Understanding Linux syscalls is important for developers. Many innovations were made possible due to changes or the appearance of new system calls. And when your application doesn’t operate with the expected performance, understanding the Linux system calls will go a long way to help you understand the bottleneck. I read a lot recently about eBPF, and this book was helpful to feel comfortable on this advanced, also important, topic.

With over 1500 pages, this book will test the solidity of your bookshelf, and your desire to discover the Linux APIs. It’s best to lay the book on your desk. You will not read the book in a few days, but you don’t need to read the whole book. It contains many chapters, many examples in C, and reading the first pages of every chapter can be enough to decide if you want to learn more on this subject. You can always come back to read the code examples more attentively before using them in your programs.

The Linux Programming Interface is truly a masterpiece. Few technical books impressed me so much (and I read a lot!). The explanations are always clear, succinct, and the book is perfectly organized. A book like this requires dedication over numerous years before going to press. Michael Kerrisk is the maintainer of the Linux man-pages project since 2004, and many man pages were edited during the preparation of this authoritative book. I cannot stop seeing his name now that I have completed the book.