Introduction


Overview

Our goal in writing this second edition has been to provide an up-to-date comprehensive treatment of UNIX for users of all of its major variants, including Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, and Mac OS X. (People new to the UNIX world should be aware that for all practical purposes Linux is really just a variant of UNIX, differing from other UNIX variants only deep within its kernel.) From the overwhelming success of the first edition of this book, we know that many people have found this first edition invaluable for getting started with UNIX while more advanced users have found this book an important resource for learning about new topics. The previous edition of this book and its predecessor, UNIX System V Release 4: An Introduction (which only covered one particular UNIX variant) have sold more than 150,000 copies.

We have explicitly designed this book to be useful to both new and experienced users. If you are new to UNIX, this book will help you quickly start using UNIX effectively; if you are a Windows user who wants to learn about UNIX, this book can help you migrate to the UNIX environment or use UNIX and Windows together; and if you are an experienced UNIX user, you’ll find a wealth of material on advanced topics, including security, administration, networking, tools, and development in the UNIX environment. Among the many currently available books on UNIX (and Linux), this book is unique in the breadth of coverage, its applicability to all UNIX variants, and its inclusion of both material for new UNIX users and for those already experienced with UNIX. This book can be the only complete book on UNIX that you will need, no matter what variant you are using.

Also, we have included material for people working in a wide range of computing environments-from personal desktops to corporate networks-from environments using just one UNIX variant, to those using more than one UNIX variant and/or Windows. In particular, we explain how to obtain, install, configure, run, and maintain UNIX systems on both personal computers and large multiuser environments.

Note that although we have provided comprehensive coverage of an extremely wide variety of aspects of UNIX, it would take a vast library to cover everything about UNIX! In this book we have selected the core information needed to get started and to tell you where to find additional resources, both books and web sites, to go much further.

Unfortunately, many books on UNIX, and other operating systems, are only cookbooks that show how to use a variety of different commands or carry out specific tasks. Unlike those books, this book not only shows how to use particular commands, but it also explains the ideas and concepts behind them, providing the reader a deeper understanding that makes it easier to learn how to become an effective UNIX user, and how to start becoming a UNIX administrator or developer.




UNIX. The Complete Reference
UNIX: The Complete Reference, Second Edition (Complete Reference Series)
ISBN: 0072263369
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 316

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