Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, Second Edition (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series) [Paperback]

W. Richard Stevens (Author), Stephen A. Rago (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0321525949 | ISBN-13: 978-0321525949 | Edition: 2

"This is the definitive reference book for any serious or professional UNIX systems programmer. Rago has updated and extended the original Stevens classic while keeping true to the original."

—Andrew Josey, Director, Certification, The Open Group, and Chair of the POSIX 1003.1 Working Group

The same trusted content from the Second Edition, now in paperback!

 

For over a decade, serious C programmers have relied on one book for practical, in-depth knowledge of the programming interfaces that drive the UNIX and Linux kernels: W. Richard Stevens' Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment . Now, Stevens' colleague Stephen Rago has thoroughly updated this classic to reflect the latest technical advances and add support for today's leading UNIX and Linux platforms.

Rago carefully retains the spirit and approach that made this book a classic. Building on Stevens' work, he begins with basic topics such as files, directories, and processes, carefully laying the groundwork for understanding more advanced techniques, such as signal handling and terminal I/O.

Substantial new material includes chapters on threads and multithreaded programming, using the socket interface to drive interprocess communication (IPC), and extensive coverage of the interfaces added to the latest version of the POSIX.1 standard. Nearly all examples have been tested on four of today's most widely used UNIX/Linux platforms: FreeBSD 5.2.1; the Linux 2.4.22 kernel; Solaris 9; and Darwin 7.4.0, the FreeBSD/Mach hybrid underlying Apple's Mac OS X 10.3.

As in the first edition, you'll learn through example, including more than 10,000 lines of downloadable, ANSI C source code. More than 400 system calls and functions are demonstrated with concise, complete programs that clearly illustrate their usage, arguments, and return values. To tie together what you've learned, the book presents several chapter-length case studies, each fully updated for contemporary environments.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment has helped a generation of programmers write code with exceptional power, performance, and reliability. Now updated for today's UNIX/Linux systems, this second edition will be even more indispensable.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"This is the definitive reference book for any serious or professional UNIX systems programmer. Rago has updated and extended the original Stevens classic while keeping true to the original."

—Andrew Josey, Director, Certification, The Open Group, and Chair of the POSIX 1003.1 Working Group

The same trusted content from the Second Edition, now in paperback!

 

For over a decade, serious C programmers have relied on one book for practical, in-depth knowledge of the programming interfaces that drive the UNIX and Linux kernels: W. Richard Stevens' Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment . Now, Stevens' colleague Stephen Rago has thoroughly updated this classic to reflect the latest technical advances and add support for today's leading UNIX and Linux platforms.

Rago carefully retains the spirit and approach that made this book a classic. Building on Stevens' work, he begins with basic topics such as files, directories, and processes, carefully laying the groundwork for understanding more advanced techniques, such as signal handling and terminal I/O.

Substantial new material includes chapters on threads and multithreaded programming, using the socket interface to drive interprocess communication (IPC), and extensive coverage of the interfaces added to the latest version of the POSIX.1 standard. Nearly all examples have been tested on four of today's most widely used UNIX/Linux platforms: FreeBSD 5.2.1; the Linux 2.4.22 kernel; Solaris 9; and Darwin 7.4.0, the FreeBSD/Mach hybrid underlying Apple's Mac OS X 10.3.

As in the first edition, you'll learn through example, including more than 10,000 lines of downloadable, ANSI C source code. More than 400 system calls and functions are demonstrated with concise, complete programs that clearly illustrate their usage, arguments, and return values. To tie together what you've learned, the book presents several chapter-length case studies, each fully updated for contemporary environments.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment has helped a generation of programmers write code with exceptional power, performance, and reliability. Now updated for today's UNIX/Linux systems, this second edition will be even more indispensable.

About the Author

The late W. Richard Stevens was the acclaimed author of UNIX® Network Programming, Volumes 1 and 2, widely recognized as the classic texts in UNIX networking; as well as TCP/IP Illustrated, Volumes 1-3, and the first edition of this book.

