Unix Systems Books

I just finished going through the entire book line by line. I am extreemly new to Linux and security, and this book made it all very clear. I only wish I realized that there was a second edition out when I bought this one. Everything in this original edition was still completely correct and appropriate, three years later.

I'm a big fan of the Hacking Exposed style of writing. All offensive theory is backed up by command line examples, followed by defensive countermeasures. Hacking Exposed: Linux, 2nd Ed (HE:L2E) follows this tradition, updating the content of the first edition and adding 200 pages of new content. Although I reviewed the first edition in Sep 01, reading the second edition reminded me of the challenges posed by securely configuring and deploying Linux systems.

The best way to learn while reading HE:L2E is to try the sample commands. I also recommend visiting the links mentioned and installing many of the tools described by the authors. I found programs like raccess, nsat (ch. 3), sslsniff (ch. 7), nstx, and httptunnel (ch. 15) particularly interesting from an attacker's point of view. From a system administration standpoint, coverage of passlogd (ch. 2), lilo and grub (ch. 5), and X (ch. 6) were very helpful.

The authors share many novel ways to abuse Linux systems, but counter those exploits with little-known features or third-party tools. I never knew I could use bash's HISTCONTROL feature to selectively remove entries from shell history files. HE:L2E goes the extra mile to help secure your system, such as including sample C code in ch. 13 to allow one to compile TCP Wrappers support into one's own programs. Other clear, concise defensive measures were introduced in excellent chapters on keeping the kernel and packages current (appendix B) and pro-active security measures (ch. 2). The last appendix gives a short yet powerful description of the damage an intruder can perform, showing how he hid unauthorized programs and how those programs were discovered.

If you use Linux, you'll find HE:L2E indispensable. I even applied many of the tools and techniques to my FreeBSD system, showing that that good security advice can be a cross-platform endeavor.

The Hacking Exposed books have set the bar for this genre of security book. Hacking Linux Exposed - 2nd Edition doesn't fail in meeting that bar as well. If you've read Hacking Exposed - 4th Edition and think this book can't tell you anything you don't already know- think again. For those who administer Linux boxes this book provides an in-depth look at specific hacks and vulnerabilities unique to the Linux operating system and the accompanying fixes and workarounds to protect yourself. The book is overflowing with examples and sample commands that users can immediately put to use to better understand the risks and how to mitigate them. Hacking Exposed is a must-read for security- this book is a must-read for Linux security.

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First, this book does _NOT_ have a installation walk through...YES!!!

You will not find another book this comprehensive in the length in HLE has accomplished. i found the book to be on point, and not overdrawn on any specific topic. The authors usage of gender is something of a mystery aswell. For the first 10 chapters or so the cracker is a woman, then in later chapters it becomes a man, then in even later chapters a woman, then back to a man :-).

i found the book to be very well written, it feels like a very good naration. There is only a few plugs of direct humor (1 about using word for the publisher, another about the shortest sentence using all letters) but these few are lightening.

Technically this book is sound. it does very good in keeping the basics of security alive through the book (chattr +i, only use what you need, upgrade, etc...). This is very helpful to a beginer for reinforced learning. The software packages it mentions for firewalls, logging, etc. are very nice and descriptive.

All around great book. BTW, did i mention that is does _NOT_ cover a Linux installation from CD/DVD? That alone should be enough to buy it.

When I first starting using Linux systems and putting them online I had NO idea what sort of grief I was in for. The reason for that grief: I had NO clue how to 'harden' a system or what that term even meant. By not knowing that I put up systems that were quickly exploited by script kiddies and SPAM houses looking for open relays to use for SPAM and for 'zombies' to use in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. I bought this book, read it, and haven't had those problems since. If you are going to do *anything* with Linux on the internet then GET THIS BOOK NOW. Unless, of course, you *want* to have your computers destroyed on a weekly basis...

This book is *the* way to begin working with the Korn shell. I needed to get up to speed with a shell scripting language in order to do Oracle DBA tasks. I bought this based on the strength of it's Amazon ratings and was completely delighted.

