Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment 3/ed
Good gracious this is a big book! What’s funny is I KNOW I have read and reviewed a previous edition of this book and I spent a half an hour looking for it this morning, but it must have been before I moved and on my old Blog. That being the case, well it’s high time you heard about this monster!
This book, Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, by Stevens and Rago, is the 3rd edition of what is, essentially, the Unix Programming Bible. In fact, so much so that I cannot imagine any serious Unix/Linux/**ux contributor that doesn’t own a copy or at least know what it is.
This is *not* light reading. It is a reference book. This is the stuff geek dreams are coded in and you are going to want to be familiar with the C language to get a lot of this.
All the internal workings and ideas about this kind of operating system, how it works, or is supposed to work and code examples are included here. The least technical chapter in here is the 1st, which is the overview chapter. This goes over things like input/output, files/directories, processes, error handling, and system calls. From there, the chapters narrow in more on specific subjects like Process control, Daemons, Signals, Threading, etc.. Like I said, there is a LOT of very specific information in here. That being said, if you are developing anything more than some scripting, this has what you want to know. This is not to say that those are the only folks that can get anything out of this book, though. Even without understanding the code examples, a person could get a good understanding and overview of how this fantastic type of operating system works, and why. This is the category I find myself in more than any other. Although I have done some C programming, I find myself using this book to help me conceptualize how things are working the background.
No self respecting Unix/Linux geek should be without this book in one format or another. The hard copy I have was sent to me by Pearson Education for the purpose of review. They sell this in book in dead tree format for $70 and $45 for the electronic version. That may sound like a far bit of money, however, remember this is not a story book you read once, this is going to be something you turn to for the right information when you need it. I almost always give away my review books after I read through them, but this one is sticking around. In fact, I am just going to take it to work with me so I can have it handy where I would normally need the information anyway.