Linux Pocket Guide

by Daniel J. Barrett

If you use Linux in your day-to-day work, this popular pocket guide is the perfect on-the-job reference. The second edition has expanded from Fedora-only coverage to distro-neutral, with practical information on a wider range of commands requested by readers.

Linux Pocket Guide provides an organized learning path for Linux use, rather than Linux programming and system administration. You’ll find options for the most useful commands, grouped by functionality. For novices who need to get up to speed on Linux use, and experienced users who want a concise and functional reference, this guide provides quick answers.

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

420 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Daniel J. Barrett, Ph.D., has been teaching and writing about Linux, the internet, and related technologies for more than 30 years. Dan has also been a software engineer, heavy metal singer, system administrator, university lecturer, birthday party magician, and humorist.

Note: If you are looking for "Daniel J. Barrett" the mystery writer, visit https://www.goodreads.com/author/show....

Reviews

[Rick Muële]

One-liner: Read it. 4.5 stars

[Justin Bremer]

A nice, quick-and-dirty introduction (or reminder!) to Linux, mostly via the command-line interface. Won't get you any professional certifications, but it will keep you from having to hit Google every time you're not sure what you're doing.

[Matt Rozak]

great quick and dirty overview of all the basics and essential commands. This is a bit too lightweight if you're first learning Linux, but serves as a good refresher if you feel rusty.

[Amir Sarabadani]

Es ist zwar kurz und gut

[Ulas Tuerkmen]

Working on the Linux command line can be a little daunting if you haven't had an introductory course to it. Googling every single command and finicky detail of how the shell works can get annoying. Linux Pocket Guide wants to give you a basic understanding of the underlying concepts of the Linux (and more generally Unix) command line, and present its "vocabulary", i.e. the basic set of commands which help users get stuff done, so that you at least know what you're Googling (or man'ing, for that matter). Without understanding certain concepts, it can be difficult to get beyond copying and editing files on Linux. If you want to keep things under control and do more complicated things like monitoring and stopping non-responsive programs, you have to understand certain topics to a certain extent,such as the difference between a job and a process, or the difference between a hard and a soft link. Linux Pocket Guide does a great job of providing a good basic knowledge of these and similar topics, and the relevant commands.

The commands included are gathered undered various topic areas, such as file or directory operations, viewing processes, or email. Relevant commands are then listed, with an explanation of what they do, the most important options, and sample uses and output. Commands for Gnome- or KDE-dependent GUI applications are mixed with textual ones,although more textual commands are discussed. Despite having used the command line for a while, I had the chance to read up on a number of commands I hadn't heard about, especially for text processing, such as cut and tr. Linux has simple commands that should be given a first chance when trying to achieve a goal, instead of going for the big guns like sed or awk, and this book is great as a list and short manual of such simple commands. The author sometimes goes a bit overboard on this, and includes ancient commands such as mt that can be used to rewind and read from a magnetic tape, but fortunately there aren't that many such cases.

The explanations in Linux Pocket Guide are much better than most of the results one gets on the web; I will be keeping this book on my work desk for reference and the occasional remembrance of how rich the Linux command line is.

[Guthrie C.]

This pint-sized tome punches hard beyond its weight-class! I had been searching for a book that was comprehensive enough to both teach my children about Linux and its command line while showing me new ideas on commands I barely knew about, if at all. This book achieved both through clear prose and complete enough descriptions to get you started, while also pointing to info and man for more. I highly recommend it for readers who are interested in getting more out of Linux, from n00b to intermediate. Advanced Linux users may also appreciate having a handy bookshelf reference available for more arcane commands.

[Bart Schuijt]

Great introduction to Linux. As the title indicates this is not a comprehensive guide to Linux, but touches the basics of the operating system, including navigating the file system, manipulating files, connecting to other nodes, writing bash scripts. Despite the fact I have been using Linux/Unix systems for ±3 years I found some nifty tips about programs I use on a daily basis. I can recommend it to anyone who recently started working with Linux/Unix.

[Ben]

Linux In My Back Pocket

This is a great book at mastering all the Linux commands you could possibly need.

I got a lot out of this guide, and found it a great jump-start for some of the subsystem Linux tinkering I am doing on my own personal time.

Check out this book if you are interested in learning about Linux yourself!

