Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Updated to cover version 2.4.x of the Linux kernel, the second edition of Linux Device Drivers remains the best general-purpose, paper-bound guide for programmers wishing to make hardware devices work under the world's most popular open-source operating system. The authors take care to show how to write drivers that are portable--that is, that compile and run under all popular Linux platforms. That, along with the fact that they're careful to explain and illustrate concepts, makes this book very well-suited to any programmer familiar with C but not with the hardware-software interface. It's worth noting that the emphasis in the title is on "device drivers" as much as "Linux". This book will make sense to you if you've never written a driver for any platform before. It helps if you have some Linux or UNIX background, but even that is secondary as a prerequisite to C skill.

For a programming text--and one concerned with low-level instructions and data structures, at that--this book is remarkably rich in prose. You'll typically want to read this book straight through, more or less skipping the code samples, before sketching out your plan for the driver you need to write. Then, go back and pay closer attention to the sections on specific details you need to implement, such as custom task queues. For coding-time details about specific system calls and programming techniques, count on the index to point you to the right passages. --David Wall

Topics covered: Techniques for writing hardware device drivers that run under Linux kernels 2.0.x through 2.2.x. Sections show how to manage memory, time, interrupts, ports and other details of the hardware-software interface.

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Lack of real examples, 29 Jul 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver.

Saved my bacon more than once..., 06 Oct 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver...

Still an essential text, 29 Mar 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.

The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.

The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.

The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition., 15 Jul 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.

The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.

... Make sure you order the second edition...

Excellent but dated, 31 Aug 2000
If you want to learn how to write a Linux driver then you MUST buy this book! It gives a very good background into the workings of the Linux device module system. The text is very readable and usually puts (some very complex) ideas across in a manner that doesn't scare the reader off - the multitude of code fragments also help a lot! However, there is one caveat. The book was written at a time when the Linux Module system was in a state of flux. The text is written focusing on version 2.0.x of the kernel but there were some major changes to the structure and some system calls between then and version 2.2.x . There is an attempt, at the back of the book, to outline the new changes (as at version 2.1.43), but these are a bit vague and not many examples are given. Maybe it's not such a bad thing though...The current version of the linux module system as at Version 2.2.x is, I believe, going to be used in the next release. Please, Mr. Rubini, update the text to be more current! If you do I'll buy a copy of the book and recommend it to anyone!

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Lack of real examples, 29 Jul 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver.

Saved my bacon more than once..., 06 Oct 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver...

Still an essential text, 29 Mar 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.

The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.

The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.

The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition., 15 Jul 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.

The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.

... Make sure you order the second edition...

Excellent but dated, 31 Aug 2000
If you want to learn how to write a Linux driver then you MUST buy this book! It gives a very good background into the workings of the Linux device module system. The text is very readable and usually puts (some very complex) ideas across in a manner that doesn't scare the reader off - the multitude of code fragments also help a lot! However, there is one caveat. The book was written at a time when the Linux Module system was in a state of flux. The text is written focusing on version 2.0.x of the kernel but there were some major changes to the structure and some system calls between then and version 2.2.x . There is an attempt, at the back of the book, to outline the new changes (as at version 2.1.43), but these are a bit vague and not many examples are given. Maybe it's not such a bad thing though...The current version of the linux module system as at Version 2.2.x is, I believe, going to be used in the next release. Please, Mr. Rubini, update the text to be more current! If you do I'll buy a copy of the book and recommend it to anyone!

Truly excellent guide, 23 May 2001
If the author ever revises the book, it would be nice to see a chapter on migrating code from draft 4 (CMA) threads to pthreads. Other than that, this really is the definitive guide to the subject.

The only book you need on threads, 26 May 1999
If you are thinking of developing a multi-threaded application, and you have absolutely no idea what threads are, this is the book for you. Starting from very simple exapmles, this book takes you to real-time scheduling and extended synchronisation techniques (barriers etc.), copmlete with code and hints on how to debug multi-threaded apps. Buy it now...

Thorough, readable, excellent, 12 Apr 1999
This is one of the best computing books I have read. Very readable and covers everything from explaining threads to advanced thread programming. The examples are just right: small enough to read quickly, big enough to be useful. You only need one book on threads and this is it.

DOS for Dummies, the book that changed the way computer books are written and marketed has come out in a third edition. By and large, it's the same as the previous edition (advances in MS-DOS have not been numerous), but there is some new information here. Further, DOS for Dummies remains an entertaining book and if you use DOS, it's the book you want to assist you.

The basic idea of this book is that you can identify a problem you're having with your computer, ranging from how to turn the thing on to how to back up only the files that have changed since the last backup. You can then turn to the relevant section--the table of contents is very detailed--read a few pages, carry out some procedure, and move on to the next problem. You'll find sections on hardware, file management, text editing, and software installation. Later chapters deal with troubleshooting.

