Newsgroups: comp.os.linux Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!darwin.sura.net! zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu! bloom-picayune.mit.edu!daemon From: jwie...@moe.eng.temple.edu Subject: Unix Books Message-ID: <1992Oct20.004410.24099@athena.mit.edu> Sender: dae...@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background) Reply-To: jwie...@moe.eng.temple.edu Organization: The Internet Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1992 00:44:10 GMT Lines: 656 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 Article: 1765 of misc.books.technical Xref: sol.ctr.columbia.edu misc.books.technical:1765 alt.books.technical:952 comp.unix.questions:32800 comp.unix.wizards:14631 news.answers:3556 Newsgroups: misc.books.technical,alt.books.technical, comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards,news.answers Path: sol.ctr.columbia.edu!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!newsserver.sfu.ca!kko From: k...@fraser.sfu.ca (Samuel Ko) Subject: [misc.books.technical] A Concise Guide to Unix Books Message-ID: <1992Oct17.0...@sfu.ca> Followup-To: misc.books.technical Summary: A list of recommended Unix books / documentations ... Keywords: Unix, books, documentations Sender: ne...@sfu.ca Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 05:07:16 GMT Approved: news-answe...@MIT.Edu Lines: 631 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-...@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. Title: Using UUCP and Usenet Authors: Grace Todino and Dale Dougherty Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-937175-10-2 Comment: Well written on how to use uucp and netnews ... 7. Title: Internetworking with TCP/IP Vols I and II Author: Douglas Comer Publisher: Prentice-Hall Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-13-468505-9 (I), 0-13-472242-6 (II) Comment: A detailed discussion of the architecture of the Internet and its protocols ... Vol I is readable by anyone but Vol II is pretty technical ... 8. Title: The Whole Internet User's Guide Catalog Author: Ed Krol Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1992 ISBN: 1-56592-025-2 Comment: **** Highly Recommended **** Definitely a MUST for any new and not-so-new Internet users ... "It is a complete user's guide to the Internet, covering everything from the basics, like electronic mail and newsgroups, to the newest developments. A large part of the book tells you how to find the resources you want." ... 9. Title: Zen and the Art of the Internet Author: Brendan Kehoe Edition: 1st ed. 1992 Comment: A comprehensive overview of the Internet for beginners ... This document (in different formats) can be obtained by anonymous ftp from world.std.com (in /obi/Internet/zen-1.0) ... The second edition is commercial, published by Prentice Hall ... E. System Administration **************************** 1. Title: Unix System Administration Handbook Authors: Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder and Scott Seebass Publisher: Prentice-Hall Edition: 1989 ISBN: 0-13-933441-6 Comment: **** Highly Recommended **** Classic, also known as the sys-admin bible ... "an attempt to condense everything that a system administrator should know about UNIX into a single, easy-to-use volume" ... Source codes for programs listed (sa-book.tar.Z) can be obtained by anonymous ftp from boulder.colorado.edu (in /pub/sa-book) or oak.oakland.edu (in /pub/unix-c/sysadmin) ... 2. Title: Unix System V Release 4 Administration Authors: David Fiedler, Bruce Hunter and Ben Smith Publisher: Hayden Edition: 2nd ed. 1991 ISBN: 0-672-22810-6 Comment: **** Highly Recommended **** A must for any intermediate / advanced users of Unix ... "you'll find the information you need to organize a practical, efficient, and productive UNIX system" ... 3. Title: Essential System Administration Author: Aeleen Frisch Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-937175-80-3 Comment: **** Highly Recommended **** A must for serious users / sys admins of Unix ... "It provides a compact, manageable treatment of the tasks and issues that everyone responsible for a UNIX system faces." ... 4. Title: Unix System - Advanced Administration and Management Handbook Author: Bruce Hunter and Karen Hunter Publisher: MacMillan Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-02-358950-7 Comment: Another good book on system administration ... 5. Title: System Performance Tuning Author: Mike Loukides Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1990 ISBN: 0-937175-60-9 Comment: A fine book for sys admins on how to fine tune your Unix system(s) to do more work ... F. Unix Security ******************** 1. Title: Practical Unix Security Authors: Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-937175-72-2 Comment: **** Highly Recommended **** Simply the best book in this field ... "everything you need to know to make your UNIX system as secure as it can be." ... 