Unix for Oracle DBAs Pocket Reference has a remarkably tight focus. It's about making Oracle database management systems run optimally under various Unix operating systems, including HP-UX, Sun Solaris and IBM AIX (there's also some specialised coverage of IRIX and DEC Unix). Author Donald Burleson assumes readers know how to get around the Unix command shell and that they're quite familiar with Oracle database administration. To put it simply, to get the most out of this book, you should already know what you want to do, and need only to be told concisely how to do it. This book is ideal for people moving from Oracle administration under Windows to the same job under Unix.

As a by-product of its careful focus, the book is tiny. It almost fits in a shirt pocket, and is about as thick as a standard pencil. A typical entry documents a single command (there are separate entries for different operating systems when commands differ), and includes a bit of text followed by the relevant command and a listing of typical output. Utility scripts with Oracle relevance are listed with minimal comment. This isn't traditional man-page-style Unix documentation but rather advice on how to accomplish various Oracle goals inside Unix. Most readers will likely turn first to the index to find the entries that they need. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• Making Oracle database management systems run well under HP-UX, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, IRIX and DEC Unix
• Ways of examining and adjusting Oracle's use of processes, memory, processor cycles, files, disk resources and other aspects of the Unix system
• Information is presented as recipes, in type-this-to-do-that format.