The Linux Reading List HOWTO Eric Steven Raymond Thyrsus_Enterprises           Copyright © 2000 Eric S. Raymond Copyright Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Open Publication License, version 2.0. Revision History Revision 3.0 2004-02-04 esr Major update. Removed out-of-date books, added a new one. Revision 2.1 2003-10-28 esr Added TAOUP. Revision 2.0 2003-07-31 esr Major revision, cleaned out obsolete stuff. Revision 1.21 2003-02-22 esr LDP site has moved. Revision 1.20 2001-06-14 esr Removed "Practical Unix Security"; it's five years old and the material is now covered better by other books. Revision 1.19 2001-06-14 esr Added Ross Anderson's "Security Engineering". Corrected ISBNs. Abstract This document lists the books I think are most valuable to a person trying to learn Unix (especially Linux) top to bottom. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1._Introduction 1.1._Purpose_of_this_document 1.2._New_versions_of_this_document 1.3._Feedback_and_Corrections 1.4._Related_Resources 1.5._Conventions_Used_In_This_Document Basic_Linux_and_Unix_bibliography A._Administrivia 1._Terms_of_Use 2._History 1. Introduction 1.1. Purpose of this document This document lists what I consider to be the essential book-length references for learning Unix (especially Linux) and how to program under it. 1.2. New versions of this document New versions of the Linux Reading List HOWTO will be periodically posted to comp.os.linux.answers. They will also be uploaded to various Linux WWW and FTP sites, including the LDP home page. You can also view the latest version of this on the World Wide Web via the URL http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Reading-List-HOWTO.html. 1.3. Feedback and Corrections If you have questions or comments about this document (or just want to suggest a book that you think should be on it), please feel free to mail Eric S. Raymond, at . I welcome any suggestions or criticisms. 1.4.  Related Resources For on-line HOWTOs, magazines, and other non-book material, see the Linux Documentation_Project_home_page. Some years ago I wrote a less Linux-focused Unix bibliography that may still be of some interest and retains a certain amusement value. You can find the Loginataka here. SAGE, the System Administrator's Guild, maintains an excellent list_of_relevant books. 1.5.  Conventions Used In This Document Comments not in quotes below are either mine, or I have seen no reason to change them from those of Jim Haynes (previous maintainer of this document). Comments sent in by others are in quotes, and have the name of the commentator before them (JH is Jim Haynes). "See" URLs attached to publishing information point directly into the publisher's web catalog and typically take you to a page containing a cover shot, blurbs, and ordering information. Books that don't have these lack them because the publisher is using frames and the catalog pages can't be bookmarked. Topic listings go roughly from the outside in (culture to user-land programming to kernel programming to hardware). Within sections I have tried to list the most useful books first insofar as I am familiar with them. It's just an embarrassing coincidence that this lists one of my books first, honest! (Suggestions for a better organization cheerfully accepted.) Basic Linux and Unix bibliography Books on Culture, History, and Pragmatics The New Hacker's Dictionary. Third Edition. Eric S. Raymond. Copyright © 1996. ISBN 0-262-68092-0. MIT Press. 547pp.. A Quarter Century of Unix. Peter H. Salus. Copyright © 1994. ISBN 0-201-54777- 5. Addison-Wesley. 255pp.. The Mythical Man Month. Anniversary Edition. Frederic P. Brooks. Copyright © 1995. ISBN 0-201-83595-9. Addison-Wesley. The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Second Edition. Eric S. Raymond. Copyright © 1999. ISBN 0-596-00131-2. O'Reilly & Associates. 240pp.. Linux basics Linux System Administrator's Guide. Lars Wirzenius. Copyright © 1997. Linux Documentation Project. Linux in a Nutshell. Fourth Edition. Ellen Siever. Stephen Figgins. Aaron Weber. Copyright © 2003. ISBN 0-596-00482-6. O'Reilly & Associates. Running Linux. Fourth Edition. Matt Welsh. Matthias Dallheimer. Terry Dawson. Lar Kaufman. Copyright © 2002. 0-596-00272-6. O'Reilly & Associates. A Practical Guide to Linux. Mark G. Sobell. Copyright © 1998. ISBN 0-201-89549- 8. Addison-Wesley. 1072pp.. Essential System Administration. 3rd Edition. Æleen Frisch. Copyright © 2002. ISBN 0-596-00343-9. O'Reilly & Associates. System Security Security Engineering. A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems. Ross Anderson. Copyright © 2001. 0-471-38922-6. Wiley. Real World Linux Security. Intrusion Prevention, Detection, and Recovery. 2nd edition. Bob Toxen. Copyright © 2003. ISBN 0-13-046456-2. Prentice-Hall. Books on Shell, Script, and Web Programming Programming Perl. Third Edition. Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant. Copyright © 2000. ISBN 0-596-00027-8. O'Reilly & Associates. 1104pp.. Programming Python. Second Edition. Mark Lutz. Copyright © 2001. ISBN 0-596- 00085-5. O'Reilly & Associates. