[BACK]Return to books.html CVS log [TXT][DIR] Up to [local] / www
File: [local] / www / books.html (download) (as text)

Revision 1.1, Thu Feb 26 17:55:11 1998 UTC (26 years, 3 months ago) by ian
Branch: MAIN 

New file describing books about OpenBSD. Well, not really. Books about BSD.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC  "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
	<LINK rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
	<META name="resource-type" content="document">
	<META name="description" content="Books about BSD and OpenBSD">
	<META name="keywords" content="openbsd,books,information">
	<META name="distribution" content="global">
	<META name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1998 by OpenBSD.">
	<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
	<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="The vi editor from UNIX">
	<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Ian Darwin">
	<TITLE>Books about OpenBSD</TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY BGCOLOR="White" TEXT="Black" LINK="#23238E">

<img alt="[OpenBSD]" SRC="images/smalltitle.gif">

<H1><font color=#e00000>Books about BSD</font></H1>

<H2>User Guides</H2>
<P>"Berkeley UNIX" (now known as "BSD", for Berkeley System Distribution)
is so widely known that there is no need to list
the basic "how-to" books about it here - there are too many to list!
Some of the user guides cover exclusively the System V version, or
some specific implementation such as Solaris, Linux, or whatever,
while others try to be general. There are some that cover Berkeley UNIX.
<H2>Books about the System</H2>
<DL>
<DT><A HREF="http://cseng.aw.com/bookdetail.qry?ISBN=0-201-54979-4&ptype=0">The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System</A>
Marshal Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, John S. Quarterman
Addison-Wesley: 1996. ISBN 0-201-54979-4.

<DD>At 549 pages plus index. this must be considered comprehensive.
McKusick, Bostic and Karels are well known as prime movers at
Berkeley CSRG (Computer Systems Research Group) during the 4.3/4.4BSD
period. This book covers the 4.4 and 4.4-Lite releases, and discusses
everything you wanted to know about how the system operates.  Not
100% applicable, but probably the closest there is to an overall
system internals manual for OpenBSD.

<DT><EM>The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD Unix Operating System</EM>
Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick
<DD>An earlier book from many of the same good folk at CSRG.
Slightly dated, but gives an overall feel for the beast if you can find
it real cheap at a garage sale.
<DT><EM>The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD Unix Operating System : Answer Book</EM>
Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick
1991
<DD>Answers to the "exercises for the reader" in the 4.3 version of the book.

<DT><EM>Virtual Memory System Source Code Secrets: The 386BSD 
Operating System Reference</EM>
L. W. Jolitz, William Jolitz
1997
<DD>The Jolitzs built the first port of BSD to the PC-386 architecture,
and deserve a lot of credit for making BSD portable to this low-cost
architecture. The earliest versions, called "386bsd", were described
in articles in <EM>Dr. Dobbs Journal</EM>. This book goes beyond the articles,
and provides a comprehensive annotated collection of source code.
Not all of it applies to modern versions of OpenBSD, of course, but
you can still learn a lot from it.

<DT><EM>4.4 BSD System Manager's Manual (SMM)</EM>
O'Reilly, 1994
<DD>Details on what you need to run a BSD system.
Quite a bit of this material is relevant to OpenBSD.
Unfortunately it and the remaining books from O'Reilly
are currently listed as out of print.

<DT><EM>4.4 BSD Programmer's Reference Manual (PRM)</EM>
O'Reilly, 1994
<DD>This is a printed version of the Programmer's Manual.
You have the online man pages, which are specific to OpenBSD, instead.

<DT><EM>4.4 BSD User's Reference Manual (URM)</EM>
O'Reilly, 1994
<DD>Man pages for users. Same note as above; use the man command.

<DT><EM>BSD-Lite 4.4 CD-ROM Companion: International Edition</EM>
UC Berkeley Staff, Computer Systems Research Group; O'Reilly, 1994
<DD>This neat little package contains a CD-ROM with just the unbundled
portions of 4.4BSD-Lite-1, which not only is obsolete, but is not a
complete, bootable system. 
<A HREF="orders.html">Buy an OpenBSD CD-ROM instead!</A>

<DT><EM>Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition with Source Code</EM>,
Peer-to-Peer ommunications, 1996.  ISBN 1-57398-013-7.
<DL>Although the UNIX described in this book is to BSD as a Model T Ford
is to a 70's Mustang or Thunderbird, UNIX inventor Ken Thompson
claims that "After 20 years, this is still the best exposition
of the workings of a 'real' operating system." Originally circulated
in illicit photocopies, this is the book that most first- and second-generation
UNIX hackers cut their code-teeth on. Recommended as a good introduction
to how a timesharing OS works, if you've not been inside one before.
Substantially shorter than the McKusick book above.
</DL>
<HR>
<A HREF="index.html"><img src="back.gif" border=0 alt="OpenBSD"></A>
<A HREF="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a>
<BR>
<small>$OpenBSD: books.html,v 1.1 1998/02/26 17:55:11 ian Exp $</small>
</BODY>
</HTML>