From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 6 19:40:21 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 1829FB7C for ; Fri, 6 Jun 2014 19:40:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CDCF126C0 for ; Fri, 6 Jun 2014 19:40:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-124-105.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.124.105]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3CA6925386; Fri, 6 Jun 2014 21:34:45 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id s56JYitt001990; Fri, 6 Jun 2014 21:34:45 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2014 21:34:44 +0200 From: Polytropon To: David.I.Noel@gmail.com Subject: Re: The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System Message-Id: <20140606213444.17f8ca35.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Questions Mailing List , David Noel X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 19:40:21 -0000 On Fri, 6 Jun 2014 12:26:39 -0500, David Noel wrote: > Is this book still relevant? I would say: Yes, it is. Many fundamentals and basics haven't changed that much, and many developers say that it's very useful to know the history of today's technology in order to understand it, especially when today's are more complex. So this book will probably provide you with useful knowledge. I have also read "The magic garden explained. The internals of UNIX System 5 release 4." by Benny Goodheart & James Cox, which isn't FreeBSD-specific, but nicely illustrates the concepts and mechanisms which are also found in FreeBSD. In my experience, the more technical books on topic you read, the better is your understanding of the parts that keep the system working. Especially when they are re-read from "different standpoints" (book about 4.4BSD, book about FreeBSD 11, book about UNIX V5R4), you get a wider view (instead a narrow focus on just one specific implementation of a broader concept). This is definitely an advantage in the always evolving technical sector. It enables you to acquire new knowledge and understand new implementations more quickly. > I notice there's also "The Design and > Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System", but it's circa v5.2. > Are either of these books still useful resources for novice systems > developers? As I suggested: Yes. > Are there better or more current ones out there? Have a look at "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System (2nd Edition)" by McKusick, Neville-Neil, and Watson. From the book's description: The most complete, authoritative technical guide to FreeBSD's internal structure has now been extensively updated to cover all major improvements between Versions 5 and Version 11. Approximately one-third of this edition's content is completely new, and another one-third has been extensively rewritten. Three long-time FreeBSD project leaders begin with a concise overview of FreeBSD's current design and implementation. Next, they cover FreeBSD from the system-call level down: from interface to kernel to hardware. Explaining key design decisions, they detail the concepts, data structures, and algorithms used in implementing each significant systems facility, including process management, security, virtual memory, the I/O system, filesystems, socket IPC, and networking. Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321968972 -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...