Stephen A. Rago is the author of UNIX® System V Network Programming (Addison-Wesley, 1993). Rago was one of the Bell Laboratories developers who built UNIX System V, Release 4. He served as a technical reviewer for the first edition of Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment. Rago currently works as a manager at EMC, specializing in file servers and file systems.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (June 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321525949
• ISBN-13: 978-0321525949
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.9 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #416,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > APIs & Operating Environments > Unix

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding second edition of a computing classic December 2, 2005

By calvinnme HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This badly needed update to the classic first edition preserves what is best about the old edition, which is the format and attention to detail, and adds the changes that have occurred to the UNIX operating system since the first edition was published back in 1992. Specifically, there are implementation samples for FreeBSD, Linus, and MAC OS X included. This edition is as the first one was, an excellent reference for anyone doing system level programming in C or C++ on the UNIX platform. It is was never intended to teach the reader the fundamentals of the UNIX environment nor to teach C/C++ programming. The author assumes a strong knowledge of both. The book begins much as the first edition did, by explaining the UNIX kernel in generic terms. It then goes on to explain the various implementations of UNIX and their specific differences. You will find chapters three through ten largely unchanged from the first edition, as the basic mechanisms of file I/O, directory structure, interprocess control, and signaling have not evolved since that time. Chapters eleven and twelve are two new added chapters on threads, as threading has become very important in UNIX system programming. Also, gone is the chapter on interfacing to a postscript printer. It is replaced by a more modern chapter on communicating with a network printer. The HTTP protocol is discussed in this context. The book contains a rich set of examples and downloadable code that is very useful. In addition, the book contains the implementations of two large-scale projects: a database library and communication with a network printer. Each project includes complete code with schematics. This book also contains numerous exercises, and the solutions to some of those exercises are included in the back of the book. Since Amazon, and some reviewers, show the table of contents for the first edition but not the second, I include that here for the purpose of completeness:

1. UNIX System Overview

2. UNIX Standardization and Implementations

3. File I/O

4. Files and Directories

5. Standard I/O Library

6. System Data Files and Information

7. Process Environment

8. Process Control

9. Process Relationships

10. Signals

11. Threads

12. Thread Control

13. Daemon Processes

14. Advanced I/O

15. Interprocess Communication

16. Network IPC: Sockets

17 Advanced IPC

18. Terminal I/O

19. Pseudo Terminals

20. A Database Library

21. Communicating with a Network Printer

Appendix A. Function Prototypes

Appendix B. Miscellaneous Source Code

Appendix C. Solutions to Selected Exercises

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars superb update of the first edition July 9, 2005

By W Boudville HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Many of you who learnt unix in the 90s would have cut your teeth on the first edition of this book. This second edition should be well received. It encapsulates the changes in the unix world since 92. Most importantly, it shows the rise of linux. A rise that is still unabated.

Broadly, the structure of this edition matches the first edition. Rago was brought in as co-author after Stevens died in 99, and he has deliberately kept this consistency. I was glad to see that Rago kept the exercises at the end of each chapter. Many computer books seem to dispense with this, which can be a pity for anyone who needs hands on tasks to learn from.

The threading chapters are a significant change from the first edition. Not simple reading, but they do reflect powerful ways to possibly optimise your code. The biggest cost for you may be the effort you need to invest in understanding the coding issues in these chapters. Rago's code examples are deliberately short, and necessarily somewhat artificial. But they do demonstrate well the various threading issues.

Of course, other chapters have had minimal alterations. How much have terminal I/O or pseudoterminals changed in 10 years? Those chapters may be old friends to you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic piece of work kept up to date! July 11, 2006

By Raymond Tay

Format:Hardcover

The book evolved from its first edition and its definitely a mammoth task trying to keep in this edition what is relevant and what isn't but i think the authors did it :)

If you want to be a UNIX Guru, then this is definitely the book for you :)