Customer Reviews

The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" by Richard Stevens (2nd Edition updated by Stephen Rago in 2005) has been THE standard for UNIX system programming since the first edition came out in 1992. It is clear, correct and comprehensive. Another really excellent book is the updated edition of Marc Rochkind's "Advanced UNIX Programming." So it is unexpected that a new UNIX system programming book should come out that stands head and shoulders above the Stevens and Rochkind books, but Michael Kerrisk's "The Linux Programming Interface" does.

Kerrisk's book is more thorough, more comprehensive and just as well written as the Stevens and Rochkind books. It covers over 500 system calls in the SUSv3 and SUSv4 specification in 64 chapters, using 200 example programs, 88 tables, 115 diagrams and 1506 pages. It's a monumental work, and it's really very good. It is now easily THE standard book on Linux/UNIX system programming.

No work, no matter how good, is perfect, and I do have two small niggles, neither of which detract from its 5 star rating. (1) Some chapters have only one exercise. I wish there had been more. But, on the plus side, most chapters have at least one solution to an exercise. And, (2) the only treatment of debugging is a two page appendix on strace(1). I would have like to have had some discussion on the use of systemtap, gdb and other tools in debugging programs that use system calls.

All in all, an outstandingly good book and unreservedly recommended.

I received a copy of this from the publisher, and boy am I glad I did. It's a wonderful book that's an absolute keeper.

I've done quite a bit of systems level programming with POSIX systems and Linux and I wish that I'd had this book earlier primarily because its descriptions of systems-level programming on Linux are incredibly clear and detailed. Critically, the book is well written and never boring. I found it a pleasure to dip into different sections where I did know the subject (e.g. TCP and sockets) and where I did not (e.g. memory mapped files).

I then passed the book around in my office and a couple of days later got feedback from people that it had been very useful and that people thought it was well worth getting an office copy.

I was worried when the back cover claimed that the book was a 'new classic', but I think it's likely to be justified. It's nicely written and fun to read, and covers topics in depth. The most important thing is that the author has achieved the right balance in his descriptions and is able to explain clearly a huge variety of topics.

I don't have much to add to Vladimir Ivanovic's review, except to echo that this is an outstanding book in the style of Stevens' (and Rago's) beloved classic Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment. I am now recommending it to my friends and colleagues over Stevens. Covers the same territory as Stevens and more, since it contains the entire Linux system call interface. The treatment of each system call is very thorough, indicating deviations from the Single UNIX Specification and comparisons with various Unix flavors.

This is not a "how to program" book, but you will definitely learn a lot about programming from it. I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about Linux/Unix programming in C, or actually in any language.

"The Linux Programming Interface" is a very comprehensive book targeted at programmers and is concerned with teaching the system calls and library functions provided by the Linux operating system. It also makes a good Linux programmer's reference book. So far I have read about one third of the 1500 pages, but I can already say it is one of the best programming books that I have ever encountered. I had a background in Windows software development with only limited knowledge of Linux programming, and wanted to increase my Linux knowledge. This book definitely helped with that. It is well written and well organized with good use of diagrams and code examples. The preface recommends that readers should already be familiar with programming in general and C programming in particular.

This is the perfect computer book as far as I am concerned. It's well rounded, complete, thorough, easy to read, precise, interesting, helpful, useful, enjoyable and it has a green cover to boot. I highly recommend it to everyone who is interested in computers and not intimidated by programming concepts. It is technical, but the the writing is not dry.

I pre-ordered this book back in Sept 2010 and received just days before my honeymoon and while the wife didn't let me bring my laptop, she let me bring this book! I don't think I could have picked a better book to carry around 8000 miles. :)

This book is simply the best Linux programming book since Stevens' Unix programming books. It is very current covering the recent 2.6 kernel updates and SUSv4 specification. This book is an awesome 64 chapters of just about every aspect of Linux systems programming you can think of.

It has great coverage of the file system API, pthreads, socket programming, virtual memory, and so much more. I'm more of a server developer, so I was pleased to find daemons and advanced socket I/O covered in detail, especially the epoll() API.

