Reddit mentions of Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, 3rd Edition

If you're new to C, read K&R.

Once you've done that (or if you already know C) then read THE book on Unix programming

Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, 3rd Edition

If you know some C, this is a great book with a hands-on approach and plenty of code examples.

It’s gonna be hard to give you much without picking a specific OS—details can vary widely even within a single OS family line—but an OS book is probably a good place to start. Tanenbaum’s book is the go-to.

Alternatively, there are books on specific techniques like garbage collection, or books more generally on programming for UNIX/POSIX/Linux or Windows (via Win16/32/64 API, not the six-mile-high shitheap piled atop), which would tell you some about how memory management works in down at least to whatever abstract hardware interface the kernel uses.

I'm a graduating senior studying computer science. Last semester I took an intense C course (Advanced Programming in C and C++ (Spring 2014 course page)). The majority of the class focused on C, with the last few weeks introducing C++ concepts such as the built-in data structures and templating. The hardest project was writing a web server in C, and although you probably won't be doing anything like that, I recommend you dive into these books alongside K&R:

Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, Third Edition. Can be pricy, but you may be able to find this online if you know where to look. I recommend you have a hard copy as a reference manual though.

Learn C The Hard Way. Say what you want about Zed Shaw, but I worked through this book alongside K&R just before I started Advanced Programming and really liked the way he takes you through the C fundamentals. The book is free in HTML form, or you can opt to buy the eBook.

Hope that helps!

I believe this book would be of interest, its big and bad, but from memory it is exactly what you are looking for, infact it basically gives you all you need to know to start implementing your own fully featured shell:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-Addison-Wesley/dp/0201433079


EDIT: Seems there is a new edition, it is over 25 years old and has been updated multiple times to cover new standards so this one is probably better, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Programming-Environment-Addison-Wesley-Professional-Computing/dp/0321637739/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

two of mine were The Design of the UNIX Operating System and Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

one of the other big things was some original unix documentation. I cant recall the name of them but there were small paperback book released early on for unix describing how to use and program for it. I remember someone linkijg to it either on reddit or hn a couple months ago.

A note re: jumping into The Linux Kernel -- This is best tackled while simultaneously reading a book on the kernel like Linux Kernel Development (3rd Edition) by Robert Love and a book on general *nix fundamentals like Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment by Stevens and Rago.

Why don't you start reading this?

Should help u a lot with Unix Internals and system calls.

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Environment-Addison-Wesley-Professional-Computing/dp/0321637739

Tools like this show you what the system is doing for the application. If you don't know what applications want to do, the output is going to be hard to understand. Perhaps work on some UNIX programming to see what UNIX looks like from an app's point of view?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321637739

I just started learning it for my class in University. I am surprised at how much I like it and how much deeper my understanding of Linux has got. It might be annoying at first but trust me, you learn a lot. You should also give Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment a read. It has taught me so many things already!

Not as far as I know, but I've seen this book being recommended some times: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-POSIX-Threads-David-Butenhof/dp/0201633922/

I've never read it.

APUE is generally recommended (not specifically for multithreading though), and it has chapters on multithreading and multiprocess programming: http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-Edition/dp/0321637739/

Obs.: People are talking about multithreading a lot, but there are other approaches. Multiprocess is another way to possibly take advantage of multiple cores on a CPU or multiple processors on a computer. Differences between the two approaches involve:

• what your OS defines as a thread and as a process (processes and threads are commonly OS supported concepts, but I've read about multithreading that doesn't require specific OS support for threads [green threads - check http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GreenVsNativeThreads], but I've never heard multiprocess programming without the assumption of the existence of an OS that supports the idea of a process and of multi processes running "at the same time" [it seems possible to me to extend the notion of green threads and come up with something like green processes, but I've never seen that done out there]);
  
• what means through which threads can pass data around and what means through which processes can pass data around;
  
• the amount of resources it gets utilized to create and destroy a thread and a process;
  
• etc.
  
  Processes are generally heavier weight (they spend more resources) and are more isolated from each other, in comparison to threads.

The best book I've run into on this front is http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-3rd/dp/0321637739/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453687799&sr=1-1&keywords=advanced+programming+in+the+unix+environment

"Operating Systems" and "Software Tools and Systems Programming" were the most helpful to me. Both were difficult with difficult profs, but very interesting so I got a lot out of it. The Stevens' book was the text for "Software Tools" and all his books are very good.

Self-directed teaching has its limitations. For example, misreading or misunderstanding the system documentation. Debugging would have been less useful here because the program blows up after you make a system call -- a typical indication of programmer error. One tool you can use in such a situation is more documentation, especially one with additional examples and discussion. Take a look at Advanced Programming UNIX Environment, 3rd edition to get more information on system programming. It helps you build up a foundation and serves as a solid reference.

