O'Reilly announced publication of the latest update to Linux in a Nutshell, by Ellen Siever, Stephen Figgins, and Aaron Weber. According to the publisher, the book is considered by many to be the most complete and authoritative command reference available for Linux, and includes all substantial user, programming,… administration, and networking commands
for the most common Linux distributions.

“'Linux in a Nutshell' isn't something you'd read cover to cover, but turn to when you need information fast,” says coauthor Figgins. “It has many quick references rolled into one: vi, ex, sed, gawk, RCS, CVS, regular expressions, firewalls, package management, bootloaders, and desktop environments. Throw in condensed and clarified man page information, and you have a book worth keeping open right next to your computer system.”

The fourth edition of “Linux in a Nutshell” continues to track the major changes in bootloaders, the GNOME and KDE desktops, and general Unix commands. Several commands related to CDs and music reflect the evolution of multimedia on Linux. Coverage of GRUB — which has become the default bootloader on several Linux distributions — has been added, as well as coverage for vim, the popular, feature-loaded extension to vi. The addition of several new options to the iptables firewall command and new commands related to DNSSEC and ssh show the book's
value as a security tool.

Contents include:

• Programming, system administration, networking, and user commands with
  complete lists of options
  
• GRUB, LILO, and Loadlin bootloaders
  
• Shell syntax and variables for the bash, csh, and tcsh shells
  
• Pattern matching
  
• Emacs, vi, and vim editing commands
  
• sed and gawk commands
  
• The GNOME and KDE desktops and the fvwm2 window manager
  
• Red Hat and Debian package managers

A sample chapter, “Red Hat and Debian Package Managers,” is available free online here.

Further information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bios, and samples, is available here.

Summary:

Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition
by Ellen Siever, Stephen Figgins, and Aaron Weber
ISBN 0-596-00482-6, 928 pages, $39.95 US, $61.95 CA, 28.50 UK

 
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