Solaris Systems Programming (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This book is one that any Solaris systems programmer will want on their shelf. Sun Microsystems' Solaris Operating Environment boasts a significant installed base, but the intricacies of programming in this UNIX environment have been previously unaddressed in book format. In this thorough new book, the author provides context that allows the reader to better understand the subtleties of the Solaris Operating Environment. He explains not only the "how's" but also the "why's" of Solaris programming, complete with a brief history of the operating system. The result is a comprehensive text that Solaris practitioners will refer to time and again as they face and overcome the significant challenges of their everyday work.

From the Back Cover

Solaris Systems Programming

Rich Teer

The first definitive guide to programming in the Solaris Operating Environment

In the tradition of W. Richard Stevens' Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, this book offers comprehensive, practical guidance for systems programmers. It covers all versions of the Solaris OS, from 2.5 through 9 and is relevant to both SPARC™ and x86 platforms. From I/O to IPC, pseudo terminals to localization, and processes to doors, Rich Teer illuminates the unique features and subtleties of this environment as never before.

As a former Sun Microsystems, Inc. consultant, long-time C programmer, and tech reviewer for Stevens' UNIX Network Programming, Teer is singularly well qualified to write this book. Using real-world case studies, code examples, and diagrams, he explains both the "how" and "why" of Solaris systems programming—helping any C programmer write efficient, reliable code. Coverage includes:

• Terminology and features used in Solaris systems programming
• Fundamentals: utility functions, file I/O, standard I/O library, date/time operations, users/groups, system information, resource limits, and secure C programming
• I/O in depth: files, directories, file systems, terminal I/O, and advanced I/O
• Processes and process control: UNIX process environments, relationships, signals, and daemon processes
• Interprocess communications: Pipes, FIFOs, System V IPC facilities, doors, and more
• Appendices on internationalization, localization, and BSD source compatibility
• Portability guidance: flags all features that are specific to Solaris®

$59.99 U.S./$86.99 Canada
PRENTICE HALL PTR
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
www.phptr.com

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1248 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; illustrated edition edition (August 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201750392
• ISBN-13: 978-0201750393
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #978,818 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Plagiarism is bad, May 29, 2005

By	ERP DBA "erp_dba" (Des Moines, IA) - See all my reviews

I would recommend Thomas E. Dickey's web page to anybody with open mind to decide on this issue.

http://invisible-island.net/critique/APUE-SSP.html

I would certainly not pass my English Composition classes if I would be paraphrasing that much from somebody's work without proper references.

27 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cannot recommend this book., March 15, 2005

By	Thomas E. Dickey - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At first sight, the book appeared to be typical/average.
However, when checking for specific details to post an
opinion of the book I noticed something strange -
paraphrasing of material from Stevens' "Advanced Programming
in the Unix Environment". Teer does not credit the material
which is borrowed. Read more details here -
http://invisible-island.net/critique/APUE-SSP.html

27 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a substitute for Stevens' APUE, October 14, 2004

By	Gunnar Ritter "Open Source programmer" (Freiburg i. Br., Germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Despite the claim on the back cover, the book is far away from the tradition of Richard Stevens' "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment". In contrast to APUE, which truly enlightens the reader with all sorts of historical, portability, and background information, Teer's book is not much more than a Solaris API description.

Many of the examples in it will not work unmodified on Linux, BSD, or other platforms. It will thus not be of much help to a novice Unix programmer unless he actually wants to write Solaris-only programs - not a common scenario in the Unix/POSIX world. But a more experienced programmer can just use the Solaris manual pages to get most of the information contained in the book.

Also the book contains one of the most stupid code examples I have ever seen: an snprintf() emulation that works by calling vsprintf() first, then checking its return value to see if the buffer size was large enough, possibly exiting with an error message:

int snprintf (char *buf, size_t n, const char *fmt, ...) { [...]
len = vsprintf (buf, fmt, ap); [...]
if (len >= n)
err_quit ("snprintf: \"%s\" caused a buffer overflow", fmt);

But when such an overflow is actually exploited on the stack by an attacker, vsprintf() may not return at all, rendering the check useless. The code thus gives a false impression of security. This might be regarded even more dangerous than code that does not perform overflow checks at all, especially in the context of a book.

I have to admit that I did not look at too many examples, but I would recommend to be cautious with the book until somebody has verified that this is the only fundamental security error in its code.