A Practical Guide to Solaris (Paperback)

by Mark G. Sobell (Author) "An operating system is a control program for a computer..." (more)
Key Phrases: alex pubs, builtin ksh, pathname completion, Bourne Shell, Advanced Review Exercises, Kill Ring (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
It quickly becomes apparent that Mark G. Sobell, author of A Practical Guide to Solaris, knows that of which he speaks. The "that" in this case, is Solaris, Sun Microsystems's venerable and well-respected operating system, which now runs on both Intel and Sun hardware. As implied in the title, this book is designed to be used actively. In fact, in the opening pages, Sobell recommends that the reader be seated in front of a computer before going any further.

A broad range of topics, from creating passwords and working with files to shell programs, are covered in this thick volume. However, each one is given the same highly effective treatment of illustrative screen shots and commands, which should prevent readers from getting too lost in the OS. There are also warnings and tips about specific functions and utilities, such as the which and whereis that are used to help located commands and files, throughout the chapters.

For greater detail on specific utilities, the book includes a massive section devoted exclusively to the utilities within Solaris. A master list groups them by function, and subsequent discrete sections outline their purpose, the commands needed to use them, and notes on potential pitfalls. Though some may argue that it is impossible to make Unix variants approachable, this text comes about as close as is possible. --Sarah L. Roberts-Witt

Review
"A Practical Guide to Solaris is an effective and thorough means to learn how to use or administer a Solaris system. The author demonstrates the aspects and capabilities of Solaris through its options and possible configurations. He reviews various windowing alternatives, SCCS (Source Code Control System), daily system operations, processes, encryption, POSIX Standards, networking, shell programming, email, and employs tutorials when applicable. A Practical Guide to Solaris is an outstanding book, providing a comprehensive study of the advantages and qualities of Solaris 2." -- Elizabeth Zinkann, Sys Admin (July, 1999) Reprinted with permission from Sys Admin magazine and Miller Freeman, Inc.

"This book seems to be the perfect reference to move novices into Solaris quickly. It can be used to train people new to Unix on Solaris and provide a very good starting point for those moving over from another flavor of Unix. Most books on Unix focus on either being a tutorial for new users or being a reference manual for users familiar with some flavor of Unix. There is very little that covers the middle ground and almost none that cover all three levels. I know of no other book positioned in a way that can take a relative novice to performing basic system administration in a minimal amount of time." -- Rik Schneider, Sr. Systems Administrator, SkyLynx Communications Inc.

"This is one of the best books I've seen on Solaris, and UNIX in general. The book will be useful after the first read, as a very good, and very concise reference book. It has all the aspects of a good textbook, and at the same time it is organized to be an effective reference after the fact." -- Charles A. Plater, Wayne State University

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1112 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (June 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020189548X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201895483
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #488,164 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From beginner to expert, a great book, December 21, 1999

By	booklover "booklover" (Arlington, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Sobell has provided an invaluable Guide to Solaris.

It is well written, clearly organized and as its title suggests has a wealth of practical information.

For the newbie it covers things like logging in and out, changing your password, and commands like lst, rm, and and more.

It covers the Solaris (and UNIX) utilities: things like cp, sort, diff, compress, tar.

It discusses the Solaris Filesystem, mkdir and cd, etc.,

It tells how to use the shell and do shell programming.

It has information on using and configuring X Windows and CDE. I don't do this often and I find these sections indispensible.

It has tutorial information on networking commands such as ping, finger, automount.

It covers mail programs like pine, and editors including vi and emacs.

It covers three shells, Bourne, C shell, and Korn shell.

It has an invaluable chapter on programming tools: the C compiler and dbx as well as information about the arcane subject of building shared libraries.

It has information on system administration, disk capacity planning/partitioning, scheduling tasks, administering network services, and many other administrative tasks.

It has Appendices on Regular expressions, Help, Security, and the Posix Standards.

It is a comprehensive book, useful for both tutorial and reference.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great beginner book, July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This is a thick book (1.5 inches), and it covers a lot of ground, starting with very basic Unix commands (not Solaris specific) and progressing through shell programming and onto Solaris specific system administrative tasks. For example, I liked the section describing the 'mystery files' needed to configure Solaris networking. It is hard to find this information in one place.

Another example would be the description of /home and how the automounter manages it. This topic generates frequent questions on the Solaris newsgroups.

As you work your way into the book, Sobell explains things like the Solaris performance tools sar, mpstat, etc. as well as the boot process on both Sparc and Intel based systems.

The second half of the book is versions of the most common manual pages but Sobell includes *examples*.

All in all, this book is good for the beginner, and the advanced user will find it a useful reference, especially in the later chapters.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars REALLY Basic - 4 some-1 with no comp./internet experience, May 4, 2000

By A Customer

Real easy reading(12th grade max mostly 10th and below) for the beginner. Covers everything from how to use Netscape browser (duh...) to some fairly simple Korne, Bourne and C shell scripting guidance. I find it a little verbose (but then again I like decoding the man pages). Here's a sampling of the table of contents (something I wish Amazon would do...)

Chpt1 - Overview of Solaris; Chpt2 - Getting Started, Before you start Logging in ....Basic Utilities like ls cat pg rm ect; Chpt3 - Solaris Utilities;Part II Intermediate /Advanced Solaris;Chpt6 - What Is a GUI? (no I'm not joking apparently Sobell thinks this is int./adv. stuff).Using a GUI...and so on, I think you get the idea.

Do NOT consider this a user's guide. If you have more than a few weeks experience with any flavour of Unix then you are probably better off with a more sophisticated book (sorry no refs - I'm still looking myself) I would recommend this book for any high school computer course.

There you have it - good luck!