Unix in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference for System V & Solaris 2.0

Amazon.com

Simply the best System V and Solaris reference on the market today, Unix in a Nutshell won't steer you wrong. The book's concise style delivers the essential information on Unix, shell, and utility commands. Its command documentation is clear and complete and its examples are relevant and easy to follow.

Gilly starts with a complete, alphabetized listing of core Unix commands. Each entry includes a syntax summary, a clear statement of what the command does, and a full list of options, each with commentary on its function. The author then covers shell documentation, supplying details on the Bourne, Korn, and C shells and documenting each shell's commands in the standard format. Gilly also includes a section on regular expressions as they apply to grep, egrep, text editors, and various scripting languages.

Next, the book offers complete documentation of Emacs, ex, and vi, the powerful editors whose command structure proves perennially difficult to learn. The commands, once again, appear alphabetically with statements of their respective purposes. Other popular utilities--sed, awk, nroff, troff, tbl, and several macro languages--follow. Code managers SCCS and RCS, rarely documented in Unix books, bring up the rear.

Users need to know what they're looking up or they won't find this book useful. Otherwise, Unix in a Nutshell's documentation is the best. --David Wall

Book Description

You may have seen UNIX quick-reference guides, but you've never seen anything like UNIX in a Nutshell. Not a scaled-down quick reference of common commands, UNIX in a Nutshell is a complete reference containing all commands and options, along with generous descriptions and examples that put the commands in context. For all but the thorniest UNIX problems, this one reference should be all the documentation you need.

The second edition of UNIX in a Nutshell starts with thorough coverage of System V Release 3. To that, we've added the many new commands that were added to Release 4 and additional commands that were added to Solaris 2.0.

Contents include:

All user and programmer commands.
New Korn shell documentation.
Expanded text editing section, including GNU Emacs and nawk.
Shell syntax (sh and csh).
Pattern-matching syntax.
vi and ex commands.
sed and awk commands.
troff and related commands and macros.
sdb and dbx commands.

If you currently use either SVR3 or SVR4 or are planning to in the future, or if you're a Sun user facing the transition to Solaris, you'll want this book. UNIX in a Nutshell is the most comprehensive quickref on the market, a must for any UNIX user.

Customer Reviews:

Less is More.......2005-07-29

If you understand what "in a nutshell" means, then you shall be pleased with this book. It is not a tutorial, it is not a beginners' guide, it is not a theory book... it is a reference book, featuring entries that are succinct, to the point, sparse in many places, but complete in breadth and indispensable for the serious UNIX administrator. Compared to its companion book, Linux in a Nutshell, it is thinner and the entries parsimonious. But, well, if you are using UNIX, then you will be accustomed to this... indeed, it may be why you are using UNIX.

Very useful book and really easy to read!.......2005-07-20

It one of the best books for someone who makes first steps into UNIX. This book gives you the start very descriptively. If you have never touched UNIX before you should consider the "UNIX Essentials" DVD also. I paired them and I learned that much that in two month I engaged myself into discussion with our UNIX "guru" and kept it up to the point that my opinion has prevailed.

The best reference for experienced users.......2005-01-25

If you are an experienced user, this is a great reference to keep close by. Better than the man pages because it doesn't scroll off the screen, you can make notes on the pages, and bookmark with Post-it notes. Jam packed with the key knowledge you use all the time.

The command summary is great, with no fluff like those big, useless books you use as a platform for your monitor. I have manuals on awk and sed, but I rarely need to look at them because I can find what I need here. The same is true of the shells, emacs, and vi. It covers the territory well.

Of course, this is not a tutorial book, so you need to know what you are doing to begin with. But if I was stuck on a desert island with a Unix box and only one book, this would be it!

Get started quickly.......2004-07-01

This is a great reference for beginners. It is billed as a reference for System V and Solaris 2.0 but applies well to most versions of UNIX, even Linux.

It is more of a command and function reference than a tutorial, in fact it is NOT a tutorial but with a little practice on a UNIX system you will find this book invaluable. I have O'Reilly books specific to vi, sed and awk, but this one is the main reference I use for looking up command structure.

Its the most comprehensive and usable UNIX references I have seen and compares well to the big books that cost a lot more and could prop the wheels on a DC-3.

