Home > Store

Think UNIX

Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.

Think UNIX

Book

  • Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
Not for Sale

About

Features

Description

  • Copyright 2000
  • Dimensions: 7-1/4" x 9-1/8"
  • Pages: 304
  • Edition: 1st
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-7897-2376-X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-2376-5

Unix has a reputation for being cryptic and difficult to learn, but it doesn't need to be that way. Think Unix takes an analogous approach to that of a grammar book. Rather than teaching individual words or phrases like most books, Think Unix teaches the set of logical structures to be learned. Myriad examples help you learn individual commands, and practice problems at the end of difficult sections help you learn the practical side of Unix. Strong attention is paid to learning how to read "man pages," the standard documentation on all Unix systems, including Linux. While most books simply tell you that man pages exist and spend some time teaching how to use the man command, none spend any significant amount of space teaching how to use the content of the man pages. Even if you are lost at the Unix command prompt, you can learn subsystems that are specific to the Unix flavor.

Sample Content

Table of Contents



Introduction.

About This Book.

I. UNIX CONCEPTS.

1. Unix Documentation.

Words of Warning. Reading Man Pages. Documentation Hide-and-Go-Seek. Suggested Exercises.

2. Files and Processes.

Files. Processes.

3. Redirection and Pipes.

Redirection. Pipes.

4. Networking.

A Broad Overview of Networking. Talking with Other Machines. Using Machines Remotely.

5. vi, Dotfiles, and Regular Expressions.

Surviving vi. Thriving in vi. Regular Expressions.

II. SHELL CONCEPTS.

6. Muddling Through Shells.

Shell Wars. Fixing Mistakes. Job Control.

7. Variables and Quoting.

Variables. Practice Problems. Quoting. Practice Problems.

8. Conditional Execution and Loops.

Sequential Execution. Conditional Execution. Practice Problems. Loops. Practice Problems.

9. Shell Scripts and More.

Grouping Commands. Aliases and Functions. Practice Problems. Shell Scripts. Practice Problems.

III. X WINDOW SYSTEM CONCEPTS.

10. Thinking Like X.

What X Does Differently. Nuts and Bolts. Desktop Environments. Something Useful: xterm. Suggested Exercises.

11. Configuring X.

Starting X. Command-Line Options. Suggested Exercises. X Resources. Suggested Exercises. Color Names and Numbers. Fonts. Listing Fonts. A Few Final Words.

IV. APPENDIXES.

A. Answers to Practice Problems.
B. Glossary and References.
Index.

Updates

Updates & Corrections

Think Unix Errata

Think Unix Errata

General Notes

  • For the moment, all errors are in the first printing. When there's a second printing, I will think of some notation to determine which printings contain which errors.
  • The SawMill window manager has been renamed SawFish, due to a namespace conflict with an existing package named SawMill. As far as I know, all URLs remain functional.

