Linux in a Nutshell, now in its fourth edition, has won awards in the Linux community as the most indispensable book about Linux. It is an essential desktop reference for the commands that users of Linux utilize every day, with the depth of information and the practical, succinct "In a Nutshell" format that made the previous editions so popular. Comprehensive but concise, Linux in a Nutshell covers all substantial user, programming, administration, and networking commands for the most common Linux distributions. It's several quick references rolled into one: sed, gawk, RCS, CVS, vi, Emacs, bash, tcsh, regular expressions, package management, bootloaders, and desktop environments are all covered in this clear, to-the-point volume, along with core command-line utilities. The fourth edition continues to track the major changes in bootloaders, the GNOME and KDE desktops, and general Unix commands. Several commands related to CDs and music reflect the evolution of multimedia on Linux. Coverage has been added for GRUB, which has become the default bootloader on several Linux distributions, and for vim, the popular and feature-loaded extension to vi. The addition of several new options to the iptables firewall command and new commands related to DNSSEC and ssh show the book's value as a security tool. With this book, you no longer have to grope through long manpages and info documents for the information you need; you'll find it here in clear language and an easy-to-read format. Contents include:

• Programming, system administration, networking, and user commands with complete lists of options

• GRUB, LILO, and Loadlin bootloaders

• Shell syntax and variables for the bash, csh, and tcsh shells

• Pattern matching

• Emacs, vi, and vim editing commands

• sed and gawk commands

• The GNOME and KDE desktops and the fvwm2 window manager

• Red Hat and Debian package managers

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 41 Ratings

Linux in a Nutshell - 2009-06-14
Reviewer Rating:
Buying a book on the internet is like getting Christmas presents from distant relatives at times. They rely on word-of-mouth to get the choice right; occasionally you luck in, and sometimes you luck out.
After installing Ubuntu on 2 systems in August 08, as the eldest male in the house it tends to fall to me to fix all PC problems, from "why isn't the mouse working?" (change the batteries AGAIN) to "What does 'formatting c:' mean, Dad?" I bought this book to give me a better look at Linux.
The help system on Linux is extensive, and the apropos, man and info commands are familiar friends by now. However, documentation in Linux is often more challenging to find, and I was looking for something that pulled it all together. For my purposes, this book wasn't it.
"Linux in a nutshell" is not designed for the prospective or brand new user; the lack of anything in the title suggesting that was one of the reasons I bought it. However, it lacks a systematic approach to the topic. At 925 pages, it's a big nutshell too. However, fully 499 pages amount to a printout of the man pages, so there's a lot of redundant information for anyone with access to a Linux terminal. The other chapters are a mix of topics; 100 pages on version control (no mention of bazaar), 50 on emacs and vi, a worthwhile section on regex/awk/sed and bash, others on bootloaders and package managers, and various others. However, many of these pages are again a printout of the man pages.

My major complaint is that most of the book is a printout of man pages. Linux, as a rule, is reasonably well documented. What is missing is a metapackage that enables the user to know which command to use; this book doesn't fill that gap. For example, sound is only mentioned in the man page listings, and the directories to find documentation for installed packages are not mentioned at all.

It should also be mentioned that there are significant changes in the Linux kernel since this version of the book(copyright 2005), and understandably there is no mention of these- for instance, HAL as the manager for input devices isn't listed in the index. Setting up multiple displays- another common task in my experience- doesn't get a mention at all.

In summary, this book would help if the PC was completely messed up. With access to a terminal, it provides little benefit, although the chapters on bash, sed and gawk have excellent introductions.

New 6th edition appears to be a worthy update to its predecessors - 2009-09-27
Reviewer Rating:
This book covers the administration of, usage of, and shell programming on Linux systems. The book is an overview of Linux and serves as an excellent reference, but doesn't come close to a tutorial. This 6th edition continues to be a good extended man page for the operating system's many commands, features, and utilities. Linux has recently been extended, and most of those extensions appear to be covered in this book. You should already have a basic knowledge of Unix/Linux and just need a quick reference for when you forget something. For example, you are not going to learn how to program using gawk with the chapter included in this book. Neither will you figure out the intracies of version control and Git. The preface states that this new sixth edition has been examined and checked against the most common Linux distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and SUSE) so that it reflects the most useful and popular commands.