The author has a great style, easy to understand and very clear. I found the procession of topics to be very logical; a nice gradual build up from the simple to the more complex. There is plenty of 'depth' in each chapter and good highlighting of potential problem areas and difficult concepts. These have additional coverage to help steer clear of the hassles and come to a clear understanding of the more challenging ideas.

The examples are well thought out, they present each topic of interest clearly and in a meaningful way, without clutter. I have coded almost every single one and found only a few errors. Within a chapter the examples are presented with increasing complexity, but are never the page after page monsters that leave you lost. It is amazing how well the author illustrates the content with short (20 - 30 line) samples.

When I was puzzled with something I had read here, I turned to two of my friends who 'live' in shell scripting up to their necks. Both have learned useful techniques from this book through my questions.

My copy is literally starting to come apart from constant use for reference. It is that good.

I found this to be an excellent hands-on tutorial in KornShell. Wish there were a book-2 and book-3 with advanced training.

I love the Korn shell. This book is a fine intro to Korn Shell programming. For users who want more than just an intro, you may want to consider "Korn Shell: Essential Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith. Examples in Randal K. Michael's "Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting" are also helpful.

Before start reading this book, I had little or no exprience. But after reading first few chapters, I just started with good confident.

Thanks to Barry

I generally agree with the reviewer who expressed amazement at the almost universal acclaim for this book. It is a *workable* treatment of KornShell 88 in a field of also-rans. Given that few if any books are better, I give it three stars because with little else available, you *can* use this book to learn and deal with KornShell 88.

Is it a great book, as so many reviewers claim? By no means. It has a fair organization into functional groupings of KornShell features, but lacks fully expository examples, lacks explanation of some key language features, and no doubt lacks some of the details of the language, as the language appears to be fully documented *nowhere* on this planet. If you scour the "tips" websites you will find crucial things that are absent from this book.

Yes, I use it. Yes, it is dog-eared. But it is one of those books that is maddening in its ability to hide factoids one *knows* one has seen somewhere in the book at some time in the past. It is precisely in those cases that the index falls down, yet that is also precisely why an index should be exhaustive and not spotty.

The examples are typically weak in that they don't always fully showcase the language features they purport to illustrate, instead showing simple cases that don't answer the great pressing questions of how the more complex features are used. A book of this type can succeed on examples alone, but this one doesn't.

For some reason that isn't clear to me, both KornShell and AIX are very poorly documented in the private press, as if few people used them. It's another of the many "What's wrong with this picture?" situations that afflict the unix world.

I also found the folksy style to be a bit nauseating.

I still have no idea what Stronghold is, but I spent many meaningful hours reading this volume on the crapper. Makes a fine gift!

I just want to say that my wife demanded that I send some money to one of those save-our-children sponsorships for a village in Vietnam, and that instead I bought this book. Boy was it worth it! Screw that Vietnamese village. This book is worth FIVE Vietnamese villages!

...I'm going to read it again, and again...

Actually, I'm going to get copies for all my friends, and family members, too. I think this one is much better than "Bible for Dummies!" and *certainly* much better than "Sex for Dummies!" (A book that should never have been published, IMO. If you need a manual for that, you shouldn't be breeding...)

You should get this book! We should all get this book! Blows the hell out of the competition!

When I picked up this book I thought it was just another server reference for my shelf, but boy was I wrong! The Official Stronghold Guide not only reveals the innards of Stronghold's unique flexible server architecture with such loving and engrossing detail that a master of fiction would be shamed, but Parekh also manages to simulteneously unravel many delicate issues of humanity and human nature along the way. As I read I found myself uncovering hidden truths about myself and resolving personal issues that have been plauging me for years. Unique and humourous, insightful beyond it's scope. A true masterpiece. I have the courage to smile again, and I owe it all to Parekh. And my server is in top shape too!

This work is a gripping testament to the power of the free flow of information, and its ability to shape the world. It is stunning in its intensity.

The Best series of books to learn Network programming from. The BEST in the world. Nothing comes close.

