UNIX Internals: A Practical Approach [Hardcover]

S.D. Pate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 1996

SCO UNIX is the leading brand of UNIX for PCs with nearly 40% of the worldwide share of UNIX installations.This book is based on the forthcoming release of SCO UNIX and provides a practical hands-on approach to mastering UNIX internals. Features * provides numerous examples in C-Shell script and assembly language showing where to find and process kernel structures, system files, executable file formats, memory, file and process managemen * includes a detailed description of hardware dependent parts of the kerne * makes a detailed exploration of how the bootstrap and kernel routines set up and use the hardware feature * each chapter uses the most appropriate tools available, including adb, crash, fs db, kmem and nlist to demonstrate the topics under discussion, how they work and how to extract the required information

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (August 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020187721X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201877212
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #658,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Excellent - but only for SCO. Often refers to the man pages., August 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: UNIX Internals: A Practical Approach (Hardcover)

This is one of the few books that explores Unix kernel internals. Unfortunately, it is highly specific to the SCO version of Unix. The book constantly refers the reader to the system man pages for more information. Doesn't touch modern topics such as threads and multiprocessors. It also full of examples; but they use SCO specific examples and make extensive use of SCO utilities. And, many examples require root to actually run; otherwise you're limited to reading the excellent screen captures.

If you do system programming for SCO, this is a must have (along with SCO's system documentation). If you're into many Unix(s) (Solaris, Linux, BSD, AIX, etc.) you'll be disappointed. I work with Solaris, BSD and Linux and am trying to decide to keep it for reference or return it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good presentation of highly detailed concepts., October 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: UNIX Internals: A Practical Approach (Hardcover)

I have glanced through it many times in the bookstore and have again and again found so many of my answers in the book, well explained and summarized with all the diagrams. Concepts which have been quite difficult to gather from other places.

For example, the part on STREAMS. Not many books are available in the market explaining the detailed concepts well enough (which include the STREAMS manual itself).

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars good, but beware!, December 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: UNIX Internals: A Practical Approach (Hardcover)

This book explains the internals in great detail but is still easy to follow. Quite a lot of examples are also provided ( eg. a ps - like command ). But this book is written for SCO and is only limites applicable to other platforms! So beware!