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Review.
Voodoo Unix: Mastery Tips & Masterful Tricks
By Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Ventana, 1994. 300p. paper, $27.95 (ISBN 1-56604-067-1).
This is an easy-to-read book in a format that presents each major topic as a "tip" and problems as "traps." There are a great many useful tips in this book, but despite the book's subtitle, Mastery Tips & Masterful Tricks, much of the book is dedicated to the most elementary points. The book is written with an informal slant that is somewhat annoying because the writers at times take too long to make a point.
Chapter 1 suggests sound rules to follow when selecting a password and goes into what prompt to expect from what shells. It also includes log-on procedures for a Unix system and other topics for beginners. Chapter 2 describes ways of managing files and directories. Chapter 3 covers the vi text editor with a few words about some of the other Unix text editors. Chapter 4 covers customizing prompts and using variables. Chapter 5 is titled "Printing Magic." There are, indeed, tips that can almost be considered magical. My favorite tip is how to realign tabs when using columns in a vi file. Chapter 6 includes compulsory file piping and redirection tools that are essential to a Unix user. This chapter also explains how to assign a job higher priority than the system default. It also details scheduling jobs: how to move a job to the foreground and how to place jobs in the background.
MS Windows, MAC O/S and OS/2 have taken over the desktop world, and one can only conclude that X-Windows devices will do the same on Unix mainframe and minicomputers. Chapter 7, which is dedicated to X-Windows, is an important introduction into the Unix windowing world. Chapter 9 is similarly important in that it is a good introduction into transferring files from one system to another using FTP (file transfer protocol) and also offers a brief introduction to telneting to other hosts. Chapter 8 offers information on an assortment of file comparison and text manipulation tools. Chapters 10 and 11 go into backing up files and provide more on variables, Korn shell math and awk and Perl--two very useful Unix tools. The book contains a brief appendix on error messages as well as one on other Unix books and a glossary.
A weakness of the book is that at times it assumes that the reader is an experienced Unix user and therefore knows the meaning of $HOME and other undefined terms. Elsewhere in the book, the reader is addressed as a novice who doesn't know that he or she will be prompted for a password when first logging in. Additionally, some topics are covered twice to the same depth in different parts of the book, e.g., Host name in your prompt is covered as a "tip" on page 76 and is repeated word for word on page 173. Repetition occurs with coverage of the tee command on page 115 and again on page 156.
A stale "humor" runs throughout the book about having to make offerings to the system administrator in case you need him or her to do things for your Unix account. It was an ineffective waste of space that could have been used to add to the meager quantity of information covered in each section.
The book would also be more helpful if it relied more on tables; e.g., the section dealing with moving around in vi could have been more informative if the "tips" had been put in tables. Anyone who has read a Unix book will probably feel that this book is superficial when compared with the meatier, to-the-point styles of other Unix books. There isn't a lot in Voodoo Unix for the advanced user, and the beginner may find confusion in the authors' assumptions and the way some topics are explained, such as the crontab file. Considering its price, one can find a number of better Unix titles to choose from. This book is slim pickings.
--Jose Gonzalez, The New York Public Library
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Copyright American Library Association Dec 1994