The newest material in this release of DOS for Dummies deals with DOS 6.22 and the DOS-like shell that you can use under Windows 95 and Windows 98. For users of the latest versions of Windows, Gookin demonstrates some relevant procedures. But most of the coverage deals with DOS itself and programs that are designed to run under DOS. There's even stuff about WordStar here (it's a little-known fact of history that the Rosetta stone was written with WordStar).

DOS for Dummies is funny, too, in a wry sort of way. What kind of joke is appropriate to a section about parallel ports, anyway? The author manages to infuse practically every passage with humour. Other computer books should make an effort to take themselves less seriously. The verdict: if you're using DOS--and more of you are than the Windows people would have us believe--this book will provide you with valuable help. --David Wall

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Lack of real examples, 29 Jul 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver.

Saved my bacon more than once..., 06 Oct 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver...

Still an essential text, 29 Mar 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.

The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.

The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.

The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition., 15 Jul 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.

The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.

... Make sure you order the second edition...

Excellent but dated, 31 Aug 2000
If you want to learn how to write a Linux driver then you MUST buy this book! It gives a very good background into the workings of the Linux device module system. The text is very readable and usually puts (some very complex) ideas across in a manner that doesn't scare the reader off - the multitude of code fragments also help a lot! However, there is one caveat. The book was written at a time when the Linux Module system was in a state of flux. The text is written focusing on version 2.0.x of the kernel but there were some major changes to the structure and some system calls between then and version 2.2.x . There is an attempt, at the back of the book, to outline the new changes (as at version 2.1.43), but these are a bit vague and not many examples are given. Maybe it's not such a bad thing though...The current version of the linux module system as at Version 2.2.x is, I believe, going to be used in the next release. Please, Mr. Rubini, update the text to be more current! If you do I'll buy a copy of the book and recommend it to anyone!

Truly excellent guide, 23 May 2001
If the author ever revises the book, it would be nice to see a chapter on migrating code from draft 4 (CMA) threads to pthreads. Other than that, this really is the definitive guide to the subject.

The only book you need on threads, 26 May 1999
If you are thinking of developing a multi-threaded application, and you have absolutely no idea what threads are, this is the book for you. Starting from very simple exapmles, this book takes you to real-time scheduling and extended synchronisation techniques (barriers etc.), copmlete with code and hints on how to debug multi-threaded apps. Buy it now...

Thorough, readable, excellent, 12 Apr 1999
This is one of the best computing books I have read. Very readable and covers everything from explaining threads to advanced thread programming. The examples are just right: small enough to read quickly, big enough to be useful. You only need one book on threads and this is it.

Not a bad book, 25 Jun 2007
Ok, I have never ever used dos, so this book is great, its nice and easy to read and very helpful to get you going, but! his jokes are very bad and there just too many, I just started to get really into a subject and he would just spoil it with a very geeky sad joke. Other than that the book is fantastic for dos beginners.

This is really " Computers for Dummies" in disguise., 21 Oct 2004
The covers is "DOS for Dummies; however on further inspection you will find it also describes how indirect hardware, modems, dealing with diskettes, dealing with databases, using msbackup of and the differences between the different DOS's.

GOOD at most bits BAD at some bits., 31 Jul 1999
I thought it is aright book and a good reference book. The reason why I gave a low rating because in some parts it lost me. I didn't understand a bit in those parts which lost me. It had a tiny bit of humour and got boring at most times. There is also good think about and a bad thing about the book. I will tell the good thing, it tells you how to connect printers, modems and other hardware. If you are a beginner who knows ZIP about installing hardware and software this is the book. But on the other hand I knew how to install hardware and software so it got boring. There should be two types of book, the book which is released now and a new book only about DOS nothing else.

This book explained about DOS, and Campared it with Windows, 11 Jul 1998
I thought that the book was an excellent book. It easily told you what DOS is doing, and why it is not as good as MS Windows. The book also gave the difference between the different DOSes there are. There is not much to say about this book , only that it is a great book. I have to say, DOS is very annyoing and slow, and the book really pushed that. That is why I am giving this book a 4

Good book, 30 Oct 1997
It's a good DOS reference when you need it, it can teach you how to do some nice tricks with DOS, and it's got jokes all throughout the book. A little unorganized but overall it's a nice book for anyone who wants to learn about DOS.

Written for advanced C/C++ programmers, Walter Oney's Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model is a technically astute and clearly presented guide to writing custom Windows 2000 device drivers.

The author's command of the details of the new Windows Driver Model (WDM) standard is what makes this book such a clear success. (Because the WDM is rich in kernel and system services, the trick is often knowing how to use what's available, rather than doing everything yourself.) The author presents a solid overview of the WDM architecture and breaks down the process of writing custom device drivers into manageable pieces, from the basics of loading device drivers, to creating and processing I/O request packets. The book is very good at exposing kernel system calls, design principles and programming techniques (such as managing synchronisation and handling errors). Technically detailed, but very clearly organised, the author also provides "nerd alerts" for extremely technical material.

