file systems

If you are performing any level of system administration on any varient of Unix then this is a great book to have on your desk. It covers just about all aspects of system administration necessary for small to medium systems and networks.

Each topic is dealt with first by an approachable description of what is going on, a discussion of the differences between different systems and some examples of commands or configuration files together with a discussion of what each example is doing and how it does it. It really is an easy way to work out what you need to do on your own system.

The structure works equally well as an aide memoir or as a tutorial to a new topic and this is backed up by an effective index which seems to guide me to the right part of the book much more reliably than is the case in many computing texts.

Although the book, even in its second edition, is now several years old, it is still relevant. The basics if the task do not change and, even if the task in hand has changed a little, reading and understanding the section in the book will leave you well placed to sort out minor variations which is not something that you would get from just plugging away at the man pages.

The main thing that is missing as a result of this is coverage of completely new material, don't expect to find anything about IPv6 or running a webserver for example. That is not such a big problem though as if you are dealing with these issues, you will almost certainly need books on those subjects as well as a general admin book.

For me, it is simple, this is a book that lives on my desk and not on my bookshelf. It helps me out with my mixed network of Linux, Solaris, SunOS and FreeBSD.

Many books on Unix/Linux will cover a wide array of aspects, but nearly all of them will touch those topics, and give a brief overview. This is great for the casual user, but for the system administrator, you need a more thorough grounding in Unix.

This book is the answer.

This book is very comprehensive because it includes every major flavor of Unix, even more obscure ones (like SCO Unix) and covers each aspect in fine detail. When it talks about filesystems, it includes all kinds of relevant details a SysAdmin will need to know, and even some extras to make life more convenient.

The best part of this book is Aeleen's personal touch. Being a SysAdmin of many years, she puts all kinds of personal (and relevant) anecdotes as well as her philosophical view of System Administration. I like the 7 virtues of the System Administrator. This is a clever touch that one should keep in mind when administering a Unix system.

In short, this book is a must have for all Unix System Administrators. I can't imagine a better book on this subject. Hopefully you will enjoy it too. :)

This book should be called Indispensable and Complete System Administration. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but not by much. No book will ever be the complete book on Unix or Linux admin, but this one has so much material in it, it will be quite some time before I start looking for material not in the book. Every aspect of System Administration is covered in this book. The material goes into details as necessary, but the author does a good job of not getting bogged down in the details or overwhelming the reader with irrelevant or arcane knowledge that only a handful of people will use. What you will find is broad and thorough coverage of the material in an accessible, easy to read style.
One of the things I appreciate most about this book is the organization. Rather than listing out a bunch of technical information, each chapter deals with a specific task that a sysadmin needs to be able to do, and the information to carry out that task is contained within the chapter, rather than making references to other chapters or appendices, as is common practice.
This is another book that delivers the excellence I've come to expect from O'Reilly.