usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) (03/29/89)
Please pardon me for asking this question as I am sure it has been asked before. I am new to unix and would like to learn. Could someone recommend a good Unix book for the new unix user? Thanks. Please email so as to not clutter up the newgroup. Greg Cook cook@frith.UUCP gcook@horus.cem.msu.edu
TJM@vax01.ams.com (Thomas Maloney) (04/09/89)
Greg Cook was kind enough to forward the list of recommended UNIX books people sent him. I consolidated & formatted it to be a bit more readable. Comments are those of the original senders. Tom Maloney <<tjm@math.ams.com>> ================Intro's & Overviews================= >The UNIX Programming Environment Author: Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1984, 357 pages, ISBN 0-13-937699-2, paperback: 0-13-937681-X - This book is what I call a classic. Just buy it. - a good programmer's introduction. >The Unix Environment Author: A.N.Walker. - An excellent user's introduction. I have a special affection for this book, as it introduced me to the plural forms VAXen and Unices. >Introducing The UNIX System Author: Henry McGilton and Rachel Morgan Publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company 1983, 556 pages, ISBN 0-07-045001-3 - introductory for the most part, but far more extensive than Gauthier's book. There are two chapters on editors and two on text formatting that are the best I have seen in this type book. There is even a chapter on system management. I believe there may be a new edition of this book out that has been substantially rewritten. >The Design of the Unix Operating System Author: Maurice J. Bach Publisher: Prentice-Hall - is a good generic introduction to kernel operation. >UNIX Shell Programming Author: Stephen G. Kochan and Patrick H. Wood Publisher: Hayden Book Company 1985, 422 pages - I own this book, but I rarely crack it open. I guess the main reason is that I am still a Bourne-again shell user. For years I worked with a variety of systems where one might find csh and/or ksh. However, /bin/sh was the only common denominator. I find that most often I refer to Kenighan and Pike for shell programming questions. However, they don't address the C Shell (csh) or Korn Shell (ksh). This book does offer a chapter on each. In addition, this book may be more suited for a beginner than an experienced UNIX programmer. >Life With UNIX Author: Don Libes and Sandy Ressler Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1989, pp 350. ISBN 0-13-536657-7. - A comprehensive overview of UNIX. Major sections are: UNIX in Time - Usual trash plus history of user groups, universities, with a comprehensive "who's who" in UNIX history. Present & Future deals with where UNIX is now and where its going - companies, standards and dialects are treated at length. UNIX Information - How people really learn about UNIX. Discussion of books, magazines, conferences, and, of course, source code. Inside UNIX - In-depth descriptions of UNIX from three different perspectives - user, programmer and adminstrator. Outside UNIX - Third-party stuff. Discussions of how UNIX has prospered/withered in face of real-world problems. Underground - archives, USENET, public access UNIX, GNU, MINIX, public-domain and/or free software, etc. This book is quite unusual, not only because of its scope, but because it prints things that have never appeared in print (for one reason or another) - things that most people don't realize or find until years after they have used UNIX. It is essentially a "reading between the lines" of all the other UNIX manuals, books and magazines. Lastly, "Life With UNIX" is chock full of amusing UNIX stories and anecdotes, all designed to provide you with key insights into why UNIX is the way it is. "Life with UNIX" is a must book for UNIX beginners to UNIX gurus. ================Berkeley================= >An Introduction to Berkeley Unix Author: P. Wang Publisher: Wadsworth. - If you need a BSD oriented book, then I don't think you would find a more thorough introductory book. >The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD Unix Operating System Author : Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, John S. Quarterman. Publisher :Addison-Wesley (Berkley and SunOS) 1988 - seems to be a good book on kernel design for Berkeley Unix; I just started it myself. - We should be hearing about this one any day now!!! John Quarterman had informed me quite some time ago to expect this one in September. These are the primary people who are responsible for 4.3 BSD. ================System V================= >A Practical Guide to Sys V Unix Author: Mark Sobell. Publisher: Benjamin Cummings - ( I am not sure if this is the exact title) >UNIX System V Bible Author: Stephen Prata and Donald Martin Publisher: Howard Sams & Company ================A System for the NeXT of us================= >Threads of a New System Author: Prof Richard Rashid in the August 1986 _Unix Review_ - an excellent introduction to the design of Mach, the sort-of object-oriented Unix which runs on the NeXT machine. ================Geeks, Gurus & Wizards================= >Advanced UNIX: A Programmer's Guide Author: Stephen Prata Publisher: Howard W. Sams & Co., Indianapolis 1985, 484 pages, ISBN: 067-22403-8. - Prata assumes you know how to login and use and editor. It's very good for shell programing. >Advanced UNIX Programming Author: Marc J. Rochkind Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1985, 265 pages, ISBN 0-13-011818-4, paperback: 0-13-011800-1 - Rochkind is a former Bell Labs UNIX guru who wrote SCCS back in the mid 70's. This book is exactly what the title states, basically an extremely thorough treatment of programming using the UNIX System Call Interface. System V, System III, V7, 4.2 BSD, and Xenix are all discussed. The system calls are organized functionally into chapters that cover file i/o, terminal