Errata

Linux in a Nutshell

Errata for Linux in a Nutshell

Submit your own errata for this product.

The errata list is a list of errors and their corrections that were found after the product was released.

The following errata were submitted by our customers and have not yet been approved or disproved by the author or editor. They solely represent the opinion of the customer.

Color Key: Serious technical mistake Minor technical mistake Language or formatting error Typo Question Note Update

Version Location Description Submitted by Date submitted
Printed Page 8
In line 7, in the first line under "Options"

(for the "at" command) reads:

-c job [job...]

Shouldn't the two words, "job," be in italic rather than in boldface to
indicate that the word "job" itself should not be replaced?

Anonymous   
Printed Page 10
batch, last para

Both sentences on defaults are wrong (probably they were just copied
from the at command).

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 17-18
There's no mention of the program 'setuser' in this book.

I've often found it an invaluable sysadmin tool, and thought I'd
mention the omission.

Also, the explaination of SUID/SGID for directory permissions on pages
17-18 needs to be beefed up a little.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 32
The entry for cut (and the entry for paste) says "see also join"

however, there is no entry for join!

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 34
date, last format (%U)

"(01-53)"

should read

"(00-53)"

(as on 1st line on next page, format %W)

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 35

The syntax for the "dd" command currently reads:

dd [option=value]

It should read:

dd [option=value ...]

Anonymous   
Printed Page 54
In the entry for the command "find", the option "-anewer" is

described incorrectly. The book says:

<b>-anewer</b> <i>file</i>
Find files that were accessed after they were last modified.

It should read:

<b>-anewer</b> <i>file</i>
Find files that were accessed after <i>file</i> was last modified.

(I have used HTML tags to indicate italics and bold.)

The crux of the difference here is that "find" compares the modification
date of a given file with the access date of the group of files being
searched by the "find" command; the book's entry states that "find"
compares each file's modification and access dates, yielding those modified
after they were last accessed.

Here is the man page for "find" from my system, a Debian 2.2 ("potato") box:

-anewer <i>file</i>
File was last accessed more recently than <i>file</i> was
modified. -anewer is affected by -follow only if
-follow comes before -anewer on the command line.

Testing on my system shows that my understanding of "find"'s behavior
is correct.

My thanks to Ellen and the whole O'Reilly team for putting together a fine
book. I always turn to O'Reilly first when I need technical books. I
consider publishing the errata sheet on the Web a major O'Reilly strength.
Keep up the good work.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 67
fuser, -n, 3rd line

format of "file" should be bold (as "udp" and "tcp" on the next line)

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 88
locate

"Option" (header) should read "Options"

^

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 108
nice

"Option" (header) should read "Options"

^

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 121
shar, option -b, 3rd line of description

"-B"

should read

"-b"

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 132
sum

"Option" (header) should read "Options"

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 134
There are some mix-ups in the following explanations

some vi-Mode Deletion commands
Command Description
dh delete one character backward
dl delete one character forward
...

Abbreviations for vi-Mode Delete Commands
...
X Equivalent to dl (delete character backward).
x Equivalent to dh (delete character forward).

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 164
describing the shells, at the bottom of the page.

If the program name is:

/bin/sh

It SHOULD say "Bourne shell", because bash is the "Bourne Again shell"

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 207
Under the heading "Command Forms,"

the AND and OR commands are mixed up. They should read:

cmd1 && cmd2: AND; execute cmd1 and then (if cmd1 succeeds) cmd2.
cmd1 || cmd2: OR; execute either cmd1 or (if cmd1 fails) cmd2.


 Anonymous   
Printed Page 370
ident, 1st code line of "Examples"

end of line should read:

george $";

( "; was missing)

Anonymous   
Printed Page 375
rlog, option -ddates, subentries

no consistent use of either "d" or "date"

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 377
CVS commands, commands add and remove

Typo in respository
^

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 379
cvswrappers file, option -t, 1st line of descr.

"script" should be italic, not bold

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 381
variable $CVSWRAPPERS

Is the description correct?

{Chapters 15 and 16} I think you missed the "groupadd" command in
chapters 15 and 16. You do have the "groupmod" command, but without
the "groupadd" command, you won't have many groups to modify!

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 479
grpck, 5rd line

typo in "interractive"
^

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 480
host, 1st para

wrong font

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 499
logrotate, delaycompress

typo in "rotatition"
^^

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 581
ramdisk=size

1st sentence is not logical.
Possible change: change "now" to "not" and remove "only"?

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 607
In the index, the "set" command points to page 241

(csh and tcsh set command) and page 290 (ex editor set command).

However, on page 290, the text reads:

"se parameter1 parameter2 ..."

Should read:

"set parameter1 parameter2 ..."

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 607
Page 193, "bash set command," should be added to the

pages for the set command in the index, since its csh
counterpart is also referenced to.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 607
The 'script' entry of p. 119 is correct, however the pp. 538-543

should be p. 538.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 607
The 'sendmail' entry does not include pp. 538-543.

(Reader comment)

Although I really like the Linux Nutshell (2nd ed.), I want to complain
about the random font changes that riddle the book. Two examples are: the
entry for "less" changes into boldface halfway through, and the description
of the "cp" command remains in the slightly larger font used for the entry
heading. This stuff is doubly annoying because otherwise the book is
perfectly pitched (for me at least); it includes what I want and leaves out
the rest. I have older nutshells and many other ORA books but I'm afraid
this one does not reach your usual high production standards.

I hope you are planning a second printing, and that will these bugs be
fixed. I remain nevertheless a loyal ORA booklover!

 Anonymous