The book shows you what you'll need to provide in order to create WDM drivers that co-operate fully with Windows 2000 (and Windows 98). Features like Plug and Play (PnP), Windows power management, and the new Windows Management Instrumentation (WDM) standard get full attention here. To get you started, the author provides plenty of sample code (plus a custom Visual C++ AppWizard that generates skeleton code for a default WDM driver). Examples for working with the S5933 PCI chip set (and other simple hardware) let you see WDM drivers in action.

The process of writing device drivers certainly has changed from the early days of DOS. But armed with this handy and thorough book, C/C++ programmers can successfully create drivers for custom hardware that take full advantage of all the features of the powerful new WDM standard. --Richard Dragan, Amazon.com

Topics covered: Windows Driver Model (WDM) overview and driver structure, kernel mode, physical, filter, function and bus drivers, loading device drivers (DDs), driver objects, Windows 98 compatibility, kernel mode programming basics, error handling, memory management, synchronisation, interrupt request levels, kernel synchronisation objects, I/O request packets (IRPs), completion routines, plug and play (PnP) basics, reading and writing data, direct memory access (DMA) transfers, power management, error logging, watchdog timers, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Universal Serial Bus (USB): bulk transfer and isochronous pipes, installing DDs: INF files, property pages and registry keys. --Sarah Taylor

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Lack of real examples, 29 Jul 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver.

Saved my bacon more than once..., 06 Oct 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver...

Still an essential text, 29 Mar 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.

The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.

The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.

The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition., 15 Jul 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.

The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.

... Make sure you order the second edition...

Excellent but dated, 31 Aug 2000
If you want to learn how to write a Linux driver then you MUST buy this book! It gives a very good background into the workings of the Linux device module system. The text is very readable and usually puts (some very complex) ideas across in a manner that doesn't scare the reader off - the multitude of code fragments also help a lot! However, there is one caveat. The book was written at a time when the Linux Module system was in a state of flux. The text is written focusing on version 2.0.x of the kernel but there were some major changes to the structure and some system calls between then and version 2.2.x . There is an attempt, at the back of the book, to outline the new changes (as at version 2.1.43), but these are a bit vague and not many examples are given. Maybe it's not such a bad thing though...The current version of the linux module system as at Version 2.2.x is, I believe, going to be used in the next release. Please, Mr. Rubini, update the text to be more current! If you do I'll buy a copy of the book and recommend it to anyone!

Truly excellent guide, 23 May 2001
If the author ever revises the book, it would be nice to see a chapter on migrating code from draft 4 (CMA) threads to pthreads. Other than that, this really is the definitive guide to the subject.

The only book you need on threads, 26 May 1999
If you are thinking of developing a multi-threaded application, and you have absolutely no idea what threads are, this is the book for you. Starting from very simple exapmles, this book takes you to real-time scheduling and extended synchronisation techniques (barriers etc.), copmlete with code and hints on how to debug multi-threaded apps. Buy it now...

Thorough, readable, excellent, 12 Apr 1999
This is one of the best computing books I have read. Very readable and covers everything from explaining threads to advanced thread programming. The examples are just right: small enough to read quickly, big enough to be useful. You only need one book on threads and this is it.

Not a bad book, 25 Jun 2007
Ok, I have never ever used dos, so this book is great, its nice and easy to read and very helpful to get you going, but! his jokes are very bad and there just too many, I just started to get really into a subject and he would just spoil it with a very geeky sad joke. Other than that the book is fantastic for dos beginners.

This is really " Computers for Dummies" in disguise., 21 Oct 2004
The covers is "DOS for Dummies; however on further inspection you will find it also describes how indirect hardware, modems, dealing with diskettes, dealing with databases, using msbackup of and the differences between the different DOS's.

GOOD at most bits BAD at some bits., 31 Jul 1999
I thought it is aright book and a good reference book. The reason why I gave a low rating because in some parts it lost me. I didn't understand a bit in those parts which lost me. It had a tiny bit of humour and got boring at most times. There is also good think about and a bad thing about the book. I will tell the good thing, it tells you how to connect printers, modems and other hardware. If you are a beginner who knows ZIP about installing hardware and software this is the book. But on the other hand I knew how to install hardware and software so it got boring. There should be two types of book, the book which is released now and a new book only about DOS nothing else.

This book explained about DOS, and Campared it with Windows, 11 Jul 1998
I thought that the book was an excellent book. It easily told you what DOS is doing, and why it is not as good as MS Windows. The book also gave the difference between the different DOSes there are. There is not much to say about this book , only that it is a great book. I have to say, DOS is very annyoing and slow, and the book really pushed that. That is why I am giving this book a 4

Good book, 30 Oct 1997
It's a good DOS reference when you need it, it can teach you how to do some nice tricks with DOS, and it's got jokes all throughout the book. A little unorganized but overall it's a nice book for anyone who wants to learn about DOS.

Excellent reference, 24 Feb 2004
As an experienced developer writing device drivers for Windows, I bought this as reference material and can thoroughly recommend it.

The writing style is highly accessible; saying what to do and then the reason/theory why. I find the examples helpful with sensible annotations - certainly not a book of listings. The author doesn't run from describing details that you need!

