Title Linux System Administration Authors M. Carling, Stephen Degler and James Dennis Publisher New Riders Publication Date April 2000 ISBN 1-56205-934-3 Price $29.99 (U.S.) Pros Great overall resource, good security information, "Emergencies" appendix is invaluable in a fix. Cons Somewhat dry read. Verdict Perfect for basement hackers looking to go legit and do real work in a Linux environment.

The book begins with a discussion of general system administrator responsibilities and goals. This section is helpful in nailing down just what a Linux administrator does, and should be helpful to potential administrators as well as the folks who hire them.

The book then progresses to a more practical section covering topics such as security, backups and automated Linux workstation installations. But be forewarned: The scripting chapter is likely to leave people with limited programming exposure a little frazzled. Lines such as "if ( $0 !~ /^[ \t]*$/ ) { next } # skip blank lines" can either push you to learn regular expressions or give up on script altogether.

While the book's practical section does a great job explaining the Linux "Whys," it fails to adequately detail the Linux "Hows." Rather, it refers you to additional online and printed resources. This goes a long way in connecting the dots for the reader, but essentially means this isn't the only Linux book you'll ever need.

The volume's final section explores the most time-consuming Linux administration tasks: mail, printing, faxing, network file system (NFS) and network information services (NIS). Unfortunately, the coverage here is spotty (DNS and faxing only get a page each), but there are several suggested readings to balance this. On the other hand, the troubleshooting suggestions at the end of each subject area are a nice feature of this section.

The main reason you'll want to keep this book handy after you're done reading it is its appendix. Titled "Emergencies," this section will no doubt prove to be an invaluable resource when a system refuses to boot and you start breaking into a cold sweat. It covers LILO problems, lost root password and kernel issues, plus lots of other problems I never want to have to fix.

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Despite some good content, this book didn't hold my attention well. I found myself nearly falling asleep several times while reading it. The book doesn't have the maverick style and subtle humor I've come to expect in Linux books. One of the only humorous parts was a story about a man who faithfully backed up his machines every day and carefully placed the DATs in a small wooden box for storage. As it turned out, the wooden box was a speaker case--with the speaker magnet still inside.

That said, much of what is discussed in the book is sober business. The authors do a good job of integrating security concerns throughout the book and as part of every topic. This is an issue lacking in many Linux books, and is integral to Linux's acceptance as a valid enterprise operating system.

In many ways, the fact that the authors refuse to delve too deeply into topics saves them from obsolescence. For instance, the specific configuration of the popular "sendmail" program may change several times over the next five years, but the fundamental concepts behind e-mail superstructure will not change substantially.

This book may not tell you everything you need to know to be a real-world Linux system administrator. It will, however, go a long way in highlighting where the knowledge gaps are, and lead you to places to learn more.