
UNIX and Linux system administration handbook
by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, Ben Whaley, Dan Mackin, Trent Hein · first published 2010
62mentions
35recommended by
41HN commenters
2010–2026first – last mentioned
85% recommend15% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Broad, approachable sysadmin reference covering booting, networking and TCP/IP, and multiple Unix flavors; suits newcomers to Linux and working admins who want a core text, a bootcamp, or interview prep.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…other books. There are plenty of more in-depth books on managing a server, so I don't bother to duplicate their work. If you really want to learn how to manage servers and work the CLI, then check out "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (4th Edition)" by Evi Nemeth and friends. My recommendation to people is to get a crappy computer you don't want, put OpenBSD on it following their http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html guide exactly,…
on “The Command Line Crash Course” ↗I've read most of the recommended books, but as far as what I think has delivered immediate real value, I'm going to go with: 1) Clean Code 2) The Phoenix Project 3) UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook I'm sure #2 will be something folks want to fight over shrug. If you want to sidestep years of headache it's a must-read though.
on “Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?” ↗On that note, I would like to recommend the most complete book I've encountered on the topic: "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Nemeth et.al. Just because I wish someone had recommended it to me earlier.
on “Practical Linux Hardening Guide” ↗Shit. Nemeth is the author of _The Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook_, which is one of the all-time great Unix books, up there with Stevens.
on “Evi Nemeth, retired Boulder computer professor, missing at sea near New Zealand” ↗…distros would be even better. Having a Mac as a laptop is also useful but I'm not sure it replaces playing with different server O/Sen. Then, you definitely do also want Limoncelli's book and Nemeth's Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook and be able to configure a wide range of different systems apps (sshd, ntpd, SMTP mailers, apache, nginx, etc). If all you can do is install and configure apps, though, then you're no better than a scriptkiddie…
on “Ask HN: How do I learn how to become a good sysadmin?” ↗…http://forensicswiki.org/wiki/Main_Page http://opensecuritytraining.info/Welcome.html https://www.sans.org/ https://www.hak5.org/ Books: If you don't have much experience with Unix or Linux systems, the Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook ( ISBN-10: 0131480057 ) is really good. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_security Edit: Almost forgot this site has some good labs http://www.cis.syr.edu/~wedu/seed/index.html
on “Ask HN: A good roadmap for someone interested in security?” ↗Get a copy of "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth, et al. to get you up to speed on the basics. As for development, depends on exactly what kind of development you want to do. You're going to have to be more specific.
on “Ask HN: Linux for Windows Devs” ↗You could start with these google tutorials: http://code.google.com/edu/tools101/index.html It is a commitment, but I recommend reading "The Manual": _UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook_ by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, Ben Whaley http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Unix-and-Linux-System-Admin...
on “Ask HN: Linux Adminstration Course for non-sysadmins?” ↗Grab Nemeth, et al's "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" from your favorite online bookseller and work through each chapter. That'll get you basic fluency with the Unix command line and common administration tasks. Beyond that, what you need to know really…
on “Ask HN: Help a windows SRE/DevOps engineer transition to a linux shop” ↗…"Introduction to Distributed Systems", depending on what you want to learn. You could also read some books. Rami Rosens "Linux Kernel Networking - Implementation and Theory" is quite detailed. The "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" (Nemeth et al.) covers a lot superficially and will point you in the right direction to continue studying. It's very practical-minded. For low-level socket programming, you can probably read "Advanced…
on “Kubernetes is our generation's Multics” ↗Evi Nemeth was Godmother to a couple generations of Unix Sysadmins. The UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook is practical, usefully opinionated, playful, and brilliant, much like its lead author/editor. I've used it as the core text for classes I have taught and it's a great interview study guide for systems…
on “Linux Sysops Handbook” ↗I consider 3 books essential reading for system administration. "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Nemeth & Snyder, "Essential System Administration" by Aeleen Frisch and "TCP/IP Guide" by Kozierok. Yes, they're quite old but the expertise of these authors can't really be dated. Craig Hunt's "TCP/IP…
on “The Lost Art of System Administration” ↗Not so much programming than Sysadmin, but "Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, Ben Whaley and Dan Mackin. It's a huge book covering a lot of ground, while on the same time being very approachable for anyone with some experience of linux…
on “If you could only have one programming book on bookshelf what would it be?” ↗…Brendan Gregg mentioned, I'll say something similar to what others have said: get an inexpensive used 1-liter PC¹ at home, load Ubuntu or some other popular Linux distribution, and start with Nemeth's "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" to learn your way around the system. That will give you the context you need to be able to start to understand how performance analysis tools are used. After that, you can move to the cloud whenever…
on “Ask HN: Tips to get started on my own server” ↗This repository is a collection of notes from the book Unix and Linux system administration handbook by Evi Nemeth Garth Snyder Trent R. Hein Ben Whaley Dan Mackin. I am reading the 5th edition of the book. This shit is a comprehensive guide to Unix and Linux system administration.
on “Unix-and-Linux-Sysadmin-Notes” ↗