PrefaceThe third edition of Unix in a Nutshell (for
System V) generally follows the dictum that “if it's
not broken, don't fix it.” This edition has the following
new features: Many mistakes and typographical errors have been fixed.
Covers Solaris 7, the latest version of the SVR4-based
operating system from Sun Microsystems.[1]
Sixty new commands have been added, mostly in Chapter 2.
Chapter 4, now covers both the 1988 and the 1993 versions
of ksh.
Chapter 7, now covers GNU emacs Version 20.
A new chapter, Chapter 16, describes
the troff man macros.
Chapter 13, through Chapter 16, which cover the troff macro
packages, come with simple example documents showing the order in which
to use the macros.
Chapter 17, now covers
refer and its related programs.
Chapter 19, now covers Version 5.7 of RCS.
Commands that are no longer generally useful but that still
come with SVR4 or Solaris have been moved to Appendix B.
The Bibliography lists books that every Unix wizard
should have on his or her bookshelf. All books that are referred to in
the text are listed here.
This book should be of interest to Unix users and Unix
programmers, as well as to anyone (such as a system administrator) who
might offer direct support to users and programmers. The presentation
is geared mainly toward people who are already
familiar with the Unix
system; that is, you know what you want to do, and you even have some
idea how to do it. You just need a reminder about the details. For
example, if you want to remove the third field from a database, you
might think, “I know I can use the cut command,
but what are the options?”
In many cases, specific examples are provided to show
how a command is used.
This reference might also help people who are
familiar with some aspects of Unix but not with others. Many chapters
include an overview of the particular topic. While this isn't meant to
be comprehensive, it's usually sufficient to get you started in
unfamiliar territory.
And some of you may be coming from a Unix system that runs the BSD or
SunOS 4.1 version. To help with such a transition, SVR4 and Solaris
include a group of “compatibility” commands, many of which are
presented in this guide.
Finally, if you're new to the Unix operating system,
and you're feeling
bold, you might appreciate this book as a quick tour of what Unix has
to offer.
Section 1.4 in Chapter 1,
can point you to the
most useful commands, and you'll find brief examples of how to use them,
but
take note: this book should not be used in place of a good beginner's
tutorial on Unix.
(You might try O'Reilly's
Learning the Unix Operating System for that.)
This reference should be a supplement, not a substitute.
(There are references throughout the text to other relevant
O'Reilly books that will help you learn the subject matter
under discussion; you may be better off detouring to those
books first.)
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