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A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming
For use with all versions of Linux, including Ubuntu,� Fedora,� openSUSE,� Red Hat,® Debian, Mandriva, Mint, and now OS X, too! The Most Useful Linux Tutorial and Reference, with Hundreds of High-Quality Examples for Every Distribution–Now Covers OS X and Perl, Too! To be truly productive with Linux, you need to thoroughly master shells and the command line. Until now, you had to buy two books to gain that a tutorial on fundamental Linux concepts and techniques, plus a separate reference. Now, there’s a far better solution. Renowned Linux expert Mark Sobell has brought together comprehensive, insightful guidance on the tools system administrators, developers, and power users need most, and an outstanding day-to-day reference, both in the same book. This book is 100 percent distribution and release You can use it with any Linux system, now and for years to come. Use Macs, too? This new edition adds comprehensive coverage of the Mac OS X command line, including essential OS X-only tools and utilities other Linux/UNIX books ignore. Packed with hundreds of high-quality, realistic examples, this book gives you Linux from the ground the clearest explanations and most useful knowledge about everything from filesystems to shells, editors to utilities, and programming tools to regular expressions. Sobell has also added an outstanding new primer on Perl, the most important programming tool for Linux admins seeking to automate complex, time-consuming tasks. A Practical Guide to Linux® Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming, Second Edition, is the only book to deliver
965 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2005
85 people are currently reading
392 people want to read
About the author
Mark G. Sobell
35Ìýbooks8ÌýfollowersMark G. Sobell, author of many best-selling books, including A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Sixth Edition, A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux, Third EditionA Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming, Third Edition (all from Prentice Hall), has more than thirty years of experience working with UNIX and Linux. He is the president of Sobell Associates Inc., a consulting firm that designs and builds custom software applications for UNIX and Linux systems and provides training and support.
Mr. Sobell started working with computers part time after high-school where he worked on the Dartmouth Time-sharing system where they developed the BASIC programming language and on IBM OS/360 systems. He started writing when he worked for microcomputer company Cromemco in the late 1970's. He published his first book A Practical Guide to UNIX in 1982 and started Sobell Associates in 1984. He has been writing and consulting ever since.
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Mr. Sobell started working with computers part time after high-school where he worked on the Dartmouth Time-sharing system where they developed the BASIC programming language and on IBM OS/360 systems. He started writing when he worked for microcomputer company Cromemco in the late 1970's. He published his first book A Practical Guide to UNIX in 1982 and started Sobell Associates in 1984. He has been writing and consulting ever since.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 5, 2019
Every software developer, architect, designer or even QA engineer should read it. It focuses on principles and guidance, so it may feel missing some level of detail.
December 6, 2007
Excellent is the first word that comes to mind for a primer. While I'm more *nix oriented, this is an awesome starting place for anyone with the savvy to install Linux on a box but doesn't know the hell to do with it afterwards. Unlike the majority of LUGs with replies with RTFM n00b33 replies to basic functionality questions, this book gives practical examples for first-timers and frames knowledge in such a way as to provide newcomers with the ability to ask *smart* questions of those of us who know the OS.
I only wish this was around when I was learing to hack the kernel. =)
I only wish this was around when I was learing to hack the kernel. =)
April 14, 2014
As a programmer who had already spent some time tripping around Linux environments, I found this a most excellent, to-the-point overview of the operating system's baseline functionality, file system, and commands. Explanations were kept direct and simple, which is ideal if, for example, you are already familiar with what ACLs are, but need a quick hit about using them on a Linux box. Extensive command reference at the back.
July 5, 2018
This is an excellent introduction and reference for Linux/Unix/OSX terminal. I have many books that cover specific topics in greater detail (e.g. send, awk, Python, or emacs). But this, in one nice volume, is enough information for most people to do most things. It has earned a place in my at-hand bookshelf by my desk at work. Only the best, most useful, and frequently consulted texts abide therein.
January 28, 2012
A great book for the linux user who wants to learn how to use the shell. Serves as a very detailed, yet easy to read and understand, introduction to bash and tcsh. Definitely made me more productive (and is a great skill to show off at parties). Includes a very handy little command reference, until you get comfortable with man pages ;)
February 20, 2020
The whims of a random geek put into book form.
Editors: just vim and emacs so no purist would feel bad.
Shells: bash, I get that, and tcsh - dated junk who has got its lats patch three years ago.
Programming "tools": bash. Okay. It makes sense in a "shell programming" book. Than perl? And python. See the editors section: just to please them all. MariaDB? Why? Who cares! Than awk and sed, when their functionality it included in bash, perl and python. When they are different languages from the above. When they are a product of the 1970s. Sure, these were the high points of the Stallman gang back in the 1980s. But in 2000s? Just because Sobell does not know how to process strings without pasting from various web pages, does not mean there is a point of including these only to treat them more superficial than the man page.
Editors: just vim and emacs so no purist would feel bad.
Shells: bash, I get that, and tcsh - dated junk who has got its lats patch three years ago.
Programming "tools": bash. Okay. It makes sense in a "shell programming" book. Than perl? And python. See the editors section: just to please them all. MariaDB? Why? Who cares! Than awk and sed, when their functionality it included in bash, perl and python. When they are different languages from the above. When they are a product of the 1970s. Sure, these were the high points of the Stallman gang back in the 1980s. But in 2000s? Just because Sobell does not know how to process strings without pasting from various web pages, does not mean there is a point of including these only to treat them more superficial than the man page.
