[Book Review] Visual Quickstart Guide – Unix and Linux

I need to refresh my knowledge about basic commands in Linux. I browse some reference books but I do not want to read detailed information. So, I try to find some linux pocket books. I get ‘Visual Quickstart Guide – Unix and Linux (Fifth Edition)‘ by Deborah S. Ray and Eric J. Ray.

Overall, yeah.. it is not for advanced users or one who is looking detailed information. It lists only common commands that we can use in daily administration tasks. Those are:

How to work with Directories and Files (e.g. ls, mkdir, find, touch, tar, gzip, etc)

How to manipulate files and control their ownership and permissions

How to write basic scripts

How to edit files using vim and nano

How to sending and reading emails

How to access internet (e.g. using ssh, telnet, ftp, etc)

How to get information about the system

 
Beyond that, this book also provides references about commands, flags and arguments. Those can be used as your handy utilities when you do your tasks.

Common Unix/Linux directories

Common Unix/Linux directories and their contents.

Directory	Contents
/bin	Essential programs and commands for use by all users
/boot	Files used in booting the operating system
/dev	Device folder, such as alarm, cdrom, cpu, cdrw, etc.
/etc	System configuration files and global settings
/etc/sysconfig	Files that control the system configuration
/etc/X11	Configuration files for X Window System
/lib	Shared libraries
/home	Home directories for users
/lost+found	Recovering files which are not properly closed due to many reason such as power failure
/misc	This directory is used for automatically mounting directories on removable devices and remote directories
/mnt	The mount points for file systems mounted after the system is booted
/opt	Optional application software packages
/proc	Location of virtual file system
/root	Home directory for root user
/sbin	Essential system binaries
/tmp	Temporary files
/usr/bin	Commands and programs that are less central to basic Unix system functionality than those in /bin but still useful and often important
/usr/include	Standard include file and header files for C programs
/usr/lib	Libraries for installed packages
/usr/local	Most files and data that were developed or customized on the system
/usr/share	Shared data file
/var	Changeable data, including system logs, temporary data from programs, and user main storage