This book in easily carried in an brief case for quick deployment. You can look up things quickly even when folks pop out of the room for a moment, you can look up something and be working away with your newfound information whenthey return and everyone will think you knew it all along. hahaha

Great book, highly recommended. I even use it for AIX although mostly for vi, se and awk.

excellent reference.......2004-01-27

for those crazy VI and EMACS commands, plus the rest of the unix command line, this is a must have, and for the price, you can't beat it!

Average customer rating:
Engineering on the farm;: A treatise on the application of engineering principles to agriculture,
John Truesdale Stewart
Manufacturer: Rand, McNally
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Agricultural Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006AIXBM

Book Description

The book is a comprehensive and concise systematic presentation of the technique of Vertical Seismic Profiling for the study of subsurface properties and structure. Compared to the previous editions from 1983 and 1985, the 1999 edition will contain much new material on equipment advances (in the fields of, a.o., multi-level receiver arrays, small diameter receivers, vertical cable arrays, fiber optic cable) and expanded applications (such as, reverse VSP, drill bit source, 3-D VSP imaging, stratigraphic calibration of 3-D seismic images, crosswell profiling, single-well imaging systems). Also, the new book will contain reflections on the industry VSP research climate and the role of the US National laboratories in VSP Research.

Vertical Seismic Profiling Vol. 14: Principles (Vertical Seismic Profiling Vol. 14)

Average customer rating:

Vertical Seismic Profiling Vol. 14: Principles (Vertical Seismic Profiling Vol. 14)
K. Helbig , and B. A. Hardage
Manufacturer: Pergamon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Geophysics | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Hard Ball Systems and the Lorentz Gas are fundamental models arising in the theory of Hamiltonian dynamical systems. Moreover, in these models, some key laws of statistical physics can also be tested or even established by mathematically rigorous tools. The mathematical methods are most beautiful but sometimes quite involved. This collection of surveys written by leading researchers of the fields - mathematicians, physicists or mathematical physicists - treat both mathematically rigourous results, and evolving physical theories where the methods are analytic or computational. Some basic topics: hyperbolicity and ergodicity, correlation decay, Lyapunov exponents, Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, entropy production, irreversibility. This collection is a unique introduction into the subject for graduate students, postdocs or researchers - in both mathematics and physics - who want to start working in the field.

Average customer rating:

Hard Ball Systems & the Lorentz Gas
Domokos Szasz
Manufacturer: SPRINGER @ NY INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N651CS

Average customer rating:

Got the Blues? Read a Fitzhugh Novel and They'll Go Away!

Formula Resurfaced yet still visible

Great for those who like cynical humor, fun reading.

"What you deserve and what you get don't always turn out to be the same thing."

Highway 61 revisited

Highway 61 Resurfaced: A Novel
Bill Fitzhugh
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Slipping into Darkness

Radio Activity

Death's Little Helpers (John March Mysteries)

Heart Seizure: A Novel

Organ Grinders

ASIN: 0060597615
Release Date: 2005-04-12

Book Description

FM rock deejay and private investigator Rick Shannon is back in a big way in the second novel of a series that began with the rollicking Radio Activity.

Highway 61 Resurfaced kicks off when a woman named Lollie Woolfolk sashays into the offices of Rockin' Vestigations and says she wants to find her long lost granddaddy, blues producer Tucker Woolfolk. Before it's over, Rick Shannon has crisscrossed the sweltering Mississippi Delta in search of the thread that connects a dead man in Yazoo City found with a fork stuck in his back to an old man known as Pigfoot Morgan who was just released from Mississippi State Penitentiary after serving fifty years for murder. Further complicating matters is the lovesick Crail Pitts, onetime Ole Miss football star who is driving around the Magnolia State with a noisy lawyer in his trunk, and Cuffie LeFleur, one of four generations of a cotton dynasty that may be on its last legs. In the end, everything points to one of the great mysteries in blues lore: whether Blind Buddy Cotton, Crippled Willie Jefferson, and Crazy Earl Tate ever recorded together. When Rick starts a rumor that he's found the tapes from the legendary Blind, Crippled, and Crazy sessions, a killer is sent to collect them and Rick starts singing the PI blues.

