[comp.unix.wizards] device driver book

dave@gorbash.Rosemount.COM (Dave Marquardt) (03/09/88)

I was browsing in B. Dalton Software Etc. tonight and came across a book about 
writing UNIX device drivers by Egan and Teixeira, published by Wiley.  Has
anybody else seen or read this book?  Any recommendations?

	Dave

kennedy@tolerant.UUCP (Bill Kennedy) (03/11/88)

In article <4753@gorbash.Rosemount.COM> dave@gorbash.Rosemount.COM (Dave Marquardt) writes:
>I was browsing in B. Dalton Software Etc. tonight and came across a book about 
>writing UNIX device drivers by Egan and Teixeira, published by Wiley.  Has
>anybody else seen or read this book?  Any recommendations?

It depends on what system you are writing/studying for.  Their book is clearly
written and includes numerous source code examples.  It is clearly for a
Masscomp machine (they make no pretense about it) but the discipline and
approach are valid for any System Vr2 or later that I'm aware of.  The book
is well worth the money if used in concert with something else (unless you
have a Masscomp).  The (terrible!) AT&T documentation is useful to understand
how the kernel generation process works.  Chris Morgan's book "Inside Xenix"
is as close to publishing a proprietary tty driver as you can get.  I got the
Egan & Teixeira book last and it was a worthwhile addition to the pile.  I
have been able to struggle through without it but it was still helpful.  I'm
not sure I'd choose it if I could only have one book (unless I had Masscomp).

The opinions are my own, Tolerant is nice enough to let me use their equipment.

Bill Kennedy {rutgers,cbosgd,ihnp4!petro}!ssbn!bill  or bill@ssbn.WLK.COM

lm@arizona.edu (Larry McVoy) (03/14/88)

In article <4753@gorbash.Rosemount.COM> dave@gorbash.Rosemount.COM (Dave Marquardt) writes:
>I was browsing in B. Dalton Software Etc. tonight and came across a book about 
>writing UNIX device drivers by Egan and Teixeira, published by Wiley.  Has
>anybody else seen or read this book?  Any recommendations?
>
>	Dave

Yeah, I've seen it it (I own a copy).  It's a shame that they made it so
Masscomp specific.  I'd guess that these people have written drivers
almost exclusively under RTU; they take a stab at being general but I
got the feeling that a lot of stuff slipped through the cracks.  No 
examples come to mind, but the feeling remains.  Anyway, even if the book
is complete it's a bit on the long (i.e., verbose) side.

Possible other (maybe better) sources of info:

* The ATT Device Driver Writer's Guide (I like this one a lot; but I've only
  written SysV drivers)
* The Sun Driver info in their standard dist manuals (at least I think it's
  the there; I've seen it - if you can't find it ask Sun).
-- 

Larry McVoy	lm@arizona.edu or ...!{uwvax,sun}!arizona.edu!lm