Good linux books
 

Hi all.

I am relatively new to linux and have been using it for the past 3 days. I was wondering if there are any must have books out there I have a book called Running Linux 4th edition. It skims through various Linux concepts but does not go into great detail.

Are there any books that are more specific - eg. more on the bash scripts, files in etc/ networking etc etc...
or are there any websites that can point me in the right direction... I have searched on amazon and google but it was no use...

Thanks a lot!

personally I think the best way to pick out a book is go to a well stocked bookshop and take some time to browse around.

Often I end up selecting something from O'reilly.

http://linux.oreilly.com/

personally i found the "Red Hat linux bible" series good when i first started. I am still new myself. the book i have for my OS scripting class this semester is really good for beginning bash scripting. i also have a book on SED/AWK that we are using that has a lot of information on getting a handle on them.

Meadors, Todd, Linux Shell Script Programming, Thompson Course Technology, 2003

Dougherty D., Robbins A., Sed & Awk, O’Reilly & Associates, 1997

these are two books i would personally recommend to new linux users who want to get a handle on bash scripting and/or using SED/AWK.

Red hat also makes their own books. there were two that i wanted to buy last night at the bookstore:

Red Hat Linux Security and Optimization, and Red Hat Linux Networking and System Administration. Of the two, i bought the Networking one last night. It looked like a very good book, but i haven't had a chance to get into it yet. I don't know what version of linux your running, but these are the ones that i have found helpful and used so far. The bash scripting book i mentioned above has been great for learning about Bash, scripting, and how my system works. at the end it begins to get into Sed and Awk, but does not go into any detail, hence the separate Sed and Awk book. lemme know what you find.

Rute Some consider it a bible for GNU/Linux.
The Linux Documentation Project is a good place for all the HOWTOs and man pages.
Check on your system (or the cds that you installe with). Usually there is lots of info on it.

Well it sounds like you are ready to storm out of the gates and get your hands dirty. That is great. I have been playing around for years and I have not come across one book that covers all of the bases well. But I can think two books that I have found very useful, one for system administration functions and another that goes into much greater depth on shell scripting.

UNIX system administration handbook

I am using the third edition, I believe that it has been updated since then, also a version that is exclusively for linux has come out from the same group, called of all things:

LINUX system administration handbook

I believe the primary author for the above is Evi Nemeth.

If you are interested only in Linux, I would take a strong look at the Linux text, it covers networking, file systems, how to config for devices. The UNIX version is similar, but it goes over how to accomplish task in solaris and hp-ux as well as linux.

For shell scripting I would recommend:

UNIX shell programming by Stephen Kochan

My version is rather old, but I have found it to be very useful. I beleive that the current version is the 3rd edition, which although I do not have, I have heard very good things about.


A few quick weblinks that you might find useful:

An introduction to unix shell environment
http://rhols66.adsl.netsonic.fi/era/unix/shell.html

linux system administration (pay attention to the links at the bottom)
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/Lin...lSysAdmin.html

Have fun
~

thanks very much guys/girls!
i will take a look at them in a bookshop

if u want to get realy basic try "linux for dummies",im only a month into linux and it helps with the little things like how to start the gui from bash etc
helpin me anyway,lol im hopeless

Alright. thanks for that book too

I have used linux for three days now and i have managed to reinstall 2 times
Redhat 9.0 -> SuSE 9.0 Pro ->(reinstall) SuSE 9.0 Pro :D
so you are not that hopeless

lol i bet everyone is like that at first. i started on redhat 7.0 on my laptop, that didnt work, gave up for a while, tried 7.2, and that work, but then the laptop died, got a new laptop and tried suse 8.1, and taht didnt take so well, and finally i have redhat 9 on the laptop now. as i add more computers, i intend on adding different flavors of linux :) anyways, i found that some of the cooler books, our largest bookstore didnt carry. make sure to check amazon.com or someplace like that. i found about 1k in books that is now on my wishlist.

yeah, i check on amazon quite often. I then download them if they are available via DC++ then I look at them to see what they are like. Then if i like them I order them of a bookstore. I don't like reading books from a computer - and also - I would like to "support" the authors by buying the books that are helpful :)

Man pages, Howto-s are great place to start for installation, cofigurations. For scripts and bash dummies books are good for a newbie. Later can check Oreilly's for Admin, security etc.

Yeah... i refer to man pages quite often but i havent used how tos....
and i was thinking of buying an o'reilly system admin book as well ;)