Customer Reviews:

Got the Blues? Read a Fitzhugh Novel and They'll Go Away!.......2006-07-26

The least surreal of Bill Fitzhugh's novels so far, Highway 61 Resurfaced takes up where Radio Activity and that novel's main character Rick Shannon left off. Although still working in radio, Rick's private investigator career has kicked off with his own organisation Rockin' Vestigations. With a new kitten that has severe sinus problems, Rick is ecstatic to have a new attractive client Lollie Woolfolk, who keeps throwing money his way to find out more and more about her long lost grandfather, his long ago associates and some legendary tapes known as the Blind, Crippled and Crazy Sessions. Rick's ecstation comes to an end after he works out he has been hired to track down victims for a murderer and receives a karate chop from the real Lollie Woolfolk which leaves him briefly unconscious and determined to bring the killer and fake Lollie to justice.

Highway 61 resurfaced spent considerably less time than Radio Activity did with Rick in the studio or talking about classic rock albums which means an easier flowing storyline for this sequel which concentrates mostly on the PI side of things. It is by far the least surreal novel Fitzhugh has ever written and therefore the less humorous, but it still has a few surreal characters such as elderly blues players and a dim-witted drug taking killer to keep us entertained along with a funny occurrence between Rick and an ex client at a funeral. You don't need to have read Radio Activity to enjoy Highway 61 Resurfaced and not much of that storyline is given away if you read this novel first. Also check out Cross Dressing and Fitzhugh's other more surreal character filled novels as well.

Formula Resurfaced yet still visible.......2006-06-28

It's not funny, unless you're a moron. It's not suspenseful. The "mystery" is predictable to anyone who has seen more than one television suspense show. The characters are hollow. The interaction is tedious. And despite some hopeful signs of drug use, there are no hallucinations or grand insights. In fact, this book is entropy, resurfaced, and should be recycled immediately so we can print something more stimulating on the pulp, like perhaps instruction manuals for screwdrivers.

Great for those who like cynical humor, fun reading........2006-04-01

Can't understand why Barnes and Noble never has this book in stock. It's really enjoyable to read, really funny scenes, and us yankees can even learn something about music and Mississippi. Sort of like getting a favorite uncle 1/2 drunk and telling stories, except a lot more fun.

"What you deserve and what you get don't always turn out to be the same thing.".......2006-03-10

Fans of Bill Fitzhugh's book "Radio Activity" will be delighted to find DJ/PI Rick Shannon is back to solve another crime in "Highway 61 Resurfaced." While working the evening shift as a DJ at Mississippi radio station WVBR-FM, Shannon's also hoping that his private investigator business, Rockin' Investigations, will ultimately become successful. He's handling a particularly strange divorce case when an attractive young woman comes into his office and pays him to find her long-lost grandfather. Shannon takes the money and the case, and he promptly becomes mixed up in a mystery involving false identity, blackmail, several corpses, racism, some legendary lost blues recordings, and a nasty case of gangrene.

Fitzhugh manages to blend just the right amount of humour into the story while juggling the elements of mystery and suspense. It's good to see Shannon back, and a great deal of the novel's enjoyment comes from his character. Fitzhugh places Shannon in several rather ignoble and comic situations, and then amusement is derived from Shannon attempting to extricate himself from those awkward situations. Shannon is basically a nice man--a likeable character whose soft side and trusting nature (impractical and undesirable traits in a P.I.) are often exploited by those he meets. In "Highway 61 Resurfaced", he's attacked by a drunken divorcee, rebuffed by a snotty waitress, flung into jail, and the target of an animal shelter employee's emotional blackmail.

Music fans in particular will derive enjoyment from the plot. While in "Radioactivity", Shannon tried to define the boundaries of 'classic rock', in "Highway 61 Resurfaced", the DJ sleuth is on the trail of a group of geriatric, under appreciated Blues musicians. "Highway 61 Resurfaced" is yet another highly readable, escapist novel from this consistent (and humourous) author--displacedhuman

Highway 61 revisited.......2005-08-04

I thoroughly enjoyedthe book and it had alot of useful information in it. The dj returning was a nice touch.

Book Description

Walawbum, Shaduzup, Inkangahtawng, Nhpum Ga, Ritpong, Myitkyina. Although the names of these battles are not as familiar to the public as Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, the name of the legendary American volunteer regiment that fought in them echoes throughout modern military history. Thrown into combat in the Burmese jungle in February 1944 at the request of the British government, Merrill's Marauders was the first American infantry regiment to fight on the Asian continent since the Boxer Rebellion. Assembled in 1943 as the 5037th Composite Unit (Provisional), the three thousand infantryman who answered FDR's call for volunteers for a secret, "dangerous and hazardous mission" found themselves in India training for jungle combat. Created to spearhead undertrained (and American-led) Chinese troops in Burma and reopen the land route to China, the 5037th was expected by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to take 85 percent casualties and be disbanded within three months. As it turned out, the Marauders existed for eleven months, operating successfully in hostile territory, pioneering long-range military activities in jungle and mountainous regions, and completing one of the most productive -- and perilous -- military campaigns in American history.

