Unix Systems Books

The book had lots of useful information but it was hard to read and boring. I felt like I was in school.

As a Linux user, How Linux Works is, I think, a "nice to have" technical book but certainly not an essential one.

I began using Ubuntu Linux just less than one year ago as my primary operating system. In addition to myriad online resources, I have about nine different Linux books stacked up near my desk.

However, only some of those books remain at or near the top of the pile. That is to say that one year later, a few of the books I've bought remain useful but most of them don't.

How Linux Works went to the bottom of the pile very quickly after I bought it and has remained there pretty much continuously since then. In fact, I only recently pulled it out of the stack to see if, now that I know a bit more about Linux, there might be anything interesting or useful to me. There wasn't.

So my take is that How Linux Works isn't a bad book, but it's one of the demonstrably least useful books I've ever owned...

I was misled by the many glowing reviews into buying this book. This book is n't really about how linux works. Its more like a reference or manual - with very barebones descriptions followed by instruction. It doesn't go into depth at all about the 'how' or the 'why' as the title claims. In fact its just a regurgitation of the standard linux docs and HOWTOs (some of which were written by this author), the only advantage being that here you have them collected here between a spine. But their are websites that do this for you and do it for free to boot. The intermediate and advanced lessons at Linux.org/lessons cover everything in this book and much more in a better organized fashion. I would go there instead of buying this book.

This book was perfect for me. I use GNU/Linux at home and work, and I wanted to learn more about a wide range of topics (bootup, networking, kernel, etc.). For each section, "How Linux Works" gives a concise explanation of how things work, and covers a few commands and command-line options.

Brian Ward does a great job of choosing what to exclude, to keep the book technically useful but still readable. It's a very efficient way to move from beginner toward intermediate-level understanding.

I will use this book as a starting point for experimenting and learning more about GNU/Linux. I can get much more from man pages now that I know more commands, for example.

The title is a bit misleading. It covers much more than the Linux kernel, and would more aptly be named "How GNU/Linux Works." I also disagree that it's "what every superuser should know" - the discussion is aimed at intermediate-level users.

This would be a great learning tool for those who have had experience which some flavor of Unix and for those who have never seen Unix. I have experience with a proprietary Unix but wanted more specific details about Linux architecture and administration. It is a great review of basic unix concepts, processes, & commands with the added information that is Linux specific. The book uses a very organized approach with each chapter building on top of the previous one. Plus each topic is structured like a tutorial - so it is covered in a way that those who do not know unix - learn it. I am only half way through the book and have found it very beneficial. And my college age son who has only dealt with the Windows environment - is going to read it to get the basics about Unix and the details he needs for Linux usage.

Starting as a complete Linux novice, I've used this version of the book and CD to:

- Run Knoppix/Linux as a standalone Operating System
- Connect to the internet w/o a hard-drive installed OS
- Create a dual boot windows/Linux-Debian machine
- Update Debian hard drive using apt-get tool
- Rescue/clone multiple windows hard drives using 'dd'
- Recover crashed windows NTFS drives using 'dd_rescue' and 'dd_rhelp'
- Clone Linux (knoppmyth) hard drives using 'dd'

The book does not tell you much about Linux file systems and how to move files, copy files, extract/create TAR files etc. Recommend Debian Linux Bible to get oriented with Linux commands from the terminal/console.

Firstly, Knoppix is very cool, and this takes the usefulness and niftyness of that live distribution on a disc and throws a bunch of ideas at you that you can consider using it for.

Some are of the fun stunt variety, but that is what you want in a book like this.

I bought this book to give me a quick boost on Linux and Knoppix as a whole. As with a number of these "Hack" books there is usually a good pearl or Hack to make the book worth while.

This book certainly does that and for someone who need quick tips this book certainly helps. I would consider this a key book for any sys admin's tool kit as it is very useful in support MS OS systems.

First, I have been trying to accomplish several things in the Linux environment that I knew could be made much easier:
- Make "kiosks" for a trade show environment
- Loading Knoppix on the hard drive
- Set up an all Thin Client network for use in public library or k-12 environments

I did all of those things (And many more) the same day I got my Knoppix Hacks book.

