Foundational Unix Papers, Books, and Videos

First published — Sep 22, 2023
Last updated — Oct 27, 2025
#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. It is much easier to learn from simple, original building blocks than from looking at current, very advanced and highly polished solutions that managed to hide their inner workings.

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 (UPM)

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:

Video Collections

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. Life With UNIX - Life_with_Unix_v2.pdf
3. Odd Comments and Strange Doings in Unix
4. Software Tools - Software-Tools.pdf
5. The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System - The-Design-and-Implementation-of-the-4.3BSD-Unix-OS.pdf
6. Unix for Beginners - Unix_For_Beginners_1st_ed.pdf
7. Unix for Beginners - Unix_For_Beginners_2nd_ed.pdf
8. The Daemon, the GNU & the Penguin - http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20051013231901859
9. ZIP File With the Book and Code - https://archive.org/details/CommentarySixthEditionUNIX
10. The UNIX Programming Environment - https://archive.org/details/UNIXProgrammingEnvironment
11. A Quarter Century of Unix - https://archive.org/details/aquartercenturyofunixpeterh.salus_201910
12. The Cathedral and the Bazaar - https://archive.org/details/cathedral-bazaar
13. Computer Chronicles - https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles
14. Software Tools in Pascal - https://archive.org/details/softwaretoolsinp00kern
15. Elements of Programming Style - https://archive.org/details/the-elements-of-programming-style-second-edition/
16. UNIX REVIEW - https://archive.org/details/unixreview?sort=date
17. Unix Programmer's Manual, 8th Edition - https://archive.org/details/unixtimesharingsystemprogrammersmanualeighthedition
18. Unix World - https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Unix+World%22&sort=-date
19. Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH) - https://bofh.bjash.com/
20. AT&T / Bell Labs Unix Releases - https://crystallabs.io/unix-bsd-gnu-linux-history/#att--bell-labs-unix-releases
21. A Commentary on the Sixth Edition Unix Operating System - https://cs3210.cc.gatech.edu/r/unix6.pdf
22. Reflections on Software Research - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1283920.1283939
23. The UNIX Time-Sharing System - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/361011.361061
24. Review of "Software Tools" - https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1110841.1110847
25. Alternative Link - https://dspinellis.github.io/oral-history-of-unix/index.html
26. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_Operator_From_Hell
27. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Chronicles
28. Doug McIlroy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_McIlroy
29. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution
30. SeL4 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L4_microkernel_family#High_assurance:_seL4
31. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code
32. List of Episodes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Computer_Chronicles_episodes
33. Microkernel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microkernel
34. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language
35. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)
36. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Programming_Style
37. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker_Crackdown
38. Wikipedia Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environment
39. Xv6 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xv6
40. The C Programming Language - https://github.com/AzatAI/cs_books/blob/master/The.C.Programming.Language.2nd.Edition.pdf
41. Unix History Repository - https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-repo
42. 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
43. UNIX Implementation - https://github.com/manjunath5496/Ken-Thompson-papers/blob/master/ken(6).pdf
44. Hello World (Plan 9 and UTF-16) - https://github.com/manjunath5496/Ken-Thompson-papers/blob/master/ken(9).pdf
45. Ken Thompson's Papers - https://github.com/manjunath5496/Ken-Thompson-papers/tree/master
46. UX/RT - https://gitlab.com/uxrt/uxrt-toplevel
47. https://gunkies.org/
48. Lions Operating System (LionsOS) - https://lionsos.org/
49. Program Design in the UNIX System Environment - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/nmh-workers/2012-11/pdfGsAjwogf3t.pdf
50. Linux Weekly News (LWN.net) - https://lwn.net/
51. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/steven-levy/pdf-epub-hackers-heroes-of-the-computer-revolution-download/
52. Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project - https://producingoss.com/en/producingoss.html
53. Unix Programmer's Manual, 7th Edition - https://s3.amazonaws.com/plan9-bell-labs/7thEdMan/index.html
54. Unix Programmer's Manual, 10th Edition - https://web.archive.org/web/20150611142736/http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/10thEdMan/index.html
55. Alternative Download at TUHS - https://wiki.tuhs.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=publications:qcu.pdf
56. Advanced Unix Programming - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131411543
57. Advanced Unix Programming - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FIZKNYE
58. Dennis M. Ritchie's Homepage at Bell Labs - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/
59. The UNIX Time-Sharing System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/cacm.pdf
60. The Development of the C Language - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html
61. C Reference Manual - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/cman.pdf
62. Proposing a Unix Portability Experiment - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/firstport.html
63. The Evolution of the Unix Time-Sharing System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/hist.html
64. Five Little Languages and How They Grew: Talk at HOPL - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/hopl.html
65. Portability of C Programs and the UNIX System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/portpap.pdf
66. The UNIX Time-Sharing System - A Retrospective - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/retro.pdf
67. Interprocess Communication in the Ninth Edition Unix System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/spe.pdf
68. A Stream Input-Output System - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/st.pdf
69. A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts From the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986 - https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf
70. Afterword - https://www.mit.edu/hacker/afterword.html
71. The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier - https://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html
72. O'Reilly Open Books - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/
73. Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/
74. Open Sources: Voices From the Open Source Revolution, 1st Edition - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/
75. Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing - https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/osfreesoft/book/
76. Diomidis Spinellis - https://www.spinellis.gr/
77. https://www.tuhs.org/
78. Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v2/v2man.pdf
79. Unix Programmer's Manual, 3rd Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v3/
80. Unix Programmer's Manual, 4th Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v4/
81. Unix Programmer's Manual, 5th Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v5/
82. Unix Programmer's Manual, 6th Edition - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v6/
83. UNIX PROGRAM DESCRIPTION - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/USDL/unix_program_description_jan_1976.pdf
84. An Oral History of Unix - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/OralHistory/
85. History of UNIX - https://www.tuhs.org/Mirror/Hauben/unix-Contents.html
86. ;Login: - https://www.usenix.org/publications/loginonline
87. UNIX Videos From AT&T Tech Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ATTTechChannel/search?query=unix
88. Alternative YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ComputerChroniclesYT/videos
89. Computer History Museum's Oral Histories - https://www.youtube.com/@ComputerHistory/search?query=unix%20oral%20history
90. BWK's Interview With Ken Thompson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6q5dv_B-o
91. Interview With Jon 'Maddog' Hall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZMA3Ge144U
92. A Chronicle of the Unix Wars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffh3DRFzRL0
93. X Window System Design Principles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmNHM9BKY0
94. The History of X Window System (X11) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-N-fgKWYGU
95. VCF East 10 Interview With Brian W. Kernighan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUWt_StXKsY
96. Warner Losh's FOSDEM Talk5-14 on the Forgotten History of Early Unix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuzeagzQwRs
97. The UNIX System: Making Computers Easier to Use - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvDZLjaCJuw
98. The History of Unix; Rob Pike's Experience - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2NI6t2r_Hs
99. A Political History of X - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj02_UeUnGQ
100. Origins of the C Programming Language - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de2Hsvxaf8M
101. Video of V0 Unix Running on a PDP-7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvaPaWyiuLA
102. An Interview With Ken Thompson, With an Intro by B. W. Kernighan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNaCzdn6sY
103. Bill Joy's Talk at IBM Yorktown - https://youtu.be/EmC5yoE_7PY
104. A UNIX TM Operating System for the DEC VAX-11/780 Computer - unix-32v-reconstructed-draft1.pdf