Unix Systems Books

This book is targeted for writers of printer configurations files, and not for System Administrators.

As a UNIX and Linux system administrator of 5 years I find that setting up network printing was and is one of the most surprising challenges. And perhaps one the most challenging issues to explain to my users and management. After all Windows printing is virtually plug and play. Whereas configuring printing on UNIX and Linux is virtually without standards and is unique to each printer. Thus I am very excited to see any move towards a standardized printing configuration for UNIX and Linux.

Also a lack of printing configuration standards on UNIX and Linux meant that the selection of printers that would work was extremely small. That is until CUPS came along. However, I still find CUPS very confusing. So I broke down, bought this book and studied it.

This book is more like a reference book. And it is mostly oriented towards programming with CUPS and writing PPD (Postscrip Printer Description) files.

I was disappointed that it didn't cover more on installing new printer configurations and steps for debugging them. I was also disappointed that it left out an important step of how to install new PPD files.

CUPS requires a PPD file to describe the capabilities of each printer, and how it will interface with the printer and driver (if any). The book lists several web sites for retrieving PPD files. However, the book does not explain how add in a new PPD file in the "Adding Your First Printer" section or anywhere else for that matter.

By visiting other web sites I did find these instructions for adding in a new PPD file:

Put the PPD file in /usr/share/cpus/model
Then restart CUPS: /etc/init.d/cups restart, or
/etc/software/init.d/cups restart

However, there are other places and methods depending on your set up. So this is very confusing.

I was very frustrated that this book would leave out something so simple and necessary.

For programming and writing PPD files, this book has a lot of material, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm still trying to configure an HP DesignJet 5000 plotter to plot from my Linux machine.

Also the author deserves considerable credit for tacking on the challenge about writing about Linux and UNIX printing. Very few people are able to write about Linux and UNIX printing in detail. For taking on such a challenging subject and the rarity of this kind of book I gave the book the coveted 4 star rating.

I hope to see more books on Linux printing setup, print drivers and related material.

This is an excellent book on what seems to be the most advanced printing system for UNIX these days. It covers a vast number of topics including building and installation, printer setups, server and client configurations, and several chapters on programming CUPS with an API. The best part that I got out of the book was the numerous examples, including code examples.

I'm a Master student in information Systems,currently taking Software Engineering and Database Concepts courses at the Univeristy. This is a great book which contains book subjects with good examples. The Good thing is I don't waste my time to study the courses twice. This book Contains usefull relations between the two subject with a open source approach. One last to say Every Thing I want, I found.

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The first third and some of the last few chapters contain a good deal of "Software Methodologies for Dummies" content, which is certainly NOT what I purchased this book for. There are chapters on Design (application, not database), Analysis, User Interface Issues, Object Orientation, etc. Since the book is about 490 pages (less index, etc.) maybe the author just added such content for filler.

That having been said, this book is a VERY good overview of Database technology on Linux. In covers all the major DBMS options including installation tutorials for each, admin and GUI interface tools, and programming against those databases in a variety of Linux languages (C, C++, Java, Perl, Tk, Gnome/Glade, etc.)

The book include LOTS of super links to tools and products (both free (Open Source) and commercial. It includes lots of tips and hints that would take weeks to find in the documentation and I especially appreciated the special points of reference offered by the author for those of us who are more famaliar with Windows Database products than Linux products.

This subject matter gets little coverage and this book makes for a great quick start. At $45 it's a little pricey, but there are few alternatives that deal directly with this subject.

The primary author's web site is published in the book, you can download the source code from the book examples and there is a message board for book related discussions (in which the author answers questions) and there is an errata section as well !!

Overall a good buy.

Joe@ASPGurus.com -

Although I am an experienced Linux user and do some Admin, I'm on my current project developing a linux embedded system that will be a router. We have QoS and netfilter requirements and I found nearly all the data on QoS old and dated for the 2.4 kernel. Furthermore, due to lack of info I had a hard time developing basic test scenarios.

After reading this book, I feel much better preparred for the project. What I liked about the book was the real world examples with some sense of humor. Even on a dry subject like network packets I was able to read thru the book easily. The tc examples and kernel config was what I really needed, and the book handled that well. The book is based on kernel 2.6.14 at least in a few areas.