Knoppix has proven itself to be an excellent vehicle for promoting the "Usability" of Linux to those who still feel it is beyond the grasp of non-geeks.

The Knoppix Hacks book has proven that advanced knoppix functions are not beyond the geek.

I highly recommend this book to anyone exploring the Linux world and specifically the Knoppix distro. I still have more hacks to try, so I'll be back in a bit ;-)

Robert K. Ruby II
Founder NWSIG
www.aprinciple.org
groups.yahoo.com/group/aprinciple

I work in data recovery and this book has some great tips. It shows you how recover files from a bad disk. This book also teaches you how to repair the MBR which saved me from reinstalling Windows. Well worth the price.

Excellent Linux book! Gives step by step answers to common Linux problems in a "Problem - solution" style way. I'm a tad disappointed in the SAMBA section, but that really is a topic deserving of a book of its own.

A well-organised and clearly written collection of useful commands and solutions to help one along with the often exasperating arcana of Linux. Covers all flavours and is a 'must have' book.

... which comes in real handy considering how often I reference it.

Chapter 10 (Patching, Customizing, and Upgrading Kernels) and Chapter 12 (Managing the Bootloader and Multi-Booting) helped me recompile my kernel for the first time. Not only are the instructions clear, but the author also made sure to explain each step so I knew why I was typing a certain command. There's even a section on how to create an initrd image for SCSI drive users, which I had a hard time finding on the web.

This book does an excellent job covering all the basics, and it's worth spending the time to read it from beginning to end. I certainly see myself getting a lot of mileage from it.

Because this is a "cookbook," it gives you recipies -- step-by-step instructions for performing specific tasks.

This makes Linux Cookbook EXTREMELY useful when it has a recipie you need, and it often gives you a good starting point when you need to do something that isn't specifically covered.

For example, let's say you need to setup a mail server, which you've never done before. As long as you're willing to use the mail tools she describes (which are perfectly good tools), then this book is the fastest way to get the job done. She also shows you how to make sure the server will be secure.

I'm glad I have this book on my shelf, I recommend it, and I refer to it whenever I need to do something new in Linux. The problem is, you can't have a step-by-step recipie for everything. When this book hits the mark, it's the best book you can have, but you cannot rely on this as your only Linux book.

I wanted to become more experienced with UNIX so I had the Ubuntu distribution installed in my computer. I spent six months having a hard time getting simple things done until I came accross this book.

It is organized in such a way that it is easy to get to do what you want/need and, what's better, the explanations provided give you insights on how UNIX works. After a while, you will find yourself doing new stuff on your own.

If you want to get into UNIX but knows little about it my advice for you is: get this book and jump into LINUX - it is worth it!

This is an excellent book for unix shell scripting. Pretty much covers everything from A-Z.

Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting is a good book on writing Korn shell scripts. If you need BASH or CSH or something else, get another book.

All of the examples in the book are directed towards Systems Administrators. That is not a bad thing. Too many books give you examples that have no use outside the one bit they are trying to teach you. Each example in this book has a real world function. The scripts cover Linux, HP-UX, Solaris and AIX. The examples are straight forward and have lots of useful comments and techniques.

My only complaint about the book is it lacks any real reference value. It would be nice to have a summary of language features. Even with that drawback I would recommend this book over the O'Reiely book.

I thought the book was excellent. Each example program is thoroughly explained. The example programs are very useful and well written. The examples will work for the most common Unix variants. A library of functions are provided that can be used to build more complex programs.

I am a seasoned system administrator with a lot of programming experience but I have a limited amount of experience with Unix and AIX. This book helped me get up-to-speed with common system administration tasks such as resource monitoring and notification.

This book is great! I Recently landed a job as a Systems Administrator (Solaris), and I needed to know how to script. With little scripting experience (and me not wanting to loose the job of my dreams); I picked this book up. All I can say is WOW. What a GREAT book. It describes step by step what to do, how it's done and why it's done. Although it's exclusively KSH, it does have the same script written in different formats so that it works with Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, and other Unicies.

