Recommended Reading List for Application Operations and System Administration

Working in application operations, I have read several books and learned a lot from good books. I hope this reading list keeps growing.

StackOverflow listed a list of books every programmer should read; this is the Chinese version.

I divide the books into three categories: technical, technical culture, and peripheral.

Technical Culture Reads:

"The Pragmatic Programmer" – the ideas are suitable for both development and operations. The most memorable concepts are “orthogonal design” and the “K.I.S.S. principle”.

"Joel on Software" – Joel provides different perspectives on software and software culture. Another collection by him, “Joel Talks About Excellent Software Development Methods”, is also mentioned.

"Hackers & Painters" – discusses characteristics of internet companies and software, design, and programming languages. The ordering java < python < perl < ruby < lisp left a deep impression and strengthened my confidence to learn Ruby and understand Lisp.

"The Art of Unix Programming" – working on the Unix platform without understanding Unix development and design philosophy leads to extra work when using Windows methods. This book is essential, and a recently published book on Linux/Unix design ideas is also recommended.

"Software Development Reflections" – offers many novel ideas: the “last mile of software development”, Ruby, multi‑language development, configuration file refactoring, one‑click deployment, and performance testing.

"Rework: A Simpler, More Effective Business Thinking" – applies to product development and engineering implementation. Many engineers over‑complicate simple problems; this book is a must‑read.

"Is Your Light On?" – a book about problems. A memorable sentence: “Problems can be transformed but not solved.”

Gerald M. Weinberg’s books contain deep thoughts and are worth reading.

Technical Books:

"Unix Super Tools (Volumes 1/2)" – excellent; compiled from veteran users’ years of experience. Each topic requires repeated reading and hands‑on practice. Essential for newcomers to Linux to understand Unix design. Also an open‑source Bash book: abs, a must‑read for learning Bash and the Linux runtime.

"Continuous Integration" – one of the most important practices of agile development; an important software‑engineering concept.

"Continuous Delivery" – aligns with the previous book, more practical for operations. One must view problems from the product development cycle, not only from operations. The more dev and ops are separated, the harder operations become.

"Unix and Linux Automation Management" – a veteran sysadmin’s experience summary. Leaves a strong impression on data push/pull analysis and on designing configuration files for shell scripts. The book contains many code snippets.

"Mastering Regular Expressions" – a classic. Regular expressions are a beautiful DSL; Perl integrates regex tightly with the language, making it the best language for regex.

"Perl Best Practices" – if you use Perl, read this before writing real programs. Perl’s design is flexible and follows constraints, resulting in readable code.

"sed and awk" – essential tools for system administrators. awk reads text line by line, and its concise expression within a large loop is impressive.

"C Programming Language" – very interesting; shows C’s design pros and cons and how to use C better. Helps deepen understanding of system internals.

"Refactoring" – I have read a bit; I personally tried the examples in the book, which was very cool. Writing good code is not easy.

"Programming in Ruby by Yukihiro Matsumoto" – understand Ruby’s design compromises, why it uses this class and module inheritance mechanism, and the considerations behind block design.

"Ruby Metaprogramming" – contains a large amount of information. Ruby’s appropriate design makes it very suitable for programmers. After reading, I fell deeply in love with Ruby; it is simple and elegant.

Other Reads:

Reading in other fields can greatly improve one’s abilities. Knowledge from another domain can complement the professional field. For example, design and Chinese medicine have a deep impact on me; they share similarities with Unix.

"The Zen of Presentation" – after reading, I rarely use PowerPoint’s built‑in animations; I use slide transitions instead. Simplicity is beauty. This is the best book on PPT design.

"Approaching Chinese Medicine" – Chinese medicine is also a system that can be compared to Unix. Its parts are tightly related, rigorous, and dialectical, which helps develop systematic thinking.

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