Book Review - The Linux Programming Interface

About the BookThe Linux Programming Interface (No Starch Press, October 2010, 1552 pp., $99.95, ISBN 9781593272203) is the definitive guide to the Linux and UNIX programming interface—the interface employed by nearly every application that runs on a Linux or UNIX system. In this extraordinarily thorough work, Michael Kerrisk, longtime maintainer of the Linux man-pages project, explains the "how and why" of using the hundreds of system calls and library functions needed to master system programming. A large number of example programs, tables, and diagrams round out the discussion.

It can be difficult and time-consuming to learn how to develop system programs for Linux. It's not unusual for programmers to scour several manuals—or hundreds of web pages—before finding the information they need. According to Michael Kerrisk, "The Linux Programming Interface is the book I wanted when I first switched from UNIX to predominantly working in Linux more than a decade ago." He added that it is "...a broad and deep system programming book that covers Linux-specific details while also clearly delineating standard features available on all UNIX systems. Long before I completed writing this book, it had already become my own primary system programming reference."

In The Linux Programming Interface readers learn how to:

• Read and write files efficiently
• Use signals, clocks, and timers
• Create processes and execute programs
• Write secure programs
• Write multithreaded programs using POSIX threads
• Build and use shared libraries
• Perform interprocess communication using pipes, message queues, shared memory, and semaphores
• Write network applications with the sockets API

No other book on the market offers the depth and breadth of The Linux Programming Interface. This is sure to become the go-to guide for anyone developing system applications for Linux and UNIX platforms.

About the Author
Michael Kerrisk has been using and programming UNIX systems for more than 20 years, and has taught many week-long courses on UNIX system programming. Since 2004, he has maintained the man-pages project (http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages), which produces the manual pages describing the Linux kernel and glibc programming APIs. He has written or co-written more than 250 of the manual pages and is actively involved in the testing and design review of new Linux kernel-userspace interfaces. Michael lives with his family in Munich, Germany.

My Take on the Book
This book is amazing! It is so much more thorough and comprehensive than any other Linux book that I have read through in the past. I have to be honest to say that I have never considered myself to be an expert in Linux programming, but I have dabbled in it in the past. This book however has set the bar so high because it truly walks you through pretty much any issue that I can think of in regards to programming in Linux.  With 64 chapters which cover a myriad of different topics and uses 200 example programs, 88 tables, 115 diagrams and 1506 pages, you will be as amazed as I was to the treasure that this book is.

One of the things that I appreciated in the chapters were the exercises that they have you work on as you are going through the book. Though some chapters only have one exercise, you still get challenged by the author to utilize the knowledge that he is imparting in the chapter.

The book itself claims to be a 'new classic' and though this seems a bit pretentious, I would have to agree with them. I have to agree and say that you will not find another as comprehensive resource on the market today! 

Overall this is an amazing read and I highly recommend it to all Linux programmers (or wanna-be's).

If you want this book in your own home you can find it on Amazon!

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site's Terms of Use  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New to the Divadom?
Please Subscribe to my RSS Feed! Subscribe in a reader
Questions?Drop me a line at dadofdivas@gmail.com