You're a web developer. A good one. You write Rails apps in your sleep. But you skipped over some fundamentals. You feel like your foundation is lacking. This book will fill that gap.
"I just finished reading the book and loved it! That made me realize how simple and powerful unix programming is and how very little I really knew about it. It will definitely help me design the next version of Thin."
Marc-Andre Cournoyer — Author of the Thin web server
You'll discover...
- What a file descriptor is and how it works.
- When you need a daemon process, and when you don't.
- Creating new processes with fork(2).
- 4 different ways to exit a process.
- The real world concerns of spawning shell commands and how to avoid them.
- High level discussion about the costs and pitfalls of creating processes.
- Defining signal handlers that don't steal from other developers.
- Internals of Resque and Unicorn and how they use this stuff.
- Lots more! It's 130 pages packed with guidelines, sample code, and best practices.
Because you're not trying to write an operating system, you're trying to put this stuff to work for you.
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"This book fills a gap that a lot of developers have these days; it shouldn’t require writing C code to learn the UNIX fundamentals. This book proves that to be true."
David Bryant Copeland (full review) — Author of "Build Awesome Command-Line Applications in Ruby"
What other readers said about the book
When I started reading this book I didn't know much about UNIX processes. After finishing your book I felt comfortable enough to write a Ruby module that prevents orphaned processes from accumulating on your machine (https://github.com/vaneyckt/Adeona). Please don't think of it as a shameless plug, but rather as code that your book gave me the understanding to write.
Tom Van Eyck
If you’re interested in reading more on unix processes in general I’d highly recommend [this book], this will greatly raise your understanding of how they work and touches on unicorn directly.
Thomas Pomfret — CTO of mintdigital
What I like the most is the way the book connects the dots and brings everything together.
Dmytrii Nagirniak
I've always wondered how software deals with 'under the hood' stuff like this, but was too intimidated to find out and try it. The ebook really helps demystify things and make it more accessible.
Jesse Kaunisviita
The theme and orientation of the book is awesome, [...] it is quite important to know what is really happening there.
Alejandro Andres
Your book is awesome!
Jakub Svehla
this book should be required reading for anyone doing any kind of Ruby development, ever.
Andrew Eberbach of EberTech Inc.
Perfect length and topic coverage.
John Nunemaker
Overall great book. Enough content to make it fun while keeping to the point, it never gets boring, and the pace is consistent. And it covers exactly what you need to know about that type of stuff.
Daniel Huckstep
When I began the book, I could have written what I knew about unix processes on a postage stamp. By the end I felt like I had a solid understanding of the concepts.
Andrew Stewart — Author of the 'Smash into Vim' PeepCode series
It is really well written and very informative. I really like that kind of writing-style and how you got down to *nix system level.
Lukas Rieder
I find the tone and the contents organization perfect so far.
Raul Murciano
The book is definitely worth a read if you work with *nix-based web systems at all. The author takes a simple, straightforward approach that distills good information quickly.
Quinn Murphy (full review)
You'll receive an email with a download link immediately after purchase. No login required.
Download includes PDF, ePub, MOBI, TXT, and source code.
Books about Unix programming can be quite an investment. They're typically 1000+ pages, and cost anywhere from $60 - $100. When you buy Working With Unix Processes you get the book, case studies, plus the web server project and any future updates for only $27 USD.
Buy It Now!Want to buy it for your whole team? Buy a team license - up to 20 devs for just $99 USD.
You can also get it on The Kindle Store, if you're into that sort of thing. Or get it from The Pragmatic Bookshelf.
If you're not ready to buy yet you can read one or two sample chapters.
My name is Jesse Storimer. I'm a programmer.
For the past 3 years I've been solving hard problems at Shopify, one of the largest, busiest Ruby on Rails sites on the web.
My journey into the world of Unix programming started while working on Shopify's infrastructure and continues today. I live near Kemptville, Canada with my wife and daughter.
And, yes, I'm working on my Unix beard.
Money-back Guarantee
If it's not working for you then it's not working for me.
If, for any reason, you're not happy with this book just send me an email: I'll give you your money back and you keep everything. I want you to be happy.
Need more info? Got a question? Get in touch: .