---
product_id: 48556707
title: "The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook"
price: "$6556"
currency: MXN
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reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.mx/products/48556707-the-linux-programming-interface-a-linux-and-unix-system-programming
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---

# 1500+ pages of deep Linux & UNIX system knowledge Authored by Linux man-pages maintainer Michael Kerrisk 60+ chapters covering core system calls & IPC The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook

**Price:** $6556
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> ⚡ Unlock the ultimate Linux system programming bible—don’t get left behind!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook
- **How much does it cost?** $6556 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.mx](https://www.desertcart.mx/products/48556707-the-linux-programming-interface-a-linux-and-unix-system-programming)

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## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Key Features

- • **Balanced Depth & Readability:** Detailed yet accessible explanations with practical code examples—no fluff, just clarity.
- • **Expert Authorship & Accuracy:** Written by the Linux man-pages project maintainer, ensuring authoritative and precise content.
- • **Future-Proof & Well-Supported:** Includes errata updates and kernel change tracking via man7.org to keep you current.
- • **Ideal for Serious Programmers:** Designed for professionals with solid C and UNIX/Linux knowledge ready to level up.
- • **Comprehensive Linux & UNIX System Programming:** Master over 60 chapters that cover everything from file I/O to advanced socket techniques.

## Overview

The Linux Programming Interface is a definitive 1500+ page handbook authored by Michael Kerrisk, the Linux man-pages maintainer. It offers an in-depth, expertly curated guide to Linux and UNIX system calls, IPC, file systems, and socket programming across 60+ chapters. Combining authoritative detail with clear, practical examples, this book is a must-have reference for professional Linux programmers seeking to deepen their mastery and stay ahead in system-level development.