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide. Fifth Edition. Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy. Copyright © 2002. ISBN 0-596-00382-X. O'Reilly & Associates. 680pp.. The Unix Programming Environment. Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike. Copyright © 1984. ISBN 0-13-937681-X. Prentice-Hall. Tex and LaTeX The LaTeX Companion. Michael Goossens, Frank Mittelbach, and Alexander Samarin. Copyright © 1994. ISBN 0-201-54199-8. Addison-Wesley. 530pp.. LaTeX: A Document Preparation System. Leslie Lamport. Copyright © 1994. ISBN 0- 201-52983-1. Addison-Wesley. 256pp.. The TeXbook, Volume A of Computers and Typesetting. Donald Knuth. Copyright © 1986. ISBN 0-201-13448-9. Addison-Wesley. 496pp.. The METAFONT Book, Volume C of Computers and Typesetting. Donald Knuth. Copyright © 1986. ISBN 0-201-13444-6. Addison-Wesley. 386pp.. Good Programming Style The Practice of Programming. Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike. Copyright © 1999. ISBN 0-201-61586-X. Addison-Wesley. Programming Pearls. (Second Edition). Jon Bentley. Copyright © 2000. ISBN 0- 201-65788-0. Addison-Wesley. The Art of Unix Programming. Eric S. Raymond. Copyright © 2003. ISBN 0-131- 42901-9. Addison-Wesley. 512pp.. Code Reading. The Open Source Perspective. Diomedis Spinellis. Copyright © 2003. Addison-Wesley. Writing Efficient Programs. Jon Bentley. Copyright © 1982. ISBN 0-13-970251- 2 or 0-13-970244-X. Prentice-Hall. C and C++ The C Programming Language. (Second Edition). Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. Copyright © 1988. ISBN 0-13-110362-8. Addison-Wesley. 272pp.. Who's Afraid of C++?. Steve Heller. Copyright © 1996. ISBN 0-12-339097-4. Academic Press. 508pp.. C System Call Interface POSIX Programmer's Guide: Writing Portable Unix Programs. Donald Lewine. Copyright © 1992. ISBN 0-937175-73-0. O'Reilly & Associates. 607pp.. Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment. W. Richard Stevens. Copyright © 1993. ISBN 0-201-56317-7. Addison-Wesley. Linux Application Development. Michael K. Johnson and Erik W. Troan. Copyright © 1998. ISBN 0-201-308215. Addison-Wesley. Books on Networking Unix Network Programming, volume 1 -- Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI. W. Richard Stevens. Copyright © 1998. ISBN 0-13-490012-X. Prentice-Hall. Unix Network Programming, volume 2 -- Interprocess Communication. Richard Stevens. Copyright © 1998. ISBN 0-13-081081-9. Prentice-Hall. Linux Network Administrator's Guide. Olaf Kirch. Copyright © 1995. ISBN 1- 56592-087-2. O'Reilly & Associates. TCP/IP Network Administration. Craig Hunt. Copyright © 1992. ISBN 0-937175-82- X. O'Reilly & Associates. 472pp.. DNS and BIND. Second Edition. Paul Albiz and Cricket Liu. Copyright © 1998. ISBN 1-56592-512-2. 502pp.. O'Reilly & Associates. Sendmail. Third Edition. Bryan Costales and Eric Allman. Copyright © 2002. ISBN 1-56592-839-3. 1232pp.. O'Reilly & Associates. Ancestors of Linux The Design of the Unix Operating System. Maurice J. Bach. Copyright © 1996. ISBN 0-13-201799-7. 470pp.. Prentice-Hall. Operating Systems, Design and Implementation. Andrew S. Tanenbaum. Copyright © 1987. ISBN 0-13-638677-6. 940pp.. Prentice-Hall. The Linux kernel The Linux Kernel book. Rémy Card, Èric Dumas, and Frank Mével. Copyright © 1998. ISBN 0-471-98141-9. John Wiley & Sons. LINUX Kernel Programming. (Third Edition). Michael Beck, Harold Bohme, Mirko Dziadka, Robert Magnus, Claus Schroter, and Dirk Verworner. Copyright © 2002. ISBN 0-201-719754. Addison-Wesley. 480pp.. Relatives of Linux The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Unix Operating System. Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, and John S. Quarterman. Copyright © 1996. ISBN 0-201-54979-4. Addison-Wesley. Books on Intel and PC hacking 80386 Programmer's Reference Manual. Intel Corporation. Copyright © 1986. ISBN 1-55512-022-9. 80386 System Software Writer's Guide. Intel Corporation. Copyright © 1987. ISBN 1-55512-023-7. Programming the 80386. John H. Crawford and Patrick P. Gelsinger. Copyright © 1987. ISBN 0-89588-381-3. 774pp.. 80386 Hardware Reference Manual. Intel Corporation. Copyright © 1986. ISBN 1- 55512-024-5. The Indispensable PC Hardware Book. Hans-Peter Messmer. Copyright © 1993. ISBN 0-201-62424-9. 1000pp.. Addison-Wesley. A. Administrivia 1.  Terms of Use This document is copyright 1999 by Eric S. Raymond. You may use, disseminate, and reproduce it freely, provided you: * Do not omit or alter this copyright notice. * Do not omit or alter or omit the version number and date. * Do not omit or alter the document's pointer to the current WWW version. * Clearly mark any condensed, altered or versions as such. These restrictions are intended to protect potential readers from stale or mangled versions. If you think you have a good case for an exception, ask me. 2. History This was originally a mini-HOWTO maintained by Jim Haynes. I have changed the emphasis somewhat, trying to make it more a standalone document and less reliant on the various USENET bibliographic postings. The unattributed mini- reviews are mine rather than his.