The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System (Unix and Open Systems Series.)

Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

The UNIX Programming Environment

The C Programming Language (2nd Edition)

Operating System Theory

Design of the UNIX Operating System (Prentice Hall Software Series)

Format: Textbook Binding
Author: Maurice J. Bach
ReleaseDate: 27 May, 1986
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Rating:

magnificent discussion of internal architecture of UNIX
I say this because only while reading Bach's book do I experience the sense of philsophic structural perfection, of tool-orientation, of practicality-versus-theoretic-efficiency tradeoff, that characterizes the earliest UNIX monographs (Ritchie, Kernighan, Bourne, Lycklama, Ossana; that sort of thing) that busied me as a freshman. While there may be more detail to be found in "The Magic Garden," or more up-to-date coverage in the likes of Vahalia or Schimmel, Bach's opus is, in the view of this twenty-plus-year UNIX guru, unmatched. Bach imparts to the reader a glorious--and gloriously holistic--depiction of the structure of the UNIX kernel as a unit. Algorithmic details are provided where appropriate. Exceptionally well thought-out exercises stimulate the reader to extend the textual material where meet. The material is assuredly out of date, but I dare you to critize, say, Lions as being "out of date" (whether or not it describes a 25-year-old, 9K-LOC kernel, it is a scripture of paramount importance, a cornerstone of my computer engineering [n. b. : I didn't say "computer science"] library).

For those who are wont to compare Leffler and Bach--if for no other reason than that they are coevals--I heartily endorse Bach over its competitor. It's nice. It's clean. It's precise. You just couldn't ask for more. And, BTW, stay away from "The Magic Garden. " I'm not sure that five hundred pages worth of out-of-context code excerpts, inundating the reader with thousands of kernel variables, accomplishes much by way of imparting conceptual understanding.

(I'm reminded: a customer of mine--an older gentleman with a Ph. D. in physics--once asked me for a concise description of the workings of UNIX, something that introduced the basic concepts at a scholarly but not overweight level. I told him I had a recommendation in mind. "You're going to give me 'The Magic Garden'," John complained; "Don't bother. It stinks!" Was John ever surprised when I pointed him to the third entry in Tanenbaum's Modern Operating Systems series. It has concise thirty or forty-page entries on UNIX, MS-DOS, and a handful of others. For those who want to know--from a scientist's viewpoint--what the fundamentals of the UNIX OS and superjacent environment are, what it can do, how one navigates within it, etc. , at a _conceptual_ level that trucks not with the details of Bach or Leffler, seek ye Tanenbaum II. ).

Awesome book on UNIX Internals
It is a comprhensive yet simple depiction of Unix Operating System. It is one of the greatest books that I have ever read on UNIX. This book is a MUST READ for UNIX / UNIX LIKE Operating System Engineers. It is worth possesing a copy as it can come handy quite regularly. I give it a full go go!.

A model for how technical books should be written
After almost 20 years, it provides a clear overview of basic Unix organization and operations and is a model for how technical books should be written. Maurice Bach's The Design of the Unix Operating System still holds the place of honor on my technical reference bookshelf. Readers who complain that the text is dated evidently did not bother to notice the 1986 copyright date. Its age, however, has not diminished its clarity of content or usefulness in understanding the Unix operating system. Bach deserves an award for excellence in technical writing.