Linux Pocket Guide

Linux Cookbook

A Practical Guide to Linux(R) Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming

How Linux Works : What Every Superuser Should Know

Linux Bible, 2005 Edition

Shell

Linux in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

Format: Paperback
Author: Ellen Siever
ReleaseDate: 27 July, 2005
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Rating:

extra reference.


the book boasts how it includes many many examples on how to use each command, this is utterly false. over half of this book consists of material already available in the "man" pages on a linux system. there are infact too few examples included.

100% of the material in this book can be found on the internet, on the linux system's info and man pages.

this book will not be friendly for the linux newbie. the title is misleading, "in a nutshell" usually means "the basics of a working system". this book is merely acts as reference for the abundance of reference freely available.

most useful reference book
It includes the following sections:

* Linux commands
* Boot methods
* Package Management
* Bash and Korn
* Pattern Matching
* Emacs
* Vi
* Sed
* Gawk
* Source code management
* CVS
* Subversion

From this listing you can tell what this book is and what it is not. Linux in a 900+ pages "nutshell" is a very well designed and most useful reference book. It is *not* a GNU/Linux tutorial or HOWTO. It is a "how do I do this" reference book for somebody who already understands GNU/Linux but who need to get something done with a non-favorite tool, like somebody used to Bash sitting in front of a Korn shell, or a EMACS user having to get something done with vi. It is also a "portable man page" for most GNU/Linux commands.

I find this book extremenly valuable and it would be one of those that I would keep handy at all times.

Worth it
I've found it very useful while I learned Linux from various sources because other sources leave out information and act like the reader already knows the command, its options, and what it will do. Linux in a Nutshell is well worth its price tag. When I read the Debian GNU/Linux Bible I was often perplexed at times when they mentioned commands that were never mentioned before; however, I would just open up Linux in a Nutshell and voila, there was the necessary information.

I found it indispensable for text editors. Ever get completely stuck in a Linux program because an author told you to do this and that? Well, I have and I've even tried accessing the built-in "help" only to get stuck there too. And my only solution was to reboot. Not a great solution. This quickly cleared up any problems.

Overall, it's useful for the beginner, the intermediate, and the experienced user. A beginner needs to figure out what a command does and how to use it, an intermediate user may need to refer to a specific command from time to time, and an expert can easily find use in its excellent ability to act as a reference book (just leave it next to the monitor for when you need to look something up). In the case of the expert, however, the man pages might be a better alternative. The beginner and intermediate may find it easier to read off the screen while working, which is what I recommend (and do). .