Very Computer

by **jwieg..** » Wed, 21 Oct 1992 09:44:10

Hi All:
Came across this list in misc.books.technical, hope it might
help some newcomers to Linux!
From sol.ctr.columbia.edu!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!newsserver.sfu.ca!kko Mon Oct 19 20:38:50 EDT 1992
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From: k...@fraser.sfu.ca (Samuel Ko)
Subject: [misc.books.technical] A Concise Guide to Unix Books
Message-ID: <1992Oct17.050716.17725@sfu.ca>
Followup-To: misc.books.technical
Summary: A list of recommended Unix books / documentations ...
Keywords: Unix, books, documentations
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Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 05:07:16 GMT
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Archive-name: books/unix
Last-modified: Oct 16 1992
Version 1.5.5 (minor revisions)

[misc.books.technical] A Concise Guide to Unix Books
--------------------------------------------------------
** Compiled by: Samuel Ko (k...@sfu.ca)

** This is a good selection of the "best" Unix books / documentations.

** Subject areas covered:
A. General Unix Texts
B. Shells
C. Unix Editors
D. Networking and Communications
E. System Administration
F. Unix Security
G. Programming
H. TeX
I. X Window System
J. Dictionary
K. Other Lists

** This guide is intended to be concise, so it is far from exhaustive.
For other Unix bibliographies, please read section K - Other Lists.

** Thanks to all who have helped in improving this guide. However, to save
some bandwidth, I do not want to include a long list of acknowledgment.
I do sincerely thank each and every one of you who has contributed to
this compilation in one way or the other.

** If you think there are some other really good Unix books, please let me
know. Besides any comments, suggestions and flames will be very much
appreciated.

** I will try to update and post this list at least once a month. The latest
version is also obtainable by anonymous ftp from pit-manager.mit.edu (in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/books). If you do not have ftp or netnews access
you can get it by email from mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu and the body
of your request should be send /usenet/news.answers/books/unix .

** Here it goes ...

A. General Unix Texts
*************************

1. Title: Unix for the Impatient
Authors: Paul Abrahams and Bruce Larson
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Edition: 1992
ISBN: 0-201-55703-7
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
A new, comprehensive, in-depth reference to Unix ...
"a handbook you can use both as a manual to learn UNIX and as
a ready reference for fast answers to specific UNIX questions."

2. Title: The Unix Operating System
Author: Kaare Christian
Publisher: Wiley
Edition: 2nd ed. 1988
ISBN: 0-471-84781-X
Comment: A classic overview of Unix commands ... Good in coverage ...

3. Title: A Practical Guide to the Unix System
Author: Mark Sobell
Publisher: Benjamin / Cummings
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-80-530243-3
Comment: Similar to Christian's book ... Slightly easier to read ...
There is a new edition for System V Release 4 ...

4. Title: The Waite Group's Unix System V Primer
Authors: Mitchell Waite, Donald Martin and Stephen Prata
Publisher: Sams
Edition: 2nd ed. 1992
ISBN: 0-672-30194-6
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
A very good hand-holding tutorial-type book for Unix/SVR4 ...

5. Title: Mastering SunOS
Authors: Brent Heslop and David Angell
Publisher: Sybex
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-89588-683
Comment: A good, comprehensive hand-on text to SunOS and OpenWindows ...

6. Title: Peter Norton's Guide to Unix
Authors: Peter Norton and Harley Hahn
Publisher: Bantam Computer
Edition: 1991
ISBN: 0-553-35260-1
Comment: Good coverage ... A good introduction for beginners (especially
those accustomed to DOS) ...

7. Title: Unix in a Nutshell
Authors: Daniel Gilly and O'Reilly staff
Publisher: O'Reilly
Edition: 2nd ed. 1992 (for System V and Solaris 2)
ISBN: 1-56592-001-5
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
An excellent desktop reference to almost all Unix commands ...
"a complete reference containing all commands and options, plus
generous descriptions and examples that put the commands in
context." ...
Also an edition for 4.3. BSD ...

