Introduction to Systems Programming in C

Recognize the different categories of system calls.

Understand what a system call is and system calls are used for.

Visualize the Unix operating system structure.

Tell the difference between the user space and kernel space.

See what each layer within each space is and used for.

See the process for using systems call in C.

Become familiar with using linux "man" pages to aid in development.

Learn the different types of file streams and learn how to find the variables in header files.

Write "hello world" using a system call.

Learn and implement different file manipulation system calls.

Proper way to check the return values to ensure that an error did not occur

How to utilize the open() system call to open or create a file

How to utilize the close() system call to close a file

Become familiar with the different create modes when using the open() system call

Create file permissions using octal values

How to utilize the remove() system call to delete a file

How to utilize the read() system call to read text from a file

How to iterate over a file to read all the contents

How to write text to a file using the write() system call 

How to utilize the lseek() system call to write text to different parts of a file

Using lseek() to write to the beginning, middle, and end of a file

Utilize lseek() whence argument to specify where to write text in file: SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR, SEEK_END

Learn the basis of processes

See examples of windows and linux processes in action

Process memory mapping. See how linux can use the same virtual memory address for two instances of the same program.

Understand the different process states of a process

Learn the basics of a process scheduler

Learn the main process related system calls

Utilize the fork() system call to fork a child process

Utilize the execv() system call to fork a new process & load a program into the child memory address space

Realize the differences between fork() and execv()

Implement the wait() system call and understand what it does

Write a simple fork C program to show the parent child relationship using the fork() system call

Use system calls to write unix based system calls

Use execv() system call to implement the GCC command

Learn the basis of threads, what they are and how to use them

Recognize that there are different libraries to create multi-threaded applications

Learn the pthread library

Learn how to create a thread

Learn how to terminate a thread

Learn how to wait for a thread to finish executing by using pthread_join

Learn the proper way to wait for multiple threads to finish executing using pthread_join

Experience create a simple thread program

Learn the technique for creating multiple threads

Learn the proper technique for waiting for multiple threads to finish executing

Recognize the challenges when passing variables to a thread safe function

Learn the proper technique for passing variables into a thread safe function

Learn the basics and concepts of synchronization using semaphores

Learn how to use semaphores to handle critical sections

Critical Section examples

Learn what semaphores are and how they solve synchronization issues

How to use a semaphore count

Signal() method: learn what it does and how to use it

wait() method: learn what it does and how to use it

Become aware of the common synchronization problems

Go over the bounded buffer problem

Understand the bounded buffer pseudocode

Go over an example of the bounded buffer problem