The second edition copy I have comes with a CD with a searchable copy of the book and the sample code. The author has a web site for errata and updates too.

Recommended!

Must Read Book For all Programmers Writing System Level Code, 04 Sep 2001
This is a must read book for all Software Professionals writing System Level Code. It tells you how to program Hardware devices. Though there might hardly be any need to write programs for the hardware that one might be required but still it would be a nice hands on if one wants to develop programs for his own hardware for which pre built programs are not already written. To learn quicker one must have a good hands on experience in writing programs using Assembly Language and also using some high level language like C/C++. In short a must read for all software professionals wanting to enhance their programming skills, because the ultimate aim of building a software is executing which can only be done with proper, good programming.

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Lack of real examples, 29 Jul 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver.

Saved my bacon more than once..., 06 Oct 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver...

Still an essential text, 29 Mar 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.

The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.

The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.

The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition., 15 Jul 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.

The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.

... Make sure you order the second edition...

Excellent but dated, 31 Aug 2000
If you want to learn how to write a Linux driver then you MUST buy this book! It gives a very good background into the workings of the Linux device module system. The text is very readable and usually puts (some very complex) ideas across in a manner that doesn't scare the reader off - the multitude of code fragments also help a lot! However, there is one caveat. The book was written at a time when the Linux Module system was in a state of flux. The text is written focusing on version 2.0.x of the kernel but there were some major changes to the structure and some system calls between then and version 2.2.x . There is an attempt, at the back of the book, to outline the new changes (as at version 2.1.43), but these are a bit vague and not many examples are given. Maybe it's not such a bad thing though...The current version of the linux module system as at Version 2.2.x is, I believe, going to be used in the next release. Please, Mr. Rubini, update the text to be more current! If you do I'll buy a copy of the book and recommend it to anyone!

Truly excellent guide, 23 May 2001
If the author ever revises the book, it would be nice to see a chapter on migrating code from draft 4 (CMA) threads to pthreads. Other than that, this really is the definitive guide to the subject.

The only book you need on threads, 26 May 1999
If you are thinking of developing a multi-threaded application, and you have absolutely no idea what threads are, this is the book for you. Starting from very simple exapmles, this book takes you to real-time scheduling and extended synchronisation techniques (barriers etc.), copmlete with code and hints on how to debug multi-threaded apps. Buy it now...

Thorough, readable, excellent, 12 Apr 1999
This is one of the best computing books I have read. Very readable and covers everything from explaining threads to advanced thread programming. The examples are just right: small enough to read quickly, big enough to be useful. You only need one book on threads and this is it.

Not a bad book, 25 Jun 2007
Ok, I have never ever used dos, so this book is great, its nice and easy to read and very helpful to get you going, but! his jokes are very bad and there just too many, I just started to get really into a subject and he would just spoil it with a very geeky sad joke. Other than that the book is fantastic for dos beginners.

This is really " Computers for Dummies" in disguise., 21 Oct 2004
The covers is "DOS for Dummies; however on further inspection you will find it also describes how indirect hardware, modems, dealing with diskettes, dealing with databases, using msbackup of and the differences between the different DOS's.

GOOD at most bits BAD at some bits., 31 Jul 1999
I thought it is aright book and a good reference book. The reason why I gave a low rating because in some parts it lost me. I didn't understand a bit in those parts which lost me. It had a tiny bit of humour and got boring at most times. There is also good think about and a bad thing about the book. I will tell the good thing, it tells you how to connect printers, modems and other hardware. If you are a beginner who knows ZIP about installing hardware and software this is the book. But on the other hand I knew how to install hardware and software so it got boring. There should be two types of book, the book which is released now and a new book only about DOS nothing else.

This book explained about DOS, and Campared it with Windows, 11 Jul 1998
I thought that the book was an excellent book. It easily told you what DOS is doing, and why it is not as good as MS Windows. The book also gave the difference between the different DOSes there are. There is not much to say about this book , only that it is a great book. I have to say, DOS is very annyoing and slow, and the book really pushed that. That is why I am giving this book a 4

Good book, 30 Oct 1997
It's a good DOS reference when you need it, it can teach you how to do some nice tricks with DOS, and it's got jokes all throughout the book. A little unorganized but overall it's a nice book for anyone who wants to learn about DOS.

Excellent reference, 24 Feb 2004
As an experienced developer writing device drivers for Windows, I bought this as reference material and can thoroughly recommend it.

The writing style is highly accessible; saying what to do and then the reason/theory why. I find the examples helpful with sensible annotations - certainly not a book of listings. The author doesn't run from describing details that you need!

The second edition copy I have comes with a CD with a searchable copy of the book and the sample code. The author has a web site for errata and updates too.

Recommended!

Must Read Book For all Programmers Writing System Level Code, 04 Sep 2001
This is a must read book for all Software Professionals writing System Level Code. It tells you how to program Hardware devices. Though there might hardly be any need to write programs for the hardware that one might be required but still it would be a nice hands on if one wants to develop programs for his own hardware for which pre built programs are not already written. To learn quicker one must have a good hands on experience in writing programs using Assembly Language and also using some high level language like C/C++. In short a must read for all software professionals wanting to enhance their programming skills, because the ultimate aim of building a software is executing which can only be done with proper, good programming.