Man-pages++ - 2008-05-16
Reviewer Rating:
This book consists of one large section that is mostly distilled man pages, along with more specialized chapters later on. Emacs, vi, bash, sed and gawk are all covered in detail. This book is my main reference for bash, vi, sed and gawk, as I am an Emacs and Z Shell user. Despite the material in the "Commands" chapter being redundant with the online documentation of any GNU/Linux system, I like having a printed book to view. This is usually the first thing I go for when I'm using `find'.

I recommend getting a used copy or a previous edition, because the sections of real value in this book will still be valuable, even if they are three or four years old.

good book and now up to date - 2009-11-15
Reviewer Rating:
I have purchased other O'Reily books and all are good. Just be sure you get the most up to date ones

I wore out my copy of an earlier edition. This one is better. - 2009-10-25
Reviewer Rating:
Years ago I purchased a copy of Linux in a Nutshell, fourth edition. That book has been well used and is looking a bit shabby. When O'Reilly offered me a free review copy of Linux in a Nutshell, sixth edition, I jumped at the chance. Some of the thoughts that follow will apply to either edition (as well as the not-reviewed fifth edition, which I don't have), but I will point out some of the more important or obvious updates to help others who also own older editions to determine whether the changes are sufficient to convince them to buy the new version.

This book is not intended as a tutorial, but rather as a quick reference. While the irony of titling a 900+ page book "... in a Nutshell" is not lost on me, like all of the books in O'Reilly's Nutshell series, this book is a fabulous resource for finding out the details of a specific command or concept rapidly.

Let me start with the foundation for my opinion that this book is one of the most useful and important books for anyone who uses Linux from the command line on a regular basis or wants to be able to or plans to do so. Any command you should desire to use is listed in chapter 3, with the command's syntax and options. This gives you one place to look that does not require an internet connection or the patience to scroll up and down reading man pages for commands. This is a book about Linux as it was originally conceived and intended: a powerful operating system based directly upon and consistent with the philosophy and design of Unix, but free for anyone to download, install, copy, modify, share and use.

This book is not about how to use Linux on the desktop, and in fact, the sixth edition does not cover the Linux desktop at all. What you do find are discussions, descriptions, and definitions of all of the main tools and tricks a person needs to get work accomplished using Linux as a platform--not the specific programming languages like C, Java or Python, but the underlying tools such as commands from the GNU project and BSD, editors like vi and emacs, using the bash shell, source code management using subversion and git (both new to this edition, replacing a discussion of CVS), and great introductions to Linux system and network administration. In addition, we have a wonderful new chapter on virtualization command line tools that covers all the main options such as KVM, Xen and VMware.

I am amazed that my description thus far has only scratched the surface of the book. I haven't yet mentioned the chapters covering sed and gawk, the discussion of software package management, the chapter detailing LILO and Grub boot loaders, or the lovely section on pattern matching which should save a lot of people a good amount of time.

My disappointments in the book are a bit niggly. While the book was written and tested using each of the main Linux distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and SUSE), there have been a couple of updates to software covered in the book that were not available when the book went to press. Since I know how long it takes to write and prepare a manuscript for printing, it is kind of silly for me to want a book that was published in September 2009 to cover Windows 7 (although dual booting with earlier versions is covered), ext4, or Grub2, even if these are all current in late October 2009 (the latter two being included in Ubuntu 9.10).

The positives are that this is a clear, well written and edited (disclosure: I worked with one of the editors, Andy Oram, on VMware Cookbook), and filled with valuable information with an easy to use index and table of contents with a tighter than previous focus on the internal bits of Linux without the earlier distractions of trying to mention GNOME and KDE or a wider variety of shell options while only covering each with too little detail to be useful. This edition expands the content on the things it does cover to a very useful level of detail while making the hard decision of what to omit to keep the book within a bindable number of pages.

In any edition, this book has a permanent place on my shelf for reference. If you own an older version, the decision to buy the latest edition will depend on whether you want or need the absolute latest info on specific commands (this stuff doesn't change often, but it does change) and whether you are interested in the new or expanded material covered in this edition as outlined above. If you never use the command line in Linux, the book might not interest you. Otherwise, I can't imagine using Linux without having a copy nearby.

Disclosures: I bought an earlier edition, but was given the sixth edition free by O'Reilly as a review copy, I write for O'Reilly, and I have worked with one of the editors who also worked on this book.

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