Solaris Systems Programming is the latest release by Sun Press. This is an essential guide to systems programming on any UNIX platform that finally has taken Stevens’ Advanced Programming in the UNIX Enviroment off my desk. Read a full review of the book. Both SA’s and developers will be very interested in check this book out.
Review of Solaris Systems Programming
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Eugenia Loli
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While the review indicates that this book is indeed a must-have the following passage put me off:
“A discussion of POSIX threading is absent and regarded as too large a topic to address properly in a systems programming book and the reader is urged to consult a complete guide to the topic such as Programming with POSIX Threads [Butenhof, 97].”
Since the mentioned book from Butenhof does not seem to be the ultima ratio (judging from Amazon’s comments) I would much prefer having POSIX threads included. Splitting the book into two may help to manage the size.
Minor correction:
…very interested in check this book out.
…very interested in checking this book out.
discussed such important topics as memory alignment
nice to find a book that covers memory in that much detail, i’ll need to check this out after i graduate, don’t have time during the semester.
Definately a must read for me. Question: Does this book focous on Solaris x86 as well as Solaris Sparc?
Definately a must read for me. Question: Does this book focous on Solaris x86 as well as Solaris Sparc?
I’d assume like most Solaris programming books, its pretty generic stuff, if one wants to look into fine tuning their application for SPARC or x86, it is best read up on books that specialise in that area.
what does it make people (like this guy) comment such an inapropiate opinion of a delightful topic like this one?
May be lack of intelligence?..lack of knowledge? lack of experience?
Regards,
<cite>I would much prefer having POSIX threads included</cite>
To be honest I can understand why POSIX threads were left out; threading is quite a complex area when it comes down to it, although there are some gotchas when it comes to systems programming – things like the pre-Solaris 9 threading model where you’d only have a single bound thread per process which would mean that anything which did lots of kernel work per-thread would suffer big time. There is also fun around how per-process IPC like signals are dealt with.
However the ORA “Programming Pthreads” book is pretty good, as is the SunSoft book “Multithreaded programming guide” (although that only covers the Solaris threading API).
Not quite. Pre-Solaris 8 (Solaris 8 came with the alternate
thread library) was M->N. If you wanted a 1-1 thread->lwp
model you just had to create all your threads with system
scope.
Robert Dohnert asks if my book covers Solaris x86 as well as SPARC. The answer is yes, everything in my book is equally relevent to Solaris on x86 and SPARC. And yes, despite its title, much of the material is relevent to other Unices (including Linux).
Re: the PThreads comment: yes, it would have been nice to include a coverage of it, but at 1250 pages, I thought the book was big enough already! Besides, there are plenty of good PThreads books out there…
Maybe the second edition will be a multi-volume opus! 🙂
Any chance of getting this book on O’Reilly’s online Safari Bookshelf service?
Given the PTR books on Safari, I’d guess that it’s only a matter of time, but who knows when.
I challange you to actually download and run Solaris10. If you have even an IQ of 30 you’ll immediately run back to all your Linux/BSD buddies and ask why the hell Solaris started kicking their asses. The world of systems is changing and thankfully jackasses like you will be left behind. It’s amazing that so many people want to typecast Sun as dead but don’t even look at what Sun is doing.
Well, Richard Steven’s classic “Advanced Programming in a UNIX Environment” is one of the few programming books I’ve read cover to cover and really enjoyed. Most other books I rarely read more than half way and then use them as references (if they are good enough). Steven’s writing was really excellent and enjoyable.
I too have read APUE from cover to cover, and it IS a good book. But it is also dated, and sadly Rich isn’t here to write a 2nd edition.
If you like APUE, you’ll love my book. I deliberately embraced Stevens’ style of writing (immitation being, as they say, the sincerest form of flattery), so they’re quite similar in presentation. But my book is more up to date, and has a wider scope.
Has there been any release date for Solaris 10 mentioned anywhere? Couldn’t find it on Sun’s site.
Check this article out for some serious Solaris book on system programming.