Not to dismiss the other book suggestions because they are also good but one of the most important, relevant, useful and famous books of all time about UNIX internal stuff is "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" by Richard Stevens -- Amazon Link


It's not for the faint of heart and you'll need solid understanding of C-based languages... it's as gory as it can get. :)

In that case...
You may want to wait for the 5th edition of UNIX and Linux System Administration, as it should release near the end of this year and they don't release new versions that often.

A good way to get started building a college library is to see what the curriculum for the school is and what books are required by professors. Often other colleges will list their book recommendations for the courses online to get an idea of where to start looking. (I know my school has an online bookstore that lists the books for each course and is open to the public)

At least one or two good books in each of those categories, to get a rough idea to start:

• General Programming (A book for each core language, though a lot of information is online as well)
  C, C++, Java, Python and Ruby are popular to start with
  
  
• Web Development (a wide area, but an html/css/javascript text is basic)
  
  
• System Programming (Windows and Linux are wildly different, should probably have both even if not taught - though you already have one linux system programming text recommended, 'the linux programming interface')
  https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-3rd/dp/0321637739
  https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Paperback-Addison-Wesley-Microsoft-Technology/dp/0134382250
  
  
• Computer Networking
  you already have a couple here
  
  
• Algorithms - the selected book (Introduction to Algorithms) is good, sometimes used for two courses, a complementary text wouldn't hurt too
  
  
• Artificial Intelligence
  https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Modern-Approach-3rd/dp/0136042597
  
  
• Numerical Methods
  
  
• System Administration (Windows and Linux are different, the recommended text is good for Linux - here's a windows one)
  https://www.amazon.com/Windows-Internals-Part-architecture-management/dp/0735684189 (coming soon)
  
  
• Parallel Computing
  
  
• Distributed Computing
  
  
• Operating Systems - I personally like Stallings' text, though Tanenbaum and Silberschatz is popular too
  
  
• Databases - Nearly all the database books are not that good, in my opinion, but still should have something
  
  
• Cryptography
  
  
• Computer Security
  
  Edit: On second thought, pretty much every college teaches system programming on linux - so perhaps just the linux texts would be adequate for that.

As others have mentioned, trying to use Vim as an IDE is thinking about the problem or Vim in an inverse manner that will lead to frustration. The Acme Text Editor's model for composing tools to form an IDE is exactly how one uses Vim most effectively.

A concrete Vim specific example is programming Go in Vim: VimGo. Note how in the context of Go instead of subsuming the functionality of external tools, the external tools are instead leveraged and exposed through an interface or accessed through existing Vim functionality.

That is exactly how to wield Vim and external tools masterfully and with the most efficacy. The Unix as an IDE articles discuss this concept in depth also and are excellent. Separation of concerns is precisely how all tools should be designed, something which Plan 9 and Inferno OS display masterfully and irrefutably; note how well done, completely encapsulated abstractions enable a completely composable environment as a result, brilliant no?

That same pursuit is realized through the Go toolchain, much of Haskell, and increasingly through the Clang toolchain, which is very powerful and very freeing to create great, completely optimized workflows.

If you really want to grok the mindset and approach to wielding external tools effectively and why tools must be designed this way for maximum workflow efficacy, I highly recommend reading and understanding the literature written by Brian Stuart's Principles of Operating Systems: Design and Applications that covers Inferno OS's design very well, and W. Richard Stevens' Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, the latter of which is a classic CS text and very lucid. Cat-V has a lot of great articles which discuss various tools as well.

The workflows enabled through the UNIX Philosophy is so much more effecient that even when outside a UNIX environment I utilize the tools through a VM rather than being hamstrung in an environment which eschews that design completely.

And because these tools are ubiquitous I can avoid relearning how to accomplish the same thing over and over as a result, meaning that the initial opportunity cost is worthwhile in the long run. Linux is increasingly incorporating features in the kernel which improve upon previous implementations as well as in user space, so it is an exciting time for system programmers as well as other programmers.

I'd make sure I have a really solid understanding of systems and networks, e.g. how Linux works. This book seems like a great overview and I love No Starch Press. There's also this book which is used by Carnegie Mellon's introductory systems course, though that might be a bit too deep to dive into straight away, more like something that could be used if you want a deeper understanding of how systems work. You should have some familiarity with C just as foundational knowledge. The guy who wrote Learn Python The Hard Way also wrote an intro to C, Learn C the Hard Way. He's added a lot more material than the last time I checked (~Dec 2012) which looks like it covers a lot of topics so it would be great to work through it.

Some more technical books on this subject that are well regarded and can be used as reference books are Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, Unix Network Programming, and The Linux Programming Interface

Also in addition to Python I'd also suggest learning some Ruby (Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby and Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0 are two resources I'd recommend), it's what Chef is/was implemented in and is fairly nice to work with.

Here you go: Advanced Programming UNIX Environment Edition.

