Unix Power Tools
Unix Power Tools by Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly and Mike Loukidesby Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly and Mike Loukides
Shares rank 7 of 15 reference books by recommenders
Collection of Unix and shell tricks that people recommend as a go-to reference, saying it still holds up after 24 years.
Collection of Unix and shell tricks that people recommend as a go-to reference, saying it still holds up after 24 years.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 4
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 4 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Still useful after decades
“People really do need to read the “Unix Power Tools” book and realize their problem has been solved for decades.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “I found a useful Git one liner buried in leaked CIA developer docs” “After 24 years and it is still useful.”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Small programming tricks” Go-to reference for Unix problems
“People really do need to read the “Unix Power Tools” book and realize their problem has been solved for decades.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “I found a useful Git one liner buried in leaked CIA developer docs” “best described in the Unix Power Tools”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “What Is Agentic Engineering?”
Other reference books people recommend
The four most recommended other reference books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encyclopaedia Britannicaby Jan Morris | 29 | 8 | 78% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 507 Mechanical Movementsby Henry T. Brown | 12 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| The Ashley Book of Knotsby Clifford Ashley | 8 | 1 | 89% | 4 | — | — |
| World Book Encyclopediaby World Book | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
| Unix Power Toolsby Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly and Mike LoukidesThis page | 4 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“After 24 years and it is still useful.”
“an excellent source for Unix and shell usage tricks”
“There are plenty of other books like "Unix Power Tools"”
“Unix Power Tools was the book that had the most borrow rate in our office”
“best described in the Unix Power Tools”
“People really do need to read the “Unix Power Tools” book and realize their problem has been solved for decades.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.