UNIX System V: A Practical Guide (3rd Edition)

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Summary: Mark Sobell is a god
Review: A god is someone who can take something dense and uninviting and distill/explain it so that everyone from novice to expert benefits. Sobell does exactly that in UNIX System V: A Practical Guide. His Programming Tools chapter in particular provides an in-depth, clear explanation you will be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Two recommendations for the next edition: Sobell needs to 1)include more examples in the vi chapter, and 2)include an appendix with answers to review exercises. If you buy one book on the UNIX OS make sure it's this one!

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Summary: Thanks Mark for a tremendous book.
Review: I agree, this is the standard. While it's getting just a little dated, the book has been very helpful to me as a new UNIX user and a student, NOT because it's simplistic, but because Sobell never gets technical just to be technical. There is an elegance to his style and examples that other authors need to follow. His writing is attitude-free and is focused on benefits to the reader, rather than trying to dazzle us with geeky, arcane details. Still, you can grow with this book and use it as a solid reference.

I found the chapter on C programming a godsend for those of us who learned using a gui-based IDE (integrated development environment). The shell script chapters were well-organized and had plenty of examples.

Contained within this book is an alphabetical command reference that could easily stand on its own as a separate book. There's also a superior index and thoughtful appendices on various flavors, regular expressions and GUIs.

For the third edition, I would like to see expanded coverage of Linux (particularly the Bash shell and the new desktops), as well as more details about mounting devices and communicating by modem. I'd also like to see an introduction to perl to go along with the info on awk, sed and shell scripts. Also, we need answers to the exercises presented at the end of each chapter.

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Summary: why nobody ever recommended this book? it is really great!!!
Review: I got it from our library, and found it very useful! very comprehensive and clear, best of all, unlike most of other unix book out there, this one has a lot of very illustrative graphies... you will benifit from that feature alot! I promise you!

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Summary: Great book - for someone who knows a little about Unix...
Review: I tried books on the same topic by a number of different authors, but none come close to this title. If you are a computer science student, or simply interested in Unix, then this book is for you. Sobel has done an excellent job with the layout and style, making it easy to find the information you need. It contains clear and consise descriptions of each of the individual commands in the Unix operating system, as well as information on the Korn Shell, Bourne and C Shells (including explanations of how to write scripts), vi, emacs, and Networking. It also covers the X Window System, along with the programming tools make, SCCS, RCS, awk and sed. The book contains a wealth of examples, exercises, sample screens and review questions throughout, making it an ideal reference for any student or professional. If you are studying or using unix regularly, you need this book.

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Summary: A Must Have!
Review: I tried books on the same topic by a number of different authors, but none come close to this title. If you are a computer science student, or simply interested in Unix, then this book is for you. Sobel has done an excellent job with the layout and style, making it easy to find the information you need. It contains clear and consise descriptions of each of the individual commands in the Unix operating system, as well as information on the Korn Shell, Bourne and C Shells (including explanations of how to write scripts), vi, emacs, and Networking. It also covers the X Window System, along with the programming tools make, SCCS, RCS, awk and sed. The book contains a wealth of examples, exercises, sample screens and review questions throughout, making it an ideal reference for any student or professional. If you are studying or using unix regularly, you need this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great book - for someone who knows a little about Unix...
Review: I use this book as additional reading for my college Unix course. It is great for teaching advanced concepts, such as shell scripting and Unix administration fundamentals. However, it lacks in the introductory-level material, assuming the reader has a basic knowledge of Unix under their belt. I find this a great add-on to the "Unix System V Primer" by Waite, et al.