Assuming you're using Linux/Unix/BSD, this book will be invaluable: http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-Edition/dp/0321637739

To start with, read up on select(), as that will be your friend. Doing something like this will be really tricky to get right.

Just go straight to C++ then.

If not, http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781565923065.do then https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp/0131774298 then https://faculty.washington.edu/jstraub/dsa/Master_2_7a.pdf

I haven't read the last one, but I skimmed through it. You need that.

Hmm, what next? Ah, https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-3rd/dp/0321637739 if that's your thing. You may find that online without having to buy it for the 2nd edition.

Oh, sockets... http://www.csd.uoc.gr/~hy556/material/tutorials/cs556-3rd-tutorial.pdf however, back when I studied those, I read beej's tutorial: http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/

You obviously don't need all of that. The first book I listed is enough, but maybe it'll be fun to work through them?

Geany might be a friendly alternative to VS. Otherwise GCC-G++ and make files are your friend. A decent book to read on how to utilize the power of Linux with c/c++ is Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment :

https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-3rd/dp/0321637739

It will teach you about headers you won't find on Windows and how to program the whole operating system using c. But this can always be extended to c++ since c++ is a superset of c.😂

You'll want APUE 3rd Ed for something like this.

I personally consider it a must-have.

Other things to note, you may/may not want to setrlimit for core dumps if you have sensitive information in the daemon. Calling fork() and then killing the parent is considered standard as is calling setsid(), closing all file handles and opening 0/1/2 to /dev/null.

You don't need a school for this.

Low Level Programming Languages

• http://www.buildyourownlisp.com/ - teaches you C and how to make your own lisp
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Interfaces-Implementations-Techniques-Creating-Reusable/dp/0201498413 - Must read
  
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/562303/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list - More here
  
  For some Assembly
  
  
• http://www.nand2tetris.org/ - Course and book (free)
  
• http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Computer-Programming-Vol/dp/0201896834 - Knuth teaches you how to approach any platform and code assembly for it. While you're at it, get Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms, Volume 3: Sorting and Searching and Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms.
  
  Software Reverse Engineering
  Nostarch press/Wiley has books on this, plenty of defcon lectures. Watch 'Trolling with Math' as a way to defend against reverse engineering.
  
  Operating System Theory
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Lions-Commentary-Unix-John/dp/1573980137 The book on Unix theory.
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Environment-Addison-Wesley-Professional-Computing/dp/0321637739/ref=pd_cp_b_0 Modern programming on UNIX-like OSs and theory.
  
• http://eudyptula-challenge.org/ - build some custom linux kernel modules.
  
  Also look up MIT classes 6.004 and 6.033 they cover all this in detail. Can find vids online of record lectures, open courseware assignments and lecture notes, ect.
  
  Networking
  
  
• Grok OpenBSD's network stack. TC/IP is incredibly complex, you'll see why when you learn about it. Henning Brauer's papers about pf firewalls, network theory and weirdness in TC/IP checksums are here http://www.openbsd.org/papers/
  
• The above MIT classes.
  
  
  Cellular and Mobile Communications
  
  
• The Android Hacker's Handbook
  
• The iOS Hacker's Handbook
  
• Look up modern protocols like LTE
  
• Grok OpenBTS.org
  
  Discrete Math
  
  
• Take this course: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-042j-mathematics-for-computer-science-fall-2010/
  
• Read Sheldon Axler's Precalculus.
  
• Take Calculus Single and Multi Variable from MIT Open Courseware or coursera
  
• Read Sheldon Axler's Linear Algebra Done Right
  
• Take course on Logic from coursera/MIT
  
  Overview of Cyber Defense
  
  
• Network Security books: http://www.nostarch.com/catalog/security read Blackhat python, Security Data VIsualization for theory and detection, find some book somewhere on Security Architecture and read it for theory.
  
• Cryptography https://www.crypto101.io/ and Matthew D Green's course which posts lecture notes in the calender, or coursera.org courses. Do Matasano Crypto Challenges. Read Niels Ferguson's objections to XTS how when stored in a cloud, numerous new attacks are available for block cipher modes http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/toolkit/BCM/documents/comments/XTS/collected_XTS_comments.pdf so never use any block cipher on something that isn't actual hardware.
  
  Security Fundamental Principles (i.e., “First Principles”)
  Above material covers this
  
  Vulnerabilities
  
  
• http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2013/handouts
  
• Watch/Read security con lectures, Get a bughunting/rootkit book from NoStarch Press
  
  Legal
  No idea

I learned so much when I was in college from this book about C and the OS http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Environment-Addison-Wesley-Professional-Computing/dp/0321637739/ref=dp_ob_title_bk I haven't looked at the newest edition though.

Many people may disagree with me, but as a Linux user on the younger side of the spectrum, I have to say there was one thing that really worked for me to finally switch for good- books.

