Product Description

This is designed to be a browser's book...like a magazine that you don't read from start to finish, but leaf through repeatedly until you realize that you've read itall. Sidebars explore syntax or point out other directions for exploration, including relevant technical details that might not be immediately apparent. The book includes articles abstracted from other O'Reilly books, new information that highlights program tricks and gotchas, tips posted to the Net over the years, and other accumulated wisdom. The book provides access to information every Unix user is going to need to know. It should help you think creatively about UNIX, and will help you get to the point where you can analyze your own problems. Also included is information on Linux, Darwin, and BSD, bash, zsh, and other new shells, along with discussions about modern utilities and applications. Several sections focus on security and Internet access. There is a new chapter on access to Unix from Windows, and expanded coverage of software installation and packaging, as well as basic information on Perl and Python.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10339 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1200 pages

Review
"Highly recommended." - Tony Houghton, Cvu, June 2003

Kirk McElhearn, atpm.com
It's a bit expensive, but if you want to use the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X, the time you save will more than pay for this excellent book.

Jeffrey McPheeters, MyMac,com, Feb 2003
Bottom line: no serious Unix user and no serious newcomer intending to become proficient in Unix should be without this book.

Customer Reviews

If you can only afford one book on Unix, this is the one
I do not know about you, but for me, a book has to be pretty darn exceptional to persuade me to buy a second edition of a book which I already own the first. Unix Power Tools is one such book. It is simply packed with tons of useful tips which the authors have accumulated over decades of using Unix, and is a sort of `crème de la crème' of O'Reilly reference books.

Praise aside, the book is not for everyone. It is an intermediate level reference, not an introductory tutorial. If your problems are like "How do I delete a file?", you should read something else first, get acquainted with Unix, and then return to it. If, however, the questions you face are more like "How do I delete a file with a null name?", then this is exactly the book for you. Unless there is a real Unix wizard around you, this book is likely to earn you this title in your environment.

The second edition focuses on POSIX systems rather than on SysV/BSD, uses Bash and Tcsh instead of Sh, Ksh and Csh, and has moved from Awk to Perl. The two-colour printing is gone, though. Fortunately, the superb index - one of the best I have seen - is still here, and so are the cross-references in the text. Accompanying CD-ROM might be essential if you are living in the mountains of Tajikistan, but anybody connected to the Internet will probably prefer to download newer versions of software on-line.

Another Legendary Book
Very occasionally a book is written about or for Unix System Administration, or Unix in general. If the author or publishers get the mix right it receives acclaim. Very, very occasionally one of those books achieves legendary status, by finding its way onto 98% of all Unix Sysadmins book shelves.

This book is one of those legendary tomes. Just about every Unix Sysadmin I know has a copy of this sitting alongside books like Evi Nemeth's "Unix Sys Admin Handbook". OK so it has a lot of information that isn't new to most sysadmins, but that's not where the beauty of the book lies. The real treasure is found in the countless nuggets of Unix info that have been long since forgotten, or yet to be learned.

In my humble opinion, a true Unix Classic! If like me, you earn a living from Unix, then think of this book as a carpenter would his set of chisels. You don't use them for every job, but when needed, can prove invaluable.

A must for all users who are serious about unix
There isn't a single unix book better than this, but if you are an unix adminstrator like the previous guy who review the book, you're looking at the wrong book. This book has earned it's book title with pride.

I have had the book for over 5 years, i still refer to it now and again, i am a developer and have found that I was not leveraging the full potential for the operating system, however this book puts me back on track. I have had 3 years of unix exp. before buying the book most of the elementary thing i didn't need and other stuff was not appealing at first, I expected more, but there is more just that i didn't know until I had more commercial experience.