Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
Unix in a Nutshell is the standard desktop reference, without question. (Manpages come in a close second.) With a clean layout and superior command tables available at a glance, O'Reilly's third edition of Nutshell is an essential to own.
Like a dictionary, Unix in a Nutshell helps you find what you need, even if you're not exactly sure what you're looking for (or how to spell it!). With that in mind, this book is for intermediate to advanced users only--those new to the Unix operating system would be better off with Learning the Unix Operating System or Unix: Visual Quickstart Guide.
The last full revision of the book was in 1992, and the new edition covers Solaris 7 as well as newer versions of shells (ksh, in particular), RCS, and GNU emacs. Topping off at over 500 pages, Unix in a Nutshell contains--literally--everything you could want to know about the various commands, shells, and functions. Fifty new commands have been added to the already sizable lists, and even the most seasoned user is likely to find a discover a new timesaving command. --Jennifer Buckendorff
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
A wonderful reference book about Unix OS
Customer Rating:
Let me start off by saying that if you are looking for a introductory book about Unix and you have no experience with Unix OS whatsoever, this is not a book for you. If you are new to Unix OS, then you should consider buying the O'Reilly book,"Learning the Unix Operating System."
Like the cover page says, this book is a reference book. This book covers GNU/Linux OS, Mac OS, Solaris OS, Unix commands, Bash Shells, Korn Shells, package management, emacs editor, and many other information that are very useful to Unix programmers, system administrators, and Unix users.
If you have a bit of experience with Unix, this book should be a must.
The perfect reference
Customer Rating:
This is in my opinion the best UNIX reference book on the market today. If you need to program or work in the OS you should own this book.
The only game in town, but...
Customer Rating:
I've got two versions of this book: the blue cover version and the one that came in my CD bookshelf. I'm usually quite positive about nutshell books. Usually.
While this is pretty much the only one-stop Unix reference in town when you don't have the man pages to hand, there are some perplexing omissions from the "unix command" section. Nothing to do with networking, for example. No netstat, ifconfig, nslookup. Odd, in a world when a non-networked computer is surely a rarity. Yes, the stuff is probably in the networking O'Reilly books (mine are on order as I type) but you'd think in this day and age...
Yesterday I was flipping through and noticed there was no entry for "mount" or "umount" either.
You should probably own one of these if you have a job in the Unix computing biz, but before long you might find yourself asking "what will I need today that won't be in a nutshell?"
Seriously, O'Reilly should be looking into rewriting this little gem to make it properly comprehensive again.
From a learner/user perspective
Customer Rating:
Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition
Not a useful book for someone who wants to learn unix. It can be used for reference for someone who already knows UNIX. I bought it hoping that it will be a good introduction and summary. Disappointed.
New to Unix
Customer Rating:
Why did i buy this, for the simple reason as a new user a good comprehensive reference is extremely usefull and handy, and this is it, this is something i will all use or keep close at hand.
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