There's tons of wikis and forums and of course Reddit to ask questions, but it is hard to get good answers. You may end up paying for books (unless you look on the internet for books) but it doesn't beat having a hard copy in front of you. It boils down to a time vs money trade off. The only wiki I would follow is one directly from the developers that act as documentation, not a community wiki. Also worth nothing certain wikis are more tied to linux and the kernel than others, meaning some are comparable/interchangable with the distro you may be using. Still, a novice would not easily put this together.

Forums are also useless unless you have the configuration mentioned in the post or that forum curates tutorials from a specific build they showcase and you as a user decided to build your system to their specifications. There's way too many variables trying to follow online guides, some of which may be out of date.

This i've realized is very true with things like Iommu grouping and PCI Passthrough for kernel based virtual machines. At that point you start modifying in your root directory, things like your kernel booting parameters and what drivers or hardware you're gonna bind or unbind from your system. While that does boil down to having the right hardware, you have to know what you're digging into your kernel for if you dont follow a guide with the same exact parts that are being passthrough or the cpus or chipsets are different.

Books are especially handy when you have a borked system, like you're in a bash prompt or an initramfs prompt or grub and need to get into a bootable part of the system. Linux takes practice. Sometimes its easier to page through a book than to search through forums.

Another thing about being an intermediate or expert Linux user is that you don't care much about distros or what other users or communities do. It wont matter as under the hood it's all the same, spare the desktop and the package managers. Once you're out of that mentality you just care about getting whatever you want done. I'm not one of those guys that's super gung-ho FOSS and open source. I just use what gets the job done. Also from a security perspective, yes Linux is in theory MORE secure but anything can be hardened or left vulnerable. It's more configuration tied than many uses and forums or threads lead it on to be.

My workload involves talking to servers and quite a bit of programming and scripting, in a variety of capacities. That's what led me to linux over the competitors, but I'm not so prudent to never ever want to use the competitor again or have a computer with it. With understanding Linux more, I use it more as a tool than to be part of the philosophy or community, though that enthusiasm pushes for new developments in the kernel.

I'm assuming you're a novice but comfortable enough in linux to get through certain things:

In any computer related thing, always TEST a deployment or feature first- From your linux system, use KVM or Virtualbox/vmware to spin up a few linux VMs, could even be a copy of your current image. This way any tweaks or things you want to test or try out is in an environment you can start over in.

The quickest way to "intermediate-expert" Linux IMO is learning system administration.

My go to book for this is "The Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook 5th edition"

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0134277554/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Unix+and+Linux+System+Administration+Handbook+5th+edition&qid=1564448656&s=books&sr=1-1

This edition is updated recently to cover newer kernel features such as could environments and virtualization. This book also helps when learning BSD based stuff such as MacOS or FreeBSD.

Another good read for a "quick and dirty" understanding of Linux is "Linux Basics for Hackers" It does focus on a very niche distro and talks about tools that are not on all Linux systems BUT it does a good concise overview of intermediate things related to Linux (despite being called a beginners book).

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Basics-Hackers-Networking-Scripting/dp/1593278551/ref=sr_1_3?crid=396AV036T1Y0Q&keywords=linux+basics+for+hackers&qid=1564448845&s=books&sprefix=linux+bas%2Cstripbooks%2C119&sr=1-3

There's also "How Linux works" but I cannot vouch for this book from personal use, I see it posted across various threads often. Never read this particular one myself.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-2nd-Superuser/dp/1593275676/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/137-6604082-4373447?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1593275676&pd_rd_r=feffef24-d3c3-400d-a807-24d8fa39cd1e&pd_rd_w=8GX0o&pd_rd_wg=3AMRB&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=WBQKPADCVSABMCMSRRA1&psc=1&refRID=WBQKPADCVSABMCMSRRA1

​

If you want a more programming oriented approach, if you're confortable with the C language, then you can always look at these books:

The Linux Programming Interface

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Handbook/dp/1593272200/ref=zg_bs_3866_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5YN3316W22YQ4TSMM967

Unix Network Programming VOL 1.

https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Networking/dp/0131411551/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Unix+Network+Programming+VOL+1.&qid=1564448362&s=books&sr=1-1

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment

https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-3rd/dp/0321637739/ref=zg_bs_3866_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5YN3316W22YQ4TSMM967

These books would take you to understanding the kernel level processes and make your own and modify your own system.

As many have mentioned, you can go into these things with "Linux from scratch" but it's also feasible to do Linux from scratch by copy/pasting commands. Unless you tinker and fail at certain things (hence do it on a vm before doing it to the main system) you won't learn properly. I think the sysadmin approach is "safer" of the two options but to each their own.

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment by Stevens Also the best book for everything else.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, 3rd Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-3rd/dp/0321637739