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Python for Unix and Linux System Administration
Python is an ideal language for solving problems, especially in Linux and Unix networks. With this pragmatic book, administrators can review various tasks that often occur in the management of these systems, and learn how Python can provide a more efficient and less painful way to handle them.
Each chapter in Python for Unix and Linux System Administration presents a particular administrative issue, such as concurrency or data backup, and presents Python solutions through hands-on examples. Once you finish this book, you'll be able to develop your own set of command-line utilities with Python to tackle a wide range of problems. Discover how this language can help you:
With this book, you'll learn how to package and deploy your Python applications and libraries, and write code that runs equally well on multiple Unix platforms. You'll also learn about several Python-related technologies that will make your life much easier.
Each chapter in Python for Unix and Linux System Administration presents a particular administrative issue, such as concurrency or data backup, and presents Python solutions through hands-on examples. Once you finish this book, you'll be able to develop your own set of command-line utilities with Python to tackle a wide range of problems. Discover how this language can help you:
With this book, you'll learn how to package and deploy your Python applications and libraries, and write code that runs equally well on multiple Unix platforms. You'll also learn about several Python-related technologies that will make your life much easier.
433 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 2008
8 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Noah Gift
14听books12听followersNoah Gift is lecturer and consultant at UC Davis Graduate School of Management in the MSBA program, Northwestern's Master of Data Science program, and UC Berkeley Data Science program. He is also the founder of Pragmatic AI Labs. At Pragmatic AI Labs he provides consulting and training on Machine Learning and AI, and also develops AI SaaS products. At UC Davis, he is teaching graduate machine learning and consulting on Machine Learning and Cloud Architecture for students and faculty. He has published close to 100 technical publications including two books on subjects ranging from Pragmatic AI: An Introduction to Cloud-Based Machine Learning, First Edition to DevOps. He is also a certified AWS Solutions Architect and has an MBA from UC Davis, a M.S. in Computer Information Systems from Cal State Los Angeles, and a B.S. in Nutritional Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Professionally, Noah has approximately 20 years鈥� experience programming in Python and is a member of the Python Software Foundation. He has worked in roles ranging from CTO, General Manager, Consulting CTO and Cloud Architect. This experience has been with a wide variety of companies including ABC, Caltech, Sony Imageworks, Disney Feature Animation, Weta Digital, AT&T, Turner Studios and Linden Lab. In the last ten years, he has been responsible for shipping many new products at multiple companies that generated millions of dollars of revenue and had global scale. Currently he is consulting startups and other companies, on Machine Learning, Cloud Architecture and CTO level consulting via Pragmatic AI Labs
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 20, 2017
good read and good examples in the book.
July 23, 2012
I read this book as a way to get into the mindset of a sysadmin that actively uses Python in his/her day job and learn the tools of the trade. The book gets that job done quite nicely. That is the primary reason I'd recommend this book.
Being a software developer with previous Python experience, I didn't quite like the code quality of the sample scripts. They felt... sloppy, and I mostly mean cleanliness here: bad variable names, nesting that's too deep, etc. Luckily most scripts were short and and that made them easy to follow.
Being a software developer with previous Python experience, I didn't quite like the code quality of the sample scripts. They felt... sloppy, and I mostly mean cleanliness here: bad variable names, nesting that's too deep, etc. Luckily most scripts were short and and that made them easy to follow.
January 15, 2022
I really enjoyed this.
I did so many coding examples and found just how versatile Python is for sysadmin.
Some of the things I was able to do was pretty mind-blowing!
Would recommend if you are wanting to learn about Python for system administration.
4.1/t5
I did so many coding examples and found just how versatile Python is for sysadmin.
Some of the things I was able to do was pretty mind-blowing!
Would recommend if you are wanting to learn about Python for system administration.
4.1/t5
November 15, 2024
Curious book which can be very helpful for sysadmin/DevOps/SRE/other figures not yet very well versed in programming. The general idea is to get hooked in Python by running your usual shell commands in iPython and then gradually develop your own small scripts and bigger programs. The book contains various tricks to deal with legacy machines, such as Windows servers (through Zenoss) and devices which only respond to SNMP requests. I sincerely hope most people don't need to use those tricks any more, but for those who do consider this review to be 4/5 stars.
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July 19, 2020elibrary
January 12, 2016
I found this book to be a collection of short introductions vs a book on Python for system administration.
One of the biggest takeaways for me was use of IPython. Since reading this book I can definitely say I use it more in my day to day work. I felt the book lacked clear, useful examples. Instead the author crammed as many hot libraries or ideas he could into the book, but without any additional help. If you took any of the topics and went to the documentation, you would've found a better use of your time. I think this would have been better developed as either a cookbook style tech guide, or pick fewer topics and extend the examples.
I think there's enough material in here to warrant a rewrite, but I would not recommend the entire book to a coworker.
One of the biggest takeaways for me was use of IPython. Since reading this book I can definitely say I use it more in my day to day work. I felt the book lacked clear, useful examples. Instead the author crammed as many hot libraries or ideas he could into the book, but without any additional help. If you took any of the topics and went to the documentation, you would've found a better use of your time. I think this would have been better developed as either a cookbook style tech guide, or pick fewer topics and extend the examples.
I think there's enough material in here to warrant a rewrite, but I would not recommend the entire book to a coworker.
February 3, 2014
This book covers tips for integrating Python into every-day Linux shell tasks. It promotes IPython which is rather handy tool for solving math-related problems, introduces Python eggs, subprocesses, basics of GUI programming and even Django framework.
But is lacks real-life examples of when Python is useful for administration. Almost all covered aspects are easier to perform using standard Linux shell tools like grep, awk, sed and so on.
I'd say the book is more about getting familiar with different Python libraries and tools than about administration.
But is lacks real-life examples of when Python is useful for administration. Almost all covered aspects are easier to perform using standard Linux shell tools like grep, awk, sed and so on.
I'd say the book is more about getting familiar with different Python libraries and tools than about administration.
December 9, 2011
Nice intro to Python and some potential uses for Systems Administration. There were errors in the example code. Some of the examples seemed far to trivial. Decided it would be better as potential reference material than something I should continue to plow through.
March 2, 2016
This book proposed some useful modules in system administration. It is a beginning of an adventure.
May 14, 2013
It is a good book for sys admins to get comfortable coding in python.
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