The real power of UNIX is in communication, 16 Sep 2005
The real power of UNIX or any application for that matter is in interprocess communication. I found early on that to accomplish any large project would require the cooperation of interprocess communication. Now I find that simple administration skills also require knowledge of this interprocess communication.

My first foray into the field was to use semaphores to flag processes to run at the proper time. Later I needed to use pipes for a front-end in communication to SNA. Again I found IPC's could help inform and control processes that were in canned packages and not accessible any other way. The list of useful tools can go on and on. I also had to find the NT equivalent as it became popular.

UNIX is still out there in many forms and if one is to survive in the field an understanding of interprocess communications is imperative.

The Abbreviated Table of Contents:
Part 1. Introduction
1. Introduction
2. POSIX IPC
3. System V IPC
Part 2. Message Passing
4. Pipes and FIFOs
5. Posix Message Queues
6. System V Message Queues
Part 3. Synchronization
7. Mutexes and Condition Variables
8. Read-Write Locks
9. Record Locking
10. POSIX Semaphores
11. System V Semaphores
Part 4. Shared Memory
12. Shared Memory Introduction
13. POSIX Shared Memory
14. System V Shared Memory
Part 5. Remote Procedure Calls
15. Doors
16. Sun RPC
Epilogue
Appendix A. Performance Measurements
Appendix B. Threads Primer
Appendix C. Miscellaneous Source Code
Appendix D. Solutions to Selected Exercises
Bibliography
Index

One final note is that with systems dispersed globally Remote Procedures Calls are taking precedence in Interprocess communications.

This book is NOT about using networks in Unix, 20 Mar 2001
THIS volume is about networks in the sense of communicating processes - running mostly, though not exclusively, on the same machine.

If you want to know about using networks like TCP/IP, you need Volume 1.

If you want to know about using pipes, synchronisation etc. the examples and explanations are clear and well thought out. If you don't need quite the same depth 'Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment' by the same author covers much of the same material

Excellent book on Unix Interprocess communication, 05 Jan 2001
Most of the reviews here seem to imply this book is about sockets and TCP/IP. This book covers Unix IPC and describes the subject in detail. If you want to know all about sockets, you want Unix Network Programming, Networking APIs Sockets and XTI, which is Volume 1

Good but not thorough., 05 Nov 1998
I didn't get exactly what I needed out of this book. It's good as a reference, but I think it leaves out some information on different topics. The IPC section is a little skimpy, but then again it's not a book about IPC per se...some of the stuff the way it was written was not any more understandable than a manpage, and often you buy books hoping that they are worded less cryptically than manpages. On the upside, I got most of what I needed out of it.

As always, Stevens is worth every penny., 03 Nov 1998
Ok, I will admit to be biased. Stevens is a unix programming god. Or mine anyway.

However, I will dare say that again he has improved his previous good work. I felt that he improved and showed a lot more in his second edition of Volume I, and I felt the same way about volume II. While his was HARDLY the first serious book on thread programming that I have read (I also suggest programming with Posix Threads, if it interests you), his was very informative, from both a beginner and advanced standpoint. If you have only one author to buy, this is it.

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Lack of real examples, 29 Jul 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver.

Saved my bacon more than once..., 06 Oct 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver...

Still an essential text, 29 Mar 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.

The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.

The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.

The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition., 15 Jul 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.

The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.

... Make sure you order the second edition...

Excellent but dated, 31 Aug 2000
If you want to learn how to write a Linux driver then you MUST buy this book! It gives a very good background into the workings of the Linux device module system. The text is very readable and usually puts (some very complex) ideas across in a manner that doesn't scare the reader off - the multitude of code fragments also help a lot! However, there is one caveat. The book was written at a time when the Linux Module system was in a state of flux. The text is written focusing on version 2.0.x of the kernel but there were some major changes to the structure and some system calls between then and version 2.2.x . There is an attempt, at the back of the book, to outline the new changes (as at version 2.1.43), but these are a bit vague and not many examples are given. Maybe it's not such a bad thing though...The current version of the linux module system as at Version 2.2.x is, I believe, going to be used in the next release. Please, Mr. Rubini, update the text to be more current! If you do I'll buy a copy of the book and recommend it to anyone!

Truly excellent guide, 23 May 2001
If the author ever revises the book, it would be nice to see a chapter on migrating code from draft 4 (CMA) threads to pthreads. Other than that, this really is the definitive guide to the subject.

The only book you need on threads, 26 May 1999
If you are thinking of developing a multi-threaded application, and you have absolutely no idea what threads are, this is the book for you. Starting from very simple exapmles, this book takes you to real-time scheduling and extended synchronisation techniques (barriers etc.), copmlete with code and hints on how to debug multi-threaded apps. Buy it now...