May 29, 2014
I have used this book in a class I led at work, and strongly recommend it for people that are interested in developing their Linux proficiency.
This book will not make you a Linux expert. But you will have a solid foundation from which to develop the skills you learn from this book to become that expert over time, after you read this book.
I like this book because it provides ample coverage of its topics. Each chapter is a sort of mini book in and of itself, providing solid coverage of the topic it is dedicated to. You can pick and choose what you want to learn at any given time, without too much of a loss. After you read it, you can refer back to it.
This is, in my opinion, a book that is successful both as a technical book and a reference manual.
This book will not make you a Linux expert. But you will have a solid foundation from which to develop the skills you learn from this book to become that expert over time, after you read this book.
I like this book because it provides ample coverage of its topics. Each chapter is a sort of mini book in and of itself, providing solid coverage of the topic it is dedicated to. You can pick and choose what you want to learn at any given time, without too much of a loss. After you read it, you can refer back to it.
This is, in my opinion, a book that is successful both as a technical book and a reference manual.
February 17, 2010
One of the best books I have come across for the UNIX , LINUX "power user". If you really want to understand the shell,text editors (Emacs,Vi),programming tools,sed,gawk then this book is for you. This book is distro neutral, and the examples in the book, will work for any distro ex (fedora,Gentoo,FreeBSD, Debian).
August 4, 2011
Pretty good book to understand a little of Linux, but not to use as a guide or a reference book. It left alot of important things out, or in some cases the subject that I was looking for was divided in small parts all over the book.
September 29, 2021
(Review for 4th-Edition)
I was amazed by the high rating on Amazon and here. This book has a lot of problems:
- Too much broad coverage of many topics with little depth of each. The title of this book is misleading. It must be:
"10 books in 1: a basic introduction to Linux, vim, emacs, bash programming, Perl, Python, MariaDB, awk, sed".
- The coverage of vim, emacs, Perl, Python, awk, sed are filled around 300p of this book. It covered only basic stuff. Most Linux users don't need any of this. Any users of those tools must use a separate book.
- Another 300p filled by commands reference that just an abbreviated version of man pages. Who uses a book to find a solution when you have the same information under your finger in shell?
- how many percentages of Linux users need to learn MariaDB? I think less than 1%.
I was amazed by the high rating on Amazon and here. This book has a lot of problems:
- Too much broad coverage of many topics with little depth of each. The title of this book is misleading. It must be:
"10 books in 1: a basic introduction to Linux, vim, emacs, bash programming, Perl, Python, MariaDB, awk, sed".
- content:
linux basics 160p
vim 60p
emacs 60p
bash 100p
tcsh 50p
programming bash 100p
perl 50p
python 30p
mariadb database 25p
awk 35p
sed 20p
rsync 10p
openssh 30p
command references 300p
- The coverage of vim, emacs, Perl, Python, awk, sed are filled around 300p of this book. It covered only basic stuff. Most Linux users don't need any of this. Any users of those tools must use a separate book.
- Another 300p filled by commands reference that just an abbreviated version of man pages. Who uses a book to find a solution when you have the same information under your finger in shell?
- how many percentages of Linux users need to learn MariaDB? I think less than 1%.
other problems:
- Too wordy, lots of space wasted by a large margin.
- A lot of duplicate content in various parts of books
- Too many links to other pages
- At the beginning of each chapter, a page filled by you learn this and that.
- At the end of each chapter, we have a useless chapter summary and some textbook-style exercises.
August 22, 2019
I have a few choice words about this textbook. First off, it does not explain things so clearly. Second, the exercises expect you to know things from later chapters without explaining them in that chapter. Third, the exercise questions were out of order. For example: answer to question 7 was on the first page of the chapter and answer to question 3 was 5 pages from the end with question 10 following it. I hated this textbook so much, and I didnt fully understand things until I read it a second time after reading later chapters that explained something in the earlier chapters. I wish it was clearer and that the exercises would be more toward what was on the chapter itself.
March 6, 2021
It's an okay book but I don't need to read it anymore. If it were truly exciting I would maybe finish it. But there's lots of unnecessary (in my opinion) parts concerning vim, Emacs, and some other non-essential (again, purely in my opinion) aspects of working with Linux.
December 6, 2018
A nice comprehensive overview of Linux. A book I will be keeping as a reference for years to come.
June 11, 2012
Intense book. Kind of reference of it all. Lots and lots of information. At least you get to know what you're capable of to do.
Its really emerging your keyboard ninja within :) Huge volume but well worth the time.
Its really emerging your keyboard ninja within :) Huge volume but well worth the time.
January 3, 2017
A good introduction.
October 14, 2010
If you want to learn Linux any one of the Sobel books is good. They are all the same just a new cover and distro of the month.
February 22, 2011
An excellent book for learning basic shell scripting and bash and tcsh commands. A must - read for anyone who hopes to one day be a Linux guru.
December 27, 2011
This book is very helpful while learning Linux. I'd imagine it is pretty helpful afterwards too!
September 13, 2012
The author's style just works for me. Great book.
May 27, 2013
Comprehensive for introducing frequent use commands, shell scripting. Use as a reference book than a textbook
June 21, 2014
A great book. I would choose this over Linux in a Nutshell, as it contains everything the other book has, explains clearer, and has more 'practical' info.
February 20, 2019
Very well written and good to have for reference when working in linux os environment. Keep some sections until needed.
July 18, 2010
Very good book on Linux with very good examples.
November 26, 2014
More of a friend than a book.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
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