Foundational Unix Papers, Books, and Videos

Last updated — Oct 29, 2024
First published — Sep 22, 2023
#unix #bsd #gnu #linux

Original Unix, BSD, GNU, and Linux books, papers, videos, and similar materials.

Article Collection

This article is part of the following series:

1. Unix

Table of Contents

Introduction

This article lists documents, books, and audio-video materials relevant for understanding Unix and all systems derived from it.

Original Unix documents are important for two reasons:

First, as expected, they are relevant for understanding the history and principles on which Unix, the Internet, and modern software is based.

Second, equally important, they are useful for understanding the unsurpassed combination of simplicity and power in Unix. Being familiar with it comes handy when using Unix-based systems, but it has broader effects, making one’s own solutions more powerful and elegant.

There are a lot of documents listed, sorted by category and date. You are not expected to read them all at once or in order:

If you want to learn about the Unix culture, feel free to start with some videos, for example the light-hearted 2019 BWK’s Interview with Ken Thompson and 2016 Interview with Brian W. Kernighan, followed by 1988 Bill Joy's Talk at IBM Yorktown, and then check out popular books.

If you want to learn about Unix itself, start with the foundations and one or two manuals, followed by for example some videos.

It is expected that you will refer back to this list repeatedly over time, focusing on your current subfields of interest.

Foundations

Important Unix papers and documents:

UNIX Programmer’s Manuals

Doug McIlroy organized “Unix Programmer’s Manuals” to be written, and editions of manual became the versions of Unix they were describing.

The manuals consisted of manpages and papers. They are user-oriented, i.e. they do not discuss Unix internals, OS design principles, or C programming.

The editions were:

Please note that above links point mostly to resources hosted at https://www.tuhs.org/. In chapter AT&T / Bell Labs Unix Releases a bit more contextual information on each edition can be found, along with alternative links pointing to https://gunkies.org/.

Books and materials related to Unix:

Videos

Unix videos and documentaries:

Magazines

Other Resources

Misc links and resources, mostly to collections of books, papers, and documents.

Modern Code

Article Collection

This article is part of the following series:

1. Unix

Automatic Links

The following links appear in the article:

1. For Fun and Profit: A History of the Free and Open Source Software Revolution - For-Fun-and-Profit-A-History-of-the-Free-and-Open-Source-Software-Revolution.pdf
2. Odd Comments and Strange Doings in Unix
3. Software Tools - Software-Tools.pdf
4. The Bastard Operator From Hell - http://www.bofharchive.com/BOFH.html
5. The Daemon, the GNU & the Penguin - http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20051013231901859
6. ZIP File With the Book and Code - https://archive.org/details/CommentarySixthEditionUNIX
7. The UNIX Programming Environment - https://archive.org/details/UNIXProgrammingEnvironment
8. A Quarter Century of Unix - https://archive.org/details/aquartercenturyofunixpeterh.salus_201910
9. The Cathedral and the Bazaar - https://archive.org/details/cathedral-bazaar
10. Computer Chronicles - https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles
11. Elements of Programming Style - https://archive.org/details/the-elements-of-programming-style-second-edition/
12. UNIX REVIEW - https://archive.org/details/unixreview?sort=date
13. Unix Programmer's Manual, 8th Edition - https://archive.org/details/unixtimesharingsystemprogrammersmanualeighthedition
14. Unix World - https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Unix+World%22&sort=-date
15. AT&T / Bell Labs Unix Releases - https://crystallabs.io/unix-bsd-gnu-linux-history/#att--bell-labs-unix-releases
16. A Commentary on the Sixth Edition Unix Operating System - https://cs3210.cc.gatech.edu/r/unix6.pdf
17. Reflections on Software Research - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1283920.1283939
18. The UNIX Time-Sharing System - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/361011.361061
19. Review of "Software Tools" - https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1110841.1110847
20. Alternative Link - https://dspinellis.github.io/oral-history-of-unix/index.html
21. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_Operator_From_Hell
22. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Chronicles
23. Doug McIlroy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_McIlroy
24. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution
25. SeL4 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L4_microkernel_family#High_assurance:_seL4
26. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code
27. List of Episodes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Computer_Chronicles_episodes
28. Microkernel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microkernel
29. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language
30. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)
31. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Programming_Style
32. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker_Crackdown
33. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environment
34. Xv6 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xv6
35. The C Programming Language - https://github.com/AzatAI/cs_books/blob/master/The.C.Programming.Language.2nd.Edition.pdf
36. Unix History Repository - https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-repo
37. The Design of the Unix Operating System - https://github.com/jyfc/ebook/blob/master/03_operating_system/the_design_of_the_unix_operating_system.pdf
38. UNIX Implementation - https://github.com/manjunath5496/Ken-Thompson-papers/blob/master/ken(6).pdf
39. Hello World (Plan 9 and UTF-16) - https://github.com/manjunath5496/Ken-Thompson-papers/blob/master/ken(9).pdf
40. Ken Thompson's Papers - https://github.com/manjunath5496/Ken-Thompson-papers/tree/master
41. https://gunkies.org/
42. Lions Operating System (LionsOS) - https://lionsos.org/
43. Program Design in the UNIX System Environment - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/nmh-workers/2012-11/pdfGsAjwogf3t.pdf
44. Linux Weekly News (LWN.net) - https://lwn.net/
45. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/steven-levy/pdf-epub-hackers-heroes-of-the-computer-revolution-download/
46. Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project - https://producingoss.com/en/producingoss.html
47. Unix Programmer's Manual, 7th Edition - https://s3.amazonaws.com/plan9-bell-labs/7thEdMan/index.html
48. Unix Programmer's Manual, 10th Edition - https://web.archive.org/web/20150611142736/http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/10thEdMan/index.html
49. Alternative Download at TUHS - https://wiki.tuhs.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=publications:qcu.pdf
50. Advanced Unix Programming - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131411543
51. Advanced Unix Programming - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FIZKNYE
52. Dennis M. Ritchie's Homepage at Bell Labs - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/
53. The UNIX Time-Sharing System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/cacm.pdf
54. The Development of the C Language - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html
55. C Reference Manual - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/cman.pdf
56. Proposing a Unix Portability Experiment - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/firstport.html
57. The Evolution of the Unix Time-Sharing System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/hist.html
58. Five Little Languages and How They Grew: Talk at HOPL - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/hopl.html
59. Portability of C Programs and the UNIX System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/portpap.pdf
60. The UNIX Time-Sharing System - A Retrospective - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/retro.pdf
61. Interprocess Communication in the Ninth Edition Unix System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/spe.pdf
62. A Stream Input-Output System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/st.pdf
63. A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts From the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986 - https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf
64. Afterword - https://www.mit.edu/hacker/afterword.html
65. The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier - https://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html
66. O'Reilly Open Books - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/
67. Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/
68. Open Sources: Voices From the Open Source Revolution, 1st Edition - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/
69. Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/osfreesoft/book/
70. Diomidis Spinellis - https://www.spinellis.gr/
71. https://www.tuhs.org/
72. Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v2/v2man.pdf
73. Unix Programmer's Manual, 3rd Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v3/
74. Unix Programmer's Manual, 4th Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v4/
75. Unix Programmer's Manual, 5th Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v5/
76. Unix Programmer's Manual, 6th Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v6/
77. UNIX PROGRAM DESCRIPTION - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/USDL/unix_program_description_jan_1976.pdf
78. An Oral History of Unix - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/OralHistory/
79. History of UNIX - https://www.tuhs.org/Mirror/Hauben/unix-Contents.html
80. ;Login: - https://www.usenix.org/publications/loginonline
81. UNIX Videos From AT&T Tech Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ATTTechChannel/search?query=unix
82. Alternative YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ComputerChroniclesYT/videos
83. Computer History Museum's Oral Histories - https://www.youtube.com/@ComputerHistory/search?query=unix%20oral%20history
84. BWK's Interview With Ken Thompson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6q5dv_B-o
85. Interview With Jon 'Maddog' Hall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZMA3Ge144U
86. A Chronicle of the Unix Wars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffh3DRFzRL0
87. X Window System Design Principles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmNHM9BKY0
88. The History of X Window System (X11) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-N-fgKWYGU
89. VCF East 10 Interview With Brian W. Kernighan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUWt_StXKsY
90. Warner Losh's FOSDEM Talk on the Forgotten History of Early Unix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuzeagzQwRs
91. The History of Unix; Rob Pike's Experience - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2NI6t2r_Hs
92. A Political History of X - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj02_UeUnGQ
93. Origins of the C Programming Language - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de2Hsvxaf8M
94. Video of V0 Unix Running on a PDP-7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvaPaWyiuLA
95. Bill Joy's Talk at IBM Yorktown - https://youtu.be/EmC5yoE_7PY
96. A UNIX TM Operating System for the DEC VAX-11/780 Computer - unix-32v-reconstructed-draft1.pdf