Reviews (19)

Accept no substitutes -- THE book to read on file systems
I decided to read and review three digital forensics books in order to gauge their strengths and weaknesses: "File System Forensic Analysis" (FSFA) by Brian Carrier, "Windows Forensics" (WF) by Chad Steel, and "EnCase Computer Forensics" (ECF) by Steve Bunting and William Wei.All three books contain the word "forensics" in the title, but they are very different.If you want authoritative and deeply technical guidance on understanding file systems, read FSFA.If you want to focus on understanding Windows from an investigator's standpoint, read WA.If you want to know more about EnCase (and are willing to tolerate or ignore information about forensics itself), read ECF.
The best work on the topic
Carrier's book has prooven invaluable to this digital forensics trainee, and I expect many of the old hands in the field will be keeping it on hand as well.If you're serious about computer forensics, you need a copy.

Very deep
I'm pretty technical, so I enjoyed this book.The author has more on file systems than just about anywhere, and I found it helpful in non security work also just to understand how the different systems work.
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Subjects:  1. Computer - Internet    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Data Security    4. Computer security    5. Computers    6. Data structures (Computer science)    7. File organization (Computer science)    8. Internet - Security    9. Security - General    10. Computers / Internet / Security    11. Computing and Information Technology   

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Reviews (11)

Another rush job...
It seems like too many technical books, especially those that Very Complete Reference Book. More than need be.
Building Storage Networks is a very complete reference into storage. This book covers it all. If you know nothing about storage, by the time you get through the 590 pages you will have a complete knowledge of storage. SAN and NAS Beginnings
Nicely written material for the beginner to the SAN and NAS areas, but ultimately falls short of the depth that I was looking for in understanding SAN and NAS technologies.Covers the networking, protocols, and basic SAN and NAS architectures well.If you have a fairly good idea of the SAN and NAS solutions available today, than this book doesn't provide anything you haven't already been exposed.If your looking for a book that explains how and where SAN and NAS solutions might fit into your organization, than this is the book for you. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Network Management    3. Computer storage devices    4. Computers    5. Computers - Communications / Networking    6. Database management    7. File organization (Computer sc    8. File organization (Computer science)    9. Hardware - Network Hardware    10. Information Storage & Retrieval    11. Networking - General    12. Storage area networks (Compute    13. Storage area networks (Computer networks)    14. Computer Communications & Networking    15. Data compression    16. Storage media & peripherals    17. Systems management   

Reviews (14)

Very nice book
I only bought this book because I needed to get an image of how fixed length records are implemented using C++. The book answered my question and provided me with examples. The examples compiled without a problem. easy to use
i love this book...used it in my file structures course obviously, and i found it very useful

Plenty of great information, could have been presented bette
This text was used for a junior-level File Manipulation Techniques course.We skipped around quite a bit in this book and did not use any of the C++/Unix material.I think (and I'm sure my professor does) that this book could be stripped down a quite a bit to present more topics when used for the classroom.What is presented is done well.This is a well-rounded text that should appeal to students and professionals alike.However, from the student's perspective, there is a lot of superfluous material.It is still one of the best, if not then it is the best, book on file structures and algorithms.Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. C++ (Computer program language    3. C++ (Computer program language)    4. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    5. Computer Books: Languages    6. Computer Science    7. Computers    8. Computers - Languages / Programming    9. File organization (Computer sc    10. File organization (Computer science)    11. Information Storage & Retrieval    12. Object-Oriented Programming    13. Programming Languages - C    14. Programming Languages - C++    15. C & Visual C    16. Computers / Computer Science    17. Databases & data structures    18. Object-oriented programming (OOP)   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (6)

Very goof book for starters
If you know very little about the technical aspects of file formats, and you want to write your own applications, then this is the book you are looking for. Rating correction
Not helpful that the author reviews his own book and gives himself 5 stars! Before he did so, the average rating was 3.33 stars. Afterwards it became 3.75 stars. My rating aims to rectify matters. I have not, however, read the book.

Author Response
I thought I would respond to the negative comment regarding JFIF files. As the reader points out, the sample source code on the CD checks for the JFIF header. This reason for this is to be an educational excercise in file formats. As the reader points out, this causes the source code not to work with JPEG files from digital cameras that do not use the JFIF format. The difference between these formats is simply the use of APPn markers (essentially comments).Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer programming    4. Computer programs    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Data Transmission Systems - General    8. Data compression (Computer sci    9. Data compression (Computer science)    10. Digital Image Processing    11. File organization (Computer sc    12. Image processing    13. Information Storage & Retrieval    14. Programming - General    15. Computer graphics software    16. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    17. Image processing: graphics (static images)   

