Advanced Linux Programming 1st Edition

I'm working on my BS in Computer Science, and have spent years hunting over the web and bookstores for information on programming in the Linux enviroment.-This book is the BIBLE!I open each chapter and section as if I'm opening a treasure... and that is what this book is: a treasure trove of information, from thread management, interprocess communication, shared memory, devices, to even implementing inline assembly code!This book is well written as an introduction without overloading the reader with tangential information: it introduces each topic, shows hows it works and how to implement it (including simple illustrative sample code examples you can on your own machine), and where to get info on more in depth coverage.This book is a MUST for anyone who wants to understand the Linux enviroment! -Heck: it makes a good read just as an introduction to advanced tools in general! -I wish I had it years ago, and recommend it for ANYONE interested in programming in Linux, or just interested in developing their programming tools beyond "Hello World" !Heck: any CS teachers out ther should consider creating a programming course based on this book as an intro to advanced progamming topics in general: the authors have already done most of the work introducing not only how to use the tools, but how the tools work and how the system implements them!

Don't judge this book by its title. If you know how to program, but are a servant of the Microsoft Lord (we don't speak his name), this book is the pathway to learn Linux programming. It is very well written. If one has the discipline to work through the numerous examples, they will become proficient at Linux programming, e.g., fork new processes, implement pthreads, understand common system calls, and perhaps best of all benefit from the experience of the these Linux programmers. It is a fine book at the intermediate level.Try it out. This book is available free of charge at [...] Having an electronic copy is useful for searching, and it can be printed. A thank you is in order for a quality book made available to the public, free of charge. Thank you authors! I look forward to other books these fellows write. Don't be surprised if you find yourself valuing the book enough to purchase a copy from Amazon, but that is a personal decision.As a critical SOB (so says my wife), I do have some negative comments. The book has some errata, so be sure to download corrections from the web site. Also, the book is five years old, and a second edition would be wonderful. All considered, this book must be rated 5 stars, period.

This book is mostly on system programming. The title is accurate. The chapter on "Threads" is outstanding, which is not a topic in any other Linux book I've read. It talks about many pitfalls you may encounter and gives plenty of code with good interpretation. I don't have hands-on experience in threads. Reading this chapter helps understand Linux OS. The short chapter on in-line assembly is the most difficult to follow (my x86 experience started and stopped with 8086 instruction set). This also distinguishes this book from any other. Description of creating shared libraries is more thorough than Michael Johnson's book IMHO. Some topics, not really programming, are nonetheless interesting to read and hard to find in other sources (loopback filesystems e.g.) Overall, the book is technically sound and the text full of authors' wisdom.The authors could have made the book more pedagogically easier. Small things like telling readers "in" in "sockaddr_in" and "sin_family" probably means "internet" and "un" in "sockaddr_un" and "sun_family" means "unix". Describing arguments of each syscall or function should be accompanied by syntax (synopsis). Some important topics such as file descriptor multiplexing and daemons are omitted. (Daemon could be discussed in Chapter 11). Termio is almost not treated. The IPC chapter, relatively weak, is missing message queues. Finally, the publisher chose a very small font completely ignoring the fact that the Linux people often burn midnight oil!

See this link where you can download the whole book and decide for yourself!:[...]

Horrible quality spine for this book. Definitely the worst I've ever purchased. Arrived with a couple pages in the back falling out, and the entire thing is going to fall apart soon. I'm going to have to re-glue this myself.

From a Technical point of view the book is 5 stars. It explains several programming topics using C code examples that you can easily follow and modify at will.The topics could be expanded to hundreds of pages but for me it was just right to use it as a starting point to understand the concepts of Linux programming.I changed it to 3 stars because the pages are getting loose along with the cover after some weeks. I will glue it myself.

This book was a pleasant surprise. Not 700-1000 pages, but just above 300 pages and packed with information and small workable c-examples. I was walked through creating basic applications, shared & static libraries, sockets, pipes and security, forks/threads and detailed expamples on synchronization mechanisms. The book also guides you through creation of a relatively simple web server with plugin-modules. Quite fun !So in addition to discover how typical intermediate/advanced programming tasks were handled in Linux I also learned a lot more on how the system works.No shell programming here - only C. Keep your Linux box close by when reading!