Which Unix book or pdf would advanced users like to keep with them?

Question

I am looking for some books or online pdf or tutorials for advanced Linux system administration which they would always like to keep with them. I mean ones in which there are some advanced, ready to use scripts which take their Unix knowledge to next level.

Although it's practice that makes perfect, books also have a great role in that.

They are called "man pages". Also, if you run Linux, the files in /usr/src/linux/Documentation are a good source. — Keith, Apr 30 '11 at 05:05

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 30 '11 at 03:58

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Once you become an 'advanced' sysadmin, books generally no longer cover the sorts of problems you encounter. Books are great to use as references, but once you can call yourself 'advanced' you will not be looking up reference books very often.

Personally speaking (as someone who works as a sysadmin, is not 'advanced' but nonetheless has no books on the shelf) there is no substitute for setting up a server and playing!

answered Apr 30 '11 at 03:58

Malvineous

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Absolutely - when I was first learning Linux the sage that was teaching me got me to the point of knowing what to look up myself and how to look it up and then declared me ready and set me off my myself. Problems tend to be very specific and the solutions change so rapidly it's difficult to have an absolute reference, more important is to know enough to be able to find answers for yourself, and then you can even pick up some best practice along the way - this site is a great example of that. – James Yale Apr 30 '11 at 12:02
Sometimes, a command/library reference book can be helpful, when you're bored of searching the web, and got the feeling to slow down and to lean back. Happens quite rarely :-). Today, books about IT tend to fulfill kind of a 'once upon a time' role.. My colleagues looked at me if I were an alien, when I showed them my brand new nmap book. I bought it to support Fyodor, not to read it :-). – desasteralex Apr 30 '11 at 13:21

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 30 '11 at 03:55

You may find the following links helpful:

http://tldp.org/guides.html THE Linux documentation project - everything!
http://linux.org Linux
http://linuxmanpages.com/ Online Linux man pages
http://linuxselfhelp.com/ Linux Help Site
http://linuxselfhelp.com/howtos/NFS/NFS-HOWTO-3.html NFS
http://unixgeeks.org/ UNIX for Geeks.
http://computerhope.com/unix.htm#04 Linux/Unix Command List.
http://ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-unix-find.html UNIX find command from IBM
http://lagmonster.org/docs/vi.html vi-1
http://selectorweb.com/vi.html vi-2
http://pixelbeat.org/cmdline.html Linux Command Line List
http://acs.ucsd.edu/info/jobctrl.shtml UNIX job control
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo sudo in Ubuntu
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot Ubuntu Dual Boot
http://softpanorama.org/Tools/Find/find_mini_tutorial.shtml find tutorial
http://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/switching/C/installing-partitioning.html Ubuntu Partitioning

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 30 '11 at 04:33

Personally I keep "Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment" by W. Richard Stevens readily available. Its a good book to learn a bunch of programming tricks, too (Disclaimer: I am not an Advanced SysAdmin, may be somewhere in the middle of the range).

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 30 '11 at 12:08

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man is your friend

Beside that, the "Linux Administration Handbook"

edited Apr 30 '11 at 12:08

jscott

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answered Apr 30 '11 at 05:08

Tilo

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Which Unix book or pdf would advanced users like to keep with them?

4 Answers4