Unix

This section of the book highlights utilities and tools that are typically standard on UNIX-like operating systems. Tools range from commands that are critical to navigating the file system (cd, ls, rm, mkdir, etc.), to complex and powerful tools like awk and grep.

Resources

Open Group holds the trademark for UNIX. They provide the Single UNIX Specification Version 4 (login required; no cost to register).

UNIX Books

There are many books that can be useful for students who want to read about various aspects of UNIX.

  • Learning the Unix Operating System, 5th Edition, by John Strang, Grace Todino, and Jerry Peek (O’Reilly, 2001), available at O’Reilly or Amazon

  • List of Unix utilities (Wikipedia)

  • Unix in a Nutshell, 4th Edition, by Arnold Robbins (O’Reilly, 2006), available at O’Reilly or Amazon

  • The UNIX Programming Environment by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike (Prentice Hall, 1984)

  • Unix Power Tools, 3rd Edition, by Shelley Powers, Jerry Peek, Tim O’Reilly, and Mike Loukides (O’Reilly, 2003), available at O’Reilly or Amazon

  • The Linux Command Line by William Shotts (No Starch Press, 2012); the book can also be legally downloaded for free in pdf format.

  • UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, 5th Edition, by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, Ben Whaley, and Dan Mackin (Pearson, 2018), available at Pearson or Amazon

  • Learn Linux in a Month of Lunches, by Steven Ovadia (Manning, 2017), available at Manning or Amazon

  • How Linux Works, 2nd Edition, by Brian Ward (No Starch Press, 2015)

  • Efficient Linux at the Command Line by Daniel Barrett (O’Reilly, 2022)

  • Unix Text Processing, by Dale Dougherty and Tim O’Reilly (Hayden Books, 1987), available freely online at www.oreilly.com/openbook/utp/