I'm looking for a good book on Linux system programming and wondered whether anybody could recommend an up-to-date appropriate book that covers the subject well. Things like:
Can anybody suggest an appropriate book that they've read/used, not just something that they've seen on Amazon : ) many thanks...
Advanced Linux Programming is freely available and is an excellent book on Linux system programming.
There are some good recommendations in this StackOverflow question of the same subject:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/381557/how-do-i-get-started-programming-in-linux
Although you've specifically asked for an up-to-date book, I think it's worth mentioning Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment (2nd Edition). It was released in 2005, and is an update of the classic first edition (released in 1992) by the late W. Richard Stevens. I'm familiar with the first edition, but haven't seen the second one.
The first edition became a classic because it provided thorough yet clear descriptions of its topics, with copious code examples which were available for download. The second edition is updated to include Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X, and by all reports (e.g. reviews on Amazon) is just as good a book as the first edition.
Linux Kernel Development by Robert Love. Gives you in-depth UNDERSTANDING of how Linux works. However, you will not find few-pages code samples in there. I read this book being almost a Linux newbie and afterwards was able to write kernel modules.
Linux Application Development is a good book to start with covering the basics on *nix development.
So after doing all the research into the books presented here, Beginning Linux Programming by Neil Matthew and Richard Stones was the book I chose in the end.
It was up to date (published in 2007), covered all the topics I wanted it to (including Threads, I/O, IPC etc...) as well as GUI programming with Gnome/KDE.
Having read the first three chapters, it's a good introductory text to system programming in general and covers some of the more advanced topics.