GNU/Linux Application Programming (Programming Series) (Paperback)

by M. Tim Jones (Author) "In this first part of the book, we'll explore a few introductory topics of the GNU/Linux operating system and its development paradigm..." (more)
Key Phrases: code hardening, int shmid, ipcrm command, Linux Application Programming, Bourne-Again Shell, Other Application Development Topics (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The wide range of applications available in GNU/Linux includes not only pure applications, but also tools and utilities for the GNU/Linux environment. GNU/Linux Application Programming takes a holistic approach to teaching developers the ins-and-outs of GNU/Linux programming using APIs, tools, communication, and scripting. Covering a variety of topics related to GNU/Linux application programming, the book is split into six parts: The GNU/Linux Operating System, GNU Tools, Application Development, Advanced Topics (including communication and synchronization and distributed computing), Debugging GNU/Linux Applications, and Scripting.

The book introduces programmers to the environment from the lowest layers (kernel, device drivers, modules) to the user layer (applications, libraries, tools), using an evolutionary approach that builds on knowledge to cover the more complex aspects of the operating system. Through a readable, code-based style developers will learn about the relevant topics of file handling, pipes and sockets, processes and POSIX threads, inter-process communication, and other development topics. After working through the text, they’ll have the knowledge base and skills to begin developing applications in the GNU/Linux environment.

Key Features!
* Focuses on GNU/ Linux, not only the Linux APIs, but the GNU tools and libraries that make Linux programming possible
* Covers a variety of useful APIs for process management, shared memory, message queues, semaphores, POSIX, file handling, sockets, and more
* Provides detailed discussion of scripting and integration with the GNU/Linux environment with bash, including useful shell commands
* Introduces developers to GNU/Linux from the lowest layers (kernel, device drivers, modules) to the user layer (applications, libraries, tools)
* Explores the multiprocess and multithreaded programming APIs, including debugging applications with the GNU Debugger
* Includes a CD-ROM with code snippets for all the detailed APIs and the figures from the book

On the CD!
* SOURCE CODE - Includes code examples for all the detailed APIs from the book
* FIGURES - Includes all of the figures from the book

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
PC: Linux with a 2.4 or 2.6 Kernel (tested with Red Hat and Fedora); Pentium I Processor or greater; CD-ROM drive; Hard drive; 256MB of RAM; 1MB of hard drive space for the code examples.

About the Author
M. Tim Jones is a successful software engineer and the author of TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols for Embedded Systems, BSD Sockets Programming from a Multi-Language Perspective, and AI Application Programming. He has also written for Dr. Dobbs Journal, Embedded Systems Programming, Circuit Cellar, and The Embedded Linux Journal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (February 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584503718
• ISBN-13: 978-1584503712
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #586,569 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gets you up and running with Linux programming, July 18, 2005

By	ART SEDIGHI (Old Bethpage, NY United States) - See all my reviews

All the topics that one needs to read to come up to speed with Linux programming, development and maintenance, scripting and even tuning are covered in this book. The author starts with the basic architecture of the Linux operating system, and delves into the details of each part: scheduler, memory manager, virtual file system, network, ipc and init. The reader starts with an overview of what the Linux operating system looks like "under the hood", and is taken thru a series of sections that cover application development using each section of the Linux kernel. Overview application programming, performance analysis and debugging using various GNU tools such as the the GCC complier, make, gcov and gprof are given first and are used throughout the book by the author to further demonstrate the features and benefits of the available GNU tools.

By now, the reader is presented with the necessary tools needed to create application, and is not time to delve into specific programming techniques and API's. The book starts with simple file handling API's and examples, and goes into more complicated topics such as:
* Linux Pipes
* Sockets programming
* Multi-process development and the Linux process model
* Multi-threaded development and the Linux threading model
* Messages Queues
* Synchronization and Semaphores
* Shared memory programming
Even though each of these topics are very complicated and an entire text could easily dedicated to it, the author with elegance covers each topic such that the reader could get an overview of what is at stake. Each topic is rather short, and very well written with examples and a step-by-step instruction of how to write simple programs. Each chapter is like a short and sweet introduction to the topic at hand. One of my favorite chapters is, "Synchronization with Semaphores," in which the author further illustrates the point using sequence diagrams of events, elaborated examples and tips on how-to's.

The chances are that programming in a high-level language such as C is not enough, and one needs to compliment his/her application[s] with scripts and many other available Linux tools and commands. The last section of the book is dedicated to what some people might call odd-and-ends, but to me, they are as important as any other topics in this book. Bash, Sed, awk, flex and bison are some of the scripting languages that are covered. As with the previous sections of the text the author covers each topic using examples plus a step-by-step depiction of each example.

If you are new to the Linux programming environment or you need a refresher text like I did, you will find this book very useful. Tim does a fantastic job covering a broad topic, and doing so with such ease and elegance. The examples are priceless, and the CD at the end of the book has complete source code to the examples given in the book.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Useful Book!, December 7, 2005

By	Stock Investing Guy "http://www.stockchase.com" (Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

I've read several books on programming, and several on Linux. This book covers a ton of stuff, some easy, some complex, but all useful.
I would recommend this book to any programmer wanting to know how to use makefiles, autoconfig, file handling, programming with sockets or pipes, multi-threaded programming, awk,sed, dynamic libaries,flex bison, the list goes on and on.

I don't know that this is introductory, but parts are, and the book can be grown into. It's arranged much better then my list of topics above.

I liked this book so much that I logged onto amazon just to write this review. It is a great book.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing code examples, September 2, 2007

By	Paul Floyd (Grenoble France) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Looks like I'm going to break the mould of giving five star reviews to this book.

Part I is a brief overview of the history and motivation behind Linux. No bones there.

Part II covers compiler and related tools. I learnt a few things from these chapters (I wasn't familiar with either autotools or gcov).

Part III covers application development. The emphasis is mainly on IPC. There are some grim errors in the code. In particular, I winced when I saw the use of asserts that contained statements performing actions with (necessary!) side-effects. Compiled in optimized mode in most environments, this code will crash. For this section, Stevens/Rago APUE or Rochkind AUP serve much better.

Part IV, shell scripts and tools is OK, as is part V, debug/test.

I'm not sure why there's a CD included. It contains the source code (of little value, easily downloaded) and all of the diagrams used in the book. I can't imagine that they will ever come in handy.