Table of Contents

The Unix-Haters handbook

Table of Contents pages: 1 2

• The UNIX- HATERS Handbook 11
• • Credits 77
  • About IDG Books Worldwide 88
• The UNIX- HATERS Handbook 33
• • Edited by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise, and Steven Strassmann Illustrations by John Klossner 33
  • The UNIX-HATERS Handbook 44
  • Foreword 1717
  • • By Donald A. Norman 1717
  • Preface 2121
  • • Things Are Going to Get a Lot Worse Before Things Get Worse 2121
    • • Deficient by Design 2222
      • Who We Are 2323
      • The UNIX-HATERS History 2424
      • • You are not alone 2929
      • Contributors and Acknowledgments 3030
      • Typographical Conventions 3333
      • The UNIX-HATERS Disclaimer 3434
  • Anti-Foreword 3737
  • • By Dennis�Ritchie 3737
  • Unix 4343
  • • The World’s First Computer Virus 4343
    • • History of the Plague 4444
      • • Accumulation of Random Genetic Material 4646
      • Sex, Drugs, and Unix 4848
      • Standardizing Unconformity 4949
      • • Why Unix Vendors Really Don’t Want a Standard Unix 5050
      • Unix Myths 5353
      • • 1. It’s standard. 5353
  • Welcome, New User! 5757
  • • Like Russian Roulette with Six Bullets Loaded 5757
    • • Cryptic Command Names 5858
      • Accidents Will Happen 5959
      • • 1. The Unix file system lacks version numbers. 5959
        • “rm” Is Forever 6161
        • Changing rm’s Behavior Is Not an Option 6363
      • Consistently Inconsistent 6565
      • • Impossible Filenames 6868
        • Amuse Your Friends! Confound Your Enemies! 6969
      • Online Documentation 7070
      • Error Messages and Error Checking, NOT! 7171
      • • To Delete Your File, Try the Compiler 7171
        • Error Jokes 7575
      • The Unix Attitude 7777
  • Documentation? 8383
  • • What Documentation? 8383
    • • 1. Read the source code. 8383
      • On-line Documentation 8484
      • • 1. catman, in which programmers had the “breakthrough” realization that they could store the man ... 8484
        • “I Know It’s Here … Somewhere.” 8585
        • No Manual Entry for “Well Thought-Out” 8888
        • Shell Documentation 8989
      • This Is Internal Documentation? 9191
      • • How to Get Real Documentation 9292
      • For Programmers, Not Users 9393
      • • The Source Code Is the Documentation 9494
      • Unix Without Words: A Course Proposal 9696
  • Mail 101101
  • • Don’t Talk to Me, I’m�Not�a�Typewriter! 101101
    • • Sendmail: The Vietnam of Berkeley Unix 102102
      • • A Harrowing History 103103
        • • 1. Sendmail had to be compatible with existing mail programs. 103103
      • Subject: Returned Mail: User Unknown 107107
      • • 1. Figure out which part of the message is the address and which part is the body. 107107
        • STEP 1: Figure out what is address and what is body. 108108
        • STEP 2: Parse the address. 109109
        • STEP 3: Figure out where it goes. 110110
        • STEP 4: Put the mail into the correct mailbox. 112112
      • From: 114114
      • • Not Following Protocol 116116
        • >From Unix, with Love 118118
        • uuencode: Another Patch, Another Failure 121121
        • Error Messages 122122
      • Apple Computer’s Mail Disaster of 1991 124124
  • Snoozenet 131131
  • • I Post, Therefore I Am 131131
    • • Netnews and Usenet: Anarchy Through Growth 131131
      • • Death by Email 132132
      • Newsgroups 134134
      • • Hurling Hierarchies 135135
        • The Great Renaming 136136
      • Alt.massive.flamage 137137
      • This Information Highway Needs Information 138138
      • rn, trn: You Get What You Pay for 139139
      • When in Doubt, Post 142142
      • Seven Stages of Snoozenet 143143
      • • Innocence 143143
        • Enthusiasm 143143
        • Arrogance 143143
        • Disgust 144144
        • Resignation 144144
        • Ossification 145145
        • Nostalgia 147147
  • Terminal Insanity 149149
  • • Curses! Foiled Again! 149149
    • • Original Sin 149149
      • The Magic of Curses 151151
      • • 1. The format of the termcap file—the cursor movement commands included, those left out, and the ... 152152
        • Senseless Separators 153153
        • Customizing your terminal settings 156156
  • The X-Windows Disaster 161161