Despite its considerable achievements under the most difficult conditions, there has never been a complete history of the regiment until now. In Spearhead, James E. T. Hopkins -- a field surgeon with the Marauders' Third Battalion -- in collaboration with John M. Jones, provides a detailed history of the highly decorated unit, from the circumstances under which the 5037th was formed and its arduous training to the many battles in which the Marauders distinguished themselves to the unit's deactivation in July 1945.

Drawing on unpublished logs, personal diaries, and histories kept by members of the regiment, Hopkins provides a personal story of combat in an environment that was nearly as deadly as the enemy. As a medical officer, he witnessed the horrors of jungle combat, the resolute heroism of the volunteers who fought, and the genuine respect that men and officers in the regiment had for one another. He also chronicles the remarkable efforts of the unit's rear echelon to keep the combatants supplied. With Spearhead, Hopkins reveals the real story behind a chapter in the history of the Second World War too often officially forgotten or clouded by myth. Spearhead offers a heartfelt tribute to the men who served as Merrill's Marauders -- and a comprehensive account of their deeds in the treacherous jungles of Burma fifty years ago.

Customer Reviews:

NOTE: THIS IS A REGIMENTAL HISTORY.......2005-01-17

This book is a real gem and a tribute to all those to who served in "Gallahad" force -- 5037th (one has to hand it to the Americans for the most uninspiring numbered regiment systems in the world).

The book reads well and there is plenty of action here for people to sink their teeth into. The detail is gritty extending down to descriptions for just about every combat casualty the force experienced in Burma. It is strung together in a chronological dairy-like style with actions denoted over certain days. For those seeking detail on the battles like Shaduzup and Myitkyina this is indespensible. Like almost all military books, it does not contain enough maps.

The book however lacks a lot of what a straightforward narrative would include: there is little backgrounder on the unit or the political wrangling that surrounded it from start to finish. Also lacking is any real assessment of it in the general overall battle that was developing in the jungles aroung Imphal and which later extended to central Burman Plains. There is also no analysis on the intentions of the Japanese during the engagements, beyond a limited reference to tactical details.

Like most American military history this book does a great job at describing the individual triumphs and failures of the unit and also of individual men. The good and bad outcomes of undaunted American idealism and individualism (as opposed to British stoicism and regimentation) are described in the actions and the effects of this unit.

There has been a lot of finger pointing by mainly the Americans historians (started by Stilwell's pathological anti-British rhetoric) that they felt "let down" by their British Allies on occasion: Stilwell taking the Chindits to task for not seizing Muangok to support the siezing of Myitkyina by the Marauders. I used to think that it was really a fundamental American misunderstanding of how stretched the Chindits were after serving 6 months behind enemy lines without adequate food and supplies. I learned from "Spearhead" that the Americans were indeed deluded, but one cannot fault them since they were equally suffering from the elements, poor food and supplies and a general wasting that brought effectives for the regiment down to 200 men from 3000. That is the same level as the Chindits and you can see how misunderstandings develop when both sides are fighting at the end of their tether in chronic undernourishment...

In the end the Chindits were pulled and disbanded. Ditto for the Marauders. Some people see their abandonment as stab in the back by the US govt. From this and other histories it is difficult to see what other choice the US Govt. had in the matter since the force as a fighting unit had already ceased to exist.

For those that served in Gallahad force what a long, strange and brave trip, it must have been... I would recommend the book as a vital reference to all those who are studying the war in Burma or Elite Fighting Units.

Excellant Unit History.......2001-03-10

This is an extremely well written, detailed unit history of Merrill's Marauders that I highly recommend. Both the author and the collaborator were members of the unit and bring great authenticity to the book. The author was the battalion surgeon for the 3rd Bn and the collaborator was an intelligence officer. Their sources include first hand accounts, unit records ( what little there were ), and official documents and publications. The book covers the entire time period that the 5307th Composite Unit ( Provisional ) was on active status and encompasses recruitment, training and combat. One of the best sections of the book is the description of the siege of Nphum Ga. The authors descripted, detailed, day by day and unit by unit account of this little known horrific battle is the best I've ever read. The author also gives an excellant record of the medical support ( or lack of ),for the unit, ( which is to be expected considering the source ). He discusses the various health concerns the Marauders had to deal with, such as scrub typhus, malaria, dysentery and of course getting shot at. All in all this is a great book that not only informs but does it in a way that keeps you interested. This book is well worth the read.

