UNIX Weekend Crash Course(tm) [Paperback]

Arthur Griffith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0764549278 | ISBN-13: 978-0764549274

Focus: This book consists of 30 sessions that teach the core concepts of UNIX over a weekend. It focuses on the standard core UNIX OS and teaches the basics needed to perform system administration and programming in the UNIX environment. It focuses on the common aspects among the different flavors (or types) of UNIX, noting the important differences throughout. Topics covered include the many flavors of UNIX; manipulating files; writing shell scripts; batch editing and programming with awk; Perl programming; Apache Web Server; and Internet security.
WCC series features: Each session takes 30 minutes to complete. Four time-to-go icons ("30 Min To Go," "20-min To Go," "10 Min To Go," and "Done!") gauge the reader's progress through any given session. "Quiz Yourself" questions (at the end of each session) and "Part Review" questions allow the reader to review what they have just learned. Skill assessment software on the CD-ROM helps readers gauge their skill level before and after reading this book.
ABOUT THE CD-ROM
Contains skills assessment software based on the sessions in the book; UNIX tools; and sample scripts from the book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Get Up to Speed on UNIX - in a Weekend!

The big day is Monday. The day you get to show off what you know about UNIX. The problem is, you're not really up to speed. Maybe it's been a while since you worked with UNIX. Or maybe you just like a challenge. In any event, we've got a solution for you - UNIX Weekend Crash Course. Open the book Friday evening and on Sunday afternoon, after completing 30 fast, focused sessions, you'll be able to dive right in and get to work on a UNIX system. It's as simple as that.

The Curriculum

Friday

Evening: 4 Sessions, 2 Hours
* The Many Flavors of UNIX
* Logging In and Out
* The File System
* The Running Processes

Saturday Morning: 6 Sessions, 3 Hours
* Introduction to the vi Editor
* Introduction to the emacs Editor
* Fundamentals of the Bourne Shell
* Using the Bourne Shell
* Using Other Shells
* Regular Expressions

Saturday, continued

Afternoon: 6 Sessions, 3 Hours
* Files and the File System
* File System Operations
* The World's Handiest Utilities
* The man Pages
* E-mail
* Writing Shell Scripts

Evening: 4 Sessions, 2 Hours
* Shell Scripts with Conditionals
* Shell Scripts with Loops
* Users and the passwd File
* Batch Editing

Sunday Morning: 6 Sessions, 3 Hours
* Batch Editing with awk
* The Perl Programming Language
* Writing and Compiling a C Program
* More Handy Utilities
* A Few Daemons
* The X Window System

Afternoon: 4 Sessions, 2 Hours
* Archiving and Compressing Files
* Security
* Network Security and the Apache Server
* When UNIX Boots

CD-ROM includes:
* General UNIX utilities and resources, including Bash, Elm, Emacs, Grep, Pine, Apache, MySQL, Perl, Python, and more
* UNIX security utilities, including Snort, Nessus, SAINT, Tripwire, and more
* Code examples from the book
* Assessment test to help gauge your progress

About the Author

Arthur Griffith (Homer, Alaska). Arthur has been a full-time writer since 1997. From 1977 through 1997, he worked as a computer consultant and a system-level programmer. Arthur's first introduction to UNIX was in 1985 when he installed a BSD system on a DEC 750. This was followed by a contract to develop a specialized network communications protocol to transmit encrypted data over a WAN using SCO Xenix. He has also done extensive development work with HP-UX software and Sun's Solaris and Motif. Arthur has authored nine books, six of them for HMI. His titles include: KDE Programming Bible (HMI; 2000); GNOME/GTK+ Programming Bible (HMI, 2000); COBOL For Dummies (HMI, 1997); Java Master Reference (HMI, 1998); and Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Linux (Sams, 1999).

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764549278
• ISBN-13: 978-0764549274
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievably Good, September 29, 2004

By 

terrance005 "terrance005" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: UNIX Weekend Crash Course(tm) (Paperback)

PROS:

1. Good broad range of topics

2. Excellent explanations and depth

3. As a general UNIX book it is quite good. Not specific to any type and offers enough on the popular UNIXes.

4. Liberal use of well explained examples. NOT a dry dictionary of syntax.

5. No filler... 100% useful content that is not hidden by fluff.

6. CDs help you to experiment.

7. Good tone.

CONS:

1. Some of the segments that are supposted to take 30 minutes may take longer because the content takes a bit longer to digest.

2. Not really a con because it is somewhat a separate topic... doesn't disuss SAMBA or Windows interoperability. But that is an application, as well as Apache... not core UNIX.

GENERAL:

I was surprised to find that this was the best non-detailed UNIX book I have read. And if you want more detail on something, just consult the on-line manual pages. But this book gives you pretty much most of what you need to know. This is what O'Reilly's UNIX in a Nutshell should have been. Also better than O'reilly's Learning UNIX and more lean and mean than UNIX power tools.

Overall this is even better than UNIX System Administration Handbook (by Evi Nemeth and others) IF YOU ARE an experienced administrator cause that book rambles on and meanders into too many side topics... e.g. explaining tcp/ip. That book has grown to now wanting to be too many things to too many people. That book is best for the rookie admin, or the person who just likes computers and got put in charge of a network with UNIX servers.

This UNIX weekend crash course has all the essentials. Note you will need other books or on-line resources for popular UNIX applications such as SAMBA (simulating Windows file servers and domain controllers), APACHE (for running a web server) and SENDMAIL or POSTFIX (for a mail server).

But if you are new to UNIX or need a quick refresher... this is DEFINITELY one of the first books you should get.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice reading!, May 23, 2005

By 

Alex Vox (Winnetka, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: UNIX Weekend Crash Course(tm) (Paperback)

The book is very informative and offers much of useful knowledge!

I have used it with Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs includes 4 Unix Academy Certifications ed.2008. It is very cool one, straight to the subject, very useful. I used this book and "UNIX for dummies" with this DVDs and I believe I learned more tahn in my $2000 class.