Thorough, readable, excellent, 12 Apr 1999
This is one of the best computing books I have read. Very readable and covers everything from explaining threads to advanced thread programming. The examples are just right: small enough to read quickly, big enough to be useful. You only need one book on threads and this is it.

Not a bad book, 25 Jun 2007
Ok, I have never ever used dos, so this book is great, its nice and easy to read and very helpful to get you going, but! his jokes are very bad and there just too many, I just started to get really into a subject and he would just spoil it with a very geeky sad joke. Other than that the book is fantastic for dos beginners.

This is really " Computers for Dummies" in disguise., 21 Oct 2004
The covers is "DOS for Dummies; however on further inspection you will find it also describes how indirect hardware, modems, dealing with diskettes, dealing with databases, using msbackup of and the differences between the different DOS's.

GOOD at most bits BAD at some bits., 31 Jul 1999
I thought it is aright book and a good reference book. The reason why I gave a low rating because in some parts it lost me. I didn't understand a bit in those parts which lost me. It had a tiny bit of humour and got boring at most times. There is also good think about and a bad thing about the book. I will tell the good thing, it tells you how to connect printers, modems and other hardware. If you are a beginner who knows ZIP about installing hardware and software this is the book. But on the other hand I knew how to install hardware and software so it got boring. There should be two types of book, the book which is released now and a new book only about DOS nothing else.

This book explained about DOS, and Campared it with Windows, 11 Jul 1998
I thought that the book was an excellent book. It easily told you what DOS is doing, and why it is not as good as MS Windows. The book also gave the difference between the different DOSes there are. There is not much to say about this book , only that it is a great book. I have to say, DOS is very annyoing and slow, and the book really pushed that. That is why I am giving this book a 4

Good book, 30 Oct 1997
It's a good DOS reference when you need it, it can teach you how to do some nice tricks with DOS, and it's got jokes all throughout the book. A little unorganized but overall it's a nice book for anyone who wants to learn about DOS.

Excellent reference, 24 Feb 2004
As an experienced developer writing device drivers for Windows, I bought this as reference material and can thoroughly recommend it.

The writing style is highly accessible; saying what to do and then the reason/theory why. I find the examples helpful with sensible annotations - certainly not a book of listings. The author doesn't run from describing details that you need!

The second edition copy I have comes with a CD with a searchable copy of the book and the sample code. The author has a web site for errata and updates too.

Recommended!

Must Read Book For all Programmers Writing System Level Code, 04 Sep 2001
This is a must read book for all Software Professionals writing System Level Code. It tells you how to program Hardware devices. Though there might hardly be any need to write programs for the hardware that one might be required but still it would be a nice hands on if one wants to develop programs for his own hardware for which pre built programs are not already written. To learn quicker one must have a good hands on experience in writing programs using Assembly Language and also using some high level language like C/C++. In short a must read for all software professionals wanting to enhance their programming skills, because the ultimate aim of building a software is executing which can only be done with proper, good programming.

The real power of UNIX is in communication, 16 Sep 2005
The real power of UNIX or any application for that matter is in interprocess communication. I found early on that to accomplish any large project would require the cooperation of interprocess communication. Now I find that simple administration skills also require knowledge of this interprocess communication.

My first foray into the field was to use semaphores to flag processes to run at the proper time. Later I needed to use pipes for a front-end in communication to SNA. Again I found IPC's could help inform and control processes that were in canned packages and not accessible any other way. The list of useful tools can go on and on. I also had to find the NT equivalent as it became popular.

UNIX is still out there in many forms and if one is to survive in the field an understanding of interprocess communications is imperative.

The Abbreviated Table of Contents:
Part 1. Introduction
1. Introduction
2. POSIX IPC
3. System V IPC
Part 2. Message Passing
4. Pipes and FIFOs
5. Posix Message Queues
6. System V Message Queues
Part 3. Synchronization
7. Mutexes and Condition Variables
8. Read-Write Locks
9. Record Locking
10. POSIX Semaphores
11. System V Semaphores
Part 4. Shared Memory
12. Shared Memory Introduction
13. POSIX Shared Memory
14. System V Shared Memory
Part 5. Remote Procedure Calls
15. Doors
16. Sun RPC
Epilogue
Appendix A. Performance Measurements
Appendix B. Threads Primer
Appendix C. Miscellaneous Source Code
Appendix D. Solutions to Selected Exercises
Bibliography
Index

One final note is that with systems dispersed globally Remote Procedures Calls are taking precedence in Interprocess communications.

This book is NOT about using networks in Unix, 20 Mar 2001
THIS volume is about networks in the sense of communicating processes - running mostly, though not exclusively, on the same machine.

If you want to know about using networks like TCP/IP, you need Volume 1.

If you want to know about using pipes, synchronisation etc. the examples and explanations are clear and well thought out. If you don't need quite the same depth 'Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment' by the same author covers much of the same material

Excellent book on Unix Interprocess communication, 05 Jan 2001
Most of the reviews here seem to imply this book is about sockets and TCP/IP. This book covers Unix IPC and describes the subject in detail. If you want to know all about sockets, you want Unix Network Programming, Networking APIs Sockets and XTI, which is Volume 1

Good but not thorough., 05 Nov 1998
I didn't get exactly what I needed out of this book. It's good as a reference, but I think it leaves out some information on different topics. The IPC section is a little skimpy, but then again it's not a book about IPC per se...some of the stuff the way it was written was not any more understandable than a manpage, and often you buy books hoping that they are worded less cryptically than manpages. On the upside, I got most of what I needed out of it.