## Description

Review: A "must have" for any Linux programmer - Last week I got my grubby mitts on a clean, white and shiny new copy of The Linux Programming Interface ("A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook") by Michael Kerrisk. So far I've read only a few chapters in detail, skimmed over one or two others, and dived around in it to look some things up. Just a week after receiving it is probably too soon for a fair review of such an enormous book, but Michael asked me if I would consider writing one (after I contacted him -- I don't know him personally), and it's the least I can do to thank him for what I can already tell is going to be a stupendously useful book. From its uncluttered no-nonsense title and cover design, right down to its nitty-gritty technical details, it's obvious that this is a clear, well thought out, and well written book by someone who knows their subject matter inside and out. That's no surprise: Michael Kerrisk is maintainer and a major contributor to the Linux man-pages project. But let's be clear, this book isn't just a bunch of man pages glued together and given a cover! Despite its large size (over 60 chapters, 1500+ pages) and level of detail, this is a surprisingly readable guidebook for UNIX system calls with a particular focus on Linux. The chapters are arranged such that they can be read in order with minimal forward-referencing. Topics covered range from the history of UNIX and fundamental systems concepts, through file i/o and file systems, processes & threads, IPC, up to advanced socket techniques and alternative I/O models. The book has a fairly comprehensive (although not exhaustive) index. The chapter list at man7.org provides a complete picture. The IPC chapters by themselves look as good as any other book I've seen on the subject. The topics are covered in enough detail to make the book useful as a reference, but retaining a readable style throughout. It does a good job of pointing out some of the UNIX and C library quirks that might get lost in the detail of pure reference material. The book doesn't stray too far from the main focus -- the system calls themselves -- and provides references to other sources that cover related topics in more detail. There are plenty of diagrams and examples, including source code (available from man7.org). Source examples tend to be fairly simple illustrations of individual or related system calls. The book is not too code-heavy and doesn't just go through the motions of listing every possible call and parameter. After all, you already have the freely-available man pages for that. (It's occasionally useful to have a BASH prompt to hand while reading it.) This isn't a beginner's book: a certain level of basic UNIX/Linux knowledge and a good grasp of C programming is a pre-requisite to a book like this. There is a good balance of introductory and advanced material without "dumbing down" or sacrificing of important detail. The chapters on sockets, while quite short, cover a surprising amount of detailed ground, although a discussion of some of the more important TCP options available with setsockopt() is notably lacking. To be fair, this isn't a socket-programming book, and references to other sources of information are provided. However, I did think this was an odd omission considering the level of detail provided elsewhere in the book. There are some exercises at the end of chapters with selected answers provided. I think this is one area that could be expanded and improved for readers who might want to treat the book like a `self-study' course or use it in an educational environment. Any book this size with this level of technical detail inevitably has some errors, and it was after reporting one (minor) mistake that the author asked if I would consider posting a review. However, I was apparently only the second person to report one! Considering how many eyes must have glanced over this book already, that surely says something about the book's accuracy. The book has its own web page on the author's site (man7.org) where there is an errata section and a list of kernel changes since the book was released. It looks like this book will be well supported, even as the Linux kernel continues to march on its evolutionary path. As you can probably tell from the overall tone of this review, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I plan to read this cover-to-cover over the next couple of months, and I will probably get a second copy on expenses to sit on my desk at work! I may post a follow-up review later, once I've had more time to read and reflect. I would recommend this book to any Linux programmer.
Review: Absolutely Superb - Extremely extensive and detailed but succinct and well written with no ambiguous language. In fact it seeks out and clears up any ambiguity in the subject matter, and clarifies its own use of terms where there could be doubt. Includes not just the details of the Linux Interface but also common issues and pitfalls faced by programmers of that subject. States its limits and includes links to other texts which may help those needing to go beyond those limits. Very easy to navigate via the extensive 'Contents' section, and clear 'Overview' section on each subject explaining how it will address the topic. Includes good internal referencing so you can be aware of and locate other relevant information. The style is direct and to the point, with no lame jokes or historical content except where that might be helpful, such as explaining a convention or naming scheme. Has plenty of short coding examples and C library references, but only for useful illustration, no long pointless text you would never type in. Also, read the 'About the Author' in the book description; his experience is pretty compelling. Despite its 2.4kg weight it will actually be a weight of your mind as you tackle the Linux Interface.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | 394,136 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 8 in Linux & Unix Programming 40 in Linux Distributions 466 in Computer Information Systems |
| Customer reviews | 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars (725) |
| Dimensions  | 18.42 x 5.72 x 24.13 cm |
| ISBN-10  | 1593272200 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1593272203 |
| Item weight  | 2.44 kg |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 1552 pages |
| Publication date  | 6 Nov. 2010 |
| Publisher  | No Starch Press |

## Images

![The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71kj6C0TNdL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A "must have" for any Linux programmer
*by D***R on 28 November 2010*

