Unix Systems Programming: Communication, Concurrency and Threads, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Cumulative Knowledge
Review: At first I wanted to buy 'Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment by W. Richard Stevens' - I've read that it's very good - but it's a little old (from 1992) and I looked for another.
The book is very easy to read, the code examples are almost always complete, so that you can compile and run them.
The exercises are from the reality and help the reader to understand and to learn the stuff of the book.
There are many additional information, spreadsheets and graphics.
You only should have some experience in writing C code...

Rating:
Summary: Cumulative Knowledge
Review: At first I wanted to buy 'Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment by W. Richard Stevens' - I've read that it's very good - but it's a little old (from 1992) and I looked for another.
This one is very easy to read, the code examples are almost always complete, so that you can compile and run them.
The exercises are from the reality and help the reader to understand and to learn the stuff of the book.
There are many additional information, spreadsheets and graphics.
You only should have some experience in writing C code...

Rating:
Summary: Mark Grechanik
Review: Dr.Robbins was my grad advisor. I found in this book the clearness of thoughts and lucid explanations of complex things with which she always amazed me during my work on my master thesis. I recommend everyone to use this book for, as title says,
practical Unix programming.

Rating:
Summary: the best book of its kind....
Review: I bought the copy for my OS course as my 2nd supplymentary book. To read this book is really fun. It clearly tells you how multiprocess, multithread works with good c code. it also covers other interesting topics like socket programming. If you really want to learn unix programming. You must have this book.

Rating:
Summary: It's a must for understanding UNIX programming
Review: I bought this book as a reference for my OS course. However, I used this book more than my assigned text book. The provide code are really valuable and it does help me a lot to really understand multiprocess work. there is also another book to read if you want to understand unix programming--> advanced programming in unix environment. with them you won't encounter any diffculity any more in Unix

Rating:
Summary: My eyes are open, my jaw has dropped
Review: I happened upon this book (...) while researching System V Semaphores for a perlscript I was designing. I'd read the man pages and google'd about a bit, but still hadn't found anything to dispel the fog or give me confidence that I was heading in the right direction.

Then I found "Practical UNIX Programming", and called off the dogs. Entombed within this wonderful tome was the lucid explanation and insightful discussion I craved -- and practical examples as well!

I would have been content to pay full-price for just chapter 8 and the fetching book spine. And yet I quickly found that every chapter was interesting and meaningful. I'd never had much interest in UNIX programming (as I fancy myself a pure Oracle/Java developer), but was immediately ensnared by the clear writing style and pithy content. I couldn't wait to finish the book.

Now that I've finished the book, I must admit I haven't found a novel so enjoyable since reading Robert Jordan's Shadow Rising. And in contrast to completing a book from the Wheel of Time series, this been an empowering experience. I'm eager to apply my newfound understanding and apply the knowledge gleaned.

So anyway, I'll end this long-winded missive with a big thank you to the authors for forging this gift to humanity.

Rating:
Summary: Used this book for a college class taught by the author!
Review: I took a course in Operating Systems with Dr. Steven Robbins at The University of Texas at San Antonio and (naturally) we used this book for understanding the architecture and programming of the UNIX System. The book is much like its author - organized, logical, and clear. Despite being biased, I still heartily recommend this book to anyone who would like to "get to know UNIX better." It is extrememly well organized. The examples are abundant and enlightening. Although the writing can be terse at times, it is always cogent and unambiguous. IMHO, the thing that sets this book a class apart is the constant focus on concurrency and the POSIX standard.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent starting ground to do Unix Programming
Review: I used this book to start to learn from scratch how to programming Unix. This book is self-contained,concise and easy to read. FYI, it is very readable and not dry. There's a number of good diagrams, for example,illustrating file descriptors allocations and the effects of system calls like dup2, etc. The authors uses short code snipplet to illustrate how to use a particular system calls, which I think is rather neat. A number of "projects" very quickly help reader to expand their skill level. Of interest is also a project on distributed "Richard" and "Linda" , the forerunner of Sun's JINI. The authors could have expanded this book another 100 pages and make it a companion to Steven's "Advanced Unix System Programming". I strongly recommend this book to beginners, intermediate Unix Programmers.

Rating:
Summary: The taboo is broken: a book better than Stevens
Review: If Stevens is the Old Testament this book is the New Testament.

I was thinking lately what it is about Stevens books that has made them the best material in the industry for the past decade. I cant really nail it, if I could I would have been an author myself and make millions, but the other day it suddenly hit me: When I read Stevens books sometimes a question arises and then I pause to think about it, only to turn the page and find the answer witinf for me. It is about being comprehensive, it is about covering all aspects of the topic, thinking forward on behalf of the reader, thinking what the reader may not understand and how to make it clear.

Well Robbins and Robbins belongs to this category of books.
I am a book maniac and I have most of the Unix/Linux programming books out there. This is by far the best systems programming book available.

The other day I had to look up about asynchronous i/o in Linux and its interaction with POSIX real time signals. Opened the book, read the example, downladed the source code, in an hour I was flying and writing an asynchronous web server in Linux.

For the networking stuff I never bothered to read the relevant chapters of the book since Stevens Network programming is the book I was trained by and it is still relevant.

For my threading needs I used to use Butenhof's "Programming with POSIX threads", but this book has great examples and I learned a lot by browsing it. I mean I had a question about signal interaction with threads and the book had a section about it. Come on, it has saved my butt many many times. It is very comprehensive.

I wholeheartedly recomend it to any serious systems programer, beginner or advanced.

Rating:
Summary: Best book to start with Unix System Programming......
Review: If you are new to Unix system programming then this book is for you to start system programming. Author have done a great work explaining system programming in detail and with good examples/exercises.

You must have a good understanding of C programming and basic data structure to get the most out of this book.