On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 2:23 PM, Always Learning <centos at u62.u22.net> wrote: > > >> If you really want to appreciate the concepts, you should find a unix >> manual from the days before X was included. Back then there were 5 >> sections where 1 covered the command line programs, 2 covered system >> calls, 3 the standard C library, etc. It was small enough that you >> could read and mostly memorize it, especially section 1, in a few >> days. The thing to appreciate is that 30+ years later, even in cloned >> versions, those things were designed well enough that pretty much >> everything in there still continues to work. > > Design is so important. Get it really right the first time and vast > amounts of time and effort are saved. If I ever encounter a Unix book or > manual, I'll certainly keep it to read. There is plenty of documentation around now, but it is much, much harder to sort out the core tools from the cruft and specialty stuff now. If you understand what the fork() system call does, most of the rest of what unix-like systems do will generally make sense. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com