Practical UNIX Programming [Hardcover]

Kay, Ret Robbins (Author), Steve Robbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 1995

For programmers in need of a better understanding of UNIX systems programming. Well written and comprehensive, this book explains complicated topics such as signals and concurrency in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. The book offers an abundance of practical examples and exercises. This book is comparable to other best-selling UNIX books, such as UNIX Network Programming, by Richard Stevens. Covers fundamentals, asynchronous events, concurrency, and communication.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Well written and comprehensive, this book explains complicated topics such as signals and concurrency in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. The book offers an abundance of practical examples and exercises. This book is comparable to other best-selling UNIX books, such as UNIX Network Programming, by Richard Stevens. Covers fundamentals, asynchronous events, concurrency, and communication.

From the Back Cover

Well written and comprehensive, this book explains complicated topics such as signals and concurrency in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. The book offers an abundance of practical examples and exercises. This book is comparable to other best-selling UNIX books, such as UNIX Network Programming, by Richard Stevens. Covers fundamentals, asynchronous events, concurrency, and communication. For programmers in need of a better understanding of UNIX systems programming.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 658 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (November 2, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0134437063
• ISBN-13: 978-0134437064
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,593,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The taboo is broken: a book better than Stevens, May 27, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: UNIX Systems Programming: Communication, Concurrency and Threads (Hardcover)

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.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good book on UNIX System Programing -, November 26, 2003

By 

"haddad_i" (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: UNIX Systems Programming: Communication, Concurrency and Threads (Hardcover)

This is the updated second edition that includes all-new chapters on the Web and multicast and a completely revised and updated RPC chapter. Other book chapters on files, signals, semaphores, POSIX threads, and client-server communication were updated and enhanced.

The book is organized twenty-two chapters grouped into four parts. Each part contains topic chapters and project chapters. A topic chapter covers the specified material in a work-along fashion. The topic chapters have many examples and short exercises of the form "try this" or "what happens if". The topic chapters close with one or more exercise sections.

What I liked about the book is that it provides programming exercises for many fundamental concepts in process management, concurrency and communication. These programming exercises are very similar to the exercises you would be doing in a traditional computer science laboratory as part of an operating system course, for instance. Exercises are specified for systematic development, and many can be implemented in under 100 lines of code, which is nice if you want to play with it and experiment different ways of implementing a functionality.

Another important feature of the book is the compliance with the POSIX standards. Since the last edition of the book, a single UNIX specification has been adopted and it is referred to in the book to as POSIX. The authors' examples comply with the POSIX standard.

Something else I really liked is the kind-of support available. The book has its own we site where you can download all the code in the book and email the authors and so on. Check it out at: http://vip.cs.utsa.edu/usp/.

The book basically covers whatever we need know to be able program with threads, TCP/IP, and RPC. The authors explain the essentials of UNIX programming, concentrating on communication, concurrency, and multithreading techniques and why, when, and how to use them in a very tutorial-way using a lot of reusable source code examples that explain syntax along the way.

A nice feature of the book is that it shows how to design complex software to get the best from the UNIX operating system. There are many short examples featured throughout the book and a number of hands-on projects that help readers expand their skill levels. The approach is very practical and uses short code snippets to illustrate how to use system calls.

The book is easy to read and the code examples are complete so that you can compile and run them. This is a nice feature since these exercises and code examples help readers understand and learn the material explained throughout the chapters.

If you want to:

a) Learn UNIX system programming essentials with a concentration on communication, concurrency, and multithreading techniques, with extensive hands-on examples that respect the single UNIX specifications ...

b) Write "correct" code and get the best from your UNIX operating system ...

c) Expand your ideas on how to design and implement robust UNIX software ...

then, check out this book...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelent. Full theory and great programming projects, January 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Practical UNIX Programming (Hardcover)

With Stevens "Unix network programming" , the best book on Unix programming. Each topic is presented in one chapter and in the following a project is proposed to put in practice those concepts. Not only it explains the old and the new features of Unix, but also it is full of ideas on how to design and implement good software. Though less detailed than Stevens in the description of system calls it shows brilliantly how to design complex software and get the best from the OS. Huge source of ideas. Ideal for those who like to develop software jewels, learn about multithreading programming or even for a practical OS course at the undergraduate level.