Classic Shell Scripting

Chapter 16. Bibliography

Unix Programmer's Manuals

1. UNIX Time-sharing System: UNIX Programmers Manual, Seventh Edition, Volumes 1, 2A, 2B. Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., January 1979.

   These are the reference manuals (Volume 1) and descriptive papers (Volumes 2A and 2B) for the landmark Seventh Edition Unix system, the direct ancestor of all current commercial Unix systems.

   They were reprinted by Holt Rinehart & Winston, but are now long out of print. However, they are available online from Bell Labs in troff source, PDF, and PostScript formats. See http://plan9.bell-labs.com/7thEdMan.

2. Your Unix programmer's manual. One of the most instructive things that you can do is to read your manual from front to back.^[1] (This is harder than it used to be, as Unix systems have grown.) It is easier to do if your Unix vendor makes printed copies of its documentation available. Otherwise, start with the Seventh Edition manual, and then read your local documentation as needed.

^[1] One summer, while working as a contract programmer, I spent my lunchtimes reading the manual for System III (yes, that long ago), from cover to cover. I don't know that I ever learned so much in so little time. ADR.