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Review: Linux in a Nutshell
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CommentsIf you're one of those people who still keeps a "dead tree" dictionary around in spite of computer programs and Web sites that provide more up-to-date definitions, you'll probably enjoy having Linux in a Nutshell around. It's not that the book is out of date -- the point of having updated editions is to include new commands, tools, and methodologies that have been introduced or modified since the previous release. I found all of the material in this fifth edition to be modern and viable. I did not find it all useful, however.
The bulk of Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition is the Linux command reference. It is more or less a basic restatement of every man page for userland utilities common among popular GNU/Linux distributions. Since we already have the man and info command reference tools, I don't see the usefulness of a paper list.
The best parts of Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition are the sections on boot loaders (GRUB, LILO, and Windows' boot.ini); the package management section (RPM information, APT and its related commands and switches, package utilities like YUM and Synaptic); the section on shell scripting with bash and KSH; and the vi, sed, and GAWK crash course sections. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to version control systems -- specifically CVS and Subversion. As these two programs have little to do with GNU/Linux use and administration, I thought they were a little out of place.
Overall I found this book to be useful, but perhaps only to a limited number of readers. Anyone who is studying to become a Linux system administrator should have Linux in a Nutshell, but existing sysadmins (and desktop users) probably won't see much value in it.
| Title | Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition |
| Publisher | O'Reilly |
| Author | Ellen Siever, Aaron Weber, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love, and Arnold Robbins |
| ISBN | 0596009305 |
| Pages | 925 |
| Rating | 7/10 |
| Summary | A desktop quick reference for GNU/Linux |
| Price (retail) | $45 Buy it from Barnes and Noble |
Comments
on Review: Linux in a NutshellNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
(tested on Debian Sarge, ugly, inefficient)<tt>import glob, os, random
section = random.choice(glob.glob('/usr/share/man/man*'))
<nobr>p<wbr></nobr> age = random.choice(glob.glob(section + '/*'))
title = os.path.split(page)[1][:-5]
n = os.path.split(page)[1][-4:-3]
os.system('man %s %s' % (n, title))</tt>
The line starting with "page =" shouldn't be indented. I don't know what's up with that.<tt>#!/usr/bin/python
import glob, os, random
fullpath = random.choice(glob.glob('/usr/share/man/man*/*'))
page = os.path.split(fullpath)[1]
title = '.'.join(page.split('.')[:-2])
section = page.split('.')[-2]
os.system('man %s %s' % (section, title))</tt>
And if this is just a hard-copy of the 'man' pages then it is very expensive and not worth it.
Jem "doesn't see the usefulness"?
Posted by: Rob Bochan on October 20, 2005 09:00 PMThat's the perfect place for this book... to pick up and peruse while you're just sitting there for a few minutes. It's a great way to discover some commands you might not have been aware of before, or interesting switches for commands you have used. This book is the reason I got so fond of many commands that I'd never have known about otherwise.
It's not often that a person would just start going through a list of manpages, but to leaf through a physical book is a tangible way to discover what exists on your machine.
I've always recommended this book, especially to newbies, and will continue to do so.
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