Linux Applications Programming by Example: The Fundamental APIs (2nd Edition)

For those looking for a broader/more portable introduction, Xavier Leroy and Didier Rémy wrote a great high-level text on UNIX system programming a long time ago [1]. Of course it uses ocaml (perhaps motivating some to learn that language) but the style is low-level and straightforwardly imperative. The advantage is that it sweeps up a lot of the messy and boring error handling into the ocaml runtime and/or exceptions. This makes the code a lot easier to follow, but of course makes it look misleadingly simpler than it would be in C (etc).

[1] https://ocaml.github.io/ocamlunix/

Is there an actual book available?

What’s the purpose of this submission?

what is so fun about this?

[1] https://ocaml.github.io/ocamlunix/

Thanks! I just started the OCaml Programming Book this week to learn and language and get better at functional programming. Cant wait to jump into this after

Why would someone want to learn Unix Programming using OCAML? Not a smart choice. Also this does not look easier to read than a shell script either.

let rec copy_rec source dest = let infos = lstat source in match infos.st_kind with | S_REG -> file_copy source dest; set_infos dest infos | S_LNK -> let link = readlink source in symlink link dest | S_DIR -> mkdir dest 0o200; Misc.iter_dir (fun file -> if file <> Filename.current_dir_name && file <> Filename.parent_dir_name then copy_rec (Filename.concat source file) (Filename.concat dest file)) source; set_infos dest infos | _ -> prerr_endline ("Can't cope with special file " ^ source)

what is so fun about this?

What’s the purpose of this submission?

Is there an actual book available?

Linux is rarely a porting issue for C++ or python: https://wxwidgets.org/

Static linking libraries for MacOS or Windows is contaminated by GPL/LGPL code, and this is why wxwidgets excludes the disclosure requirement.

Also, if you are looking for a VueJS cross-platform GUI framework for most Desktop and Mobile platforms (modern MacOS hardware and developer account is a requirement):

https://github.com/quasarframework/quasar

Qt5/Qt6 frameworks sooner or later cause more problems than they solve, and require a lot more maintenance/support.

Best of luck =3

Thanks! I just started the OCaml Programming Book this week to learn and language and get better at functional programming. Cant wait to jump into this after

Why would someone want to learn Unix Programming using OCAML? Not a smart choice. Also this does not look easier to read than a shell script either.

OCaml is a weird teaching choice for broad Unix programming, but it makes more sense than bash once the code stops being toy-sized and starts touching files, processes, and error paths in more than one place. Shell scripts let typos turn into state changes, and C gives you the usual memory footguns.

That snippet is ugly. Cleaner OCaml is easier to maintain than the average bash blob if you care more about finding mistakes before prod than saving ten minutes on ML syntax.

Linux is rarely a porting issue for C++ or python: https://wxwidgets.org/

Static linking libraries for MacOS or Windows is contaminated by GPL/LGPL code, and this is why wxwidgets excludes the disclosure requirement.

Also, if you are looking for a VueJS cross-platform GUI framework for most Desktop and Mobile platforms (modern MacOS hardware and developer account is a requirement):

https://github.com/quasarframework/quasar

Qt5/Qt6 frameworks sooner or later cause more problems than they solve, and require a lot more maintenance/support.

Best of luck =3

"contaminated by GPL/LGPL code"? really? if you want to make profit off of your code buy for several thousands of dollars commercial libraries and you are in the clear. if you don't want to pay for libraries you have to accept their conditions

This repository holds the code from Linux Application Development By Example - The Fundamental APIs by Arnold Robbins.

ISBN-13: 978-0-13-532552-0 ISBN-10: 0-13-532552-8

The Documents directory holds documents of interest, including the license for code written by the author.

Any errata will be added to Documents/errata.txt as they are discovered.

The other directories hold the example programs from the respective chapters in the book.

Issues / mistakes in the book can be reported by opening an issue.

Last Updated: Fri Oct 10 04:07:26 PM IDT 2025

That snippet is ugly. Cleaner OCaml is easier to maintain than the average bash blob if you care more about finding mistakes before prod than saving ten minutes on ML syntax.

IMHO modern C (with modern tooling) is very reasonable.

I usually prefer releasing under Apache 2.0 license, as I can't predict what people will need 10 years from now.

People use LGPL libraries in commercial software all the time, as the shared objects (.so) do not contaminate the source application license. The instant someone static links LGPL/GPL lib into an application binary its source also must carry a compatible open license. Note this obligation differs from publishing patches back to the main lib branch.

It gets messy when people release libraries under multiple licenses. Porting games and applications from *nix systems can be non-trivial. Best regards =3

Of course, I saw that, but if the text of the book is not freely available, then the examples wouldn't really be helpful, no?

IMHO modern C (with modern tooling) is very reasonable.

I usually prefer releasing under Apache 2.0 license, as I can't predict what people will need 10 years from now.

It gets messy when people release libraries under multiple licenses. Porting games and applications from *nix systems can be non-trivial. Best regards =3

Of course, I saw that, but if the text of the book is not freely available, then the examples wouldn't really be helpful, no?

So buy the book? The expectation of free stuff is all too common.

Regardless, a link to a repo of disjointed examples is not very interesting or helpful.

Or perhaps maybe rather free stuff is all too uncommon…

Regardless, a link to a repo of disjointed examples is not very interesting or helpful.

If you don't wanna pay, Library Genesis has the first edition (2004), but, if you didn't find the examples to be at least modestly interesting in themselves, is this even your bag? As a Linux sysadmin and occasional writer of lousy C programs, I often consult NetBSD's source tree for when I want good examples that aren't as complex as GNU's, so I expect to come back to these.

Judging by the publisher's sample,[1] the second edition (2025) looked like a worthwhile upgrade, so I ordered it. Much of the material is in the manpages, but this presents it with better explanations.

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1. <https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780135325520/samplep...>

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1. <https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780135325520/samplep...>

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Linux Applications Programming by Example: The Fundamental APIs (2nd Edition)

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