Specific Errors

Page vi, Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Andy Johnston for talking with me about how to write an intro to Unix book, not an intro to a Unix book, as the acknowledgements state.
Page vi, Acknowledgements
The final two paragraphs were left out of the acknowledgements. They read as follows:
Thanks to all of my co-workers at UMBC, for tolerating week-long absences throughout this book, for general support, and for always pushing me to deepen my own Unix knowledge.
Finally, thanks to the Tuesday night crew at The Brewer's Art and the Thursday Night Bolton Hill Walkers' Patrol, for helping to keep me sane.
Page 17
The numeral six in the first paragraph should be superscripted, as it's a reference to the footnote at the bottom of the page.
Page 31
In the second example, there should be no blank line between 'Wang Bi' and 'Socrates'
Page 38
In the third paragraph from the bottom, 'This is little more useful' should read 'This is a little more useful.'
Page 39
In the first paragraph, 'mv arc/t*.txt' should be 'mv arc/t*.txt .' Failure to put that dot in the right place would overwrite whatever file was last in the list expanded from arc/t*.txt.
Page 41
Footnote 15 is referenced, but appears on page 42 instead.
Page 42
Footnote 15 appears, but was referenced on page 41 instead.
Page 43
In the second paragraph from the bottom, excluding the example, the first 'e' in 'execute' is italicized in error.
Page 44
In the setuid directory listing in the middle of the page, the '-rwsr-xr-x' should be joined with the following line of that listing.
Page 46
In the second paragraph from the bottom, the numerals representing user, group, and other permissions are read from left to right, rather than from right to left.
Page 49
In the third paragraph, I refer to 'my mydocs/unixbook/proposal' directory, when I should refer only to 'my docs/unixbook/proposal' directory.
Page 56
In the third paragraph from the bottom, I write that 'It's all right if a CPU takes up nearly 100%' of CPU time, when it should read that it's all right if a process takes up nearly 100% of CPU time.
Page 57
In the fourth paragraph, the r in compiler is not italicized along with the rest of the word; the whole word should be in italics.
Similarly, the trailing 'e' in 'machine code' in the fifth paragraph should be italicized too.
Page 74
A series of typos in the second sentence of first paragraph of the new section renders it rather unintelligible. This sentence should read:
The language metaphor for Unix is particularly apt here: Single pipes
are like simple sentences, whereas longer pipelines are like complex
sentences.
Page 92
The second sentence on the page should begin 'More important,' rather than 'More importantly.'
Page 95
In the header for the new section, the digit three in 'POP3' should not be subscripted.
Page 115
In the last paragraph of the page, all single quotes should be back quotes: d'a should be d`a, y'c should be y`c, and c'x should be c`x.
Page 123
Several different carat (^) characters are used on this page. They should all be identical. (Which one? It doesn't matter, really. Ideally they should look like what shows up on your screen when you hit shift-6 using a US-English keyboard.)
The last word in the fourth paragraph from the bottom is 'regexps,' not 'regsxp.'
The last sentence in the third paragraph from the bottom is incorrect. It should read:
As a regular expression, it wouldn't match ta, tap,
tapper, or anything with any character other than t
anywhere in the expression.
Page 124
In the last paragraph, regular expressions are not bolded consistently. Imagine all regular expressions on this page being bolded consistently. It would sure look nicer, wouldn't it? It might be easier to read, too.
Page 128
In the last paragraph above the practice problems, the word 'buffer' has been appended to the end of the last sentence for no good reason whatsoever.
In practice problem 16, you should replace any three consecutive digits with a single instance of the word know.
Page 154
In the second paragraph, there's a stray æ character at the end of SIGWINCH. It doesn't belong there.
Page 162
In the first paragraph following the example, '/bin/ksh' should be on a single line, rather than its current state, wherein the first forward slash is on the line above the rest of the file name.
Page 164
The last line of the first example should read:
ls: `echo bin`: No such file or directory
That is, the quotes surrounding "echo bin" should be back quotes, not forward quotes. This is correct in the paragraph that follows the example.
In the last paragraph, there's an extraneous space in the prompt, which should read [jon@frogbog tmp]$ .
Page 171
The section header should read &&, ||, and !, not &&, ??, and !
Page 173
In the first line, 'list commands to be done' should read 'list of commands to be done.'
Page 180
The third line of the example should read
> mv $foo `echo $foo|sed 's/-/_/g'`
That is, backticks should surround the echo statement. This error is repeated in the first sentence following the example.
Page 182
The third line from the bottom of the page should read as follows:
> DIRCOUNT=`expr $DIRCOUNT + 1`
That is, the quotes should be backquotes again.
Page 187
In the second paragraph, the grouping commands each have an extra closing character at the end; that is, they should read ( cd /etc ; grep my-regexp * ; cd * ) 2> /dev/null and { cd /etc ; grep my-regexp * ; cd * } 2> /dev/null.
In the third paragraph, the find statement should be surrounded by back quotes rathe

Submit Errata

More Information

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020