www/books.html - view

Return to books.html CVS log

Up to [local] / www

File: [local] / www / books.html (download) (as text)

Revision 1.12, Wed Aug 11 16:01:19 1999 UTC (24 years, 10 months ago) by ian
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.11: +10 -3 lines

O'Reilly web link goes direct to http://unix.oreilly.com. Power Tools book
reformatted and mention Ports as easier way of installing freeware.

<!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>The OpenBSD Bookstore</TITLE>
</HEAD>

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

<img alt="[OpenBSD]" height=30 width=141 SRC="images/smalltitle.gif" ALIGN=Left>
<A HREF="amazon-associates.html">
<img alt="[Amazon]"  SRC="images/amazon-associates.gif" ALIGN=Right BORDER=0>
</A>

<H1><font color=#e00000>Books about BSD</font></H1>
<P>We are now associated with <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com"> Amazon.com</A>
so that you can order some of these books directly from them.
<EM>Ordering from these "Order from Amazon" links is a way of helping to
fund the OpenBSD project</EM>.
<H2>User Guides</H2>
<P>"Berkeley UNIX" (now known as "BSD", for Berkeley Software 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.
<P><FONT COLOR="Red">UNIX Made Easy</FONT> is one general book that
is said to be good, though we've not tested it.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0078821738/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>.
<P>Two BSD-specific UNIX user's guides still in print are:
<UL>
<LI><FONT COLOR=Red>Berkeley Unix: A Simple and Comprehensive Guide</FONT>.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=047161582X/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>
<LI>The more ambitious
<FONT COLOR=Red>An Introduction to Berkeley Unix and ANSI C</FONT>
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0130684953/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>
</UL>
<P>Every advanced UNIX user will probably want a copy of
<FONT COLOR=Red>UNIX Power Tools</FONT>, now in its second edition.
This book discusses hundreds of neat tricks, little-known techniques,
and add-on utilities. 
Be aware that many of the utilities are either included with OpenBSD
or, more commonly, are already available as ports or packages.
So most of section 52.03, complaining about how hard it is to port
software to different UNIXes, can be disregarded if you learn about
the <A HREF="ports.html">Ports Mechanism</A> that is part of OpenBSD.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1565922603/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>

<P>You may see reference to the <FONT COLOR=Red>4.4 BSD 
User's Reference Manual (URM)</FONT>, O'Reilly, 1994.
This is just a reprint of the man pages for users. 
Your OpenBSD distribution includes the online man pages,
which are specific to OpenBSD, and more up-to-date. So
you don't need this one: use the <EM>man</EM> command instead.

<H2>Administering the OpenBSD System</H2>
We can't unreservedly recommend any books specifically on OpenBSD 
Administration at present. However, if you're administering OpenBSD
you may also have to administer other versions of UNIX. A good
book on UNIX administration, with special mentions of details in
SunOS, Solaris, and BSDI, the commercial 4.4BSD distribution, is
<FONT Color=Red>UNIX System Administration Handbook</FONT>, Second Edition, by Evi Nemeth,
Garth Snyder, et al.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0131510517/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>.

<P><FONT COLOR=Red>4.4 BSD System Manager's Manual (SMM)</FONT>
O'Reilly, 1994
<P>Details on what you need to run a BSD system.
Quite a bit of this material is relevant to OpenBSD.
Unfortunately it is currently out of print.
Worse, Due to licensing restrictions from AT&amp;T,
the electronic editions of these were not included in the 
4.4BSD distributions, so most of them are not included with OpenBSD.
The few that are can be found via the <A HREF="docum.html">Documents page</A>.

<P><EM>Avoid</EM> books on installing/configuration particular "other"
distributions of BSD, as the installation procedures for each are
wildly different.

<H2>Books on Programming Under the BSD System</H2>

<P><FONT COLOR=Red>4.4 BSD Programmer's Reference Manual (PRM)</FONT>
O'Reilly, 1994
<P>This is a printed version of the Programmer's Manual.
You have the online man pages, which are specific to OpenBSD, instead.
Use the <EM>man</EM> command to read these!

<P><FONT COLOR=Red>BSD-Lite 4.4 CD-ROM Companion: International Edition</FONT>
UC Berkeley Staff, Computer Systems Research Group; O'Reilly, 1994
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. Also a small booklet listing contributors,
and the index to the printed man pages. Overall, not very useful.
<A HREF="orders.html">Buy an OpenBSD CD-ROM instead!</A>

<P>An older book which still sheds much light on the philosophy
of programming UNIX is <FONT COLOR=Red>The UNIX Programming Environment</FONT>,
by Kernighan and Pike. It is not specific to BSD, but most of it applies.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=013937681X/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>.

<P>Another older book which Brian Kernighan had a hand in, and which
we recommend even though it's not UNIX specific, is
<FONT COLOR=Red>The Elements of Programming Style</FONT>.
This book contains more common sense than many books triple or quadruple
its weight.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0070342075/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>.

<H2>Books about how the System works, for those wanting to modifying it</H2>
<P><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.

<P>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.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0201549794/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>

<P><FONT COLOR=Red>The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD Unix Operating System</FONT>
Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick
<P>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.

<P><FONT COLOR=Red>The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD Unix Operating System : Answer Book</FONT>
Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick
1991
<P>Answers to the "exercises for the reader" in the 4.3 version of the book.

<P><FONT COLOR=Red>Source Code Secrets: The Basic 386BSD 
Operating System Reference</FONT>
(Volume 1 of Operating System Source Code Secrets)
L. W. Jolitz, William Jolitz
1997
<P>The Jolitzes 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.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1573980269/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>

<P><FONT COLOR=Red>Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition with Source Code</FONT>,
Peer-to-Peer ommunications, 1996.  ISBN 1-57398-013-7.
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.
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1573980137/openbsdA/">Order from Amazon</A>
<HR>
<A HREF="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src="back.gif" border=0 alt="OpenBSD"></A>
<A HREF="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a>
<BR>
<small>$OpenBSD: books.html,v 1.12 1999/08/11 16:01:19 ian Exp $</small>
</BODY>
</HTML>