For the past 20 years, UNIX insiders have cherished and zealously guarded pirated photocopies of this manuscript, a "hacker trophy" of sorts. Now legal (and legible) copies are available. An international "who's who" of UNIX wizards, including Dennis Ritchie, have contributed essays extolling the merits and importance of this underground classic.
The most famous suppressed book in computer history! * Used as an Operating System textbook at MIT"After 20 years, this is still the best expostion of the workings of a 'real' operating system." --- Ken Thompson (Developer of the UNIX operating system)After years of suppression (as trade secrets) by various owners of the UNIX code, this tome has been re-released, and we owe a debt to all involved in making this happen. I consider this to be the single most important book of 1996. Unix Review, June 1997"The Lions book", cherished by UNIX hackers and widely circulated as a photocopied bootleg document since the late 1970's, is again available in an unrestricted edition. This legendary underground classic, reproduced without modification, is really two works in one: the complete source code to an early version (Edition 6) of the UNIX operating system, a treasure in itself! a brilliant commentary on that code by John Lionswith additional historical perspective essays added in 1996.Lions' marriage of source code with commentary was originally used as an operating systems textbook, a purpose for which it remains superbly well-suited (as evidenced by it's ongoing use at MIT).