Doug Tamasanis
THE UNDERGROUND GUIDE TO UNIX by John Montgomery, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-40653-5, $24.95
Although many books cover advanced Unix topics,
The Underground Guide to UNIX
by John Montgomery, who recently joined the BYTE staff, is one of the best I have come across in quite some time. Adhering to the
Underground Guide
format, Montgomery provides an insightful discussion of both common and obscure operational aspects of Unix.
In the introductory sections, Montgomery covers Unix basics with tables containing lists and descriptions of the 10 most frequently used commands and keystrokes. The beginning chapters contain particularly useful information on command history and how to customize the system prompt. The fun starts when he tackles more advanc
ed Unix material, such as rare shells like
tsch
,
jsh
, and
bash
. Other topics include use of the
.paths
,
.Xdefaults
, and
.mwmrc
files, as well as remote commands and useful command-editing tricks.
Later chapters contain worthwhile discussions of Unix file nomenclature, security and permissions, and the advantages and disadvantages of links. The book is full of interesting Unix nuances describing, for example, how using the
mv
command retains file ownership while using the
copy
command changes ownership. Montgomery lends a unique perspective to several Unix capabilities, including file searching with
grep
and
egrep
, file sorting and differentiation, and using
tar
with devices. Coverage of editors is minimal, focusing only on the Unix
spell
command,
vi
, and
emacs
.
The book contains only a short discussion of
mail
and
mailx
, including the
.signature
and
.mailrc
files. This section is just long enough to maintain continuity but short enough to keep the interest of experienced Unix users. Montgomery makes his impressions of
mail
versus
mailx
perfectly clear, opening one section with the following statement: "The mail program is one of the greatest examples of why people who created the System V UNIX system shouldn't be allowed out in public. Just kidding. Kind of."
I can't recall when I have enjoyed reading a Unix book as much as this one.
A Fun Unix Book, No Kidding