I'm giving the book 4 stars because I'm just starting. The book does have large and small examples but I haven't used them yet. As an intro I give it 5 stars.

If you like opensource, QoS, Firewalls... this book would be what you need.

If you are netadmin, sysadmin or you are an IT guy and learn this book, you can limit p2p/bittorrent traffic, guarantee bandwith for some services like http, ftp, voip, etc. (QoS), you can protect your network with firewalls.

First in chapter 1 we learn about Networking Fundamentals, then in chapter 2, about Security Threats in every OSI layer. After that we are ready to learn about basis of netfilter and iproute (Firewall and QoS).

In next chapters, show us how to do layer 7 filtering, practical QoS and more advanced things. Then we apply this knowledge in a very practical serie of scenerios that come later in the book.

Very good book, I recomend this to you.

This is a fantastic book for people like who me who do not know much about Linux at all ... the visual step-by-step instructions are really easy to follow and understand.

This is an excellent book for linux newbies. Maran graphic's "Visual Blueprint..." series are great books for those looking to learn about computers and software.

The only problem with this book was that I couldnt get Red Hat 6.2 installed on my Compaq pc. Although at the back of the book it recommends the OS is compatible with IBM pc's. A better version of Linux would be Linux Mandrake. I feel Mandrake would compliment this book better than Red Hat.

This is by far the most underrated books on linux. Unlike lots of books published these days on the linux subject, the writer has the reader in mind when writing this book. Most of the essential concepts on linux kernel are well explained. The level of detail is almost perfect. You can tell if you read at least 30 pages of this book, the author is trying to tell the story with his own words and not just presenting some "raw" material.
This style make the world of difference. I have read over 10 books on linux and this is the best on explaining how linux works.

This book is very comprehensive. It includes information about the kernel auto loading and recent upgrades in the 2.X kernel series. A good start if you want to understand how the linux kernel works and want to develop drivers for the kernel.

The concepts and the theory in this book are really good.
As stated in the book, the author installed openldap in ubuntu but the documentation and implementation do not work if you try to install it in ubuntu 8.. I found the documentation in Ubuntu community easier to follow and worked in a matter of minutes for basic authentication in openldap and phpmyldapadmin.

This is an extraordinarily well written book. In the preface the author promises to prepare system administrators or software developers for building a directory using OpenLDAP using a practical approach, discussing theory where that helps answer practical questions.

Along with some of the best illustrations of the theory and practice of LDAP directory management, this book contains a wealth of detailed information on the servers, clients and utilities that make up the OpenLDAP suite of software. The examples provided of different configurations are not only detailed, they also methodically build upon each other in a way that really illuminates various concepts far better than I think has been done before.

The appendices in this volume are also worthy of mention: "Building OpenLDAP from Source", "LDAP URLs", and "Useful LDAP Commands" -- the last deftly handling one of my favorite pastimes, "Rebuilding a Database (BDB, HDB)".

This book would be an excellent textbook for use by students learning Internet technologies. It would also make a terrific technical manual for system administrators or developers involved in deploying or maintaining systems and applications that use directory services. Finally, it's the one essential book that all directory administrators should have on their own personal bookshelf.

A good and detailed comparison between Unix and NT system programming. If you are an expert in Unix system programming and know nothing about NT system programming, this book is a good start. I learn a lot from it!

It is an excellent book to understand the major differences between Unix and Windows NT. As far as porting code from Unix to Windows NT is concerned it is out of date because it does not cover the latest (versions of) emulation environments such as Cygwin, NuTCRACKER, Interix, and U/Win. In fact two of these environments did not even exist (?) at the time this book was written (Windows NT 4.0 was just released). The author does a good job of providing useful details and is definitely enjoyable to read. If he adds a few chapters covering the other porting environments with their latest versions(which should not be too hard to do) this book can be brought back to its EXCELLENT state.

I have a long background with Netware but not so much with Linux, and I've been trying to get a handle on Open Enterprise Server on SUSE Linux. I can find plenty of information on running virtually any distribution of Linux, but OES Linux is a pretty different beast. I think this book is particularly great for someone trying to make the transition from Netware to Linux. It seems to do a great job of introducing essential linux tools for administration, as well as how the Novell management tools tie everything together. I think the book has most everything you'd need to know about how to run the OES Netware kernel, but it mostly just introduces the Linux side of things. However, that's fine for me. Once I know what the proper tools are for a given situation, I'm more than able to go research command-line options etc on my own. There are plenty of other books for that.

