---
created_at: '2014-05-25T04:06:16.000Z'
title: The Art of Unix Programming (2008)
url: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/
author: fizwhiz
points: 90
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[Source](http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/ "Permalink to The Art of Unix Programming")

# The Art of Unix Programming


| ----- |
|  The Art of Unix Programming  |   | 

* * *

[Home Page][1]  
[Site Map][2]  
TAOUP  
[Contributing][3]  
[Errata][4]  
[Translation][5]  

* * *

Other books:  
[ ![][6]][7] [ ![][8]][9]

* * *

![][10]

You can browse my newest book [here][11]. If you like it, please order a paper copy. You can get it from [Amazon][12] or [Barnes & Noble][13], or direct from [Addison-Wesley][14].

# Why this book?

The Art of Unix Programming attempts to capture the engineering wisdom and philosophy of the Unix community as it's applied today — not merely as it has been written down in the past, but as a living "special transmission, outside the scriptures" passed from guru to guru. Accordingly, the book doesn't focus so much on "what" as on "why", showing the connection between Unix philosophy and practice through case studies in widely available open-source software.

# What's Available Here

If you're using Opera 5, be aware that it has problems rendering some of the HTML in the browseable version linked above. The symptom is occasional missing spaces between words.

# Contributing

Revisions for the first print edition are now closed. There is likely to be a second in a couple of years, however; I'll be accumulating revisions and adding things to the [errata page][4].

Instructions for reviewers are [here][3].

I have written some [notes for translators][5]. Inquiries about translation rights should go to [Mark Taub][15] at Addison-Wesley.

# Reviews

Raves: [1][16] [2][17] [3][18] [4][19] [5][20] [6][21] [7][22] [8][23] [9][24]

Friendly: [1][25] [2][26] [3][27] [4][28] [5][29] [6][30] [7][31] [8][32] [9][33] [10][32]

Pans: [1][34] [2][35]

[1]: http://www.catb.org/~esr "My home page"
[2]: http://www.catb.org/~esr/sitemap.html "Map of the site"
[3]: http://www.catb.org/contribute.html
[4]: http://www.catb.org/errata.html
[5]: http://www.catb.org/translation.html
[6]: http://www.catb.org/~esr/graphics/nhd3-small.jpg
[7]: http://www.catb.org/~esr//jargon/ "The Jargon File, aka The New Hacker's Dictionary"
[8]: http://www.catb.org/~esr/graphics/cb.s.png
[9]: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cathbazpaper/ "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"
[10]: http://www.catb.org/cover-small.png
[11]: http://www.catb.org/html/
[12]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0131429019/104-5607387-8275944?v=glance
[13]: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?endeca=1&ean=9780131429017
[14]: http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0131429019
[15]: mailto:Mark_Taub%40Prenhall.com
[16]: http://cplus.about.com/cs/books/gr/aaa081003a.htm
[17]: http://www.domus.uklinux.net/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/computers/artofunix.html
[18]: http://tools.devchannel.org/devtools/03/10/07/1532232.shtml?tid=39
[19]: http://www.linux.org/books/reviews/esr_aoup.html
[20]: http://www.dmst.aueb.gr/dds/pubs/Breview/2003-CR-AUP/html/review.html
[21]: http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/20/1656259&mode=thread&tid=130&tid=185&tid=190
[22]: http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=5706
[23]: http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/November2003/article313.shtml
[24]: http://www.accu.org/bookreviews/public/reviews/t/t003444.htm
[25]: http://sourcefrog.net/weblog/2003/07/01#taoup-thoughts
[26]: http://tiddly-pom.com/module.php?mod=blog&id=3&date=1060142399
[27]: http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=8925/ur0310i/
[28]: http://www.moskalyuk.com/books/art_of_unix_programming.htm
[29]: http://dannyreviews.com/h/Art_Unix.html
[30]: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Biculturalism.html
[31]: http://wiki.perl.org.il/index.php/Book_Review_-_The_Art_of_Unix_Programming_-_by+_Shlomi_Fish
[32]: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wi-lounge21.html?ca=drs-wi0504
[33]: http://www.amk.ca/books/h/Art_Unix_Programming
[34]: http://www.theassayer.org/cgi-bin/asbook.cgi?book=200
[35]: http://weblogs.asp.net/sibrahim/archive/2004/04/01/106049.aspx