If you are reading this review you probably are looking for a comprehensive text on socket programming. Look no further. This is the One. You can stop reading reviews trying to find the perfect one and go hit the Add To Shopping Cart button with confidence. Detailed, comprehensive and clear. A favorite.

This book consists of "in the trenches" information Mr. Stevens learned over the years by reading source, testing thoroughly, documenting extensively, and assembling carefully all this data into one heck of a book on Unix programming. I feel certain in declaring that many who've developed code on Unix know instantly of Stevens' works. This update to his book appears just as thorough.

I do agree with a previous reviewer who was unhappy with the code samples' dependency on a header file in the back of the book. It's a clumsy technique, but it's difficult to imagine another way to accomplish the goals of including the header.

This book is excellent. I had previously bought "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" by the same author and I loved it so now that I have to do network programming in Linux I got a copy of UNP. The book is well organized and has a lot more information than I expected (Raw sockets, Packet capture, IPv6 etc). Everything is explained clearly and with a lot of examples. It's a shame that the author passed away because I would buy any other book he wrote. Buy this book, it's expensive but It's so professional that is a "must have" for anyone that's going to be programming network applications in UNIX systems.

Thank you, Richard Stevens. Rest in Peace.

The book contains everything that I want to know about the Unix Sockets API. The book is well structured, and the explanations are generally good. I would give it 4½ stars if it was possible.

I do have a few minor gripes though. The text can be a bit dull compared to other books. I bought "Programming with POSIX(R) Threads" by David R. Butenhof at the same time, and this book is much more entertaining while still factual and correct.

I dislike that all the examples in the book uses a special header defined in the Appendix. That makes it impossible to use snippets of code from the examples to make your own applications.

Easily the best book on Linux that I have ever read or bought. Also one of the best computer books overall that I have ever used. That is saying a lot given that I have many computer books on the full range of computer topics and given that I am very picky in what I buy. The other reviews - all but one 5-star - give details on the book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to set up a Linux system or who has an interest in learning about Linux.

In regard to Linux in general, it provides a superior platform to the Microsoft platforms. Also the add-on programs that are available - all of the most useful are included in any of the best-known distributions, such as Ubuntu or Red Hat/Fedora - are as good as (in the sense of user-friendly) as the comparable Windows programs and in many cases better.

What is interesting to me is that much of the Linux development occurs outside the USA. It is a great tribute to the huge Linux-oriented developer universe that those developers have developed such outstanding tools that are free of the exorbitant, monopoly-determined prices of Microsoft products. So I hereby thank you all for your fantastic contributions to computer technology. Without your programs we would all be prey to the monopoly pricing and less-than-optimal programs produced by Microsoft. Not to say that there is anything wrong with most Microsoft products, but thank god there are better products available and better yet that most are free of licensing cost and most are changeable because the source code is available.

It's been two years since I've purchased this book, and I still reference it from time to time.

This book covers many common open-source applications used in conjunction with linux (bind,samba,sendmail,etc).

The examples are well-written. It's a great book for someone who is wanting to educate themselves to use linux.

I will note that the book seems to be red-hat/fedora biased. I use fedora, so that was a plus.

Much of what I have done piecing together information from Google is concisely done in this guide. This book got my mail server setup in no time whereas in the past I gave up in frustration (and lack of knowledge).

The mail chapter alone was worth the price but this book is full of solving common system administration tasks for people with some linux experience but not the expertise of being a sysadmin.

I really enjoy the content of the Book. Since my early days using Linux consult the linuxhomenetworking website for tips & howtos.

This is surely a must have book. It's been a while since I see some book with so much content !!!.

This certainly isn't a hand holding introduction to Linux by any means (jump in at the deep end, it works!). However if you're looking for a down to earth, practical guide to a variety of everyday tasks involved in running Linux in a server environment you'll find this book very useful. The subject matter covered is useful, and the explanations are sufficient with plenty of useful examples. Certainly a good introduction although obviously for the finer points of configuration more specialised sources will need to be consulted.

I'd been meaning to buy this book for over a year and was not disappointed. It is very well written, easy to understand and goes quite into depth regarding OS X.