8. Title: Life with Unix - A Guide for Everyone
Authors: Don Libes and Sandy Ressler
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-13-536657-7
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
An everything-you-want-to-know-about-Unix book ...
It includes info you might not find elsewhere ...
"This book is the "other" book about Unix ... a study in
reading between the lines - which is very much what learning
UNIX is like." ...

9. Title: Learning Unix
Author: James Gardner
Publisher: Sams
Edition: 1991
ISBN: 0-672-30001-X
Comment: With disks containing MSDOS simulation of Unix (MKS Tools) ...
A good tutorial / reference book for those without constant
access to Unix ...

10. Title: Unix Desktop Guide to Tools
Author: Pete Holsberg
Publisher: Sams
Edition: 1992
ISBN: 0-672-30202-0
Comment: A new and comprehensive guide to numerous Unix utilities ...

11. Title: The Design of the Unix Operating System
Author: Maurice Bach
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Edition: 1986
ISBN: 0-13-201799-7
Comment: An excellent reference on the internals of System V ...
This book and the next one are indeed highly technical ...

12. Title: The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD Unix Operating System
Authors: Samuel Leffler et al
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
Comment: An authoritative description of the design of BSD Unix ...
"It covers the internal structure of the 4.3BSD system and the
concepts, data structures, and algorithms used in implementing
the system facilities." ...

B. Shells
*************

1. Title: The Unix C Shell Field Guide
Authors: Gail Anderson and Paul Anderson
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Edition: 1986
ISBN: 0-13-937468-X
Comment: The C-Shell Bible - everything you need to know to understand
csh and use Unix effectively ...

2. Title: Unix C Shell - Desk Reference
Author: Martin Arick
Publisher: QED Technical
Edition: 1992
ISBN: 0-89435-328-4
Comment: A more recent text on maximizing the use of C-Shell ...

3. Title: Unix Shell Programming
Authors: Stephen Kochan and Patrick Wood
Publisher: Hayden
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-672-48448-X
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
A classic on using and programming Bourne Shell (and Korn Shell) ...

4. Title: Unix Desktop Guide to the Korn Shell
Author: John Valley
Publisher: Sams
Edition: 1992
ISBN: 0-672-48513-3
Comment: This one is even better and easier to read than the authoritative
work by Korn and Bolsky ...

C. Unix Editors
*******************

1. Title: GNU EMACS Manual
Author: Richard Stallman
Publisher: Free Software Foundation
Edition: 6th ed. 1988
Comment: The official manual of GNU Emacs ... Essential for emacs users ...

2. Title: Learning GNU Emacs
Authors: Debra Cameron and Bill Rosenblatt
Publisher: O'Reilly
Edition: 1992
ISBN: 0-937175-84-6
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
Probably the best documentation on editing with GNU Emacs ...

3. Title: Desktop Guide to Emacs
Authors: Ralph Roberts and Mark Boyd
Publisher: Sams
Edition: 1991
ISBN: 0-672-30171-7
Comment: Another good book on emacs ...

4. Title: Learning the vi Editor
Author: Linda Lamb
Publisher: O'Reilly
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-937175-67-6
Comment: A very good guide to vi and ex commands ...
With a quick reference card ...

5. Titles: vi Tutor and vi Reference
Authors: Micheal Pierce and Robert Ware (Tut), Maarten Litmaati (Ref)
Edition: 1.3 (Tut), 8 (Ref)
Comment: These and other good vi stuff are obtainable by anonymous ftp
from cs.uwp.edu (in pub/vi) ...

D. Networking and Communications
*************************************

1. Title: Unix Networking
Authors: Edited by Stephen Kochan and Patrick Wood
Publisher: Hayden
Edition: 1989
ISBN: 0-672-48440-4
Comment: Fairly technical on different issues of networking ...

2. Title: Managing NFS and NIS
Author: Hal Stern
Publisher: O'Reilly
Edition: 1991
ISBN: 0-937175-75-7
Comment: A comprehensive, technical guide for system admins on distributed
computing tools - NFS and NIS(YP) ...

3. Title: Unix Network Programming
Author: Richard Stevens
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-13-949876-1
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
An excellent book on programming network softwares ...

