Unix

• Unixhelp (and other mirrors worldwide)
• Unix FAQs
• Unix FAQ
• Unix is a four letter word (master)
• Unix Programming Support Tools (good, but rather advanced)
• Unix and programming documentation: a useful collection of documents in a mixture of text and postscript.
• comp.unix.questions FAQs
• The Well-Tempered Unix Application, FAQ from comp.unix.{admin,misc,programmer}, containing sensible advice on making distributed applications portable and easy to install and maintain.
• The UNIX Reference Desk (very good)
• Sysadmin stuff and a sysadmin course
• Unix Seventh Edition Manual. Also (from freeBSD): Unix Seventh Edition Manual, Volume 2
• GNU manuals: specifically bash.
• Collection of shell scripting links
• csh: I have found a csh manpage, but you really shouldn't use csh as a scripting language. For a long rant on the reasons, see Csh Programming Considered Harmful.

Standards

• `POSIX is the term for a suite of applications program interface standards to provide for the portability of source code applications where operating systems services are required. POSIX is based on the UNIX(R) (Registered trademark administrated by the Open Group) Operating System, and is the basis for the Single UNIX Specification from The Open Group.' [IEEE PASC (Portable Application Standards Committee)]
• This is currently (2001-06-20) undergoing revision by the Austin Group
• The POSIX standard is
  1. `IEEE Std 1003.1 Standard for Information technology - Portable Operating Systems Interface (POSIX) - Part 1: System Interface [C language binding]', which is identical to `ISO/IEC JTC1 IS 9945-1 Standard for Information technology - Portable Operating Systems Interface (POSIX) - Part 1: System Interface [C language binding]'
  2. `IEEE Std 1003.2 Standard for Information technology - Portable Operating Systems Interface (POSIX) - Part 2: Shell & Utilities', which is identical to `ISO/IEC JTC1 IS 9945-2 Standard for Information technology - Portable Operating Systems Interface (POSIX) - Part 2: Shell & Utilities'.
  ...and these cost money (!) to buy on paper.
• Single Unix specification, from the Open Group (other publications). My understanding from the PASC document above is that Single Unix is broader than POSIX, and covers more of the environment (bit vague, here). It feeds into the POSIX/ISO standardisation process, but is not a formal standard itself. Single Unix does, however, have the great advantage of being available online.

Linux

The Linux Documentation Project has a huge amount of documentation on Linux. It's mirrored all over the world. The following links are to one of the LDP mirrors in the UK.

• The Linux HOWTO Index (contents page) and Meta-faq.
• Specifically, the installation, hardware and distribution howtos might be useful to get you going.
• Also, there's the Security HOWTO
• Linux SAG (System Administrators' Guide) (covers the filesystem standard).
• Engineers Speak Out: Linux vs. Windows NT, Part 1, and the editorial Why Most Engineers Insist on Unix which prompted it.
• Linux quotations
• Linux Dial-Up Networking in a Nutshell...
• Distributions: RedHat (and their mainstreaming connections with Intel and Netscape). See also RedHat's bugs system. RedHat mirror at mirror.ac.uk includes rawhide mirror
• RPM repository on niteowl, and rpmfind (and euro mirror).

HP-UX:

• HP-UX porting and archive centre

vi

• VI section of the `4 letter word' manual
• Vi at Yahoo
• The vi lovers home page(!) and its useful list of manuals (of which vi helpfile is satisfyingly compressed)
• Beginners guide to vi (from one of the Unix guides above)
• vi101 and vi201: basic and advanced introductions. Accessible.

sed

• sed at google
• one faq, two faq
• sed FAQ
• Open Group `Single Unix' sed man page (ie, should be a fairly standard subset)

Miscellaneous

• GNU Troff info, and a page of Troff resources
• Setting up your own local TCP/IP Network
• autoconf home
• Open Group `Single Unix' make man page
• DOS!

People:

• Brian Kernighan
• Dennis Ritchie