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The Linux Command Line, 2nd Edition: A Complete Introduction

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4.7 out of 5

1,732 global ratings

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The Linux Command Line, 2nd Edition: A Complete Introduction

byWilliam Shotts

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Great paper-based material

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 25, 2023

I'm an old Unix guy by trade. This manual is very comprehensive and well organized for looking up specific topics. Nice to have a great grab reference when needed. Online material is plentiful, but I like to hold a book when reading. Old school, but this is a great book for those wanting to learn or brush up on the workings of Linux. Highly recommended.

4 people found this helpful

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Cursory overview, little more, not for power users.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 25, 2020

If you already have some experience with the linux command line, then you may want to pass on this book. I was looking for something to double as a reference and a source to really take my command line skills to the next level. This was not it it. For example, "grep" is mentioned twice, and only briefly. Another example, and the deal breaker for me, was the omission of "strings".

For what its worth, its well written and explains things in a very approachable, and even entertaining manner. However it is not intended for use as a reference, and provides only a cursory overview of the material in my opinion. Bash scripting makes up the last quarter of the book.

16 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Great paper-based material

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 25, 2023

Verified Purchase

I'm an old Unix guy by trade. This manual is very comprehensive and well organized for looking up specific topics. Nice to have a great grab reference when needed. Online material is plentiful, but I like to hold a book when reading. Old school, but this is a great book for those wanting to learn or brush up on the workings of Linux. Highly recommended.

4 people found this helpful

Good book for beginners with a lot of problems

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 10, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book, along with online searches on related topics, accelerated my linux knowledge tremendously, more than any other book I have read so far. William Shotts discusses a lot of topics related to the linux command line, potentially intermediate users would find the book helpful as well.

However, the biggest problem with the book is lack of practical examples and depth, I would rate this book 5 stars if the last parts of the book weren't so bad. For an example, he wants to show you how to use "sed" (a command for editing text documents without opening them) to replace forward slashes (/) with dashes (-) in a document with dates with this long and impossible to remember command:

sed 's/\[0-9]\{2\}\)\/([0-9]\{2}\)\/\([0-9]\{4\}\)/\3-\1-\2/' document.txt

when the exact same thing (i tested this because it's not an enormous pain in butt) can be accomplished with this:

sed s/\//-/g document.txt

According to shots, sed is worthless anyway because perl and awk are better, he gives NO explanation as to why! Plus, I was not happy with discussions on rsync and zip archive tools, after i used them both i had a lot of un-answered questions.

This will give any computer enthusiast hours and hours of DIY entertainment, but don't buy this book if you're already very experienced with linux. I personally recommend finding free electronic books if you're trying to educate yourself in computers, also i don't recommend going to school for it because professors/teachers tend to explain technical jargon very poorly.

21 people found this helpful

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book is well written and does a great job on the subject. This book is available for free on the internet legally. I am using the book for a college class, and prefer an actual book. Just be aware you can get a copy for free if you want to read it on your pc.

8 people found this helpful

A. M. Hernandez

Best Linux Book I've Seen. Looks Great on Android Tablet.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

Author William Shotts has done an amazing job with The Linux Command Line. I’ll admit I’m something of a Linux newbie, but I feel like I have learned so much from reading this book. The text is complex, yet approachable, and teaches lots of handy command line tips without being tied to a specific distro (though there is some brief discussion regarding packaging and package managers). Overall, a lot of useful content, both in using built-in programs and for coding your own shell scripts.

The best part about this book, for me, were the “playground” lessons, where you would create a bunch of dummy files and folders and then perform operations on them. For example, using “touch” to create 10 folders with 100 files in each, with only one short line of code. Or showing how to use “grep” and “ls” to find all programs matching a particular pattern. Practical examples of using pipelines. These are all super useful. So lots of good example material here.

The Linux Command Line clocks in at just over 500 pages, with 36 different chapters, each on a specific topic. The first 10 chapters explain how Linux works (permissions, processes, the environment), and how to use the command line in general (navigating the file tree, manipulating files and folders, redirection, command expansion and quoting). Next it covers package managers, connecting storage, networking, searching, archiving, regular expressions, formatting text, and printing. And the final part covers shell scripting and is a basic programming tutorial as well. A great base of content.

I’ve only read a handful of Linux books so far, but I think I can say this is the best I’ve seen. The text covers very fundamental and core competencies for using Linux, and the language is very approachable for beginners. I feel like I have learned a lot and already I’m more comfortable on the command line. If you are new to Linux, this can be a great way to up your game. Recommended.

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52 people found this helpful

Good Linux book for beginners.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 16, 2022

Verified Purchase

I primarily ordered this book to go for my CompTIA Linux+ certification and I wasn’t disappointed. After reading through this book several times and taking several practice exams I feel confident that I will be able to take the exam and pass securing my Linux+ cert.

7 people found this helpful

Best book for learning Linux/Bash

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

I actually had the first edition of this one and it was amazing so I picked up the second edition just to see what else they threw in it and to support NoStarch (they make the best books). I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about linux and BASH scripting. This is a really good resource to have at your disposal.

4 people found this helpful

Great book. Covers a lot of linux basics.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

As a linux user and enthusiast, I find the approach of the author quite pleasant. I enjoyed chapter progressions. Great introductory book for beginners and intermediate users alike.

4 people found this helpful

Israel Caudillo

Must buy if you want to learn the basics to Linux

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2022

Verified Purchase

I use this book to learn new command line codes I did not know any knowledge about

3 people found this helpful

Exceeds expectations

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book avoids long introductions in favor of getting directly into the learning process. I've tinkered with linux on and off and so Ive had an understanding of how to use commands, but not always why that command should be use. This book is quickly filling in important gaps in understanding for me, and beyond that I'm learning a lot of new things as well. This book is definitely worth its weight in gold to anyone who is serious about using and getting the most out of linux systems.

2 people found this helpful

Awesome book to start with linux

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

It is very well explained and detailed. I'm a windows user and this has help me a lot to understand the basics of linux. If you don't feel confident with the linux command line this will help for sure.

4 people found this helpful

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