UNIX For Dummies

Thanks to its status as operating system of choice for countless Internet servers, UNIX has grown far beyond the esoteric realm of high-powered academic and business computing. Now, no serious Webmaster can afford not to be able to use UNIX.

UNIX For Dummies, 3rd Edition, is the practical, easy-to-understand guide for anyone who wants quick explanations of all essential UNIX functions. Bestselling authors John R. Levine and Margaret Levine Young also bring you the latest information on Linux, the highly popular noncommercial version of UNIX, as well as on major commercial implementations such as Berkeley UNIX, System V, System V Release 4, SunOS, and Solaris.

In UNIX For Dummies, 3rd Edition, you find out to do things like Locate files Set and change read, write, and execute permissions Browse the Web, participate in Usenet newsgroups, exchange e-mail, and upload and download files Use text editors such as vi, ed, and emacs Install software Compress and decompress files Backup your work -- just in case…

The title of this book invites comment. "Some things weren't meant for dummies and Unix is one of them," you might say. Wrong! Levine and Young take advantage of the Dummies format's strength with command-line operating systems. They flatten the learning curve and have even the greenest beginner doing useful work with Unix in mere hours.

Once you get past a couple of pointless chapters about offering pizza to Unix experts in exchange for help, you'll find conceptual explanations of files, directories, permissions, and redirection. Command explanations take a hybrid form; they mix "type this verbatim" statements with tables showing switches and parameters.

Much of Unix for Dummies is task-oriented. You'll find a whole chapter on printing, for example, that covers the commands you'll need to know to format and print a document on the right printer. Other chapters cover file searches, software installation, and X Windows navigation. The book also provides cursory coverage of four text editors--ED, vi, Emacs, and pico--but you learn little more than how to enter and save text in each.

Levine and Young include an eminently useful "DOS-to-Unix Rosetta Stone" that immediately tells you, for example, that the approximate Unix equivalent of DOS's copy is cp. DOS experts who are new transplants to a Unix environment will appreciate this translation guide. The authors wrap up with a wealth of basic troubleshooting information and a command reference.

This book, along with its companion, More Unix for Dummies, is the perfect choice for those who have no knowledge of Unix and need to learn it quickly.