i/o, process control, interprocess communication, and miscellaneous calls. The opening chapter is an overvview of fundamental concepts of UNIX. Anytime I have a question on the usage of system calls I consult this book. The only problem with it is that it needs to be updated per System V Rel 3, 4.3 BSD and the efforts of Sun and AT&T to bring SunOS and System V together as well as the efforts in the UNIX 386 world. >Tricks of the UNIX Masters Author: Russel G Sage Publisher: Howard Sams & Co ISBN 0-672-22449-6. - a "must add" to your list of UNIX books. For about $20, you'll get a lot of nifty little tricks & tips you won't pick up unless you've got a good UNIX guru to coach you. The style is relaxed & aimed at a bit above the novice UNIX user (experienced programmer with sparse UNIX exposure). >UNIX System: Readings and Applications Vol 1: UNIX Time-Sharing System Vol.2: The UNIX System Author: AT&T Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1987 - These two volumes are reprints of the two volumes of the Bell Labs Technical Journal (now AT&T Tech J.) that were devoted to UNIX: Vol. 57, No. 6, Part 2, July-August, 1987, and Vol. 63, No. 8, October, 1984. ================C stuff================= >C: A Reference Manual, 2nd Edition Author: Samuel P. Harbison and Guy L. Steele Jr. Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1987, 404 pages, ISBN 0-13-109810-1, paperback: 0-13-109802-0 - An excellent book on C. It is not really an introductory level book, and is a great companion to K&R (2nd Ed.). Both this book and K&R (2nd Ed.) cover the draft-proposed ANSI standards. Where H&S really stands out is in the sections that cover the UNIX library calls. If you have ever struggled with any of printf or scanf family of library calls in trying to figure out the conversion rules in the format string, this book is the answer. >Efficient C Author: Thomas Plum and Jim Brodie Publisher: Plum Hall 1985, 150 pages, ISBN 0-911537-05-8 - This is a useful book. Portability is one aspect of programming in C. Efficiency is the other. Many use C because it allows them the freedom to tie the programs down to the hardware in order to run efficiently. This book is an excellent guide and when combined with Jon Bentley's book on writting efficient programs gives one an excellent background in measuring programs and fine tuning them. >Notes on the Draft C Standard Author: Thomas Plum Publisher: Plum Hall 1987, 92 pages, ISBN 0-911537-06-6 - Tom Plum is the Vice Chair of the ANSI X3J11 committee, so who better to write this book than he? However, as with any of the other C books that treat the ANSI C Standard, it does not cover the Standard in it's final form due to the fact that it has yet to be adopted. However, the price is about $10, so it makes a good pickup to keep informed about the standard and how it differs from K&R C. >The C Programmer's Handbook Author: M.I. Bolsky Publisher: AT&T Bell Labs and Prentice-Hall 1985, 84 pages, ISBN 0-13-110073-4 - This is a handbook for experience programmers, not a book for reading. Information is intended as a quickie reference and is not that detailed. >The C Puzzle Book: Puzzles for the C Programming Language Author: Alan R. Feuer Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1982, 173, ISBN 0-13-109934-5 paperback: 0-13-109926-4 - Exactly what the title indicates. The puzzles are organized by chapter: basic arithmetic operators, assignment operators, logic and increment operators, bitwise operators, relational and conditional operators, operator precedence and evaluation. The answers for all of the puzzles are also provided. This is an excellent way to learn some of the more advanced expressions that can be concocted with C. >The C Answer Book Author: Clovis L. Tondo and Scott E. Gimpel Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1985, 209 pages, ISBN 0-13-109877-2 - This book provides the answers to the exercises found in K&R. I believe that a second edition of this book has also been recently published corresponding with the 2nd edition of K&R. >C Traps and Pitfalls Author: Andrew Koenig Publisher: Addison-Wesley 1988, 147 pages, ISBN:201-17928-8 - Andrew published a BTL Technical Memorandum by this title several years back. Later it was published as a Technical Report. It has now been expanded into a book. I read the TR and it was excellent. I just recently finished the book and would recommend it to anyone who uses C. >Portable C and UNIX System Programming Author: J.E. Lapin Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1987, 249 pages, ISBN 0-13-686494-5 - A useful book, mostly because there are no others written on this topic, yet...... >How to Wri Publisher: Prentice Hall to be released. - I'm waiting! ================Misc/Unknown================= >UNIX Papers Author: The Waite Group Editors Publisher: Howard W. Sams & Co, Indianapolis 1987, 518 pages, ISBN: 0-672-22578-6. - This is a collection of papers. Some of the them are introductions and others cover more arcane bits of knowledge. >Writing a Unix Device Driver Author: Janet I. Egan and Thomas J. Teixeira - Masscomp with appendixes on BSD and Xenix >(no title given) 297 pages, ISBN 0-8359-8164-9, paperback: 0-8359-8162-2 - introductory level book, extremely basic and easy reading. I read this on a plane trip between Newark, NJ and Columbus, OH before I ever worked seriously with UNIX. Unlike, Rebecca Thomas and Jean Yates Tutorial style book this one does not require you to be sitting down in front of a crt in order to derive benefit from it. >Unix for People >Unix Power Tools -------
lynch@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Tim Lynch) (04/10/89)
The AWK Programming Language, Alfred Aho, Brian Kernighan, Peter Weinberger Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. ISBN 0-201-07981-X Essential if you want to use AWK. And if you don't think you want to use awk, then read this book!