Spearhead: A Complete History of Merrill's Marauder Rangers

Average customer rating:

Spearhead: A Complete History of Merrill's Marauder Rangers
James E. T. Hopkins
Manufacturer: Galahad
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WN5GNQ

Customer Reviews:

God's Own...What?.......2004-01-18

Did the scientist/anthropologist, Toumey,do "science" or something else in this study? If you answer no, saying it is a field report in the tradition of Margaret Meade and Ruth Benedict, then it should be understood as such. Certainly, the author is sympathetic to his subjects/subject matter.
The burden of such empathy may be greater on the outcome and conclusions than say, joining into religious ritual or eating from the natives communal pot. For example, he speaks of "...conservative Christians understanding of reality..." without a hint of the scientist's interest in "testing" of that "reality." Of course, if something cannot be tested, it is by definition not a matter for hard science. We need to know if the author accepts this dictum, as few using the scientific method have the slightest problem with it. This study maybe , of course, more a matter of 'faith' and descriptive theology, as in the author's seeming conclusion:
'But the premise that science ought not be an immoral
institution is good common sense for a twentieth century
society.'
This is Toumey's statement as well as the teaching, not of science, but of the Roman Catholic Church. This is apparently, not a shot from the hip, but from his 'Reflections'near the end of this work.

Overall, this book is valuable and especially interestingfor the painstaking coverage of the Creationist controversy in general and the North Carolina situation specifically. No detail is spared in repeating the vile and vituperative invective used to characterize secularism and humanism. It is certainly colorful even if mis-stated. Is it not interesting how those who are taught '...to love your enemies' are so willing to damn others with such tender certainty? Surely, as a graphic representation of such, many of deep and abiding religious faith, see the tree chart on the book cover and its originator as having a highly vivid imagination while being borderline in other categories.

But back to what science should be...in this or any century. Science by definition can not be moral or immoral even as it must conform to society's regulations. Do those that would presuppose a 'moral science' as the church has mandated so often in the past,willingly wish to submit every study and every experiment to the local bishop for approval? In this manner morality could be assured. But would it be science? Not likely.

The complicated and complex ideas advanced in chapter two are interesting if true. Readers may be confused by the tripartite notions and implicit definitions of science. A most painful omission appears to be is that the informed layman, both creationist and non-creationist will not read a really clear and succinct definition of 'science' itself. It is not a body of knowledge , theories or advocates of those theories however well integrated. Clearly, the author failed to note what exactly science is.

Science is any number of disciplines in which a method using observation and experiment to test hypotheses, that can be repeated by others, is relied upon.. One can conclude that this is not a study of science by a scientist, but a field study of a religious social movement by a field worker who was empathic enough to lead his subjects in prayer.
The real accomplishment here is that the author may have organized and articulated the many aspects of Creationism in a much more sophisticated manner than the various advocates do themselves. And those vile humanists get nailed rather badly
and may even feel the flames licking at their feet.

1-17-2004 psb

Must reading on the creation/evolution controversy.......1999-08-24

Christopher P. Toumey brings a social anthropologist's perspective to the topic of "scientific creationism." He explins the origin and nature of the national creation science movement, and explores how the movement influences conservative Christians at the local level. If you've ever wondered what the differences are between the Creation Research Society, the Creation-Science Research Center, and the Institude for Creation Research, you'll find these and other national creationist organizations sorted out here. The most interesting part of the book, though, is the section that describes how the creation/evolution controversy played out in North Carolina in the early 1980s, in the context of local politics, both secular and Baptist. Also fascinating is the glimpse given of a local creation-science study group, whose members come across as considerably less dogmatic and more sympathetic than one might have expected. Toumey covers some of the same ground as the more exhaustive and scholarly "The Creationists" by Ronald Numbers, but in a more readable and entertaining style. With controversy over the teaching of evolution in the public schools once again generating headlines, Toumey's book is must reading for anyone interested in this issue.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books