2. Title: Unix System Security - A Guide for Users and System Administrators Author: David Curry Publisher: Addision Wesley Edition: 1992 ISBN: 0-201-56327-4 Comment: Good and comprehensive coverage ... With pointers to further info ... 3. Title: Unix System Security Author: Rik Farrow Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-201-57030-0 Comment: Another fine book on Unix security ... 4. Title: Site Security Handbook Authors: Edited by Paul Holbrook and Joyce Reynolds Edition: 1991 Comment: A guide to setting computer security policies and procedures for sites that have systems on the Internet ... This is rfc1244.txt which is available by anonymous ftp from nic.ddn.mil (in rfc directory) ... Also rfc1281.txt - Guidelines for the Secure Operation of the Internet ... 5. Title: Computer Security Basics Authors: Deborah Russell and G T Gangemi Sr. Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-937175-71-4 Comment: A clear overview on many different security issues ... 6. Title: The Cuckoo's Egg Author: Cliff Stoll Publisher: Pocket Books Edition: 1990 ISBN: 0-671-72688-9 Comment: A fascinating real story on computer espionage ... A good alternative to this is Cyberpunk written by Katie Hafner and John Markoff and published by Touchstone Book ... G. Programming ****************** 1. Title: The Unix Programming Environment Authors: Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike Publisher: Prentice-Hall Edition: 1984 ISBN: 0-13-937681-X Comment: A true classic on Unix programming ... 2. Title: Advanced Programming in The Unix Environment Author: Richard Stevens Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition: 1992 ISBN: 0-201-56317-7 Comment: **** Highly Recommended **** A going-to-be classic on how programs work under Unix ... 3. Title: Advanced Unix Programming Author: Marc Rochkind Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition: 1985 ISBN: 0-13-011818-4 Comment: A superb book covering all system calls in detail ... 4. Title: The C Programming Language Authors: Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition: 2nd ed. 1988 ISBN: 0-13-110362-8 Comment: This book is 200% a MUST for any C programmers ... 5. Title: C - A Reference Manual Authors: Samuel Harbison and Guy Steel Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition: 3rd ed. 1991 ISBN: 0-13-110933-2 Comment: An authoritative reference to C programming language ... A good companion to Kernighan and Ritchie ... 6. Title: The Waite Group's New Primer C Plus Authors: Mitchell Waite and Stephen Prata Publisher: Sams Edition: 1990 ISBN: 0-672-22687-1 Comment: A really good introduction to C for beginners ... 7. Title: Practical C Programming Author: Steve Oualline Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-937175-65-X Comment: Yet another good C book describing how to create programs that are easy to read, maintain and debug ... 8. Title: Using C on the Unix System Author: David Curry Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1990 ISBN: 0-937175-23-4 Comment: This book is directed to (would-be) system programmers ... 9. Title: The Berkeley Unix Environment Author: Nigel Horspool Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition: 2nd ed. 1992 ISBN: 0-13-089368-4 Comment: **** Highly Recommended **** An excellent book on C programming for Berkeley Unix system ... "a companion text intended for use in college and university courses concerned with Compiler Construction, Software Engineering and Operating Systems" ... 10. Title: The Waite Group's C++ Programming Author: John Berry Publisher: Sams Edition: 1992 ISBN: 0-672-22771-1 Comment: A fine book on OOP with C++ (for Unix and Dos) ... 11. Title: Managing Projects with make Authors: Steve Talbott and Andrew Oram Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 2nd ed. 1991 ISBN: 0-937175-90-0 Comment: An unique text on using make for software development ... 12. Title: The AWK Programming Language Authors: Alfred Aho, Brian Kernighan and Peter Weinberger Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition: 1988 ISBN: 0-201-07981-X Comment: A complete description by the authors of awk ... 13. Title: Sed and Awk Author: Dale Dougherty Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-937175-59-5 Comment: A very good work on programming / text processing with sed and awk ... 