Linux in a Nutshell

A complete reference contains all user, programming, administration, and networking commands with options, covering shell syntax for the bash, csh, and tcsh shells; sed and gawk commands; and software development and system administration commands. Original. (Advanced).

Linux in a Nutshell incorporates all the typical characteristics of a command reference. On the positive side, there's no extraneous narrative gunk to get between you and the specific piece of information you're searching for. On the negative side, there's no entry-level instruction here to guide the uninitiated. While that's not a bad thing, it should serve as a warning to Linux newbies: supplement this book with another if you don't know what you're doing.

Hekman devotes about a third of the book to Linux user commands that aren't part of specific shells, programming languages, applications, or the set of administrator commands. These commands are presented as straight man-page-style documentation in table form, listing commands, their switches, and succinct descriptions alphabetically. The author then goes on to document the three Linux shells--bash, csh, and tcsh--and the GNU utilities. The book's coverage of emacs, vi, pattern matching (regular expressions), sed, and gawk distinguishes it from its competitors. Hekman wraps up with more man-page-style documentation of programming commands and Linux's complete complement of administrator commands.