Any program worth its salt uses operating system services. Even the simplest program is likely to read input and produce output, and most real-world applications have more complex needs. They need to check the data and time, use the network, or start and communicate with other processes. "Systems programming" really means nothing more than writing software that uses these operating system services.

UNIX Systems Programming for SVR4 gives you the nitty gritty details on how UNIX interacts with applications. Whether you're a student, system administrator, or software developer, if you're working on any System V Release 4 platform, you'll find this book indispensable. The book contains many extended examples on topics ranging from string manipulation to network programming. These examples can serve as starting points for your own applications.

In addition to AT&T's release of SVR4, this book pays special attention to the three most important commercial UNIX implementations: Sun Microsystems' Solaris, Hewlett Packard's HP-UX 10, and Silicon Graphics' IRIX 5.3. It also includes notes on porting software from BSD UNIX to SVR4.