Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by Stevens and Ragoby W. Richard Stevens and Stephen A. Rago
Shares rank 71 of 115 programming books by recommenders
People recommend it as a favorite guide to systems programming on UNIX and a foundation for early careers. One critic says many concepts are shown but not explained.
People recommend it as a favorite guide to systems programming on UNIX and a foundation for early careers. One critic says many concepts are shown but not explained.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Favorite book on UNIX systems programming
“My favorite book about systems programming on UNIX systems”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “The Linux Programming Interface as a university course text” Good example to read
“go and read fricking APUE as an example”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “The ways we contain Claude across products” Helped build an early career
“I owe most of my early career to APUE”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Daemon Example in C”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Many concepts shown but not explained
“i fell for the scam of buying "Advanced Programming in the unix environment" and a lot of concept are only shown but not explained”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Matthias Felleisen and Robert Bruce Findler and Matthew Flatt and Shriram Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environmentby W. Richard Stevens and Stephen A. RagoThis page | 3 | 1 | 75% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 4 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“go and read fricking APUE as an example”
“My favorite book about systems programming on UNIX systems”
“i fell for the scam of buying "Advanced Programming in the unix environment" and a lot of concept are only shown but not explained”
“I owe most of my early career to APUE”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.