But this thread is about brushing up on OS and C programming. So not novices, but people who are already familiar with the topic.
Reference pages are not really for brushing up, but more for the 'what was the address family field of sockaddr called again'-type of questions? Or put differently: they are external memory.
Sure. Or browse through a bunch of them?
> think it is far more useful to e.g. read the late W. Richard Stevens' Advanced Programming in the Unix environment.
That is closer to a reference than a novice tutorial.
> It puts everything in context, provides historical background where necessary, and gives examples.
Sure. So do good references. Even man pages do.
> Reference pages are not really for brushing up, but more for the 'what was the address family field of sockaddr called again'-type of questions? Or put differently: they are external memory.
It depends on your level, experience and your competence in the material I guess. I'm not saying it's the only thing you need, but in many situations, it's the only thing you need to brush up.