As reviews for The Linux Programming Interface appear, I'll add links below. If you see a review that isn't listed here, please email me with a pointer to the review. Where I've managed to find the individuals who wrote reviews in forums like Amazon, I've hyperlinked to their homepages.
And a request: if you appreciate my book, please consider reviewing it in an online magazine, online bookseller's web site (Amazon or elsewhere), blog, or web site. Reviews really do make a difference in getting the word out and improving sales.
"Kerrisk's book is more thorough, more comprehensive and just as well written as the Stevens and Rochkind books… It is now easily THE standard book on Linux/UNIX system programming."
—Vladimir G Ivanovic, reviewing on Amazon.com (28 Oct 2010)
"… a beautifully written book. The author, Michael Kerrisk, combines technical knowledge about Linux internals with a clear, precise writing style. This book is fun to read. Each chapter deals with a single topic and consists of roughly 25 pages. This is an excellent organisation: it lets you completely understand one area at a time in manageable chunks. … a case study in pleasant, lucid writing."
—Vikram Aggarwal, reviewing on eggwall.com (29 Aug 2011)
"some books … are so good that they become classics and a standard for other books and "must reads" for everyone interested in the topic. … "The Linux Programming Interface" … is such a book."
—Markus Jais, reviewing on markusjais.com (12 Nov 2011)
"… Crystal clear writing, great explanations and motivations, and tons of technical detail. It's one of the best technical books I've ever read, on par with K&R and Stevens… Thanks to the author for this wonderful contribution to the systems community.
—Prof. David O'Hallaron, Carnegie Mellon University, reviewing on Amazon.com (3 May 2012)
"… an outstanding book in the style of [the] beloved classic Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment… The treatment of each system call is very thorough, indicating deviations from the Single UNIX Specification and comparisons with various Unix flavors."
—John Wiersba, reviewing on Amazon.com (26 Nov 2010)
"By far, this is the most interesting book I've read about the Linux operating system. It contains fantastic coverage of a wide range of topics at varying levels of detail. The writing style is very appealing and the details are wonderfully selected and presented.
—Masood Mortazavi reviewing on Amazon.com (30 Nov 2012)
"If I had to choose a single book to sit next to my machine when writing software for Linux, this would be it."
—Martin Landers, Software Engineer, Google, in prepublication praise for the book (Full disclosure: Martin was a technical reviewer for TLPI)
"The coverage of the Linux system call interface is encyclopedic, but the writing style is very approachable… an excellent reference that will likely find its way onto the bookshelves of user-space developers and kernel hackers"
—Jake Edge, reviewing on LWN.net (19 Jan 2010)
"I expect this beautiful work to significantly impact the future of the linux community."
—T. B. Gausen, reviewing on Amazon.com (3 Mar 2011)
"…a work of encyclopedic breadth and depth, spanning in great detail concepts usually spread in a multitude of medium-sized books… Kerrisk's work is priceless: any subject be it timers, UNIX signals, memory allocation or the most classical of topics (file I/O) gets its deserved 15-30 page treatment, and you can pick just what you need, in any order."
—Federico Lucifredi, reviewing on slashdot.org (8 Nov 2010)
"… an essential resource for the serious or professional Linux and UNIX systems programmer. Michael Kerrisk covers the use of all the key APIs across both the Linux and UNIX system interfaces with clear descriptions and tutorial examples and stresses the importance and benefits of following standards such as the Single UNIX Specification and POSIX 1003.1."
—Andrew Josey, Director, Standards, The Open Group, and Chair of The POSIX 1003.1 Working Group, in prepublication praise for the book (Full disclosure: Andrew was a technical reviewer for TLPI)
"It's a wonderful book… well written and never boring… the author has achieved the right balance in his descriptions and is able to explain clearly a huge variety of topics."
—John Graham-Cummings, reviewing on Amazon.com (29 Oct 2010)
"[TLPI] will no doubt become the standard guide for Linux system programming."