As always, Stevens is worth every penny., 03 Nov 1998
Ok, I will admit to be biased. Stevens is a unix programming god. Or mine anyway.

However, I will dare say that again he has improved his previous good work. I felt that he improved and showed a lot more in his second edition of Volume I, and I felt the same way about volume II. While his was HARDLY the first serious book on thread programming that I have read (I also suggest programming with Posix Threads, if it interests you), his was very informative, from both a beginner and advanced standpoint. If you have only one author to buy, this is it.

Really excellent, 16 Apr 2007
Not knowing much about unix and having recently moved into a unix environment, I was after a reference book that would allow me to get up to speed quickly.

This book has done precisely that. I wasn't after yards and yards of pros, just a reference for the various commands and switches. I would recommend it to anyone in a similar situation to myself. It's compact, comprehensive and cheap. What more could you want?

Magnificent! I'll probably wear this book out!, 04 Jun 2008
This book starts by covering the kernel architecture, placing drivers in their context and discussing the support structures that exist for them, with that start everything else follows naturally, and logically.

This book is bang up to date and addresses every significant class of driver, and many of the idiosyncrasies of the driver models. While old hands will know much of this material already, this is the one stop reference for 90% of the details you'll need for the task in hand, and has excellent pointers for where to find the rest.

This is one of the best "working knowledges" available on paper, and is both a great starting point on the road of experience, as well as a worthy reference for those en-route.


Experienced sysadmin topics, 22 Oct 2008
This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Dry reading (Altho I am IT reading adict), 13 May 2008
The book contents are very rich but unfortunately the book was a dry read which is very rare for me calling any IT book a dry read!!

It is the ways to learn UNIX, 27 Feb 2006
Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Lack of real examples, 29 Jul 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver.

Saved my bacon more than once..., 06 Oct 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver...

Still an essential text, 29 Mar 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.

The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.

The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.

The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition., 15 Jul 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.

The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.

... Make sure you order the second edition...

Excellent but dated, 31 Aug 2000
If you want to learn how to write a Linux driver then you MUST buy this book! It gives a very good background into the workings of the Linux device module system. The text is very readable and usually puts (some very complex) ideas across in a manner that doesn't scare the reader off - the multitude of code fragments also help a lot! However, there is one caveat. The book was written at a time when the Linux Module system was in a state of flux. The text is written focusing on version 2.0.x of the kernel but there were some major changes to the structure and some system calls between then and version 2.2.x . There is an attempt, at the back of the book, to outline the new changes (as at version 2.1.43), but these are a bit vague and not many examples are given. Maybe it's not such a bad thing though...The current version of the linux module system as at Version 2.2.x is, I believe, going to be used in the next release. Please, Mr. Rubini, update the text to be more current! If you do I'll buy a copy of the book and recommend it to anyone!

Truly excellent guide, 23 May 2001
If the author ever revises the book, it would be nice to see a chapter on migrating code from draft 4 (CMA) threads to pthreads. Other than that, this really is the definitive guide to the subject.

The only book you need on threads, 26 May 1999
If you are thinking of developing a multi-threaded application, and you have absolutely no idea what threads are, this is the book for you. Starting from very simple exapmles, this book takes you to real-time scheduling and extended synchronisation techniques (barriers etc.), copmlete with code and hints on how to debug multi-threaded apps. Buy it now...

Thorough, readable, excellent, 12 Apr 1999
This is one of the best computing books I have read. Very readable and covers everything from explaining threads to advanced thread programming. The examples are just right: small enough to read quickly, big enough to be useful. You only need one book on threads and this is it.

Not a bad book, 25 Jun 2007
Ok, I have never ever used dos, so this book is great, its nice and easy to read and very helpful to get you going, but! his jokes are very bad and there just too many, I just started to get really into a subject and he would just spoil it with a very geeky sad joke. Other than that the book is fantastic for dos beginners.

This is really " Computers for Dummies" in disguise., 21 Oct 2004
The covers is "DOS for Dummies; however on further inspection you will find it also describes how indirect hardware, modems, dealing with diskettes, dealing with databases, using msbackup of and the differences between the different DOS's.

GOOD at most bits BAD at some bits., 31 Jul 1999
I thought it is aright book and a good reference book. The reason why I gave a low rating because in some parts it lost me. I didn't understand a bit in those parts which lost me. It had a tiny bit of humour and got boring at most times. There is also good think about and a bad thing about the book. I will tell the good thing, it tells you how to connect printers, modems and other hardware. If you are a beginner who knows ZIP about installing hardware and software this is the book. But on the other hand I knew how to install hardware and software so it got boring. There should be two types of book, the book which is released now and a new book only about DOS nothing else.

