Customer Reviews

Unix in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference for SVR4 and Solaris 7 (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Unix in a Nutshell continues to be the best overall reference book on the Unix operating system. Organized so that all commands and options are easily found and understood, it is an indispensable tool for those who work in a Unix environment. But it is not just a guide to Unix commands and their options, it also contains a mass of useful information about the Unix Shell, shell scripting, text editing and formatting, and much more. Truely one of the most useful computer reference books I have ever purchased, and for the money it is the best bargain you will find in the Unix field. I highly recommend it for all those who work with (or are interested in) Unix and want just about all the information they could need in one neat package. A great buy.

Excellent. What can I say? Well, since I have about 970 words to go, I can say a lot. Here goes. You will like this book. As "Nutshell" books go, this one is "chock-full" of informative tidbits and, the most important thing, EASY TO FIND. I'm glad I bought it. The third edition is very good. And now, the bad news (you didn't think I would let O'Reilly get away with this did you?) I have a huge bone to pick with the editor and possibility the author. The problem is, in SEVERAL places, the author states "Solaris Only" on quite a few commands (and parameters to the command). I'm here to tell you, folks, it ain't necessarily so. I use an AIX box at work and I can state for a fact that over 90% (estimated) of the commands that are stated as "Solaris Only" work great in AIX 4.3. Obviously, neither the editors nor the author tested these commands on an AIX machine. It is somewhat annoying but not unbearable. The bottom line is - try every command (and parms) on your machine before you take the author's word on it. Oh - I almost forgot. Mega-kudos to the proofreaders. In three weeks of using this book, I have yet to find a typo. Way to go, Proofers.

Awesome technical reference manual, but doesn't provide very much background or overview information. Not for beginners.

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.

Yes this book covers just about everything you could want to know about the UNIX os, what every command does and how to use it. The only thing that I would caution potential buyers of this book about is that it should be regarded as a reference only! The title is a little deceiving, this is not really for the begginer or someone who wants to be taught how to use the UNIX maze of commands. It does not provide detailed instructions, only samples. Great resource though!

You have a general section on shells and then seperate sections for Bourne|Korn and another one for the C shell. There are seperate sections on pattern matching, the Emacs editor, Vi (an invaluable resource in and of itself), Ex editor, Sed editor, and Awk (scripting language). Then there's a text formatting section containing information on Nroff, Troff, macros, and preprocessors. Then for developers there are sections on SCCS, make, debugging, and RCS. And perhaps most importantly there is a fairly exhaustive section on Unix commands and switches.

So this one handy dandy reference covers most of the major aspects that developers and dba's need. This is not the guide for system administrators but for the rest of us this one reference fills most of the bill. I have two copies. One I keep at the office and the other stays at home with me. Now i'm not gonna say that it's the end all and be all of unix but as a quick reference it's indispensible.

Buy it.

This book is a great reference. Information about commands, shells, editors, make files, etc. pretty much whatever is there. There is "just enough" information here to help you get done whatever it is you're trying to do. Definitely not for beginners though since before you try to do anything in UNIX, you should understand how unix works but thats not the purpose of this book anyway.

I had a 1992 copy of this book and just recently found out about the updated version. Wow. This updated version contains most if not all of the information in the old one plus so much more! Once again, this book is probably the best reference book out there about UNIX.

This book devotes almost 200 pages alone to commands, along with chapters on the various shells, vi commands, emacs, various text formatting macros, and even a chapter about awk.

If you are a UNIX 'geek' or 'wannabe UNIX geek' like me, or just want to know more about UNIX, this book is for you. It's probably not for beginners however. They would be advised to buy "Learning About UNIX" or another good introductory book.

If you use Unix at your job or home (I understand Mac's O/S 10 uses BSD Unix), GET THIS BOOK! Having said that, be warned that this isn't a book it you are trying to learn Unix from scratch. However, this is THE bible for Unix users. Even beginners will benefit from owning this book (I did when I started).

The reason this book is so great is that it contains all of the various Unix commands including those for the various shells (Korn Shell, C Shell, Bourne Shell). Various editors (VI, sed, ex, emacs), awk, macros, tracers, SCCS, RCS, and much more are included here so no matter what you do in Unix, you'll have the commands to use it. Also included is an Obsolete Command section. These are commands which current versions of Unix no longer use but older versions would (obviously).

Intermediate and advanced Unix users benefit the most from this book. Sure, you could use the Unix "man" command to get the online manual, but if you are like me, you like having a book to consult. Beginners will benefit from this book as it gives the user a look at the depth of Unix and a source to look up commands. Since the book doesn't contain a lot of examples, beginners may find this troubling. However, as they learn, the book will become of greater value.

Bottom line, all Unix users should get this book! It is a must have and you are only short-changing yourself if you don't have it on your bookshelf.

This is one of two unix books I recommend. Each have their own strengths.

In UNIX IN A NUTSHELL, the shell sections are great--you get enough about common features, then the unique parts of csh/ksh/sh, with a few nice examples thrown in.

The dictionary of commands is super--though if you don't know what you are looking for you won't find it. (in this case, try UNIX POWER TOOLS, it has a GREAT index) One way to use the dictionary is to just read through it now and then and let the commands sink in to your brain over time, another is to kind of hunt through, speedreading-style.

The big waste of space are the sections on troff and nroff and other ancient utilities that haven't been used in years (modern humans use perl). They appear to have been put in to take up space. Overall though, the book is great to have.