Linux 2.6.36 API changes

As I promised in the preface of TLPI, as new versions of the Linux kernel and glibc are released, I'll note interfaces changes on the web site.

Linux kernel 2.6.36 was released a couple of weeks back, so I've noted the interface changes (a new system call for setting process resource limits, prlimit(), and a new inotify flag, IN_EXCL_UNLINK) on the API changes page. I've also added documentation of these changes to the Linux man-pages, in release 3.31.

(Updated 2010-12-05: changed URL for "API changes" page.)

First errata now up on the web

I've updated the web site for TLPI, adding the first errata. I also updated the source code tarball, since there were fixes to one program (see the errata for page 1176).

Updated 2010-12-03: revised errata URL.

Amazon.com shipping now

Thanks to the many people who let me know that they got a copy shipped from Amazon.com, which now seems to have sorted out the status of its stock.

Amazon.com okay now?

Amazon.com was showing funny status for my book (available in "2 to 6 months"), but the problem appears to be fixed now. Still, I'd be interested to hear early reports from people who have ordered through Amazon.com and receive the book in the next few days (or have already received it via an Amazon.com order). Drop me a note at mtk AT man7.org, or as a reply to this post.

Nice review on slashdot

Federico Lucifredi (maintainer of man(1)) wrote a very nice and thoughtful review on slashdot. (And Google Alerts reveals that slashdot reviews get syndicated to a lot of other sites!) Thanks Federico!

The book is out (really!)

This time, printing of the book went fine. The book should be selling via retail channels any day now. If you are ordering online, then using one of the links here would do me a favor.

Still on track for publication

At the moment, we are still on track for the reprint to leave the printer on 19 October.

In the meantime, No Starch has sent out a few of the better copies from the earlier problem print run to reviewers, so some reviews will start appearing before too long. The first that I've seen is a blog post by Mike Riley at Dr Dobbs, who provides a short summary (rather than a deep review) of the book.

Minor website changes

I've made a few minor changes to the site, including a new code distribution that contains a fix for a bug in one of the example programs. (One of the silver linings to the publishing delay is that the fix will also be in the paper copy.)

Revised publication date

Enough copies in the initial print run had problems that the publisher and printer have together decised to redo the print run. The target "bound book" date is currently 19 October, and the book should be shipping a week after that. There may still be some movement on those dates; if so, I'll post here.

In the meantime, No Starch Press have sent out a press release for the book, which you can read here (also kindly reproduced by the folks at LWN.net).

Almost...

It's not over until it's over...

It seems that there are some printing issues in some copies of the book. The folk at No Starch already spotted them last week, before any copies shipped and they're working with the printer to get the issues sorted out. (The one copy that I have received was pretty much fine, so I don't have first-hand knowledge of the problem.)

Practically, this means there will be some delay before the book starts shipping. When I know more about the expected time of shipping, I'll post it here.

Here it is

Web site changes, new chapters online

I've made a few small changes to the book web site. The most notable change is that two more sample chapters are now available:

• Chapter 24: Process Creation
• Chapter 52: POSIX Message Queues
  

Other than that, there have been a few small changes to the source code to handle feature test macro changes in the header files in glibc 2.12 and to fix one or two warnings that occurred when the code was compiled with _XOPEN_SOURCE defined as 700.