This book is pure C, so you won't find any C++ or STL, but that's actually a good thing because it keeps the examples really simple. And of course the APIs described work just fine with C++. :)

The only thing this book is missing is possibly an appendix on gdb and valgrind. It does however have an appendix on strace. This book doesn't cover Autotools, so you may want to pick up a copy of Autotools: A Practioner's Guide to GNU Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool, which is also published by No Starch Press.

I seriously recommend this book to anybody who is interested in Linux programming. I recommend buying both the print and ebook versions so you don't have to carry this 5.1 pound book around, but it is nice to be able to mark up the book. Go buy this book!

I can't imagine how much work went into producing this volume. Every page seems to jump out of the nice, hard-bound cover with something interesting or exciting such as Chapter 38's discussion of writing secure privileged programs or Chapter 43's table 43-1 collection of "Identifiers and handles for various types of IPC facilities." This extensive work is a pinnacle collection of all things specific to programming Linux at the system call level. From the maintainer of man pages, we have an extension of them in this book. If you tend to think of man pages as more of a "what," this volume gives us the "what" with the "why."

The back cover heralds the work as "the definitive guide to Linux and UNIX system programming," and it is very thoroughly true. If you want to learn how to program Perl or Python, this isn't it. The examples are notably and obviously in C. C is the language of UNIX systems programmers and of the Linux kernel. Likewise, you won't find a dissertation on Gnome versus KDE. It is my opinion that this book is for the hacker who logs into the machine at runlevel 3 or, if at 5, first opens a terminal window in order to do "real work."

I strongly encourage you to obtain a copy of this book. If you're at all serious about Linux system programming, you'll be amazed at the insight produced on the pages of this extensive volume. I searched for at least one "bad" thing throughout it, you know, just to see if there was a blemish worthy of mention or some reason that 5 stars wasn't quite right. I haven't found one yet.

There are books that you simply love and want to read over and over again that you present 5 passionate stars. This book is the kind that is a wealth of information in your hands and is simply worth 5 valued stars because you'll use it that often. If you're a systems programmer, this work is probably both types.

I believe that if you hold yourself as a skilled system programmer, that this book will either confirm it or help you find any flaws with your system concepts and implementation choices. So far, I haven't found any part of it that didn't offer me some useful nugget of quality information or insightful anecdote.

If you are a Linux geek, you probably need this book and will benefit as much as I do from reading, browsing and referencing it as you write your code.

A hardcover book, like a textbook. This book provides excellent information about complex programming tasks in Linux, explaining standards, history and how things have evolved into their current form, along with where things are headed in upcoming (currently un-finalized and assumed) future standards. It is thorough and comprehensive, and a MUST HAVE for anybody looking to do serious Linux programming.

That being said, the only real complaint I have is that in several sections the otherwise useful and relevant information is scattered out over several pages. Would greatly prefer to have a synopsis section at the beginning of each chapter with a paragraph or two to refresh the reader's mind about the nature of those items then explained in greater detail within, and without having to sift through those dozens of pages per chapter to get to the right portion.

Still, there is no question about it: Everything you need is there, it's just that sometimes you have to skip forward or backward several pages to get it all.

Obviously in a book this large and including so much information, it is difficult to comment on the complete book after I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but from the parts I've looked at closely, it is terrific and a complement to APUE. As one example, I've had to look at how login accounting works, and APUE has less than a page on this with no detail at all, but TLPI has a 15 page chapter which was very helpful. I look forward to using this book to illuminate some of the other dark corners (for me at least) of Linux.

The Linux Programming Interface: a Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook packs in a 1,500 page 'Bible' of detail offering the definitive programmer's guide to the Linux and UNIX programming interface. Here are descriptions of over 500 system calls and functions, tables, example programs, diagrams, and keys to reading, writing and troubleshooting files using libraries, threads, and interfaces. Learn to use pipes, shared memory and write network applications using the sockets API in a powerful survey packed with clear instructions.