I enjoyed the writing style of the author, well presented information with bits of humor to keep it interesting. I enjoyed reading the history of OS X and learning how all the parts were brought together to create the most enjoyable computing experience I have ever had. The technical information and programming examples are extremely helpful in better understanding how things work under the elegant aqua interface.

This well written books contains everything you need to know about the internals of Max OS X. This book is enormous and really goes deep into the internal of the OS.
This reading gave me the satisfaction of understanding the inner working of Mac OS X which now make my work as a software engineer much easier because I know what is going on.
The book is well balanced in that it cover all the different aspects of the operating system without getting into unecessary details.
One small complaint is that the chapter describing the hardware architecture focus on PowerPC systems. I would of course have rather have a detail explanation of the Intel platform. Maybe in a second edition.

This is analogous to the Windows Resource Kits for OS X, only better. The many examples, most using some sort of code to make their point, combined with the depth of topics covered, makes this the one book really serious OS X coders and admins need to have.

Like it's cousin, the MS ResKit, it's dry, concise, and may scare off some folks. And like the ResKit, it's just as essential as a learning tool and reference book rolled into one.

I've seen many reviews that talk about this book as a book for programmers. I don't believe that for one second. I've heard many references to the old days when all admins were programmers and heard tell of greybeard hackers who are equally proficient at both coding and admin work. This book does a similar job of blending the lines between the two tasks, illustrating concepts and giving examples using C and scripting as well as using human readable english. As a non-coding UNIX and OS X aficionado, I look forward to broadening my knowledge of both programming and unix administration as it applies to OS X via this awe-inspiring book.

It's enormous! And every page has information useful to someone who develops on the Mac. This book is the ultimate tome of reference for the serious Mac developer. It's also a significant contender as a tome of reference for IT support for the Mac. Finally, it is the best reference for someone with a Windows background who's wondering if Mac OS might be superior technically (leaving aside user interface). (it is.)

All the gory details of how a Mac OS is put together from Mach to Cocoa are covered and then some. The author is a hard-core expert who put a lot into this book. Well worth the price!

This book is a must if you are learning BSD Unix. All the commands you'll ever use are covered in this book. This book is easy to read and explains important topics without being exhaustive (a skill some authors never learn). A great book for newbies to BSD Unix!

If you're looking for a place to start with FreeBSD (or with open soruce in general), this is really the book to get. I knew a little UNIX before I picked this up, but essentially I was a babe in the woods. This book helped me get my system up and running with clear, task-oriented discussions of all of the essentials. This doesn't go as deep as some of the other FreeBSD books out there (for that you'll probably want "Absolute BSD" by Michael Lucas), but it does tell you what you need to know to get started.

I bought the book after I had installed a broken FreeBSD 4.7 on my old AMD K6-II. Despite the few typos here and there, the book helped me figure out what mistakes I had made during my previous installation ! I thus re-installed from scratch, following page by page. In no time, the system was up and running, I was customizing my shell behavior, connecting to the internet through my cable modem (Roadrunner/Earthlink), etc...

With some extra hardware, my old AMD K6-II is now a router/firewall between my cable modem and my WinXP/Red Hat 8.0 dual-boot box without a glitch, and am planning to add a second box to my LAN and use it as a printer server too.

For those who still hesitate, this book is written in english, not in nerdish. That itself makes it stand out from all the computer litterature I've read. This book is very valuable.

Annelise: your book made my hardware firewall project feel like a walk in the park. Thank you so much !

I first tried to install FreeBSD 4.8 on my K6-2 500mhz machine using the FreeBSD Handbook as a guide. While this book (the Handbook) is the standard for reference on the subject, it doesn't really explain it to a newbie's needs (even someone coming from Linux). My first attempts failed. I bought Annelise's book and was able to get 4.8 up and running following her suggestions. Though my copy came with a CD of FreeBSD 4.7, I had already burned ISO images of 4.8. The processes detailed in the book applied equally well. My only complaint would be that the book needs updating to reflect areas that a lot of people (most people) are interested in these days: burning music to CD - especially ATAPI CD devices, and USB mass storage devices. Both could be covered by a chapter on how to use SCSI emulation. I still give it 5 stars.