This book assumes that you know SOME basic scripting skills. Beginners would have to learn some basic scripting and (more importantly) understand the concept besides the actual command(s). I recommend this book for, nonetheless, to everyone who wants/needs to script. Happy scripting!

[A review of the 2ND EDITION, where the latter was published in June 2008.]

Perhaps you are a programmer or sysadmin of a heterogeneous network of unix and linux machines. Where the unixes hail from different vendors. Think Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and the Macintosh. (Yes, the Mac runs a descendent of Mach, which is a dialect of unix.) And maybe the linux boxes have different distros. This book spans the gamut of most unixes (I include linux in this). Helping you easily write shell scripts, without taking sides over which unix or linux version is better.

The second ecumenical aspect is that it also avoids favouring any of the 3 major unix shells - Borne, Korn and bash. In some newsgroups, there has been a tedious and interminable debate about the relative virtues of these shells. While one shell might indeed be better than others for a given task, in general they have equivalent functionality. The book's evenhanded approach is one worth emulating.

Thoughtfully, the book suggests topics that might be typically useful to sysadmins, and others more suited to programmers. It is not a strict divide. But for sysadmins, you can see discussions about how to monitor disk partitions, or system load and swap space usage. These are often issues germane to your duties.

The bulk of the book is more on programmer-related topics. Much. Note that the book is largely random access, unlike a science textbook for example, which is serial access from the front. In other words, with just a minimal acquaintance with basic scripting, you can dive straight into any chapter, without reading its predecessor.

I purchased this book as a complimentary book for the regular OS text books, so far the coverage is very good and helpful.

Awesome book...things are very well explained and the subject-matter is covered well. Surely recommend this book to someone!!

ULK provides well structured and clear introduction to the 2.6 linux kernel. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get started on kernel code. ULK also provides an insight into the modularity present within the kernel (eg. doubly linked list macros). Thus, it should help amateur programmers to develop strong coding skills in addition to understanding OS kernel design.

This is a great book to help you understand the linux kernel. It reads easily and helps you to not get lost inside of the details.

Prepare to have you brain melted. This book is FACINATING but not for everyone. It's EXCEEDINGLY nerdy and doesn't attempt to simplify complex nitty gritty details, and it shouldn't. This book is an excelent place to start if you want to dig deeper into the kernel itself. It would be an excelent choice to read before a book on drivers (Linux Device Drivers (Nutshell Handbook)) or low level networking Understanding Linux Network Internals) which are both also very good books.

I would give it 4 stars but it's not quite as well written as some of the other books on Free software published by O'Reilly.

Win32 Perl Programming: The Standard Extensions is, without question, the best scripting book I have ever owned. It has a partner book, "Win32 Perl Scripting: The Administrators Handbook" and between the 2 of them I can pretty well complete any task I need to using Perl. Some of the modules have been slightly updated since the 2nd edition, but a quick look at cpan will solve any of those rare situations. I cannot recommend this book enough if your a Windows Administrator and have ever wondered if Perl could be benifical to your evironment.

If you are doing Windows programming, and you've been suffering through trying to figure out how to enumerate the machines and users in your domain(s), change passwords, gather accounting information, etc., then you MUST have this book. And you should probably book mark the author's homepage,..., as it has a slew of programs and utilities.

All I can say about this book, is that when I teach Perl courses for Learning Tree, I always take out about five minutes from the course to thoroughly recommend this book to all of our NT administrators, other users of Win32 Perl and anyone else who happens to be in the vicinity. I've found it absolutely essential in the last year or so, on many occasions, and carry it with me on every assigment, come rain, snow or shine, along with "Advanced Perl", "The Perl Cookbook" and "Programming Perl". I use it as more of a reference, than as a tutorial, but basically it's a lifesaver. Recommendation: Buy.

This book has cleared up a lot of mysteries about Win32 specific topics. Made using Win32 extensions easy. Great examples. Just be aware that this cannot be your only PERL book on the shelf. This is about interfacing with the Win32 platform, not really about how to program in PERL. You'll also need a more general PERL programming book such as "PERL by Example", if you're just starting out. I've got both and am constantly bouncing between them.