Editorial Review

Writing kernel-mode Windows NT programs--such as file-system drivers (FSDs), filter drivers, and antivirus programs--poses a challenge to even experienced Windows programmers. It's hard enough to get these programs to work, but getting them to live peacefully with other kernel programs and NT itself is an art. Nagar sorts through the mechanics of writing such programs in this book, which is no mean feat considering that Microsoft provides no documentation for its development kit. The author begins by orienting the reader to NT's kernel mode, detailing what runs there, how the various programs interact, and what you need to keep in mind when developing software for the kernel mode.Read more

Reviews (9)

Available to order from OSR Press
NOW AVAILABLE: Reprint of Windows NT File Systems Internals
Very unique but has to be read with other recent materials.
This book is by far, one of my most favorite books. It has been the only complete text book that explains the details of the Windows NT File Systems Framework. If you are to buy the book these days you would not feel the value of the book as I felt it when I started reading it six years ago. Nowadays, there are some other literatures that provides deeper coverage for certain topics like the OSR materials and the first IFS conference (both are available as part of the IFS kit). But still, the book remains the only complete reference. To get most of the benefits of this book, it is better that you look at the FASTFAT source code that comes with the IFS kit. The main drawback of the book is the lack of deep coverage for network based file system drivers. OSR materials provided with the IFS kit are essential to have better knowledge about File System FILTER drivers. Read the book while watching the videos of the first IFS kit conference, this will help a lot. Finally, if you are new to file system drivers then, be more patient while reading the book. You would not get everything from the first reading.

Great info, but much repeating
This is certainy a must have for any Windows 32-bit file system developer. It reveals great secrets, make sense of the NT IFS chaos, and make Your IFS nightmares go away. It's a great book, but much of it is presented in mostothers, and that's the only bad thing )like memory managment, cachemamaneretc.). Thanks, RN. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computer Networks    3. Computers    4. File organization (Computer science)    5. Microcomputer Operating Environments    6. Microsoft Windows NT    7. Operating Systems - Windows    8. Operating systems (Computers)    9. Microsoft Windows   

Reviews (6)

A weak text on storage security
Securing storage sub-systems is an important, but omitted task. Will this text help you to do what is necessary to secure your storage fabrics? On my third read, the answer remains illusive. Important parts that should be part of standard decision protocol are missing. Will the text help you to understand security as a general topic? Certainly, the text attempts to apply CISSP concepts to the storage security topic.
Great tool for security planning and implementation
Prior to this book I was ignorant of a lot of data storage issues.This book opened up areas to me that I had previously overlooked as I always took data storage for granted.The equipment breakdown and analysis was the most concise that I've ever seen.Nearly every page brought me a new item to learn or ponder.The sections on packet breakdown and network latency were fascinating. The information in this book is fully explained and with the author's help, easy to understand.The chapter(8) on designing and implementing a sound data security program almost serves as a blueprint as the steps and procedures are clearly outlined for the reader.This book provides BIG TIME info to the IT professional.

Comprehensive coverage of an oft-overlooked topic
What does "Information Security" mean to you? To many, it means firewalls and encryption. To some, it means intrusion detection systems. Chances are the words "file servers" weren't high on your list, but they probably should be. After all, "information security" is about information, and when it's not flying across the network it's got to be stored somewhere, right? In fact, the security of the storage mechanism is often overlooked, which makes it an attractive target for attackers. In their new book, Storage Security, Chirillo and Blaul take a comprehensive look at this often-ignored subject.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Architecture    2. Computer Architecture - General    3. Computer Books And Software    4. Computer storage devices    5. Computers    6. Computers - Communications / Networking    7. Computers - Computer Security    8. Database Engineering    9. Database Management - General    10. Database management    11. File organization (Computer sc    12. File organization (Computer science)    13. Networking - General    14. Security - General    15. Storage area networks (Compute    16. Storage area networks (Computer networks)    17. Computers / Security    18. Data security & data encryption    19. Storage media & peripherals    20. Systems management   

Reviews (1)

Must have book for Tru64 Admins
As a Tru64 UNIX professional, its hard to find books that meet my needs. This book does it and then some. The lay-out is logical it covers all the important topics so I don't waste time sifting through the docs to find what I need. If you work with Tru64 UNIX, you need this book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. File organization (Computer sc    5. File organization (Computer science)    6. Operating Systems - UNIX    7. Operating systems (Computers)    8. Programming - General    9. UNIX (Computer file)    10. Unix (Operating System)    11. Computers / Operating Systems / General    12. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Reviews (3)

