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Date:      Fri, 13 Apr 2001 11:32:04 -0700 (PDT)
From:      "Jeremy C. Reed" <reed@reedmedia.net>
To:        freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   good books for teaching Unix?
Message-ID:  <Pine.LNX.4.21.0104121707460.22728-100000@pilchuck.reedmedia.net>

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I need to choose some books for students learning Unix (by using Debian
Linux and a BSD). These students will be have no Unix knowledge and
probably no experience with any command-line interfaces, but probably have
some minor (to advanced) Windows administration knowledge.

I need to find books that are useful in a teaching environment for
beginning Unix (and appropriate for both *BSD and Linux).

 Unix Shell Essentials

 This course provides you with the understanding of the Unix filesystem and
 environment, and knowledge of using Unix command-line shells and
 fundamental Unix tools and utilities. The course will help you work
 effectively with standard BSD and GNU commands using the shell
 (command-line) interface. Unix Shell Essentials will cover using text
 processing filters; performing basic file management; using Unix streams,
 pipes, and redirects; creating, monitoring and killing processes;
 modifying process execution priorities; and making use of regular
 expressions. This course is one of a series of courses that will prepare
 you for Linux certification tests.

(Notice how this says "Linux certification" -- anyone interested in
helping with a neutral or BSD certification, please let me know.[1])

This first class is mostly for non-superuser type work and includes
beginning vi usage, and using a few different shells.

The second class covers basic system administration, including basic
networking, DNS, managing users, logging, backups, and configuring startup
scripts.

The third class covers hardware issues, installations, partitioning,
configuring kernels (BSD and Linux), and drivers (and kernel modules).
(A few other classes will also be scheduled.)

Can anyone suggest some books that would be appropriate for supplementary
information for these beginning students?

The books I am considering are:

 UNIX System Administration Handbook (O'Reilly)

 Unix Power Tools (O'Reilly)

 Essential System Administration (AEleen Frisch)

 Unix Made Easy (John Muster)

(I have not read any of these books though. [2])

Also, does anyone know of -- or interested in starting -- a mailing list
for teaching Unix (not discussion for beginners, but discussion on how to
teach and what to teach)?

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/

1) I have already contacted the three major certification testing delivery
centers.

2) I have probably read over 20 Unix, networking and Linux books, but none
seem to fit the needs. I am currently finishiong "Running Linux"
(O'Reilly), but it has little direct BSD information, too Linux specific,
and the shell/basic utilities information is very slim.

Some useful books I have include "UNIX Text Processing"
(Dougherty/O'Reilly), "UNIX: The Complete Reference" (Coffin), and "A User
Guide to the UNIX System" -- includes Berkeley UNIX! -- (Thomas/Yates).
But they have little BSD or Linux administration information -- and they
are old (1989, 1988, 1985).


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