Reviews for The Unix Programming Environment (Prentice-Hall Software Series)

1. It's a book that I keep going back to

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2002

   I have referred to this book now for many years. It is straightforward to follow and has some very useful tips. It follows very logically and is a no-nonsense guide to practical Unix programming. There are no pretty pictures or diagrams just good, sound advice to get even the newest programmer started but it's also a great reference book for those with more experience.

2. If you only get one Unix book get this one

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12st, 2000

   This book will give you the insight you need to exploit the essential simplicity and power of Unix-like environments. It may not cover the latest, but it will give you the core you need to build on and develop. Highly recommended.

3. Oldies but goldies

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2000

   Merely half an inch thick, and employing the same cover design - or lack of it - as the C Programming Language, this is probably the least pretentious looking book on my bookshelf. However, the look is misleading - there are very few books, regardless of length, that aim to teach you as much as this one, and even fewer than succeed in it.

   Unix programming environment might sound a rather ambitious title nowadays, when a tutorial on each specialized tool can easily exceed 400 pages. However, this one actually delivers everything that it promises. Kernighan and Pike start with the basic description of Unix file system and the basic set of commands, continue with the command shell, redirection and piping. Next come the filters: regular expressions, grep, sort, sed and awk. At that point, the reader is ready for the full-fledged treatment of the command shell programming. Next come standard I/O and Unix system calls, followed by the program development tools: make, lex and yacc. The course is concluded with a chapter on document formatting with troff.

   The chapters on I/O and system calls imply familiarity with the C programming language. The already mentioned tutorial on C by Kernighan and Ritchie, written in much the same style and spirit, can serve as the introduction to it. Also, while the book keeps up with its age remarkably well, there are some points where the described Unix system differs from the modern POSIX systems (most user commands are however backward compatible and still accept the old syntax). The required changes are really minor, but can nevertheles annoy an innocent reader.

   The book belongs to nowadays rare breed of books on computers written for engineers and CS students rather than for dummies and idiots. Although primarily written for individual study, it can be used for one-semester course on Unix (like in C Programming Language, the exercises are lacking solutions, though). I would love to see it made-up with POSIX syntax and generally reflecting the changes made to Unix during the past 15 years.

4. Classic introduction to Unix programming

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 1999

   The key material covered in this book is : - the Unix file system, (Bourne) shell commands & script programming, text processing (using grep, awk and sed), file I/O, system calls and document processing (using troff/nroff, etc).

   The book is written in a traditional, no-frills format but is easy to follow, with clear code examples.

   Systems programming is not covered any great depth (To fill this gap I would recommend the advanced Unix programming books by Rochkind and Stevens).

   For a book published 15 years ago, it inevitably misses newer additions (no coverage of C-shell, K-shell, vi, Perl, etc.). Despite this it is still the classic introduction to Unix programming.

5. Understand the logic of UNIX.

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, September 12nd, 1999

   Ive learned UNIX on my home p.c with LINUX, Coming from WinNT envrioment i didnt know a thing About the UNIX operating system, this book helped Me understand the simplicity and logic behind UNIX And how to use my programming skills on a Diffrent, better operating system. I recommend this book storngly to every Novice/Advanced/user/programmer that wants to Learn UNIX the right way.