If you are NetWare 5x administrator, this is good documents for maigrate into Novell Openenterprise Server(OES). There are differences between Linux and NetWare version. And how can I create NSS volume on SuSE Linux system. A lot of pictures.

Excellent for beginners, but I suggest a more detailed SAS book as a supplement for the more in-depth details.

The simple stuff that is difficult to find in the SAS manuals is right there with a quick example. I almost always try to find my answers here first, and I have pretty good luck. The SAS institute should look over books like this befor releasing their next round of manuals.

The task of learning Linux, can sometimes be an overwhelming burden that some people just do not want to take on. Now, trying to find the right book to learn more about Linux or to use as a reference can be a mind blowing task given all the choices that are available. Red Hat Linux 9 Professional Secrets by Naba Barkakati is an excellent option for the Linux newbie or the experienced Linux user who wants a useful reference guide.

Weighing in at over 1,000 pages, Red Hat 9 Professional Secrets provides many useful insights and behind the scenes tips on the inner workings of Red Hat Linux. I have used many different books on Linux and specifically the Red Hat distro, and over the past few weeks I found myself going back to this book as a reference and easily finding the solutions I was looking for.

Such a large book can sometimes be a "turn off" for someone looking for their first book to learn something new. The fear being that they will never be able to navigate through all the technical advanced jargon that one usually finds in a 1,000+ page book. However, I feel the author does a good job introducing Linux basics and fundamentals in Part I: Setting Up Red Hat Linux, and Part II: Exploring Red Hat Linux.

While some may consider the first two parts to be strictly for the Linux newbie and the second three parts for the more experienced Linux user, I believe that these areas mesh well with each other providing the experienced Linux user with install tips in the first two parts that are often overlooked and providing the newbie with the definitive Linux guide that will walk them through the simple tasks as well as provide them more in-depth detail to the more advanced concepts that are often only found in a separate Linux administration book.

I would highly recommend this book to the experienced Linux user and the Linux newbie who are looking for the ultimate guide on Red Hat 9.

Vince Scimeca
Senior Technology Manager...

I wrote this book as a practical guide that not only gets you going with Red Hat Linux 9 installation and configuration, but also shows you how to use your Linux system for specific tasks- - like setting up Apache with Tomcat or writing Java servlets. You get the behind-the-scenes details on how things work in Red Hat Linux as well as the step-by-step guides for various setup/configuration tasks. By the way, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL3) is similar to Red Hat Linux 9, so you'd find this book relevant for both RH9 and RHEL3.

What you'll like most about this book is that you can use it as a tutorial for specific subjects as well as a reference guide- - jumping from topic to topic. For example, you can look up a Linux command in Appendix A. Want to learn how to connect Apache Tomcat with the Apache Web server? Just turn to Chapter 14 and look up the section that covers that topic in detail. Take a quick look inside the book, compare with the competing titles, and see for yourself :-)

Here's what I cover in this 1,030+ page book with 26 chapters (organized into 5 parts) and 8 appendixes:

Part I: Setting up Red Hat Linux - 6 chapters cover installation and configuration. Includes details on X configuration, CUPS setup, as well as sound and network setup.

Part II: Exploring Red Hat Linux - 6 chapters cover the GNU utilities, the GUI desktops - GNOME and KDE, and the major applications. Learn to use text editors, prepare DocBook documentation, and do basic sysadmin.

Part III: Internetworking Red Hat Linux - 7 chapters on connecting to the Internet and setting up Internet servers, including Web, FTP, SMTP, news, DNS, NIS, NFS, and Samba.

Part IV: Managing Red Hat Linux - 3 chapters on systems administration and security... including how to build software from source files, work with RPM files, rebuild and install a new kernel, and how to secure the system and the network.

Part V: Programming Red Hat Linux - 4 chapters cover programming in Linux using C and C++, the shell, Perl, Tcl/Tk, and Java.

Appendixes - include a Linux command guide and cover hardware such as disk drives, CD-ROM drives, Ethernet, modems, and PC cards.

Hope you find the book useful!