This book describes the internal algorithms and the structures that form the basis of the UNIX� operating system and their relationship to the programmer interface. The system description is based on UNIX System V Release 2 supported by AT&T, with some features from Release 3.

From the Back Cover

In this timely new book, Maurice J. Bach traces the popularity of the UNIX system throughout the computer industry. The author describes the internal algorithms and structures that form the basis of the operating system (the kernel) and their relationship to the programmer interface.

Among its key features, the book:

Describes the outline of the kernel architecture
Introduces the system buffer cache mechanism
Includes data structures and algorithms used internally by the file system
Covers the system calls that provide the user interface to the file system
Defines the context of a process and investigates the internal kernel primitives that manipulate the process context
Presents the system calls that control the process context
Describes process scheduling
Discussed memory management, including swapping and paging systems
Outlines general driver interfaces, with specific discussion of disk drivers and terminal drivers
Presents an overview of streams
Introduces inter-process communication and networking, including System V messages, shared memory, and semaphores
Explains tightly couples multiprocessor UNIX systems
Investigates distributed UNIX systems