Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System, The (Kindle Edition)

by John S. Quarterman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
This book describes the design and implementation of the BSD operating system--previously known as the Berkeley version of UNIX. Today, BSD is found in nearly every variant of UNIX, and is widely used for Internet services and firewalls, timesharing, and multiprocessing systems. Readers involved in technical and sales support can learn the capabilities and limitations of the system; applications developers can learn effectively and efficiently how to interface to the system; systems programmers can learn how to maintain, tune, and extend the system.

Highlights:

• Details major changes in process and memory management
• Describes the new extensible and stackable file system interface
• Includes an invaluable chapter on the new network file system
• Updates information on networking and interprocess communication

Written from the unique perspective of the system's architects, this book delivers the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and authoritative technical information on the internal structure of the latest BSD system.

Product Description

This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version.

This book describes the design and implementation of the BSD operating system--previously known as the Berkeley version of UNIX. Today, BSD is found in nearly every variant of UNIX, and is widely used for Internet services and firewalls, timesharing, and multiprocessing systems. Readers involved in technical and sales support can learn the capabilities and limitations of the system; applications developers can learn effectively and efficiently how to interface to the system; systems programmers can learn how to maintain, tune, and extend the system. Written from the unique perspective of the system's architects, this book delivers the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and authoritative technical information on the internal structure of the latest BSD system.

As in the previous book on 4.3BSD (with Samuel Leffler), the authors first update the history and goals of the BSD system. Next they provide a coherent overview of its design and implementation. Then, while explaining key design decisions, they detail the concepts, data structures, and algorithms used in implementing the system's facilities. As an in-depth study of a contemporary, portable operating system, or as a practical reference, readers will appreciate the wealth of insight and guidance contained in this book.

Highlights of the book:

• Details major changes in process and memory management
• Describes the new extensible and stackable filesystem interface
• Includes an invaluable chapter on the new network filesystem
• Updates information on networking and interprocess communication

0201549794B04062001

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 4336 KB
• Print Length: 608 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional; 2 edition (September 2, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001FBFHEM
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #50,599 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

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  #8 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Operating Systems > BSD
  #24 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > APIs & Operating Environments > Operating Systems Theory

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book but too theoretical, April 16, 2000

By	Felix Matathias (Manhattan, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System (Addison-Wesley UNIX and Open Systems Series) (Hardcover)

The book is good, no doubt about it. And it covers a big gap in the Unix world. It helped me numerous times to understand how things work in the kernel of FreeBSD. But, and there is a big but here, the book does not contain even a single line of code. Strange for a book that is supposed to describe a kernel. There are a few instances of pseudo-code here and there but nothing more. The book gives you the big picture, describes the various parts of the kernel like virtual memory, scheduling, filesystems but it is too descriptive in my opinion. I would like to see instead of long descriptions some real kernel code. Ofcourse you may argue that you can find all the source code in the world in FreeBSD, but thats different. Its not a book for beginners, you should already have read some other Operating System book first before you dig in this one as the authors themselves agree. Bottomline: good book but too theoretical for my taste. I recommend it only to the serious reader. Its not a bed time book. You need to work your brain to make the connection.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rigorous, but worth the effort, December 31, 2000

By	none (Goleta, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System (Addison-Wesley UNIX and Open Systems Series) (Hardcover)

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I am not a kernel hacker by any means. I can't even program my way out of a wet paper bag (a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea). However, as a sysadmin, I firmly believe that you should have a solid understanding of whatever OS platform that you are working on. For me, that would be Solaris and Linux. So why am I recommending a BSD book? Well, BSD has a rich heritage in UNIX. It was the first UNIX to incorporate TCP/IP and it gave us sockets, FFS, and a rich set of tools (csh). FreeBSD, the most well-known of the *BSD family, powers some of the largest sites in the world (e.g., yahoo). It is an extremely robust and stable Operating System. It is also much more elegant than Linux.

This book is the ultimate BSD bible. It is written by some of the Gods of BSD and is extremely rigorous. I've made my way through this book twice and I've learned something new each time. If you put the effort into this book, you will come out with a greater understanding of UNIX in general. If you are a BSD hacker, then you should already have this book. This is a hard read, but it is really worth your time and effort to read this book at least once.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable documentation of an important Unix implementation, January 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System (Addison-Wesley UNIX and Open Systems Series) (Hardcover)

I'm shocked that no one has reviewed this book yet. This is it, one of the top books ever written documenting a version of the Unix kernel. If you are interested in kernel design, you probably already have this book on your shelf. If you haven't worked through it yet, you have a real treat ahead of you. One thing that makes this book more exciting than some of the other books on unix kernel design, such as Bach's venerable tome or _Magic Garden Explained_ , is that the source code is available for closely related, modern systems -- FreeeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.