Mark G. Sobell - A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming

Third Edition

Mark G. Sobell

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sobell, Mark G.
A practical guide to Linux commands, editors, and shell programming / Mark G. Sobell.3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-13-308504-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Linux. 2. Operating systems (Computers) I. Title.
QA76.76.O63S59483 2012
005.432dc23
2012028015

Copyright 2013 Mark G. Sobell

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to (201) 236-3290.

ISBN-13: 978-0-13-308504-4
ISBN-10: 0-13-308504-X

Text printed in the United States at Edwards Brothers Malloy in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Fourth printing, September 2014

This book is a very useful tool for anyone who wants to look under the hood so to speak, and really start putting the power of Linux to work. What I find particularly frustrating about man pages is that they never include examples. Sobell, on the other hand, outlines very clearly what the command does and then gives several common, easy-to-understand examples that make it a breeze to start shell programming on ones own. As with Sobells other works, this is simple, straight-forward, and easy to read. Its a great book and will stay on the shelf at easy arms reach for a long time.

Ray Bartlett
Travel Writer

Overall I found this book to be quite excellent, and it has earned a spot on the very front of my bookshelf. It covers the real guts of Linuxthe command line and its utilitiesand does so very well. Its strongest points are the outstanding use of examples, and the Command Reference section. Highly recommended for Linux users of all skill levels. Well done to Mark Sobell and Prentice Hall for this outstanding book!

Dan Clough
Electronics Engineer and Slackware Linux User

Totally unlike most Linux books, this book avoids discussing everything via GUI and jumps right into making the power of the command line your friend.

Bjorn Tipling
Software Engineer ask.com

This book is the best distro-agnostic, foundational Linux reference Ive ever seen, out of dozens of Linux-related books Ive read. Finding this book was a real stroke of luck. If you want to really understand how to get things done at the command line, where the power and flexibility of free UNIX-like OSes really live, this book is among the best tools youll find toward that end.

Chad Perrin
Writer, TechRepublic

I moved to Linux from Windows XP a couple of years ago, and after some distro hopping settled on Linux Mint. At age 69 I thought I might be biting off more than I could chew, but thanks to much reading and the help of a local LUG I am now quite at home with Linux at the GUI level.

Now I want to learn more about the CLI and a few months ago bought your book: A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming, Second Edition.

For me, this book is proving to be the foundation upon which my understanding of the CLI is being built. As a comparative newbie to the Linux world, I find your book a wonderful, easy-to-follow guide that I highly recommend to other Linux users.

John Nawell
CQLUG (Central Queensland Linux User Group)

I have the second edition of A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming and am a big fan. I used it while working as a Cisco support engineer. I plan to get the third edition as soon as it is released. We will be doing a ton of command-line work on literally 1000 boxes (IMS core nodes). I feel you have already given me a lot of tools with the second edition. I want to get your new book as soon as possible. The way you write works very well for my style of learning.

Robert Lingenfelter
Support Engineer, VoIP/IMS

Since Im in an educational environment, I found the content of Sobells book to be right on target and very helpful for anyone managing Linux in the enterprise. His style of writing is very clear. He builds up to the chapter exercises, which I find to be relevant to real-world scenarios a user or admin would encounter. An IT/IS student would find this book a valuable complement to their education. The vast amount of information is extremely well balanced and Sobell manages to present the content without complicated asides and meandering prose. This is a must have for anyone managing Linux systems in a networked environment or anyone running a Linux server. I would also highly recommend it to an experienced computer user who is moving to the Linux platform.

Mary Norbury
IT Director
Barbara Davis Center
University of Colorado at Denver from a review posted on slashdot.org

I had the chance to use your UNIX books when I when was in college years ago at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA. I have to say that your books are among the best! Theyre quality books that teach the theoretical aspects and applications of the operating system.

Benton Chan
IS Engineer

The book has more than lived up to my expectations from the many reviews I read, even though it targets FC2. I have found something very rare with your book: It doesnt read like the standard technical text, it reads more like a story. Its a pleasure to read and hard to put down. Did I say that?! :-)

David Hopkins
Business Process Architect

Thanks for your work and for the book you wrote. There are really few books that can help people to become more efficient administrators of different workstations. We hope (in Russia) that you will continue bringing us a new level of understanding of Linux/UNIX systems.