Practical Guide to the UNIX System, A (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

An ideal tutorial and reference for both novice and experienced UNIX users, this new edition brings Sobell's bestseller up-to-date in several key areas, including graphical user interfaces and networking with electronic mail.

From the Back Cover

• Includes complete chapters on the Korn Shell, the emacs text editor, and the vi editor
• Contains a new chapter on Networking with coverage of many network structures and commands as well as detailed instruction on accessing the Internet using archie and gopher, how to transfer files using FTP, and a section on World Wide Web and Mosaic
• Provides a new chapter on Graphical User Interfaces that discusses GUI components, the X Window System, and using and customizing Motif
• Examines the make, SCCS, RCS, awk, and sed programming tools
• Features detailed chapters on the Bourne and C shells with explanations of how to write shell programs (shell scripts)
• Includes an in-depth chapter on the Korn shell that covers writing shell scripts and advanced concepts including recursion and the coprocess
• Offers a quick overview of the UNIX system in Chapter 1
• Provides coverage of text editing, electronic mail, shell programming, and other applications with examples, exercises, sample screens, and review questions incorporated throughout
• References 75 of the most frequently used UNIX utilities in Part II
• Includes clearly marked sections of optional advanced material for experienced UNIX users

0805375651B04062001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 3 edition (August 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805375651
• ISBN-13: 978-0805375657
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #569,129 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, accurate, and professional., April 27, 1998

By	Stephen J. Hanna (Cupertino, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sobell's Practical Guide to the Unix System is by far the best introduction to Unix available. While the book assumes no specific prior knowledge, it does assume that you are an intelligent reader and do not appreciate being patronized by "cute" language or attempts at humor. Rather, Sobell gets on with business, using good examples, clear prose, and accurate reference information. This is really two books in one: The first half is an introduction to important Unix concepts and applications (such as ex, vi, and troff); the second part is a handy thumb-indexed reference manual. My compliments--this is a model of good technical writing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic as Primer, but not good as Power User Guide, February 28, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

The book is well written in unemotional and descriptive style so there's no confusion.
A good thing about this book is that it is very patient;the author assumes that you have absolutely NO experience in computers. He is pretty elaborate even covering on how to enter a command in UNIX. He says it like this: Press the characters on the keyboard in a sequence that matches the name of the command you want to use and press ENTER button. NO ambiguity there.
But the only thing I don't really like about it is the chapter on system administration. It doesn't quite cover advanced topics such as setting up NFS, WWW servers, etc.. BUT the purpose of the book wasn't to tell you EVERYTHING. Rather, it is designed to get you comfortable with UNIX so you can advance if you want. But this book already has plenty of information to start doing some productive work in UNIX.
Overall, I recommend it if you have absolutely NO experience with UNIX and you just want an easy, no -frills guide.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for getting to know Unix's interesting ins and outs, November 14, 1997

By A Customer

Mark Sobell manages to introduce a whole host of those great Unix utilities with non-descriptive names AND keep it readable. He will put you on the right track to being able to find your own way around Unix. I've read it, in fact, I took it on holiday with me, and strongly recommend it to those starting out in the Unix world, or those that have become a little rusty. It's perhaps a bit too technical for absolute beginners, but avid DOS users should not experience too much trouble getting to grips with the everyday Unix commands. The book has a clear layout too: Try it!!!