I had been getting fed up with using Windows and wanted to learn a new operating system. I bought Anderson's book and installed FreeBSD 4.6 on an extra hard drive in my computer. The book covers a broad range of topics and I found it very helpful during the installation process. The first 10 chapters are great. I started to get annoyed with Chapter 12 on connecting to the internet. I used PPP and something kept going wrong. I still do not know what it was but the errors I got were endless. The chapters little sidenotes on troubeshooting were of no help and I eventually gave up. Then I tried to install the printer daemon and also recieved errors. I followed the book as best I could and eventually gave up and moved on. Chapter 14 on the X window system is great. Other than the printer and PPP problems (which could have just been my misunderstanding of the book), I would recommend this book to someone else

I had been working with Unix and Linux flavors for sometime, and this book has been a blessing for me. I need a book that was willing to detail every aspect of the OpenBSD ( at least the most relevant), kernel, workarounds, etc. And it does its job. Many Thanks,ed

I purchased this book from Amazon on March 4th, 2007. Two months and five days later, after two conversations with Amazon employees who assured me that I would receive the book, they still have not shipped it.

It appears that Amazon simply does not have the book. I phoned the publisher, No Starch Press, and they don't have a copy either. A PDF is available for download, but that's all.

At this writing, the Amazon listing still says that the book "usually" ships in one to two weeks. Amazon is apparently selling a product that it does not have to sell.

If you want this book, you might do better to buy one of the used ones.

So many computer books today are 800 pages of word bloat. Michael not only keeps the writing lively, but in K&R fashion, he gives a lot of information in a succint way. Highly recommended and an easy read. Also note, he gives a complete picture of openbsd from A-Z Not too tedious and not too broad. I have not found a linux book this nice.

I'm no security freak, but I love the OpenBSD concept: security above all. When I took a course in Unix operating systems, I was introduced to OpenBSD, and recommended to purchase this text. Albeit outdated (it covers version 3.2, and OpenBSD is now at 4.0), the book offers an overview of all the basics, including 3 whole chapters on the pf firewall.

Because of its general nature, the author, Lucas, does not solely focus on pf, but instead adds flair to an extremely hostile operating system environment. I don't recall ever working with a more difficult system from scratch. Lucas really helped in getting me through some of the more cryptic areas of installation and configuration. The book itself is quite basic, so if you need something specific, like a korn shell book, look elsewhere. His style also makes the book itself a fun read, I must admit, because of his colorful presentation.

I've had this book for more than a year now.

This may be the most fun textbook-with-no-pictures I've ever read.

Realy I bought the book, I didn't have any OpenBSD contact and I bought the OpenBSD CDs to try it and play, and the book arrived before the OpenBSD's CDs and I begun to read, and learned me how to install OpenBSD, When the CDs arrived realy was very easy to install and get my first steeps in this OS.

The GIMP is a powerful image manipulation package, provided under a free software license. It is very much the PhotoShop of the open source world. This book is an excellent introduction and tutorial to the GIMP's many powerful features. However, it is not intended to be a user manual. There is a separate and complete user manual for the GIMP available on the web. This book is also available on the web, and it is published under an open-source license - although cleverly they don't mention this in the paper copy itself. However useful it is to have the on-line copy, I cannot stress enough the quality and value in having a hard copy of this book.
Each chapter covers a different theme including layers, selections, masks, color spaces and blending, photo touchup and enhancement, compositing, rendering and web-based image production (including animated GIFs and imagemaps). The material is thoughtfully presented as a series of walkthrough examples.
The physical production of the book itself is very good. Every page is in full color and each chapter's start has a color flash at the edge of the page to allow you to easily locate it. The content has been equally well thought out. There is a very comprehensive index. At the end of each chapter is a list of FAQs correcting common misunderstandings about that chapter's subject. All diagrams are very clear and instructive.
My only gripe with the book is that there is no overview of the use of the standard toolbox of tools. I feel a simple explanation of how to use the various painting controls at the start of the book would have set the context for some of the later chapters on the image manipulation facilities of the GIMP, which indeed is the main thrust of the package.
It has been several years since a major book on the GIMP was published. What would be great would be a book that focuses more on programming and on plugins specifically - how to write them and a description of the ones currently in circulation. The next book set to be published on the GIMP, "Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional" is due to be released in April 2006. Until its arrival, this is still the only book on the GIMP worth reading.
For those of you interested in the vast amount of GIMP plug-in source code, just type "Koders Search GIMP" into Google. The first link in the resulting list is what you want. From there you can search through the folders and find the source for the many GIMP plug-ins.