4.8/5

[Onkel Art]

Awesome reference

You'll constantly be referring back to this book for guidance! Great help learning and for re-enforcing learning. Easy to use and search for what you're looking for.

[Jason Schultz]

Excellent Intro

Really enjoyed this book. Was perfect for the noob just getting started with Linux. I found that some background knowledge of Linux was required to get the most of this book. All in all a real winner. 😎👍

[amrut]

Which Linux Commands to be used

Great read to know which Linux commands can be used to tackle everyday text processing . Nice book to read from front to back cover even if it is reference. Nicely explained.

[Nicky Lim]

Good reference book for linux commands. Helps shed light on shell programs. A great book on the bookshelf or next to you when you need to code

[Timpark]

Information was laid out in a nice way.

[Megan]

Clearly this was for work. However, I found it to be somewhat astonishingly readable.
It also stands as a pretty good reference with a lot of information in a short space.

[Vinicius]

A great introduction or reference book, introductory but still powerful.

[Jon]

Put this next to your toilet + download termux on your phone => improve your linux knowledge with every toilet break :D

[Brendan Bushbaker]

Practical reference booklet

[Boukman Bastia]

It was a wonderful read, it introduced me to a whole new range of Linux commands and programs, I know I will be coming back to it in future.

[Jarrodtrainque]

O'Reilly's Pocket Guides have earned a reputation as inexpensive, comprehensive, and compact guides that have the stuff but not the fluff. Every page of Linux Pocket Guide lives up to this billing. It clearly explains how to get up to speed quickly on day-to-day Linux use. Once you're up and running, Linux Pocket Guide provides an easy-to-use reference that you can keep by your keyboard for those times when you want a fast, useful answer, not hours in the man pages. Linux Pocket Guide is organized the way you use Linux: by function, not just alphabetically. It's not the 'bible of Linux; it's a practical and concise guide to the options and commands you need most. It starts with general concepts like files and directories, the shell, and X windows, and then presents detailed overviews of the most essential commands, with clear examples. You'll learn each command's purpose, usage, options, location on disk, and even the RPM package that installed it. The Linux Pocket Guide is tailored to Fedora Linux--the latest spin-off of Red Hat Linux--but most of the information applies to any Linux system. Throw in a host of valuable power user tips and a friendly and accessible style, and you'll quickly find this practical, to-the-point book a small but mighty resource for Linux users.

[Mike O'Brien]

What's not to like? Its cheap, small, and to the point. Extremely handy. Between Cisco IOS, Linux/Unix, scripting languages and shellcodes its very easy to forget or mix up commands. This is the perfect handbook to pull out whenever you need it, and the commands are presented in a logical order, where they are easy to find.

[Ibrahim Mohamed]

كتاب رائع جدا ياخد بيديك من ﻻشى فى عالم اللينكس الى مستوى عالى جدا ومعرفه تامه بالسيستم ومعرفه بالاومر التى تكتب فى الترمينال ومعرفه ايضا ببرامج اللينكس

كل اللى اقدر اقوله انى استمتعت وانا بقرا كل كلمه فى الكتاب وانا تعمدت كتابة التقييم للكتاب باللغه العربيه ﻻنى لم اجد اناس كثير تكتب تقييمات بالعربى على الكتب الانجيلزيه

الحمد لله اللهم علمنا ما ينفعنا وانفعنا بما علمتنا

[Ayoub]

Man pages with clear elaboration

Snapshot of man pages with clearer elaboration on each command. Sufficient pocket guide and quick command argument recalling, hopefully next edition contains detailed examples of command usage

[Emaynard]

Very handy.

[Keith]

Well organized, terribly useful, mostly still relevant, and good for a few laughs. What more could one want in a Linux Pocket Guide?

[Ken Guest]

Handy little pocket book for if you are working on a 'nix box that doesn't have man pages installed and isn't connected to the 'net for you to refer to when all else fails.

[Amanda]

Great! Very granular with the many commands of Linux (Fedora based)

[Daniel D]

Handy little resource for BASH. Recommend to new users looking to "power" up.

[Groot]

Short little reference book (274 pages) that is handy to keep around. A quick read to provide context for the basics and pique interest in further reading.

[Sweemeng Ng]

Pretty good guide, more a reference manual to keep on the side when using Linux. It doesn't cover everything, but it covers the useful one.

[Alex]

Great book for quick command reference, no need for google that is.