Book Club

Simply put, UNIX Power Tools is probably the best one volume collection of tips and tricks for getting the most out of UNIX systems. Probably the best reason to get the 3rd Edition is if you want to stay on top of some of the newer trends and developments in the UNIX community since the 2nd Edition came out.

The 3rd Edition is the same size as the 2nd Edition. However, it is difficult to make an accurate, page-per-page comparison of each text. The 3rd Edition has been largely rewritten. Along with the repeated yet rearranged material from the Second Edition, the Third Edition adds some more substantial discussion concerning regular expressions, Perl, and the Bash shell and other newer shells. The obvious newer sections cover Python, SSH, and connecting to Microsoft Windows. Scattered throughout the text are closer looks at Linux, BSD, and MacOS X.

The biggest ommission in the 3rd Edition is that there is no more CD. But you do not really need it since pretty much everything you would ever need for this text is already available on the Internet somewhere. The 2nd Edition CD is practically obsolete.

You can not read UNIX Power Tools from cover to cover straight through. You have to skim through the table of contents and then drill down to the individual sections to find what you want. Each major section has a good mix of covering basic UNIX theory with specific tips and practices. In this sense, the text is more like a cookbook.

O'Reilly Press has succeeded in putting together this "cookbook" format. You can find a similiar approach to system administration in the "Hacks" series, but UNIX Power Tools is sort of like the "Betty Crocker" of cookbooks in the field compared to more specialized cookbooks.

The authors of UNIX Power Tools have redone and updated the 3rd Edition for a new generation of system administrators. It is a perfect "hacking" companion to go along with the more comprehensive approach of Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass, and Hein in Unix System Administration Handbook (3rd Edition), or even Frisch in Essential System Administration.

On the negative side, the material specific for Solaris is pretty sparse. Also, even with the security section, the subject of firewalling is strangely overlooked.

If the 2nd Edition suits your needs, you really do not the 3rd Edition. You can pick up the new material off of the Internet or in other supplemental books particular to the operating system you are working with. But if you like having all of your favorite "recipes" in one place in a book that you can easily get your hands on, UNIX Power Tools, 3rd Edition is the clear choice.

Review by: Clarke Morledge
November 20, 2003