I have read through a lot of this book and it has helped me tremendously in understanding the basic concepts and techniques for creating and manipulating digital images and graphics using the GIMP. Although it does not cover plug-ins in any great detail, it does lay a solid foundation for learning and using them in the future. Aside from that, almost every other conceivable topic is covered.

After I finish reading this book, I am confident that I will be able to read through (and understand) the many GIMP tutorials available online without difficulty. If you are looking for a good introduction to image manipulation and the GIMP, this book does not fail to deliver in any regard.

I have referenced the on-line version of this book several times and found several useful ideas and techniques out of it---especially those dealing with color correction and enhancement. However, there is no comparison to actually haveing physical pages to flip through and seeing the photos "in person". After reading through this book, several other Photoshop tutorials available make much more sense as well. My only complaint is that there is not much attention paid to any use of plugins or "advanced" clone tool techniques for repairing marred photographs without destroying the natural film grain etc. Also, some of the keybinding shortcust appear to have changed, and his examples using Layer masks did not always work for me as described in the book. Overall, though, purchasing this book is a great way to support open-source projects and learn a good deal about the Gimp as well.

I have searched high and low for a decent book on the Gimp. There are a several, good references ("Learning the Gimp in 24 Hours", "Essential Gimp for Web Developers", etc.) though many are out dated due to the rapid progress progress the developers. The Gimp, an excellent example of what open source cooperation produces, is well represented in this book. The author illustrates the use of the Gimp with clear diagrams, concise descriptions, and excellent examples of the Gimp's functionality. Apart from the official Gimp documentation, this book has served me well.

Exelent introduction to a complex subject. Still up-to-date as the fundementals apparently have not changed in 7 years. A few menus have changed slightly but I found this not a problem. This book appears to be out of print but you can download the HTML version and read it on your computer. You'll be trying out all the techniques while you read, so you just need an extra window for the text. I found the writing concise, the organization logical, and the examples helpful. You will find that the GIMP user manual also covers this material but does not really teach you what to do with it. It's not easy to learn--I've been doing photography for years so I thought I'd pick it up just fooling around with the software. It's not so easy!

This book is easy on Beginners. Load Linux to your machine and work on the examples. You will become good at it.

The format is good and you eat one bite at a time.

I found this book has some useful tricks that compensates for the chapters that maybe useless to someone who been using UNIX for sometime. This book made my life easier since I needed a book where I can get some of the useful Unix commands yet a little description with it to help me get by

I like easy to read book and I also assumed that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. I followed an advise in some review and purchased Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs includes 4 Unix Academy Certifications ed.2008. These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. It is a way to start.
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

The book is a real help when you struggle with new operating system's commands and horrible command line syntax. I paired this book with "UNIX Essentials" DVD and can't be happier! Book shows conception the DVD shows complete workflow! WOW! That is really smooth learning.
The book is very well logically organized and easy to navigate and it is free from stupid repetitions that many other books have!

The book is easy to use and understand, good choice for beginners, but might be a bit wordy for advanced users.

Its structure is very similar to a reference book, runs along the UNIX commands in 17 chapters, and provides enough information and examples to their usage. It contains three appendices summarizing the UNIX files and directories, the UNIX commands and their flags. It contains no theoretic essays at all, so if you are interested in the inner working or philosophy of UNIX, this book is not for you.

I liked that it uses a color (red) to distinguish the commands and flags from the output. I was glad to find links to the related topics inside the book, but missed a bibliography. And I missed one or more full chapters paying attention to the most popular implementations such as Solaris, AIX.