This book does one thing and does it well: It documents and thoroughly explains the Win32 API available in Perl 5.005. Anyone contemplating using Perl for administrative tasks in the Windows environment would do well to add a copy of this book to his or her Perl bookshelf.

Well, I picked up second edition of the book "Linux System Administration" soon after I read excellent "introductory" type of the book, "Linux for Windows Administrators" by Mark Minasi. It was a logical next step for Unix/Linux newbie like me to pick up more advanced guide for Linux SA. Now, I can only confirm that the book is worth the Linux Journal award in 2001 as being "One of the most indispensable Linux Books".
It's well written, thought technical dry and less fun to read than the book from Mr. Minasi!
The impression that I got is that book is geared more toward novices and beginners in the field of system administration (in general) than for some seasoned Unix sysadmin on her/his way to Linux. (If you're Windows admin that successfully installed Linux box or two, with solid general knowledge of the hardware than this book is for you!)
Book is organized in four parts (Basics, Managing Users and Processes, Networking and System Optimization) and as such covers most tasks and duties of Linux SA.
Layout of the book is nothing special, it's simple and with some unnecessary screenshots (like that of xrost and BRU screenshot, webmin) and lengthy scripts (such as sample netfilter startup file) - this kind of material belongs to appendix of the book.
Overall good book that you can use on a daily basis but not as a complete reference! I found book useful as a reminder of some basic principles and commands, which I later explore with the help of other books and online documentation. Have fun!

Linux System Administration does a great job of covering a vast amount of Linux topics with just the right amount of detail for most users. This book appeals to a wide variety of readers, it is written in way that doesn't scare off newbies, but manages to have enough meat for experienced Linux users. The great thing about this book is it spends a fair amount of time explaining how to do things on a variety of distros.

Parts of the book that stand out in my mind are the chapters dealing with kernel recompilation, scripting and security. The kernel recompilation chapter is by far the best material I've seen on the subject to date, it almost makes kernel recompilation sound too easy. The security chapter is good starting point for sysadmins that are new to Linux. The book also provides a nice little introduction to scripting, although if your going to be a Linux sysadmin, the Orielly books on bash and perl are a must.

There were very few things that I didn't like about this book. One thing that stands out in my mind is the author's insistence on using paper journal books for logging system changes. With the proper backup procedures in place, a web based system log is a much more efficient way of keeping tracking of changes. Overall, the book is must read for anyone new to Linux and is also a good pickup for seasoned Linux users. I've been recommending this book over Running Linux as of late, since the Oreilly offering is showing its age.

Microsoft's introduction of XP also introduced outrageous Microsoft user agreements I could never accept. Furthermore I was sick of Windows security issues, viruses, instability, and software conflicts. The GNU/Linux FREE as in freedom philosophy made sense to me, so I chose Linux FREEdom over Mac's wanna-be a monopoly world. A copy of Mandrake Linux sat on my shelf awaiting a Linux guru to help me install it, until late one night when Windows irrevocably crashed in the middle of a project I had to finish before bed. In a panic I installed Linux (along with a broad suite of apps) on an old hard drive I had, recovered my files from the Windows drive, and was working on my project again within 45 minutes. That was more than two years ago and I never looked back. I have a fast, stable, secure, virus free operating system with more and better apps than I could afford with Windows.

However, until a month ago, when I bought a copy of Linux System Administration, I could only use Linux as if it was Windows or Mac. The full power of GNU/Linux is accessible through the shell command line, and this power was beyond my grasp. It wasn't that I hadn't tried. I bough half a dozen books about Linux in order to learn how to access and use this power. But the books I bought, though highly recommended, all required prerequisite knowledge I lacked, had no logical explanation, or they were too simplistic. Nor have I been able to find anyone to hold my hand through the process of learning the real power of Linux. Linux System Administration is exactly the book I needed. Linux System Administration is not in any way dumbed down. It is simply very good at introducing and explaining Linux. This is not a beginner's book inadequate to provide any real understanding. It is a solid book suitable for use by a Linux system administratior that a beginner can begin with. Linux System Administration is empowering me to be the system administrator of my computer and LAN (and more if I want to or need to). Linux System Administration is making available to me the FREEdom, control, and power that GNU/Linux is all about.

