Lions commentary

[Jim Reid]

In article <521 at escom.com> al at escom.com (Al Donaldson) writes:
>Today I borrowed an N'th generation copy of Lions' Commentary
>on the UNIX Operating System and went by my friendly neighborhood
>printshop to get a N+1'st generation copy made.  They said they 
>couldn't do it because of the copyright notice at the bottom of 
>the first page (Copyright 1977 J. Lions).
>
>Even though the referenced source code is a bit out of date, 
>the commentary seems to me to be timeless.  Is there a legal 
>(and more readable..) version of this available for sale anywhere?

No. Lions' Commentary on UNIX was only distributed to people who had 
source licences for Version 6 UNIX. This was mainly universities, who
were at that time allowed to use the commentary and source code to teach the
workings of the UNIX kernel in OS courses. AT&T - maybe it was Western
Electric, who cares? - changed the terms of the UNIX licensing when Version
7 was released. This prevented licencees from disclosing source code (or
explaining how it worked) to people who did not have a source licence.
This has meant that the Lions books should only be found gathering dust
in the offices of a handful of UNIX veterans.

The fact that you have an illicit copy of these publications will
probably be enough to set an army of AT&T lawyers on you. Admitting to
an attempt at copying it will just make them angrier.

If you want to find out how the UNIX kernel works, get hold of either
of the Bach or Karels et al texts. Comer's Xinu and Tanenbaum's MINIX
books describe UNIX-like Operating Systems, including source code.
Although their kernels are differently organised from the internals of
UNIX, they have been heavily influenced by the UNIX kernel's way of doing
things. The Bach and Karels books don't disclose source code, but present
kernel algorithms in pseudo-code to illustrate what certain routines do.

		Jim