Getting Data off of a Web Site into Your System
Often times there's information somewhere on the web that you want to use in your own computing. Perhaps you want to look at news stories and display the headlines of what's happening today with a link to the site of the story. In the early days of the web, when you wanted to do something like that you had to do it manually or do some kind of hard coding to parse the information you wanted out of the HTML. Tedious, and if they ever change their web page you're re-doing your code.
Great for applying ideas and exploring possibilities...
Rather than just read RSS feeds, would you like to *do stuff* with RSS and Atom?I received a copy of a really good book that goes beyond the nuts and bolts of RSS formatting...Hacking RSS and Atom by Leslie M. Orchard.
don't worry about the different versions of RSS and Atom
The book is very logically arranged into 3 parts. For using feeds, making feeds and mixing feeds. Most readers will probably deal with the first part and maybe the third part.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer hackers    3. Computer security    4. Computers    5. Computers - Computer Security    6. Computers - General Information    7. File organization (Computer science)    8. Programming - General    9. Security - General    10. Computers / Programming / General    11. Internet   

Reviews (11)

OUT OF DATE!
I have been using portions of this book for five years and because it contains basic information, it gets 3 stars.That is the only reason.
Obsolete
This was probably a good book when it came out, but since then rpm has changed significantly.If Redhat would at least publish a consise list of the changes to the commands, I'd change my rating to 3 or 4 stars.As it is, you cannot use this book to diagnose problem in creating spec files or designing high-quality spec files.Until it is revised, you are better off looking at the man pages and how other people have written spec files.

A must-have for any RPM developer
As the other reviewers mentioned, since this book was written in 1997, it is becoming outdated.The book talks about RPM version 2.0, but the current version is 4.0.Read more

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. File organization (Computer sc    5. File organization (Computer science)    6. Linux    7. Microcomputer Integrated Application Software    8. Operating Systems - UNIX    9. Programming - General    10. RPM (Computer file)    11. Computers / Operating Systems / Linux    12. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Reviews (9)

Good supplements for UNIX internals
As the author claims, this book supplements other UNIX internals books, because they lack a thorough discussion on filesystems. For example, for a long time I've been puzzled by the pseudo code for read(2) system call in Maurice Bach's book. An inode lock is taken even for read() (Design of the UNIX Operating System, p.97) That doesn't sound right. ufs_inode.h on Solaris implies that ufs uses rwlock (multi-reader/single-writer lock; forget the modern concurrent direct I/O for now). Jim Mauro's "Solaris Internals" talks about rwlocks and filesystems in separate chapters but not in the same context. Here Steve's book tells us that filesystems didn't use rwlocks almost until the time SVR4 came out, and Bach's book was written before that. This is just one example of the mysteries Steve's book solved for me. I also like Steve's examples of using Solaris crash(1M). (I even collected them in a web page: rootshell.be/~yong321/computer/SolarisMdb.txt).
Good book, encourages the reader to experiment and learn
I have to disagree with the "wannabe Linux filler book" another reviewer mentioned, it's a eye catching "sound bite" but in this instance it is not valid. The text is largely neutral with respect to specific flavours of platform and file system though obviously the author's experiences, source code availability and legal restrictions with respect to commercial products all play a part. Yes you can state that some reference texts are available from the Internet but the author has yet again made the subject accessible to a much larger audience through making the subject matter approachable in much the same way as he did with his book, "UNIX Internals." The example file system is written for Linux but that is a reasonable choice as it maximises accessibility for the reader. Not an FS design related book but...
This book is not a filesystem design or specification book.The explainations are high level overviews of the workings of various filesystems.It explains VFS and how the kernel abstracts various filesystems, what the basic design principles of each are and nothing more.The title of this book is somewhat misleading as it sounds like a book for programmers (reason I purchased it), but is more geared towards sysadmins.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. File organization (Computer sc    5. File organization (Computer science)    6. Networking - General    7. Operating Systems - UNIX    8. Operating systems (Computers)    9. UNIX (Computer file)    10. Unix (Operating System)    11. Computers / Networking / General    12. Databases & data structures    13. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Subjects:  1. Computer - Internet    2. Computer Books: Web Publishing    3. Computers    4. File organization (Computer science)    5. Internet - Web Site Design    6. Internet - World Wide Web    7. Internet programming    8. Management    9. Web sites    10. Computers / Internet / World Wide Web    11. Internet   

Reviews (2)

Unix from the bottom up
I have completed reviewing this publication and the only regret is it will not fit in my back pocket. This book is a real nuts & bolts to Tru64 problems/solutions that are not contained in other material. I have always wished for a referance to solve a problem that removed the guessing or waiting for a support resource to call back. This provides REAL problems and REAL solutions. Steve has provided an excellent handbook for those who do everyday admin. The AdvFS and LSM chapters are the best I have seen. I recommend this book to every one who had a chance to work with Tru64.