Last week I got my grubby mitts on a clean, white and shiny new copy of The Linux Programming Interface ("A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook") by Michael Kerrisk. So far I've read only a few chapters in detail, skimmed over one or two others, and dived around in it to look some things up. Just a week after receiving it is probably too soon for a fair review of such an enormous book, but Michael asked me if I would consider writing one (after I contacted him -- I don't know him personally), and it's the least I can do to thank him for what I can already tell is going to be a stupendously useful book. From its uncluttered no-nonsense title and cover design, right down to its nitty-gritty technical details, it's obvious that this is a clear, well thought out, and well written book by someone who knows their subject matter inside and out. That's no surprise: Michael Kerrisk is maintainer and a major contributor to the Linux man-pages project. But let's be clear, this book isn't just a bunch of man pages glued together and given a cover! Despite its large size (over 60 chapters, 1500+ pages) and level of detail, this is a surprisingly readable guidebook for UNIX system calls with a particular focus on Linux. The chapters are arranged such that they can be read in order with minimal forward-referencing. Topics covered range from the history of UNIX and fundamental systems concepts, through file i/o and file systems, processes & threads, IPC, up to advanced socket techniques and alternative I/O models. The book has a fairly comprehensive (although not exhaustive) index. The chapter list at man7.org provides a complete picture. The IPC chapters by themselves look as good as any other book I've seen on the subject. The topics are covered in enough detail to make the book useful as a reference, but retaining a readable style throughout. It does a good job of pointing out some of the UNIX and C library quirks that might get lost in the detail of pure reference material. The book doesn't stray too far from the main focus -- the system calls themselves -- and provides references to other sources that cover related topics in more detail. There are plenty of diagrams and examples, including source code (available from man7.org). Source examples tend to be fairly simple illustrations of individual or related system calls. The book is not too code-heavy and doesn't just go through the motions of listing every possible call and parameter. After all, you already have the freely-available man pages for that. (It's occasionally useful to have a BASH prompt to hand while reading it.) This isn't a beginner's book: a certain level of basic UNIX/Linux knowledge and a good grasp of C programming is a pre-requisite to a book like this. There is a good balance of introductory and advanced material without "dumbing down" or sacrificing of important detail. The chapters on sockets, while quite short, cover a surprising amount of detailed ground, although a discussion of some of the more important TCP options available with setsockopt() is notably lacking. To be fair, this isn't a socket-programming book, and references to other sources of information are provided. However, I did think this was an odd omission considering the level of detail provided elsewhere in the book. There are some exercises at the end of chapters with selected answers provided. I think this is one area that could be expanded and improved for readers who might want to treat the book like a `self-study' course or use it in an educational environment. Any book this size with this level of technical detail inevitably has some errors, and it was after reporting one (minor) mistake that the author asked if I would consider posting a review. However, I was apparently only the second person to report one! Considering how many eyes must have glanced over this book already, that surely says something about the book's accuracy. The book has its own web page on the author's site (man7.org) where there is an errata section and a list of kernel changes since the book was released. It looks like this book will be well supported, even as the Linux kernel continues to march on its evolutionary path. As you can probably tell from the overall tone of this review, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I plan to read this cover-to-cover over the next couple of months, and I will probably get a second copy on expenses to sit on my desk at work! I may post a follow-up review later, once I've had more time to read and reflect. I would recommend this book to any Linux programmer.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absolutely Superb
*by R***T on 26 August 2024*

Extremely extensive and detailed but succinct and well written with no ambiguous language. In fact it seeks out and clears up any ambiguity in the subject matter, and clarifies its own use of terms where there could be doubt. Includes not just the details of the Linux Interface but also common issues and pitfalls faced by programmers of that subject. States its limits and includes links to other texts which may help those needing to go beyond those limits. Very easy to navigate via the extensive 'Contents' section, and clear 'Overview' section on each subject explaining how it will address the topic. Includes good internal referencing so you can be aware of and locate other relevant information. The style is direct and to the point, with no lame jokes or historical content except where that might be helpful, such as explaining a convention or naming scheme. Has plenty of short coding examples and C library references, but only for useful illustration, no long pointless text you would never type in. Also, read the 'About the Author' in the book description; his experience is pretty compelling. Despite its 2.4kg weight it will actually be a weight of your mind as you tackle the Linux Interface.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (hardback) Reasonably comprehensive, clear and well explained - excellent code examples
*by M***P on 26 September 2015*

Great book, pulling together a raft of information I had in lots of separate places. Very clear, very well explained, and the author has the code examples online which are clean, simple and easily built. It is a really relevant book for anyone writing a significant amount of Linux application (userspace) code. This book will not teach you C and will assume you have some prior experience in writing C code. Very much command line - this is a book about how programs communicate with each other and the Linux system, not about graphical user interfaces. It is the fundamentals you need to know to write solid/reliable Linux applications. Physically this is big book, and certainly not something to want to constantly carry around with you - but it is well structured enough to be useful for quick reference, and even a reminders of Linux facilities available to you to "solve a problem". As technical books go - it is very readable. So the obvious downside is the cost, but in my mind it was worth it for something pretty well up to date and although the code examples are free to download, in reality in buying the book you are compensating the author for the effort he has put in making those clear examples.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook
- C Programming Language, 2nd Edition
- Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces

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