  • • How to Make a 50-MIPS Workstation Run Like a 4.77MHz IBM PC 161161
    • • X: The First Fully Modular Software Disaster 162162
      • • The Nongraphical GUI 162162
        • The Motif Self-Abuse Kit 163163
        • Ice Cube: The Lethal Weapon 163163
      • X Myths 165165
      • • Myth: X Demonstrates the Power of Client/Server Computing 165165
        • Myth: X Makes Unix “Easy to Use” 167167
        • Myth: X Is “Customizable” 170170
        • Myth: X Is “Portable” 172172
        • Myth: X Is Device Independent 176176
      • X Graphics: Square Peg in a Round Hole 178178
      • X: On the Road to Nowhere 179179
  • csh, pipes, and find 185185
  • • Power Tools for Power Fools 185185
    • • The Shell Game 186186
      • • Shell crash 187187
        • The Metasyntactic Zoo 188188
        • The Shell Command “chdir” Doesn’t 191191
      • Shell Programming 192192
      • • Shell Variables Won’t 196196
        • Error Codes and Error Checking 197197
      • Pipes 198198
      • Find 202202
  • Programming 211211
  • • Hold Still, This Won’t Hurt a Bit 211211
    • • The Wonderful Unix Programming Environment 213213
      • Programming in Plato’s Cave 214214
      • • Parsing with yacc 215215
        • “Don’t know how to make love. Stop.” 216216
        • Header Files 219219
        • Utility Programs and Man Pages 220220
        • The Source Is the Documentation. Oh, Great! 223223
      • “It Can’t Be a Bug, My Makefile Depends on It!” 224224
      • • Dealing with the Core 224224
        • The Bug Reliquary 225225
        • Filename Expansion 227227
        • Robustness, or “All Lines Are Shorter Than 80 Characters” 228228
        • Exceptional Conditions 231231
        • Catching Bugs Is Socially Unacceptable 234234
      • If You Can’t Fix It, Restart It! 235235
  • C++ 239239
  • • The COBOL of the 90s 239239
    • • The Assembly Language of Object-Oriented Programming 240240
      • • Pardon Me, Your Memory Is Leaking… 241241
        • Hard to Learn and Built to Stay That Way 243243
      • Syntax Syrup of Ipecac 244244
      • Abstract What? 246246
      • C++ Is to C as Lung Cancer Is to Lung 249249
      • The Evolution of a Programmer 251251
      • • High school/Junior high 251251
        • First year in college 251251
        • Senior year in college 251251
        • New professional 251251
        • Seasoned pro 252252
        • Manager 252252
  • System Administration 257257
  • • Unix’s Hidden Cost 257257
    • • Keeping Unix Running and Tuned 259259
      • • Unix Systems Become Senile in Weeks, Not Years 260260
        • You Can’t Tune a Fish 261261
      • Disk Partitions and Backups 263263
      • • Partitions: Twice the Fun 265265
        • • 1. Partitions must not overlap. 266266
        • Down and Backups 267267
        • More Sticky Tape 269269
      • Configuration Files 270270
      • • Multiple Machines Means Much Madness 271271
      • Maintaining Mail Services 274274
      • Where Did I Go Wrong? 276276
  • Security 279279
  • • Oh, I’m Sorry, Sir, Go Ahead, I Didn’t Realize You Were Root 279279
    • • The Oxymoronic World of Unix Security 279279
      • • Security Is Not a Line Printer 280280
      • Holes in the Armor 280280
      • • Superuser: The Superflaw 281281
        • The Problem with SUID 281281
        • The Cuckoo’s Egg 282282
        • The Other Problem with SUID 283283
        • Processes Are Cheap—and Dangerous 284284
        • The Problem with PATH 285285
        • Startup traps 286286
        • Trusted Path and Trojan Horses 286286
        • Compromised Systems Usually Stay That Way 287287
        • Cryptic Encryption 288288
        • The Problem with Hidden Files 289289
        • Denial of Service 289289
        • System Usage Is Not Monitored 291291
        • Disk Overload 291291
      • The Worms Crawl In 292292
  • The File System 295295
  • • Sure It Corrupts Your Files, But Look How Fast It Is! 295295
    • • What’s a File System? 296296
      • • Meet the Relatives 296296
        • Visualize a File System 297297
      • UFS: The Root of All Evil 298298
      • • Automatic File Corruption 301301
        • No File Types 303303
        • No Record Lengths 304304
        • File and Record Locking 304304

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