file systems

I used this book to start to learn from scratch how to programming Unix. This book is self-contained,concise and easy to read. FYI, it is very readable and not dry. There's a number of good diagrams, for example,illustrating file descriptors allocations and the effects of system calls like dup2, etc. The authors uses short code snipplet to illustrate how to use a particular system calls, which I think is rather neat. A number of "projects" very quickly help reader to expand their skill level. Of interest is also a project on distributed "Richard" and "Linda" , the forerunner of Sun's JINI. The authors could have expanded this book another 100 pages and make it a companion to Steven's "Advanced Unix System Programming". I strongly recommend this book to beginners, intermediate Unix Programmers.

I bought this book as a reference for my OS course. However, I used this book more than my assigned text book. The provide code are really valuable and it does help me a lot to really understand multiprocess work. there is also another book to read if you want to understand unix programming--> advanced programming in unix environment. with them you won't encounter any diffculity any more in Unix

If Stevens is the Old Testament this book is the New Testament.

I was thinking lately what it is about Stevens books that has made them the best material in the industry for the past decade. I cant really nail it, if I could I would have been an author myself and make millions, but the other day it suddenly hit me: When I read Stevens books sometimes a question arises and then I pause to think about it, only to turn the page and find the answer witinf for me. It is about being comprehensive, it is about covering all aspects of the topic, thinking forward on behalf of the reader, thinking what the reader may not understand and how to make it clear.

Well Robbins and Robbins belongs to this category of books.
I am a book maniac and I have most of the Unix/Linux programming books out there. This is by far the best systems programming book available.

The other day I had to look up about asynchronous i/o in Linux and its interaction with POSIX real time signals. Opened the book, read the example, downladed the source code, in an hour I was flying and writing an asynchronous web server in Linux.

For the networking stuff I never bothered to read the relevant chapters of the book since Stevens Network programming is the book I was trained by and it is still relevant.

For my threading needs I used to use Butenhof's "Programming with POSIX threads", but this book has great examples and I learned a lot by browsing it. I mean I had a question about signal interaction with threads and the book had a section about it. Come on, it has saved my butt many many times. It is very comprehensive.

I wholeheartedly recomend it to any serious systems programer, beginner or advanced.