This book explained about DOS, and Campared it with Windows, 11 Jul 1998
I thought that the book was an excellent book. It easily told you what DOS is doing, and why it is not as good as MS Windows. The book also gave the difference between the different DOSes there are. There is not much to say about this book , only that it is a great book. I have to say, DOS is very annyoing and slow, and the book really pushed that. That is why I am giving this book a 4

Good book, 30 Oct 1997
It's a good DOS reference when you need it, it can teach you how to do some nice tricks with DOS, and it's got jokes all throughout the book. A little unorganized but overall it's a nice book for anyone who wants to learn about DOS.

Excellent reference, 24 Feb 2004
As an experienced developer writing device drivers for Windows, I bought this as reference material and can thoroughly recommend it.

The writing style is highly accessible; saying what to do and then the reason/theory why. I find the examples helpful with sensible annotations - certainly not a book of listings. The author doesn't run from describing details that you need!

The second edition copy I have comes with a CD with a searchable copy of the book and the sample code. The author has a web site for errata and updates too.

Recommended!

Must Read Book For all Programmers Writing System Level Code, 04 Sep 2001
This is a must read book for all Software Professionals writing System Level Code. It tells you how to program Hardware devices. Though there might hardly be any need to write programs for the hardware that one might be required but still it would be a nice hands on if one wants to develop programs for his own hardware for which pre built programs are not already written. To learn quicker one must have a good hands on experience in writing programs using Assembly Language and also using some high level language like C/C++. In short a must read for all software professionals wanting to enhance their programming skills, because the ultimate aim of building a software is executing which can only be done with proper, good programming.

The real power of UNIX is in communication, 16 Sep 2005
The real power of UNIX or any application for that matter is in interprocess communication. I found early on that to accomplish any large project would require the cooperation of interprocess communication. Now I find that simple administration skills also require knowledge of this interprocess communication.

My first foray into the field was to use semaphores to flag processes to run at the proper time. Later I needed to use pipes for a front-end in communication to SNA. Again I found IPC's could help inform and control processes that were in canned packages and not accessible any other way. The list of useful tools can go on and on. I also had to find the NT equivalent as it became popular.

UNIX is still out there in many forms and if one is to survive in the field an understanding of interprocess communications is imperative.

The Abbreviated Table of Contents:
Part 1. Introduction
1. Introduction
2. POSIX IPC
3. System V IPC
Part 2. Message Passing
4. Pipes and FIFOs
5. Posix Message Queues
6. System V Message Queues
Part 3. Synchronization
7. Mutexes and Condition Variables
8. Read-Write Locks
9. Record Locking
10. POSIX Semaphores
11. System V Semaphores
Part 4. Shared Memory
12. Shared Memory Introduction
13. POSIX Shared Memory
14. System V Shared Memory
Part 5. Remote Procedure Calls
15. Doors
16. Sun RPC
Epilogue
Appendix A. Performance Measurements
Appendix B. Threads Primer
Appendix C. Miscellaneous Source Code
Appendix D. Solutions to Selected Exercises
Bibliography
Index

One final note is that with systems dispersed globally Remote Procedures Calls are taking precedence in Interprocess communications.

This book is NOT about using networks in Unix, 20 Mar 2001
THIS volume is about networks in the sense of communicating processes - running mostly, though not exclusively, on the same machine.

If you want to know about using networks like TCP/IP, you need Volume 1.

If you want to know about using pipes, synchronisation etc. the examples and explanations are clear and well thought out. If you don't need quite the same depth 'Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment' by the same author covers much of the same material

Excellent book on Unix Interprocess communication, 05 Jan 2001
Most of the reviews here seem to imply this book is about sockets and TCP/IP. This book covers Unix IPC and describes the subject in detail. If you want to know all about sockets, you want Unix Network Programming, Networking APIs Sockets and XTI, which is Volume 1

Good but not thorough., 05 Nov 1998
I didn't get exactly what I needed out of this book. It's good as a reference, but I think it leaves out some information on different topics. The IPC section is a little skimpy, but then again it's not a book about IPC per se...some of the stuff the way it was written was not any more understandable than a manpage, and often you buy books hoping that they are worded less cryptically than manpages. On the upside, I got most of what I needed out of it.

As always, Stevens is worth every penny., 03 Nov 1998
Ok, I will admit to be biased. Stevens is a unix programming god. Or mine anyway.

However, I will dare say that again he has improved his previous good work. I felt that he improved and showed a lot more in his second edition of Volume I, and I felt the same way about volume II. While his was HARDLY the first serious book on thread programming that I have read (I also suggest programming with Posix Threads, if it interests you), his was very informative, from both a beginner and advanced standpoint. If you have only one author to buy, this is it.

Really excellent, 16 Apr 2007
Not knowing much about unix and having recently moved into a unix environment, I was after a reference book that would allow me to get up to speed quickly.

This book has done precisely that. I wasn't after yards and yards of pros, just a reference for the various commands and switches. I would recommend it to anyone in a similar sit