Unix System Administration Handbook: Now covers Red Hat Linux!: Amazon.co.uk: Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent Hein: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

In the five years since the last version of the Unix System Administration Handbook Linux has changed the Unix world. The previous version discussed six commercial unices. This one has two commercial unicies--Solaris and HP-UX--along with two free ones--Linux and FreeBSD. It looks like a trend.

This information dense book is a surprising mixture of arcane fact and weird humour--with emphasis on the former. The dense facts are leavened by extensive references to the authors' personal experiences with Unix. This hands on knowledge leavens a fairly dry text with interesting anecdote and occasionally breaks into proselytising. For example, when discussing the automount utility in RedHat Linux the authors can barely bring themselves to mention it before telling us how much better amd is--for four pages.

It's interesting that though X-Windows gets a few mentions the desktop environments--such as Gnome and KDE--that run on it get none at all. Clearly real men still don't use graphical interfaces.

This is a working book. It's aimed at those who have to make the system work and keep it working. There's a great deal of emphasis on troubleshooting, and the utilities capable of providing the system information you need to do it. No configuration file goes unmentioned. The authors also emphasise the commercial realities a sysadmin must acknowledge.

Over the last five years there has been an explosion of books on Unix, and especially Linux. Many of these are referenced in the text. But if you need a practical guide to system administration on Unix systems the Unix System Administration Handbook is hard to beat. --Steve Patient

Product Description

Now covers Red Hat Linux!

Written by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, and Trent R. Hein with Adam Boggs, Rob Braun, Ned McClain, Dan Crawl, Lynda McGinley, and Todd Miller

"This is not a nice, neat book for a nice, clean world. It's a nasty book for a nasty world. This is a book for the rest of us."
–Eric Allman and Marshall Kirk McKusick "I am pleased to welcome Linux to the UNIX System Administration Handbook!"
–Linus Torvalds, Transmeta "This book is most welcome!"
–Dennis Ritchie, AT&T Bell Laboratories

This new edition of the world's most comprehensive guide to UNIX system administration is an ideal tutorial for those new to administration and an invaluable reference for experienced professionals. The third edition has been expanded to include "direct from the frontlines" coverage of Red Hat Linux. UNIX System Administration Handbook describes every aspect of system administration–from basic topics to UNIX esoterica–and provides explicit coverage of four popular UNIX systems:

This book stresses a practical approach to system administration. It's packed with war stories and pragmatic advice, not just theory and watered-down restatements of the manuals. Difficult subjects such as sendmail, kernel building, and DNS configuration are tackled head-on. Examples are provided for all four versions of UNIX and are drawn from real-life systems–warts and all.

"This book is where I turn first when I have system administration questions. It is truly a wonderful resource and always within reach of my terminal."
–W. Richard Stevens, author of numerous books on UNIX and TCP/IP "This is a comprehensive guide to the care and feeding of UNIX systems. The authors present the facts along with seasoned advice and numerous real-world examples. Their perspective on the variations among systems is valuable for anyone who runs a heterogeneous computing facility."
–Pat Parseghian, Transmeta "We noticed your book on the staff recommendations shelf at our local bookstore: 'Very clear, a masterful interpretation of the subject.' We were most impressed, until we noticed that the same staff member had also recommended Aunt Bea's Mayberry Cookbook."
–Shannon Bloomstran, history teacher

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

A serious, laugh-out-loud geek book! 13 Nov 2002

By N. K. Harris

Format:Paperback

There are people in the industry who won't take a UNIX admin seriously if they've not even heard of this book, commonly known as The Purple Book. It is a fantastic book on how UNIX admin should be done, written by people with very strong views on what is The Right Way to do things. They've written it in such a way that it is a very readable book. Something you can take on the tube in the morning and actually get funny looks because you'll find yourself sniggering out loud.

Covering most flavours of UNIX, with sections detailing the differences between them for each subject, it goes through most of the issues a UNIX admin needs to think about and understand. If you admin, or support UNIX systems in any way, it is an invaluable reference to have and should probably be read, cover to cover, at least once.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Worth it. 3 Nov 2000

By DavidC

I agree somewhat with dewi.morgan@fullduplex.net that if you have the 2nd ed maybe not worth it. For me the best thing about the book is that I can administer my Linix machine (book's fine for SuSE) and at the same time learn how to do the same task on Solaris or HP-UX - or at least know that the same task is done differently on those platforms.

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

counterpoint to the other reviews 9 April 2001

By A Customer

This book has a lot to live up to. Previous editions are almost standard items on sys-admins' shelves. How does this measure up?

It remains a trove on information. Its contents have been updated (Usenet news is far less important, so coverage has contracted, for example.)

Its coverage of security is more thorough, and web serving (very important these days) gets a lot more coverage.

And it has lost the CDROM. How big a loss? In poorer countries, probably considerable. But with the number of security problems found, I wouldn't be happy with old software. Go download the stuff. And get the secure versions. Would you want an old version of SUDO?

BTW, looking back over the 2ed at the weekend, everywhere I looked, they mentioned ftp.uu.net. The world has changed since then.