Unix in a Nutshell: System V Edition

In a Nutshell

by Arnold Robbins

You may have seen Unix quick-reference guides, but you've never seen anything like UNIX in a Nutshell. Not a scaled-down quick reference of common commands, UNIX in a Nutshell is a complete reference containing all commands and options, along with generous descriptions and examples that put the commands in context. For all but the thorniest Unix problems, this one reference should be all the documentation you need.

The third edition of UNIX in a Nutshell includes thorough coverage of System V Release 4. To that, author Arnold Robbins has added the latest information about:


Sixty new commands in The Alphabetical Summary of Commands
Solaris 7
Shell syntax (sh, csh, and the 1988 and 1993 versions of ksh)
Regular expression syntax

vi and ex commands, as well as newly updated Emacs information

sed and awk commands

troff and related commands and macros, with a new section on refer

make, RCS (version 5.7), and SCCS commands
In addition, there is a new Unix bibliography to guide the reader to further reading about the Unix environment.

If you currently use Unix SVR4, or if you're a Solaris user, you'll want this book. UNIX in a Nutshell is the most comprehensive quick reference on the market, a must for any Unix user.

Genres: Reference, Technical, Programming, Computers, Computer Science, Nonfiction, Technology

624 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1989

Reviews

[عَبدُالكَرِيمْ · Rating 3 out of 5]

very vivid ... as if all the man pages included in one book. the most interesting part was the vi/vim text editor.
Lot of repetitions killed the contents of the book
yet still a good all in one place reference for unix/linux/mac/Solaris.

[Bridger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing beats the *nix.

[Павел · Rating 3 out of 5]

Неплохой справочник, оставлю в киньте на всякий случай

[Vlad Tomici · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty old technologies presented in this book.

It helped me understanding and learning some commands.

But a well-written book.

[Mark Henry Sandomeno · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great reference wouldn’t call it a good read.

[Joseph II · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure - I've owned a copy of "Unix in a Nutshell" for over 20 years, since the 2nd Edition (1993).

"Unix in a Nutshell" is the epitome of the O'Reilly "In a Nutshell" series. It is the benchmark I compare all other Nutshell books to - some come close, others miss the mark.

The key portions of this book are:
* Alphabetical Reference of commands
* Shell commands for Bash, Korn and C-shell
* Overviews of Sed and Awk

The other chapters are important, but are more specialized beyond general user or intro sys admin work and I haven't had much use for them.

For Unix die-hards, the first complaint I read/hear about this book - "Why not just use the Man pages?" For those who cut our teeth on multiple Unices (Unixes?), the differences between the OS versions would require a shell script and 'diff' to figure it out. The command reference is NOT all inclusive for either all commands or their options - only the most common ones are listed, with a brief output of what will happen. Genius!

Man pages have their uses, and if you want to be staring at a computer terminal for hours, go right ahead. But this book, in concert with man pages and online references, can give you that "multi-track attack" in learning how to use your Unix system.

One downside to this tome - every edition gets larger and the price has gone up from $15 (in 1992) to around $50 (2014). While I love this book, the price has precluded me from giving it as a gift to friends/family who use Unix. If your wanting specific topics, some of O'Reilly's Pocket Guides (around $15!) may hit the mark.

If you want more Linux specific information, purchase "Linux in a Nutshell"; around the same cost, but less Unix agnostic. And if you're waiting for "FreeBSD in a Nutshell," keep waiting...

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all of the chapters assigned by my class, but I read the full chapters instead of just the assigned pages. (Sometimes less than a full chapter was assigned). There are some chapters that were not discussed in class that I didn't read, but I always mark textbooks like this done when I've read what's required for the course.
On to the review anyways. This is a great reference book. It does what it says. You will need another resource if you have some more learning to do, but if you just need to look something up to remind yourself what options you have available for a command, then this book is great. The course required this and another book (the other one is supposed to do more teaching and less referencing), but at the end of the day, this book is staying on my shelf and the other is being sold.

[Erwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Luckily I got this book for free, because any higher price would be unjustified for a non-sysadmin. Only interesting to quickly scan through the list of common commands to get an overview/inspiration of what commands are possible in a UNIX terminal. For everything else the 'man' pages are more extensive and interesting.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have

[Criz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best UNIX desk reference on the planet. If you work in UNIX environments, you probably already have one.

[Owen Lindsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well thumbed book. Essential if you do a lot of bash scripting.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reference reading

[Robert Postill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still get this book out some ten years after buying it. It's solid and less obtuse than a man page.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I keep this by my computer. I can't remember awk syntax without it.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent reference book to have on hand when I started to learn Unix a long time ago. I find that I never use it anymore. Instead, I use the Internet or a man page.

[Brett Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an old book: 2009, Solaris had just been open sourced. Learned heaps from reading the bits that were relevant to me: bash, make and writing man pages.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helpes a treat, great tool to learn and refer back to later! I was reccomended it by a colleague.

[Peter Lindsay]

Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition by Arnold Robbins (2005)