Linux System Commands

Rating:
Summary: Horribly Incomplete
Review: For a book that claims to be "The Ultimate Shop Manual" this book is missing so many common commands that it's shocking.

I'm a newbie to Linux, but on my first glance I found at least 4 important commands that its missing (nslookup, tar, which, whereis). If I know commands that it doesn't then there is a real problem.

The "Linux commands demystified" section is the only thing in the universe that less helpful than the man pages. It gives you abbreviated version of the man pages and it is astounding how useless this section is.

This book is a complete waste of money. You'd be better off trying to figure out the obtuse man pages.

Rating:
Summary: Horribly Incomplete
Review: For a book that claims to be "The Ultimate Shop Manual" this book is missing so many common commands that it's shocking.

I'm a newbie to Linux, but on my first glance I found at least 4 important commands that its missing (nslookup, tar, which, whereis). If I know commands that it doesn't then there is a real problem.

The "Linux commands demystified" section is the only thing in the universe that less helpful than the man pages. It gives you abbreviated version of the man pages and it is astounding how useless this section is.

This book is a complete waste of money. You'd be better off trying to figure out the obtuse man pages.

Rating:
Summary: hmm... where is "mount"?
Review: Here is just one experience I've had with the book (you be the judge):

Looking for the "mount command", the index refers you to page 27.
Page 27 contains the following line:
If you want to "mount a disk"...Use this Linux command: "mount".

But is the "mount" command in the book? NOPE!

If mount was an obscure command I could understand it not being in the book. Not including it though, is like leaving the "meat" section out of a cookbook on grilling!

This book is woefully incomplete. Save your money!

Rating:
Summary: hmm... where is "mount"?
Review: Here is just one experience I've had with the book (you be the judge):

Looking for the "mount command", the index refers you to page 27.
Page 27 contains the following line:
If you want to "mount a disk"...Use this Linux command: "mount".

But is the "mount" command in the book? NOPE!

If mount was an obscure command I could understand it not being in the book. Not including it though, is like leaving the "meat" section out of a cookbook on grilling!

This book is woefully incomplete. Save your money!

Rating:
Summary: Don t waste your money on this
Review: It s just a printout of man pages. Even that is not organized properly. I returned the book. Buy naba Brkakati's book instead

Rating:
Summary: If you only get one Linux commands books, make it this one.
Review: It's about time. "Linux System Commands" is the best book I have yet sean on Linux commands, syntax, purpose and options for those commands. It's laid out like the old DOS manual. It is very complete and easy to find a command. Here is what you"ll find inside.

Chapter 1: A short introduction to the Linux structure and how to exicute commands.

Chapter 2: This is a "what if I want to" chapter. Theses are 2 column pages with a "what if I want to" header on the left column and "use this Linux command" header on the right column. Example:

IF YOU WANT TO_____________USE THIS LINUX COMMAND

create a new group___________groupadd

copy files___________________cp, cat

chapter 3: Linux/DOS Cross-Reference

Chapter 4: A very comprehensive, alphabetical list, of most of the commands available in Linux, and the chapter within the book that the detailed info & syntax can be found.

Chapter 5: General-purpose commands. It lists the "Purpose", the "Arguments", "Options" and "Related Commands". Some commands include:agetty, dc, listres, xset.

Chapter 6: File Management commands in the same format as chapter 5. Commands include: basename, mkfifo,znew.

Chapter 7: Text Processing commands in the same formate as chapters 5 & 6. Commands include: cut, diff, ispell, less.

Chapter 8: Internet/Electronic Mail commands. Again same format as 5-7. Commands include: biff, messages, readmsg.

Chapter 9: Programming commands like: as, bison, gprof.

Chapter 10: Networking commands like: afpd, bootptest.

Chapter 11: MTools Commands like: mattrib, mformat.

Chapter 12: Working with Linux shells.

If you own only one book on Linux commands this is it.

Rating:
Summary: Don¿t buy this book. If you already bought it, get rid of it
Review: Page viii: "Think of this book as you would think of a dictionary..."

For obvious reasons, a dictionary arranges words in alphabetical order. For some bizarre reason the authors of this "dictionary" chose to arrange the "words" by category. This renders the book almost useless. There is a complete alphabetical list of commands - not in the back where it is easily accessible, but in chapter 4! Even this list only narrows your search to a chapter.

This book does have a few nice features. For example, Chapter 1, "Linux Structures and Commands" and Chapter 4, "Linux/DOS Cross Reference" are good for those that need them. However, these benefits are far outweighed by the negatives, and are certainly not the main point of the book.

Final recommendation: Don't buy this book. If you already bought it, get rid of it. Every effort to use this book has resulted in complete frustration.

Rating:
Summary: Don¿t buy this book. If you already bought it, get rid of it
Review: Page viii: "Think of this book as you would think of a dictionary..."

For obvious reasons, a dictionary arranges words in alphabetical order. For some bizarre reason the authors of this "dictionary" chose to arrange the "words" by category. This renders the book almost useless. There is a complete alphabetical list of commands - not in the back where it is easily accessible, but in chapter 4! Even this list only narrows your search to a chapter.

This book does have a few nice features. For example, Chapter 1, "Linux Structures and Commands" and Chapter 4, "Linux/DOS Cross Reference" are good for those that need them. However, these benefits are far outweighed by the negatives, and are certainly not the main point of the book.

Final recommendation: Don't buy this book. If you already bought it, get rid of it. Every effort to use this book has resulted in complete frustration.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult to navigate through
Review: The way the book is laid out makes it very difficult for me to find what I am looking for (that is, if it is there in the first place).

Recommendation (if your interested):
Linux Desk Reference by Scott Hawkins has an alphabetical index to each command on the inside covers. It also has some decent coverage of the Bash and TC shells as well as some information on the emacs and vi editors.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the tar command?
Review: This book is junk -- don't waste your money on it. It doesn't even _mention_ tar, let alone list it as a "Linux system command" (tar isn't even in the index). Look elsewhere for a better GNU/Linux command listing.