14. Title: Programming Perl Authors: Larry Wall and Randal Schwartz Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-937175--64-1 Comment: The authoritative guide to Perl - the programming language for for any serious Unix users ... H. TeX ********** 1. Title: The TeXbook Author: Donald Knuth Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition: 1990 ISBN: 0-201-13448-9 Comment: The Bible ... A definite guide to typesetting with TeX ... 2. Title: TeX for the Impatient Author: Paul Abrahams Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-201-51375-7 Comment: A more user-friendly handbook on TeX ... 3. Title: LATeX - A Document Preparation System Author: Leslie Lamport Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition: 1986 ISBN: 0-201-15790-X Comment: The bible for LATeX users ... I. X Window System ********************** 1. Title: X Window System Users' Guide Authors: Valerie Quercia and Tim O'Reilly Publisher: O'Reilly Edition: 1990 (Motif or MIT) ISBN: 0-937175-61-7 Comment: Volume 3 in O'Reilly's excellent X-Window series ... A fairly useful tutorial-type book to X11R4 ... 2. Title: The X Window System - A User's Guide Author: Niall Manfield Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition: 1990 ISBN: 0-201-56344-4 Comment: Another good tutorial-type book to using X ... 3. Title: X Window System Programming and Applications with Xt Author: Doug Young Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition: 1989 (Motif or Open Look) ISBN: 0-13-497074-8 Comment: An excellent book on X programming ... J. Dictionary ***************** 1. Title: The New Hacker's Dictionary Author: Eric Raymond Publisher: MIT Press Edition: 1991 ISBN: 0-262-68069-6 Comment: This book corresponds to version 2.9.6 of the on-line jargon file ... The latest (at the time of writing) is version 2.9.10 (jargon2910.ascii.Z) which is available by ftp from wuarchive.wustl.edu (in mirrors/gnu) ... Changes since the publication of this book can be found in the file jargon-changes.Z ... K. Other Lists ****************** 1. Title: Yet Another Book List Author: Mitch Wright Edition: August 4 1992 Comment: This is an excellent compilation of almost all Unix and C book titles along with info for locating them and short reviews and summaries of book contents ... You can get it (yabl) by anonymous ftp from ftp.rahul.net (in /pub/mitch/YABL) ... 2. Title: X Technical Bibliography Author: Ken Lee Edition: Sept 11 1992 Comment A good collection of publicly available X window system technical materials ... The bibliography is posted periodically on misc.books.technical and you can also get it by anonymous ftp from pit-manager.mit.edu (in /pub/usenet/misc.books.technical) ... 3. Title: Network Reading List: TCP/IP, Unix and Ethernet Author: Charles Spurgeon Edition: 3.5 Feb 1992 Comment: This annotated list describes those items that cover the subject areas well ... It is obtainable by anonymous ftp from ftp.uu.net (in /inet/doc) ... 4. Title: Catalog of O'Reilly Books Authors: O'Reilly staff Edition: July 24 1992 Comment: You get can it (book.catalog.Z) by anonymous ftp from ftp.ora.com ... where you can also find source codes for examples in many books in the Nutshell and X series ... Or read the online catalog on O'Reilly gopher server (telnet gopher.ora.com login: gopher) -- Samuel Ko (k...@sfu.ca) (aka: The Smart One) Quasi-expert in Computer Books and Documentations ... Hope this helps. jim
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux Path: sparky!uunet!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!ira.uka.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de! news.uni-stuttgart.de!ifi!news From: web...@dia.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de (Weber) Subject: Re: Unix Books Message-ID: <1992Oct21.121703.13670@ifi.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> Sender: ne...@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de Organization: Informatik, Uni Stuttgart, W.Germany References: <1992Oct20.004410.24099@athena.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 12:17:03 GMT Lines: 20 In article <1992Oct20.0...@athena.mit.edu> jwie...@moe.eng.temple.edu writes: > [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
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!klaava!torvalds From: torv...@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux Subject: Re: Unix Books Message-ID: <1992Oct21.161022.18125@klaava.Helsinki.FI> Date: 21 Oct 92 16:10:22 GMT References: <1992Oct20.004410.24099@athena.mit.edu> <1992Oct21.121703.13670@ifi.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> Organization: University of Helsinki Lines: 37 In article <1992Oct21.1...@ifi.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> web...@dia.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de (Weber) writes: >In article <1992Oct20.0...@athena.mit.edu> >jwie...@moe.eng.temple.edu writes: >> >>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