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Reviewer: Stephen D. Wolthusen

The oeuvre of the late W. Richard Stevens encompasses the definitive treatments of Unix network stacks and network programming, and has become the yardstick for every text in this field. The second edition of [1] was published in 1998, and had to reflect the demise of a number of protocols, such as Xerox Network Systems (XNS) and open systems interconnection (OSI), since the publication of the first edition [2]. It also had to include new subjects, ongoing developments, standardization, and usage patterns. The authors have taken on the difficult task of updating and revising this classic text, and have dispatched their duties well; the style, readability, and panache of the previous editions have been retained throughout. While the changes between the second and third editions are nowhere near as great as those between the first and second, the most important is the tracking of the development of the IEEE 1003.1 (portable operating system interface (POSIX)) family of standards that underwent a major revision in 2001. Given the ubiquitous problem of haphazard standards compliance that has certainly not spared the POSIX standards, it is equally important to note that the authors have verified their codes against current revisions of common Unix-based operating systems, revising and updating the spectrum of systems to reflect changes in the prevalence of systems since the last edition. In addition to covering all important application programming interfaces used in Unix network programming, such as sockets, socket options, name resolution, and low-level interfaces, the book also covers ancillary interfaces required for high performance network programming, such as multithreading, always providing well-crafted sample codes to illustrate the text. The coverage of Internet protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6) and its interfaces has also been significantly updated in the light of intense discussions of this subject since the time of the last edition. The discussion of IPv6-related material has been updated throughout the text, with new and updated interfaces explained. A separate chapter is devoted to the RFC 2367 key management socket mechanism and the Internet key exchange (IKE) specified in RFC 2409. While it is not yet clear whether these interfaces will become dominant, and with IKE still undergoing significant revisions, the coverage is nonetheless more than welcome, given the relative paucity of information elsewhere. The authors have removed a number of protocols from the discussion that have fallen into further disuse since the last edition, particularly the X/Open transport interface, but also the entire coverage of the transaction transmission control protocol (T/TCP) (RFC 1379, 1644), which failed to attract significant implementations. Echoing the inclusion of T/TCP in the second edition, the authors decided to include an extensive discussion of another relatively exotic protocol with limited deployment and an interface still in flux: simple tunneling configuration protocol (STCP) (RFC 2719). This choice is somewhat puzzling in a book that is otherwise devoted to concise coverage of widely deployed standards, and one cannot help but wonder if the space devoted to this material could not have been put to better use. Not surprisingly, this book will be as indispensable for developers of network application programs on the Unix platform as its predecessors. This new, carefully updated edition fills a real need in documenting changes in standards and implementations. Online Computing Reviews Service