4. Title: The Waite Group's Unix Communications
Authors: Bart Anderson, Barry Costales & Harry Henderson
Publisher: Sams
Edition: 2nd ed. 1991
ISBN: 0-672-22773-8
Comment: **** Highly Recommended ****
A really excellent book on e-mail (Mail, elm), netnews (rn, nn)
and UUCP ...

5. Title: Managing UUCP and Usenet
Authors: Tim O'Reilly and Grace Todino
Publisher: O'Reilly
Edition: 10 ed. 1992
ISBN: 0-937175-93-5
Comment: Well written on the setting-up and maintenance of UUCP
and Netnews ...

6. ...

read more »

by **Webe** » Thu, 22 Oct 1992 21:17:03

> [misc.books.technical] A Concise Guide to Unix Books
...

>11. Title: The Design of the Unix Operating System
> Author: Maurice Bach
> Publisher: Prentice Hall
> Edition: 1986
> ISBN: 0-13-201799-7
> Comment: An excellent reference on the internals of System V ...
> This book and the next one are indeed highly technical ...

I have read in this book and I liked it.
My question: Is this book compatible with Linux, too (or the other
way round)?
--

Juergen G. Weber
Student am Institut fuer Informatik
Universitaet Stuttgart - Germany

by **Linus Torval** » Fri, 23 Oct 1992 01:10:22

>>11. Title: The Design of the Unix Operating System
>> Author: Maurice Bach
>> Publisher: Prentice Hall
>> Edition: 1986
>> ISBN: 0-13-201799-7
>> Comment: An excellent reference on the internals of System V ...
>> This book and the next one are indeed highly technical ...

>I have read in this book and I liked it.
>My question: Is this book compatible with Linux, too (or the other
> way round)?

Well.. It was one of the books I used pretty heavily during early
development, so there are certainly similarities: some of the algorithms
(especially in the filesystem and buffer cache) the book describes are
used in linux, and even function names can be similar. The book does
lack in some areas (networking and job control) due to the sysv(r3)
influence, but it's certainly a good book if you are interested in the
unix kernel internals - I actually used the system call reference in the
book as a check-list when implementing the basic linux system calls
(along with ast's "OS Design and Implementation").

Another book I'd kill for (but haven't bought yet - it's a bit pricey)
is Leffler et al's 4.3BSD internals book ("The Design and Implementation
of the 4.3BSD system and..."). It covers the BSD system the same way
Bach covers sysv, and has some pretty interesting chapters. I haven't
been able to more than skim through it, but Linus says: "get it" if you
can afford to and are interested in the intricacies of the BSD kernel.

Neither of the above books are exactly "linux-compatible" (what a
concept!), but they are the next best thing: good books about systems
that have influenced linux heavily.

Linus

by **Daniel AMP Caroso** » Fri, 23 Oct 1992 09:41:48

The Grand Wizard Torvalds writes:

Quote:>Another book I'd kill for (but haven't bought yet - it's a bit pricey)
>is Leffler et al's 4.3BSD internals book ("The Design and Implementation
>of the 4.3BSD system and..."). It covers the BSD system the same way
>Bach covers sysv, and has some pretty interesting chapters. I haven't
>been able to more than skim through it, but Linus says: "get it" if you
>can afford to and are interested in the intricacies of the BSD kernel.

Agreed, it's an excellent book. (Are they going to make a new one for 4.4?)

But, hell, I'd hate for you to have to kill someone. Tell you what -
I'll make you a deal. It's going to be pretty darn tough, for such a
good book. You write a freely distributable Unix for a popular and
cheap hardware platform, with more features, less bugs, and better
service response than many of the commercial versions (and better
karma than all of them), give everyone the opportunity to play with
and improve the kernel, start a world-wide movement of enthusiastic
hackers, hobbyists, and brave novices seeking to better themselves,
support and enhance the Free Software movement, and generally act as a
figure of good & light throughout the universe - and I'll send you a
copy of the book. And maybe a few other goodies if you manage to do
this while still undertaking full-time studies.

Oh? What's that you say? oh.. um.. well, err.. Gee! that was quick!

Thanks, Linus. :-)

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