Unix to Linux Porting

• Alfredo Mendoza, Chakarat Skawratananond, Artis Walker
• Prentice Hall Pearson Education
• 0131871099

Order (or just read more about) Unix to Linux Porting/a>  from Amazon.com

The major issues with porting to Linux from other Unixes include compiler and library differences, differences in system calls, and entirely missing system calls. There's also the issue of code that never was right to start with, but that's outside of the scope of this book.

Before it gets to specific porting issues, "Unix to Linux Porting" covers Linux development tools completely, right down to packaging. Those sections really could be a separate book.

It then covers three Unixes in depth: Solaris, HP-UX and AIX. Just about everything is covered: compiler flag cross references, compiler idiosyncracies, library versioning and so on. System calls with "gotchas" are listed; this is all very complete.

The only thing I'd question is the near 200 pages devoted to listing system and standard library calls for each OS. As so much of this is unnecessary (the call and results are identical on both OSes), why not save a small tree or two and only list the troublesome or missing functions? It's actually more than 200 pages as the same duplication is throughout the book also: why, for example waste space to show that "-o filename" is identical for both Linux and Solaris compilers ( and of course for HP-UX and AIX)?

There is a lot of valuable side information here such as warnings about non-standard and platform specific programming isses you might run into.

The book ends with a chapter on testing and debugging, which is likely where most porting projects spend most of their time. A sub-title on the cover bills this a "A Comprehensive Reference" and it certainly is.

Macworld Digital Photography Superguide

Jump to Comments

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

Specific links that take you to pages that allow you to purchase the item I reviewed are very likely to pay me a commission. Many of the books I review were given to me by the publishers specifically for the purpose of writing a review. These gifts and referral fees do not affect my opinions; I often give bad reviews anyway.

We use Google third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.