Linux Phrasebook
Linux Phrasebook, Second Edition offers a concise, handy reference to the Linux commands that, like a language phrasebook, can be used on the spot on moment's notice. Don't waste a minute on non-essentials: this straight-to-the-point reference delivers specific information and tested commands designed to work with any modern Linux distribution. Portable enough to take anywhere, it starts with a quick introduction to essential command line concepts, and then delivers all the modern Linux command examples, variations, and parameters you need to: View, manipulate, archive, and compress files Control file ownership and permissions Find anything on your systems Efficiently use the Linux shell Monitor system resources Install software Test, fix, and work with networks Linux Phrasebook, Second Edition is the perfect quick command line reference for millions of Linux users and administrators at all levels of experience: people who want to get reliable information they can use right now -- with no distractions and no diversions
Contents at a Glance Part I: Getting Started
Chapter 1 Things to Know About Your Command Line Everything Is a File Maximum Filename Lengths Names Are Case-Sensitive Special Characters to Avoid in Names Wildcards and What They Mean Special Files That Affect Your Command Line If There's Too Much Stuff on Screen, Reset Chapter 2 Navigating Your File System List Files and Folders List the Contents of Other Folders List Folder Contents Using Wildcards View a List of Files in Subfolders View a List of Contents in a Single Column View Contents As a Comma-Separated List View Hidden Files and Folders Visually Display a File's Type Display Contents in Color List Permissions, Ownership, and More Reverse the Order Contents Are Listed Sort Contents by Date and Time Sort Contents by Size Express File Sizes in Terms of K, M, and G Display the Path of Your Current Directory Change to a Different Directory Change to Your Home Directory Change to Your Previous Directory Chapter 3 Creation and Destruction Change a File to the Current Time Change a File to Any Desired Time Create a New, Empty File Create a New Directory Create a New Directory and Any Necessary Subdirectories Copy Files Copy Files Using Wildcards Copy Files Verbosely Stop Yourself from Copying over Important Files Copy Directories Copy Files As Perfect Backups in Another Directory Move Files and Folders Rename Files and Folders Understand How Linux Stores Files Create a Link Pointing to Another File or Directory Delete Files Remove Several Files at Once with Wildcards Prevent Yourself from Deleting Key Files Delete an Empty Directory Remove Files and Directories That Aren't Empty Deleting Troublesome Files Chapter 4 Learning About Commands Find Out About Commands with man Quickly Find Out What a Command Does Based on Its Name Search for a Command Based on What It Does Read a Command's Specific Man Page Learn About Commands with info Navigate Within info Locate the Paths for a Command's Executable, Source Files, and Man Pages Find Out Which Version of a Command Will Run Discover How a Command Will Be Interpreted Chapter 5 Building Blocks Run Several Commands Sequentially Run Commands Only If the Previous Ones Succeed Run a Command Only If the Previous One Fails Plug the Output of a Command into Another Command Understand Input/Output Streams Use the Output of One Command As Input for Another Redirect a Command's Output to a File Prevent Overwriting Files When Using Redirection Append a Command's Output to a File Use a File As Input for a Command Combine Input and Output Redirection Send Output to a File and to stdout at the Same Time Part II: Working with Files
Chapter 6 Viewing (Mostly Text) Files Figure Out a File's Type View Files on stdout Concatenate Files to stdout Concatenate Files to Another File Concatenate Files and Number the Lines View Text Files a Screen at a Time Search Within Your Pager Edit Files Viewed with a Pager View the First 10 Lines of a File View the First 10 Lines of Several Files View the First Several Lines of a File or Files View the First Several Bytes, Kilobytes, or Megabytes of a File View the Last 10 Lines of a File View the Last 10 Lines of Several Files View the Last Several Lines of a File or Files View the Constantly Updated Last Lines of a File or Files Chapter 7 Manipulating Text Files with Filters Count the Number of Words, Lines, and Characters in a File Number Lines in a File Select an Entire Column of Data in a Delimited File Sort the Contents of a File Sort the Contents of a File Numerically Remove Duplicate Lines in a File Substitute Selected Characters with Others Replace Repeated Characters with a Single Instance Delete Matching Characters Transform Text in a File Print Specific Fields in a File Chapter 8 Ownerships and Permissions Become Another User Become Another User, with His Environment Variables Be
Customer Reviews
Rated 5 starsAbsolutely perfect
I could not have found a better compact Linux reference book. O'Reilly's "Linux in a Nutshell" is very comprehensive, but it gives very few examples and you pretty much have to know what you're looking for since it is organized alphabetically. "Linux Phrasebook" is organized by tasks such as "Finding Stuff" and gives practical examples. This book was money well spent!
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Rated 5 starsHandy for Windows users
I am picking up some Linux knowledge having been a database admin on Windows for many years. While concise, this book gives some explanation and context to commands/operations rather than simply acting as a copy of the built in documentation. More verbose than a "pocket guide", it is still quick enough to use as "how do I do this now" guide, rather than a chapter-by-chapter research book. This will likely be the most used...
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Rated 5 starsA Linux User's Must
What a great little book!!! It is chock full of great information that can be used by novices and experts. I provided it to students of a class I taught and everyone thought it was great. This is the book that remains on the desk on not some corner of the room collecting dust.
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Rated 5 starsThe ONE Best Book to Buy (if you're moving to Linux from Windows)
Frankly, the GUIs you'll encounter in Ubuntu, SuSE, etc., are so good that you may not often have any recourse to the command line. When you do, however, this is the book that you want. Yeah, I know, you can buy some fat distro-specific tome for not much more money, but the free documentation provided by *many* linux communities is already good enough. Command line stuff is another matter, especially if you are new at it...
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Rated 5 starsGreat!
I've found this book very helpful. It sits beside my computer at all times. It helps not only with Linux but with Mac OS X as well.
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