I also recommend Linux In A Nutshell, and Linux Cookbook. Running Linux, recommended by "Linux Journal" (along with Linux System Administration and Linux In A Nutshell), had been beyond me, but maybe after I fully assimilate Linux System Administration I'll be able to make use of it.

This book is way too basic for anyone wanting to do anything other than just run linux. It is missing a lot that should be present, for example, setting up local caching nameservers. Perhaps this is because there are other books in the series on these topics, but if this is intended to provide a good overview, it needs to have some coverage.

I have found Advanced Linux Networking by Roderick Smith to be a better choice for information on managing linux systems.

This book is perfect for the person who has been tinkering with Linux long enought to have started outgrowing the GUI based tools that the distros are spoon feeding users with.

This book takes a reader who is ready to leave webmin or other "wizard" approaches behind and wants to take the bull (er... config files) by the horns and REALLY control their machines.

The vendor/distro neutral coverage is fair and even handed, giving time to both Redhat based distros as well as Debian.

If you are itching to stop having to point and click all over the place to change a line in a config file, and are ready to learn the faster, quicker, less error prone way... here you go!

Become an SA :)

Too bad the author has not chosen to release updated versions in America, as apparently has been done in Europe. He is one of the clearest writers I've read on the topic of Linux. But the book was published in 1997! Linux, unlike Windoes, has been transforming at lightening speed. The Linux desktop of today is nothing like the Linux desktop of 1997. So about 40 percent of the book is of historical interest, but scarcely relevant today. The other 60 percent, however, is exceptional. I wish all authors were as lucid in their thinking and writing.

Herr Kofler from Austria wrote a comprehensive masterpiece on Linux, newer editions are available in German.

The title says it. Here is 772 pages that will give you control over Linux installation, configuration, and use. It's loaded with insightful tips, useful guidance, and the fruit of years of competent use.

Some computer books and manuals actually are penned by tech writers under the aegis of an alleged expert. Many of these are near useless. Some others are hard to understand not because the subject inherently is so, but because of lack of thorough understanding on the part of the author, or poor writing. Kofler's book is among the few that rise way above this. He genuinely knows this subject, extremely well and with depth, and he knows how to communicate that knowledge in writing. After looking over many Linux texts on the commercial shelf, my picks would be this one by Kofler, and for more detail, the 2000 page Complete Reference by Purcell. Lots of valuable info also on the internet, but this book is a must on my shelf!

I bought this book along with O'Reilly's Running Linux. Between this book and the O'Reilly book, there really isn't any info I can't find. Between these two books, I've got a really good handle on the Linux operating system. I'm running SuSE Linux 7.1 and these two books are more than compatible for this distribution of Linux.

After spending some time with other general Linux texts I found this one to be at the top. It covers the entire range of the subject in enough detail to be very useful. It is a great starting point to the Linux world, yet more advanced users will find it a good reference for the computer shelf. You will still need to buy some other texts to give you in-depth coverage of several Linux areas and programs, such as Samba, but this book gives a great overview that you can understand and apply. I highly recommend it.

This handy book takes common tasks and presents how to accomplish them, but it does more than that - it puts context around the dry reference material I usually end up using. That context makes a difference and ends up saving me time when I want to accomplish some task I don't do every day.

This book is a time and headache saver.

I find this book a good mate for everyone who likes more reading on printed paper rather than a pc screen.
Through the pages you'll find plenty of examples and advices, expecially in the FAQ sections, but on the other side every single word is already available on the samba's official site.
Maybe, if this book was cheaper, people could buy it and place it on their desktop as a trusted fella.

The name says it all. This book is an excellent guide for the latest version of Samba. From small networks to enterprise level integration, Terpstra walks the user through examples.

I recommend this book not only for the great examples, but because it is great at instruction. In the first chapter it reviews network scanning and nessus as a way of troubleshooting and understanding the protocols. This kind of instruction is hard to find in most books.

