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A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming (2010) [pdf] (umn.edu)
291 points by lainon on May 28, 2017 | hide | past | favorite | 24 comments



Looks very daunting. My first thought was "how is >1000 pages ever 'practical'?" Then I started reading.

The first chapter is kinda dull for me, as an experienced Linux user. But scrolling through, I quickly came upon sed, which I glanced through and taught me some new things. I won't remember it all, but I'll know what I can use sed for. (I usually only used sed for substitution, with `-i`nline or in a pipe.)

I've always meant to learn more about awk, and ctrl+f'ing for that, indeed, chapter 12 is all about awk. I learned how to select rows based on columns, which I've wanted to do multiple times in the past! E.g. `awk '$2 <= 100' testfile` or `awk '$2 ~ /database/' error.log`.

It's practical in the sense that, if you have a topic you want to learn about and need a good tutorial to get started, this seems like a very good place to start.


Here is another excellent resource for AWK, written by William Shotts, the author of "The Linux Command Line" http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_adv_awk.php


Was this posted with the consent of the author and publisher? I can't see anything on Sobell's own website that suggests that it is free, perhaps I missed it.


It's part of an official course [0], so hopefully they did their due diligence.

[0] http://www.aem.umn.edu/~aem3100/spring2013/


From that website:

"A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming -- 3rd Edition - you can download the 2nd edition as a pdf but it's missing the new chapters in the 3rd edition on Mysql and Python."


Thanks. I missed that.


There is also a 3rd Edition which was released in 2012.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-Commands-Editors-Prog...


Could you please point to the link? I can't find it anywhere.




Mark Sobell is a class act. He has been a mitzvah to both the programming and writing sides of the *nix equation for 30 years. Free is about $50 less than this download should cost.


I find that, ironically, professors are far too cavalier with posting other people's content online without permission.

The only real basis for my opinion is seeing .edu somewhere in the URL when these things are posted. So, I could be wrong, but I can remember two other recent examples: an HBS case, and a couple of chapters from Jared Dimond's Guns, Germs and Steel.


I installed Ubuntu yesterday on my pc, and the first thing i found here is this. It's a good book, though i haven't read it fully.


"The Linux Command Line" by William Shotts is a good read also, and is freely available from the author via his website http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php


I have this book. Was a pretty good introduction to Linux for me. Mark Sobell is awesome


Wow, great ebook.

With pdf of this size, it would be easier to use Google Drive viewer instead of directly linking the pdf file, so that users on both desktop and mobile devices can view the pdf inside the browser.


I am not sure if this is a 'practical guide'. The way I was mentored was to install Linux and just start using it and to learn the commands as they come. I doubt that this guide will help you learn stuff. I feel this is more of a reference.


Whoa. 1000+ pages. There goes my weekend. Thanks mate.


Loved this book, packed with a lot of awesomeness.


Expected a short article but got 1000+ pages pdf


after a few years of bullshitting with linux, maybe it's time to get serious


removes shades mother of god. 1000+ pdf.


I spent about 30 minutes speed reading through it only to realize I barely made it out of the first chapter. Dense read!


yeah, it's a reference, if anything. not a practical "read" per se, but hey A+ for effort.

i get by using 4-5 commands and neovim, it's plenty for my sysadmin needs.

if you want a short 30page read that has most things, there's the red team field manual! i recommend having a copy

amazon link > Rtfm: Red Team Field Manual: https://www.amazon.com/Rtfm-Red-Team-Field-Manual/dp/1494295...

it's a no frills collection of commands grouped under topic/use case. command description is left to the user to lookup using the manpages.




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