Rating: 
Summary: Like a raft to a sinking sailor!
Review: And I mean sailor, not someone who hasn't seen a body of water and is out on a $200 cruise! In other words, this book would be a great help to intermediate to advanced UNIX users, while it'll leave novice programmers in a ball game with the vice president. Every page has at least 3 mantras and the chapters are packed with "rabbit-out-of-the-hat" tricks that'll amaze (and scare off!) anyone looking over your shoulder at your terminal as you try out one of the numerous recipes mentioned in this book. Definite asset for any serious UNIX programmers (or wannabe's)!
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners, too!
Review: For the last several months I have been dealing with a Unix/Linux environmnet. I had no prior experience with Linux or Unix. However, I have to document and explain scripts, modules, and such every day as part of my work.
This is the first book that has given me bite-sized, useful information in an explanatory format that doesn't waste my time. Whereas O'Reilly's Running Linux helped me very little after a nearly-full read-through, Unix Power Tools has taught me something every time I pick it up. What's more, the chapters are small (and intriguing) enough that a flip-through during a bathroom break can send me back to the keyboard to try something new.
It's like an encyclopedia and your friend the SA in one. Get this and Essential System Administration and you cover the practical needs and the complex activities (respectively) of working in Unix-like-environments in two volumes.
Rating:
Summary: My solution and savior...
Review: I was stuck in a corporate software mess with a compilation of legacy UNIX Script, awk and other languages calling and executing both locally and remotely. With only intermediate experience in UNIX, a rather large pot of coffee and Jerry Peeks UNIX tools I was able to filter through, straighten out, and document the nightmare legacy code within half the time I expected.
The book has an outstanding state of the art, referencing and indexing to key words and commands while you read. I did not find myself flipping back and forth to the index. I was able to get the information very quickly without loosing train of thought. A fantastic book, I have several UNIX books and many in other languages and this one has the best layout and most complete reference. Only one suggestion... don't let this book go out of print for so long. I had to wait months to get this new version. The old version was sold out all over the US. Maybe I will buy a few extra copies for investment purposes.
Rating:
Summary: If you were to own one book on UNIX, this should be it
Review: This is by far the best general UNIX book I've read - it covers everything from directory permissions, backups, using vi to writing shell scripts. Unlike many similar books, it's a fun read as well as a useful reference. Read this book and you're well on your way to gurudom.
Rating:
Summary: ... they'll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers
Review: Excellent reference and a whole lot of fun. If I could only own one book on Unix, this would be it.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: Unix Power tools is _the_ book. It is the best
book about general Unix I've ever seen. It covers
about "everything" you may think about and more.
If you want to be a Unix Power User this is your
book. Read it. Then reread. Then eat it. :)
Rating:
Summary: UNIX Power Tools is the best unix book on the market
Review: UNIX Power Tools packs more information
about UNIX than any other book on this planet.
Best of all, the mass amount of information
is organized and indexed in a way that make
it all easy to find and use.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST TECHNICAL BOOK EVER MADE
Review: UNIX POWER TOOLS is really the best book on UNIX/LINUX. It's original, enjoyable, perfectly written (concise & sarcastic), intuitively and clearly organized, fastly accessible, critical about technologies, loaded with expertise and experience. As a student then a computer scientist, I searched and read many and many books. This one truly stands up as the best designed, organized and written, not only for Unix/Linux but in all categories. It has a unique, very original and practical layout: It's a book-magazine-almanac, meaning the reader doesn't have to read lond pages to get information (which requires attention & uses energy) nor follow the chapters. The access to information is the faster possible. It's so true a pleasure that I often read it again, only to be delighted. (The style is ironical and concise.) On a technical standpoint, the organization is clear, with big "natural" topics, well structured, with a progressive approach. The useful knowledge is given immediately, and it's very easy to find an answer to any problem. Besides, it's an excellent tutorial/reference guide to the shell programming, sed, awk, and many others. Even the "theorical" aspects have a very pratical impact. For example, the part linked to the File System & the links explains clearly the concepts, but this helped to, for the first time, really understand the differences and therefore use the most appropriate solution. It's important to know that the book is limited in scope (which is clearly indicated); however, at the difference of others that pretend to cover anything but only stay at the surface, this one really goes deep inside. In addition, even the elements that are not covered have a starting point, allowing the reader to find easily additional data. However, some points are not here, like new interesting features of Bash 2.0, & others. Let's hope the 3rd version will add many more and extend the book's scope. To conclude, if you have one & only one book to choose, UNIX POWER TOOLS is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential Resource and Makes UNIX Fun
Review: This book is not a general tutorial, so if that is all you are after, then is not for you. However, if you are a novice or you are an expert, or in between, then this book is an essential resource to have amongst your collection. There are so many useful scripts, tools, and tutorials woven together is different topic areas. There are also a lot of fun stuff thrown in, like how to configure your c-shell prompt to be like the familiar DOS prompt showing directory path. Interestingly, in some parts, I find it to be a good reference and sometimes the only reference for certain tools and commands. For example, this book extensively covered and illustrated the 'find' command, which is very powerful and often used in the industy. There were not only good explanations, but comprehensive examples as well. I could not find any reference of 'find' with examples in any other published book. I think this book gives impressive coverage of other essential, yet seldom, documented tools.
Rating:
Summary: super
Review: as I recall I read this book from cover to cover and it was an extremely useful book. I highly recommend this book for anyone doing system administration type work or hobby.
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