Another great feature of this book is the breadth of the subjects covered. From active directory to ldap to kerberos and security - I was impressed with just the table of contents.

Overall, you can find more in-depth coverage of any of the individual topics in the book, but no one source quite like this one. It is a great book both for novices and for experienced administrators newly faced with unix/windows integration with samba.

Most books either provide untested examples for how to do this sort of thing, and so can only be taken as illustrative, and/or they cover a very narrow range of tasks. Terpstra has done neither: he's provided examples that actually work, that have been tested in operational environments, and he has provided a broad range of examples, examples that are useable regardless of the network type in place.

Further, he has written this book in a very accessible way. While Samble-3 is targeted at Readers with experience in networking, this book is useable by newbies, as well. Although Terpstra provides some rationale for his setups, his step-by-step directions simply can be followed in cookbook fashion until experience teaches more broadly.

Using Linux in a Windows desktop environment requires the use of Samba for file and print sharing via the Windows explorer. But Samba has grown up as a full-fledged package for communicating between Linux and Windows over the last few years. Installing Samba as a Primary Domain Controller, implementing ldap for easy directory integration, or just installing it as a file and print server are all easy to do with the help of this book. The author takes a much easier to follow approach than most other writers on this subject. Instead of trying to go through each of the features and discuss them in detail he organizes the book by the type of installation and then walks you through a correct setup for that situation. For example some of the sections are: No-frills Samba Servers, Small Office Networking, Secure Office Networking, The 500-User Office, A Distributed 2000-User Network, Migrating NT4 Domain to Samba-3, and Migrating Netware Server to Samba-3. For each one of these situations the author dissects the technical issues, discusses each one, and then walks the reader through the implementing. The author also includes sections on things like performance, reliability, LDAP, and updating Samba. Nothing is left unexplained but each time you are told to check something or do something the exact syntax for doing it is given. Even with only very little or no Linux experience you can walk through this book and install a correctly functioning Samba server. Samba-3 by Example is highly recommended.

This book must be by far one of the most valuable books I have ever read. I learned to love Unix/C programming from it and I have treasured the knowledge I have gained from it ever since. Mr.Stevens has passed away but this book holds some wonderful memories and discoveries for me.

I cannot fathom a guess as to how many times the books in this series have saved my in project work over the years. The only drawback with this series is that some publisher should endeavor to keep them up to date. Serious Unix system programmers must have copies of the complete series.

I have been actively involved in computer software/hardware for close to 20 years and have purchased probably 200+ books in this time period. Over 75% I wish I hadn't purchased. This book is probably in my top 10 however.

This book is what's called a "Bible". It's an authoritive reference on Unix networking and communications (ipc/rpc) and much else. I equate it to the Kernighan & Ritchie C book, etc.

I wouldn't recommend this book to someone new to computers, but if you have a few years under your belt, or are an eager-beaver then go ahead...you won't regret your purchase.

The author uses a simple client/server program example (a simple file server) and then goes through several iterations/revisions, each using a different IPC mechanism to accomplish same task. A great technique for exploring new concepts...tie them all to a single program design with the program evolving to use different APIs/IPC mechanisms.

Don't let the title fool you - this book is more about writing robust applications in UNIX than mere network programming.
In his trademark crisp and to-the-point style, Tanenbaum describes UNIX from the C programmer's point of view. The book groups system calls by domain (file I/O, IPC etc) and illustrates different usage scenarios. This is one of few texts that explain the *why* aspect of system calls, not just the *how*. After reading this book, you will have gained insight on improving your current programming project, and understand UNIX inside-out.

Network programming was never meant to be easy. It has simply too many details and functions, to make it mind boggling. So an excellent reference is in order.

I had read TCP/IP Illustrated I by Richard Stevens and found it an excellent read. Which is why I bought this book. Frankly, I was a bit dissapointed with it.

In the TCP/IP book, Stevens explains concepts with the help of diagrams and examples. This book, on the other hand, reads like a listing of various programs which make no sense. I found it very diffcult to use as my first programming book.

If you have some knowledge of network programming, you shuld buy this book. But if you are a novice like me, then think twice about it.