andy@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Andy Clews) (04/10/89)
From article <19046@adm.BRL.MIL>, by TJM@vax01.ams.com (Thomas Maloney): > > Greg Cook was kind enough to forward the list of recommended UNIX books people > sent him. I consolidated & formatted it to be a bit more readable. Comments are > those of the original senders. Tom made a glaring and unforgiveable :-) omission. I would have included The Unix C Shell Field Guide Author: Gail Anderson and Paul Anderson Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1986, 374 pages, ISBN 0-13-937468-X This book is a superb all-round guide to C shell, and sits almost permanently on my desk. If either of the Andersons are reading this, have you thought of writing a sister-volume about Bourne Shell? Andy -- Andy Clews, Computing Service, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QN, ENGLAND JANET: andy@syma.sussex.ac.uk BITNET: andy%syma.sussex.ac.uk@uk.ac Voice: +44 273 606755 ext.2129
mike@nixba.UUCP (Mike Lyons) (04/15/89)
In article <7706@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, lynch@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Tim Lynch) writes: > The AWK Programming Language, Alfred Aho, Brian Kernighan, Peter Weinberger > Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. ISBN 0-201-07981-X > > Essential if you want to use AWK. And if you don't think you want to > use awk, then read this book! true, it's a great book, but the real meat concentrates on the newer version of awk, which is in System V3.x. There are a (I've heard) also a couple of MSDOS versions of new awk. Anybody out there heard of a public domain or shareware version of nawk for Un*x or MSDOS?
john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples) (04/17/89)
In article <10048@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes: >In article <261@nixba.UUCP> mike@nixba.UUCP (Mike Lyons) writes: >>Anybody out there heard of a public domain or >>shareware version of nawk for Un*x or MSDOS? > >No, but MKS sells an MS-DOS version and you can license "new awk" >from the AT&T UNIX System ToolChest for site-wide use at a reasonable >cost. MKS also offers new awk in their "Trilogy" package. Trilogy includes awk, crypt, and ksh. COFF and Xenix binaries are included for both 80286 and 80386. List price is $119. -- John Temples - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!rtmvax!bilver!jwt!john
samlb@magellan.arc.nasa.gov (Samuel B. Bassett) (06/13/89)
I am putting together a list of recommended books on UNIX for computer-literate but UNIX-naive users here at Ames. We are going to be ordering and shipping a few hundred interactive workstations ove the next couple of years, and the researchers who get them will be needing some explanations of how UNIX works -- specifically, in English and with examples -- unlike the UNIX man pages. If you have any favorite books, please drop me a line via e-mail, so as not to clutter up the board adTHANKSvance Sam'l Bassett, Sterling Software @ NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA 94035 Work: (415) 694-4792; Home: (415) 454-7282 samlb%well@lll-crg.ARPA samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov <Standard Disclaimer> := 'Sterling doesn't _have_ opinions -- much less NASA!'
dalton@motcid.UUCP (Darryl Dalton) (11/01/90)
I hope this is not one of those most asked questions. If it is please e-mail any replies. What I would like to get is a list of good Unix books. I have been a Unix user for 2 years and am pretty proficient at it. What I would like now is a source of books dealing with advanced Unix and system administration. I am a tcsh user. Thanks for any help. Darryl B. Dalton (uunet!motcid!dalton) -- ================================================================================ FREEDOM IS A ROAD SELDOM TRAVELED BY THE MULTITUDE Darryl B. Dalton Motorola Inc. Arlington, Hts. IL, USA 60004
murrah@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Ed F. Murrah) (11/03/90)
Try the listing in comp.unix.admin or comp.unix.large by Steve Simmons. He just did a repost of his list.