—Pedro Pinto, reviewing on Amazon.com (15 Dec 2010)
"… [the author's] familiarity with the system shines through; fortunately, he also happens to be a good writer, and rather than just telling you what a particular system call does, he first explains why something is useful and when you might want to use it."
—William Springer, reviewing on his blog (5 Mar 2011)
"Michael Kerrisk's new book [is] a thing of beauty. A book you're proud to just have on the shelf, but too useful to stay there."
—Serge Hallyn, Linux kernel developer, blog post (17 Dec 2010), (Full disclosure: Serge was a technical reviewer for TLPI)
"After reading a few initial sample chapters… I can say with great relief that it appears that Erik and I do not need to prepare a third edition of Linux Application Development—we can name TLPI as LAD's successor."
—Michael K. Johnson, one of the authors of Linux Application Development (a book I picked up early in my work with Linux and very much liked), after reading a few chapters of TLPI that were released before publication (1 Sep 2010).
Notwithstanding Michael's very kind words, there are some topics covered in LAD that are not covered in TLPI, so you may still want to check out the former book.
"the Rosetta Stone of Linux system programming"
—Fred Woolsey, reviewing on Amazon.com (23 Sep 2011)
"… 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."
—David Walker, reviewing on Amazon.co.uk (28 Nov 2010)
"This book is, hands down, the best [computer book] I have ever bought."
—Christopher R. Sherwood reviewing on Amazon.com (9 Apr 2011)
"… one of the best programming books that I have ever encountered."
—David W., reviewing on Amazon.com (2 Dec 2010)
"… il ne fait pour moi aucun doute qu'il appartient d'emblée à la catégorie des grands classiques du genre."
—filofel, reviewing on Amazon.fr (18 Nov 2010; French; translation)
"Derzeit das beste Buch zu diesem Themenbereich"
—Jens Thoms Toerring, reviewing on Lehmnanns.de (22 Dec 2010; German; translation) (Full disclosure: Jens was a technical reviewer for TLPI)
"Für mich mit Sicherheit für die nächsten zehn Jahre das Referenz-Werk zum Thema Linux-spezifische System-Programmierung, völlig ohne auch nur ansatzweise gleichwertige Alternative."
—Philipp M. Frank reviewing on Amazon.de (6 Jul 2011; German; translation)
"hat das Buch das Zeug zum Standardwerk"
—Maik Schmidt reviewing in c't Magazin, Heft 19, 2011, p190 (no online version available, as far as I know).
"É sem dúvida a obra escrita mais completa sobre este tema, e tornar-se-á definitivamente num clássico dos livros técnicos de Informática.
—Review on ticnologia.pt (4 Feb 2011; Portuguese; translation)
"Enfim, se hoje eu tivesse que escolher apenas um livre sobre programação Linux para levar em qualquer lugar, "The Linux Programming Interface" seria o livro."
—Sergio Prado, Reviewing on his blog (10 Jan 2011; Portuguese; translation)
A nice write-up at isecur1ty.org; in Arabic, so I don't feel confident to quote, but here's a translation (21 Nov 2010)
A nice write-up on fcamel's blog; in Chinese, so again I won't try to quote, but here's a translation.
"Michael Kerrisk has not only written a great book about Linux programming and how it relates to various standards, but has also taken care that bugs he noticed got fixed and the man pages were (greatly) improved. In all three ways, he has made Linux programming easier. The in-depth treatment of topics in The Linux Programming Interface… makes it a must-have reference for both new and experienced Linux programmers."
—Andreas Jaeger, Program Manager, OpenSUSE, in prepublication praise for the book (Full disclosure: Andreas was a technical reviewer for TLPI)
"The Linux Programming Interface is a tour de force"
—Peter Cooper, author of Beginning Ruby (and doer of many other things!) tweeted (19 Jun 2011)
Pointers to a few other reviews, as well as prepublication praise from a number of readers, can be found on the No Starch Press web page for the book.
(C) 2013 Michael Kerrisk, mtk AT man7.org