CENG 425 System Programming
Spring 2005

Most recent announcement: May17

Announcements

Watch this space for the latest updates. Last updated: 17.Mayıs.2005 16:09 I will not be available between May 18 and Jun 3. Do not hesitate to contact via email.

13.Mayıs.2005 06:47 The lecture notes for the thirteenth week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

6.Mayıs.2005 07:38 The lecture notes for the twelveth week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

4.Mayıs.2005 12:12 The lecture notes for the eleventh week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

22.Nisan.2005 08:34 The lecture notes for the tenth week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

15.Nisan.2005 08:23 The lecture notes for the nineth week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

1.Nisan.2005 11:42 The lecture notes for the seventh week will be published, see Course Schedule section. The starting time of Friday's lecture is rearranged as 8.40.

25.Mart.2005 08:47 The lecture notes for the sixth week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

18.Mart.2005 08:48 The lecture notes for the fifth week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

4.Mart.2005 08:48 The lecture notes for the third week will be published, see Course Schedule section.

13.Şubat.2005 19:57 In the first lecture, there will be first metting.

• The lecture notes for the second week will be published soon, see Course Schedule section.

• For laboratory studies, the codes in the book will be reexamined.

• Anyone wants to get turkix-3.0.iso or KNOPPIX_V3.7-2004-12-08-EN.iso or may ask to me.

Overview

It is aimed to describe the concepts of the system programming by using Linux/Unix operating system.

• C programming language will be used

• The concepts described in the Operating Systems course will be studied in detail with applications

• Students will be familiar with the Unix based operating systems

Lecture Information

There is one group for lecturing and one group for lab sessions. The UNIX operating system will be introduced to you first in the lab sessions , later some concepts of the system programming by using Linux/Unix operating system will be studied by C codes and you will be responsible for writing codes, to be graded.

Important announcements will be posted to the Announcements section of this web page above, so please check this page frequently. You are responsible for all such announcements, as well as announcements made in lecture.

Course Outline

• Contents

• List of Tables

• List of Figures

• Getting Started

  • Compiling with GCC

    • Compiling a Single Source File

    • Linking Object Files

  • Automating the Process with GNU Make

  • Debugging with GNU Debugger (GDB)

    • Compiling with Debugging Information

    • Running GDB

  • Finding More Information

    • Man Pages

    • Header Files

• Writing Good GNU/Linux Software

  • Interaction With the Execution Environment

    • The Argument List

    • GNU/Linux Command-Line Conventions

    • Using getopt_long

    • Standard I/O

    • Program Exit Codes

    • The Environment

    • Using Temporary Files

  • Coding Defensively

    • Errors and Resource Allocation

  • Writing and Using Libraries

    • Archives

    • Shared Libraries

    • Library Dependencies

    • Pros and Cons

• Processes

  • Looking at Processes

    • Process IDs

    • Viewing Active Processes

    • Killing a Process

  • Creating Processes

    • Using system

    • Using fork and exec

    • Process Scheduling

  • Signals

  • Process Termination

    • Waiting for Process Termination

    • The wait System Calls

    • Zombie Processes

    • Cleaning Up Children Asynchronously

• Threads

  • Thread Creation

    • Passing Data to Threads

    • Joining Threads

    • Thread Return Values

    • Thread Attributes

  • Thread Cancellation

    • Synchronous and Asynchronous Threads

    • Uncancelable Critical Sections

  • Thread-Specific Data

  • Synchronization and Critical Sections

    • Race Conditions

    • Mutexes

    • Mutex Deadlocks

    • Semaphores for Threads

  • Linux Thread Implementation

  • Processes Vs. Threads

• Interprocess Communication

  • Shared Memory

    • Fast Local Communication

    • The Memory Model

    • Allocation

    • Attachment and Detachment

    • Controlling and Deallocating Shared Memory

  • Processes Semaphores

    • Allocation and Deallocation

    • Initializing Semaphores

    • Wait and Post Operations

  • Mapped Memory

    • Mapping an Ordinary File

  • Pipes

    • Communication Between Parent and Child Processes

    • Redirecting the Standard Input, Output, and Error Streams

  • FIFOs

  • Sockets

    • Socket Concepts

    • System Calls

    • Servers

    • Local Sockets

    • An Example Using Local Namespace Sockets

    • Internet-Domain Sockets

• Devices

  • Device Types

  • Device Numbers

  • Device Entries

    • The /dev Directory

    • Accessing Devices by Opening Files

  • Hardware Devices

  • Special Devices

    • /dev/null

    • /dev/zero

    • /dev/full

    • Random Number Devices

    • Loopback Devices

  • ioctl

• The /proc File System

  • Extracting Information from /proc

  • Process Entries

    • /proc/self

    • Process Argument List

    • Process Environment

    • Process Executable

    • Process File Descriptors

    • Process Memory Statistics

  • Hardware Information

  • Kernel Information

  • Drives, Mounts, and File Systems

  • System Statistics

• Linux System Calls

  • Using strace

  • access:Testing File Permissions

  • fcntl: Locks and Other File Operations

  • fsync: Flushing Disk Buffers

  • getrlimit and setrlimit: Resource Limits

  • getrusage: Process Statistics

  • The mlock Family: Locking Physical Memory

  • mprotect: Setting Memory Permissions

  • readlink: Reading Symbolic Links

  • sysinfo: Obtaining System Statistics

  • uname

• Inline Assembly Code

  • When to Use Assembly Code

  • Simple Inline Assembly

    • Converting an asm to Assembly Instructions

  • Example

• Security

  • Users and Groups

  • Process User IDs and Process Group IDs

  • File System Permissions

  • Security Hole: Programs Without Execute Permissions

    • Sticky Bits

  • Real and Effective IDs

    • Setuid Programs

  • More Security Holes

    • Buffer Overruns

    • Race Conditions in /tmp

    • Using system or popen

  • vita

• About this document ...

Text Book

Required

Mark Mitchell, Jeffrey Oldham, and Alex Samuel, Advanced Linux Programming, New Riders, 2001.

Recommended

Online References

The web page www.advancedlinuxprogramming.com contains all the information related with the text book.

Grading Criteria

• There will be final exam, will count 50% of your grade.

• Attendance is required and constitutes part of your course grade; 10%

• You are supposed to prepare term report describing the concepts in the context of the course, weighting %40 of your grade.

Policies

• Attendance is not compulsory, but you are responsible for everything said in class.

• I encourage you to ask questions in class. You are supposed to ask questions. Don't guess, ask a question!

• You may discuss homework problems with classmates (although it is not to your advantage to do so).

• You can use ideas from the literature (with proper citation).

• You can use anything from the textbook/notes.

• The code you submit must be written completely by you.

Course Schedule

The following schedule is tentative; it may be updated later in the semester, so check back here frequently.