by any means (and there are lots of Linux reference books around), but it is just the thing when you need to look up a specific command fast. All commands are listed with their syntax and a brief explanation of what they do.

The book discusses in a little detail about Fedora, Red Hat's "free Linux OS." It also goes into some descriptions about running a shell, logins and logouts, filesystems, and home and system directories. Again this book covers the basics and it assumes the readers already have a decent knowledge of Linux. Since Linux does so many things and it's next to impossible to remember every single command, a book like this is handy to have on your desk when you can't remember a specific command.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Linux Guide that is Short and Sweet! Worth the $!, July 14, 2004

By 

Mark "Technology, Music and Movies" (East Coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)   

This review is from: Linux Pocket Guide (Paperback)

It's no secret, there's a lot of books about Linux on the market today. Linux is HOT!! But it's also no secret that a lot of publishers have been jumping on the bandwagon churning out Linux books just to get a piece of the action. This Oreilly pocket guide is everything you would expect from an Oreilly book: thorough, succinct, and worth the money.

The book has a great structure, covering the basics and then going into commands. The commands are organized in functional groups. So if you want to do some user administration, just thumb to that section and all the relevant comands are at your fingertips.

There's enough detail about each command that you can actually use it. The author also often tells you how the command is "usually used," which is helpful. There's even some basics sprinkled in about programming and shell syntax. It's awesome that they actually put useful stuff in a pocket guide!

Whether you're an advanced administrator or a beginner, this book is worth the investment. It has enough info to be a quick reference, but it's clearly written enough to be a primer for beginners. ENJOY!!!