A must for Tru64 Admins
This book not only covers the basics, but hits on some of the undocumented (until now) utilities of Compaq's Tru64 UNIX.Some of the information in the book is only obtainable by purchasing Compaq's superb, but expensive, support.I waited a year for this book, and it was well worth it!If you maintain systems that must be on-line 24 X 7 X 365, then you need this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. Database Management - General    5. File organization (Computer sc    6. File organization (Computer science)    7. Operating Systems - UNIX    8. Operating systems (Computers)    9. UNIX (Computer file)    10. Unix (Operating System)    11. Computers / Operating Systems / General    12. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - General Information    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Database Engineering    4. File organization (Computer sc    5. Information Storage & Retrieval    6. Database software    7. Spreadsheet software   

Reviews (3)

Great Book, though needs an update
This book was grea, though it talks about an old kernel version.I neede to know about journaling filesystems, and this boom\k not only told me what I needed, but told me what to avoid.

Great book - updated version is needed
Great book, but shows it's age - things are changing fast in Linux world (it's based on 2.4.9 kernel and so Informative and Useful
I'd been looking for a book on journaling and networked file systems for Linux for a while, and was happy to find this one. There is one other book on Linux file systems, but this one is the one to get. It discusses the EXT3, JFS, XFS and Reiser journaling file systems, and also the NFS and OpenAFS networked file systems. It provides plenty of background information about basic concepts, but also provides real explanations of how to build kernels that support these file systems and how to configure, administer, and use them. I was really impressed. The book also talks about interoperating with Macintosh, Windows and Novell systems - it was handy to find all of that in one book. It is well written and the author has a sense of humor that I enjoyed. The section on the Distributed Computing Environment's distributed file system was especially funny (and from what I hear, true). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. File organization (Computer science)    5. Linux    6. Operating Systems - General    7. Operating Systems - Linux    8. Operating Systems - UNIX    9. Operating systems (Computers)    10. Unix (Operating System)   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. File organization (Computer sc    5. File organization (Computer science)    6. Filing systems    7. General    8. Information Storage & Retrieval    9. Management    10. Office Automation    11. Office Management    12. Records    13. Business & Economics / Office Automation    14. Economics, Finance, Business and Industry   

Reviews (1)

Basic book
This book is simple and concise.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Data Structures    3. Data structures (Computer scie    4. Database Engineering    5. File organization (Computer sc   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers - General Information    3. File organization (Computer science)    4. Mathematical & Statistical Software    5. SAS (Computer file)   

Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Programming    2. Computer - Apple/Macintosh    3. Computer Books: General    4. File organization (Computer science)    5. Hardware - Personal Computers - Macintosh    6. Macintosh (Computer)    7. Programming    8. Programming - General    9. Macintosh OS    10. Personal computers   

Reviews (10)

Book is old, very out-of-date, missing new formats
This book is so out-of-date and lacks so many of the new and existing file formats that have been modified, that it is not worth buying. Spend your money on current books.

Encyclopedic, sure, but a little outdated
My only negative comment: The section on GIFs doesn't discuss animated GIFs.There's just a little note that "the format supports multiple images in a file, but this is rarely used".If only they knew back then...

Outstanding Reference Book!
I've kept this book next to my computer desk for quite some time because Iconsider it an essential reference. There has never been a question aboutgraphic file formats that I haven't been able to answer using this book. Ifeel the authors have done an outstanding job describing everything fromthe basics to complex file format features in a language that someone whoisn't an artist can understand. As an application developer, I often needto know what's going on behind the scenes and this book makes everythingclear.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics    3. File organization (Computer science)    4. Computer graphics software   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (4)

Perfect
This book is the text book of my cs education of file organization. And i can comfortably say that it gives much insight not just on file organization but also on algorithms. I haven't read all the chapters but among the chapters i read, without any exaggeration i can say that i've learnt every word of what the author wants teach.

A True Gem
This book is one of the few gems in computer science. It is written intelligently. One can read it fluently. It is about a reasonably important subject. The book is well crafted (hardcover, layout...). In short reading it makes you happy and smart. Must have and place near Knuth on the bookshelf
It's ~old book (1988), but it still very actual now, and will be actual in future. This book contain only principles and algorithms, but it all showed so deep and clear, so I was very impressed then read it first time.B-treetype structures description is best I ever seen. (Need to have this book ifYou perform serious low-level work on NTFS, BFS or other File System, basedon B-trees.). And even if You not work with such File Systems - this bookis classic algorithm book and I put it on my bookshelf near Knuth'svolumes. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers - General Information    3. Database Engineering    4. File organization (Computer sc    5. File organization (Computer science)    6. General    7. Information Storage & Retrieval    8. Reference - General    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Technology    11. Computer Programming    12. Databases & data structures    13. Technology / General