A Commentary on the UNIX Operating System

A commentary on the Unix operating system
Author	John Lions
Language	English; also available in Chinese and Japanese
Subject	Unix operating system
Genre	Computer Science
Publisher	University of New South Wales
Publication date	1976
Publication place	Australia (original); United States (1996 reprint);
OCLC	36099640
Dewey Decimal	005.43
LC Class	QA 76.76 .O63 L56

A Commentary on the Sixth Edition UNIX Operating System by John Lions (later reissued as Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition^[1]^[2] and commonly referred to as the Lions Book) is a highly influential^[3] 1976 publication containing analytical commentary on the source code of the 6th Edition Unix computer operating system "resident nucleus"^[4] (i.e., kernel) software, plus copy formatted and indexed by Lions, of said source code obtained from the authors at AT&T Bell Labs.

Itself an exemplar of the early success of UNIX as portable code for a publishing platform, Lions's work was typeset using UNIX tools, on systems running code ported at the University, similar to that which it documented.^[5]

It is suspected to be the most frequently photocopied book in computer science.^[6]^: xi Despite its age, Lions's book is still considered an excellent commentary on simple, high quality code.

Lions's work was most recently reprinted in 1996 by Peer-To-Peer Communications,^[6] and has been circulated, recreated or reconstructed variously in a number of media by other parties.^[5]

^ Lions, John (1976–1977). A commentary on the Sixth Edition UNIX Operating System. University of New South Wales: Department of Computer Science. OCLC 494684468.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^ Unix operating system source code level six. University of New South Wales: Department of Computer Science. 1976–1977. OCLC 494684460.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^ Jonathan Corbet Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix LWN.net. January 17, 2022.
^ "NEW BOOK". UNIX News. USENIX. Mar 1977.
^ ^a ^b Lehey, Greg (2015-09-14). "Commentary on the Sixth Edition UNIX Operating System". Greg Lehey, Warren Toomey.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference 978-1-57398-013-5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[wcCommentary-1] Lions, John (1976–1977). A commentary on the Sixth Edition UNIX Operating System. University of New South Wales: Department of Computer Science. OCLC 494684468.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

[wcSource-2] Unix operating system source code level six. University of New South Wales: Department of Computer Science. 1976–1977. OCLC 494684460.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

[3] Jonathan Corbet Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix LWN.net. January 17, 2022.

[UN77-03-4] "NEW BOOK". UNIX News. USENIX. Mar 1977.

[lehey-5] Lehey, Greg (2015-09-14). "Commentary on the Sixth Edition UNIX Operating System". Greg Lehey, Warren Toomey.

[978-1-57398-013-5-6] Cite error: The named reference 978-1-57398-013-5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]