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Introduction to System Programming in Linux (Early Access)

207 points

by teleforce

1 day ago

| past

| 10 comments

| nostarch.com

| HN

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hn_user82179

1 day ago

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Interesting, this might be perfect for me depending on how the book is written/who the target audience is. $60 for an ebook or $80 for the hard copy is extremely hard to swallow though. I absolutely think a book of that purported length means an author probably put a lot of effort and time into it, and should get compensated. But I'm not familiar with the author at all so you're really buying sight unseen. Has he written anything else? I couldn't find anything with a quick google search.

Tangentially related, I was hoping to skim at least the first chapter via the Safari Books Online subscription which afaik had all of the No-Starch books on there (including early access I thought?). But no luck, maybe it'll be added there closer to publication date.

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justin66

1 day ago

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Regarding the cost, just a quick note, when you buy the hard copy directly from No Starch Press you get perpetual access to the ebook as well. That's maybe cooler than it sounds: at any given time you've got access to the newest (or close to it) printing of the book via ebook, and it's nice to get the little updates and errata that accumulate over the years in a big book like for example, The Linux Programming Interface.

(at least that's the way they used to do business - I'm pretty sure they still do)

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kaycey2022

1 day ago

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I found a pdf of his Unix lecture notes on the "high seas". These were pretty good. I'm looking forward to his book and I will buy it.

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d3Xt3r

1 day ago

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I concur. At least a sample/preview of a couple of chapters would be nice. Bit of a hard sell to dump $60+ on a completely unknown piece of work.

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LMMojo

1 day ago

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I found only this: "A Time-independent Definition of Software Reliability"

https://a.co/d/0q7gkTo

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hn_user82179

1 day ago

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oh good find! I went from that title to the Internet Archive version (pdf alert: https://dn790007.ca.archive.org/0/items/timeindependentd00we...) (legal because as stated in that Amazon description, the paper is in the public domain).

I am both convinced the author is quite smart and hope that the topic/audience of the book is very different from the paper because I would not survive 1000 pages of that.

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Cebul1234

1 day ago

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Now it's $80 and $100. We should buy it quick, because the price is rising fast.

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DyslexicAtheist

1 day ago

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just ordered it. Not sure (judging from the ToC) if there is much of a difference to more classic literature such as Stevens' "Advanced Programming in the UNIX environment"

[1] https://github.com/zwan074/technical-books/blob/master/Advan...

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santiagobasulto

1 day ago

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If you can't afford this book yet, Prof Weiss has multiple courses listed with his course notes, which are EXTREMELY detailed and well written: https://www.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/~sweiss/courses.php

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__turbobrew__

1 day ago

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I might buy it, but the content already seems to overlap with APUE and/or the Linux Programming Interface

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romerstomer

1 day ago

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I've read both and still refer to TLPI as the bible. But if ever a subject needed an ELIF version, it is this one

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__turbobrew__

1 day ago

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I could see there being space for a book which covers new(er) kernel mechanisms and features, but as you said TLPI is the Word and if your book covers the same content it doesn’t add a lot of value.

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kaycey2022

1 day ago

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TLPI is ELIF version though

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alfiedotwtf

1 day ago

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APUE is a National Treasure, but I think LPI has long surpassed it as what you should keep within from your desk chair. LPI is a goldmine and the gift that keeps on giving, but this book looks like a nice easing into it. Instabuy!

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dmart

1 day ago

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Would be interested in any impressions of this vs. TLPI. Seems like it covers a lot of similar topics.

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synergy20

1 day ago

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looked at the toc,so similar to tlpi the bible book, and did not have chapters to cover what's new,e.g. cgroups,io_uring,namespaces,ebpf,etc. honestly i lost my interest immediately

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adeptima

1 day ago

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if author covers cgroups,io_uring,namespaces,ebpf topics and update the book repo, i would just buy it to support.

https://github.com/stewartweiss/intro-linux-sys-prog

IMHO having up-to-date broad range of simple examples is worth of 100 bucks

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cyberax

1 day ago

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> Chapter 15: Interactive Programming > Chapter 16: The NCurses Library

That seems... kinda obsolete?

IMO, newer editions should focus on newer APIs like io_uring, cgroups, namespaces.

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PeterWhittaker

1 day ago

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There are applications where ncurses is still a great approach for a controlled, structured UI, e.g., certain security appliances with complex configurations where web UIs, e.g., are not, by default, permissible.

(I spend a lot of time in ncurses on our appliances. We are looking at a web interface, but it will have to be homegrown and SELinux aware. It's a ways out yet....)

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DrFalkyn

23 hours ago

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Doesn’t top use ncurses?

And other utils like k9s

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synergy20

1 day ago

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totally agree, there are a few nice books so really no need to repeat,but one covers new APIs from the last decade will be wonderful

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signa11

1 day ago

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it’s more like off topic given that ncurses/curses are ui-toolkits (hah !) than anything else.

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shmerl

1 day ago

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Does it cover some modern Linux features like io_uring?

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abhijat

1 day ago

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From the accompanying code repository it looks like no https://github.com/stewartweiss/intro-linux-sys-prog

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kvemkon

1 day ago

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I'd add to the question: namespaces/cgroups, eBPF.

OTOH, the book is "only"

> Introduction...

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pkaye

1 day ago

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A couple books for eBPF: https://ebpf.io/get-started/#books

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jamesy0ung

1 day ago

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Are there any good book that cover deep linux stuff like this? I'd like to learn some lower level stuff so I can maybe write some cool projects?

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dharmab

1 day ago

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BPF Performance Tools by Brendan Gregg

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GoblinSlayer

1 day ago

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The source.

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sovietswag

18 hours ago

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Holy crap this was my operating systems professor!!! I was not expecting to see this here... big smile on my face. He was a great teacher :).

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zabzonk

1 day ago

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>EARLY ACCESS Ebook, $79.99

Oh, come on now! Or all these NoStarch books ludicrously over-priced?

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rerdavies

1 day ago

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Serious price for a serious book, presumably. It's not at all uncommon to pay this sort of price (and sometimes more) for high-quality software development books. Most of the books in my software development library are in this price range (if not significantly more).

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Jtsummers

1 day ago

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Only $59.99 with the coupon on the same page. Less than 6 cents a page.

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justin66

1 day ago

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In the universe of books that will be used among other things as college textbooks, this book is at the low end of the scale, not the high end.

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prettyblocks

1 day ago

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It's over 1,000 pages.

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jagged-chisel

1 day ago

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How much of that is fluff?

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alfiedotwtf

1 day ago

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No Starch Press books tends to be all meat no bone. I don’t think I’ve picked up a NSP book and regretted it… unlike other publishers who just phone it in

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patmorgan23

1 day ago

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It's a professional reference book. Get your workplace to buy it.

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johnisgood

1 day ago

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Wait till it is on libgen, then.

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coolThingsFirst

1 day ago

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just get linus to teach you, it will end up cheaper than this book