Linux/UNIX System Programming Fundamentals course outline

1. Course Introduction
2. Fundamental Concepts
   • System calls and library functions
   • Error handling
   • System data types
   • Notes on code examples
3. File I/O
   • File I/O overview
   • open(), read(), write(), and close()
4. File I/O Buffering
   • Kernel buffering
   • User-space (stdio) buffering
   • Controlling kernel buffering
5. File I/O: Further Details
   • The file offset and lseek()
   • Atomicity
   • Relationship between file descriptors and open files
   • Duplicating file descriptors
   • File status flags (and fcntl())
   • Other file I/O interfaces (*)
6. Files
   • Inodes
   • Retrieving file information: stat()
   • File mode
   • Changing file attributes
7. Directories and Links (*)
   • Directories and (hard) links
   • Symbolic links
   • Hard links: system calls and library functions
   • Symbolic links: system calls and library functions
   • Current working directory
   • Operating relative to a directory (openat() etc.)
   • Scanning directories
8. Processes
   • Process IDs
   • Process memory layout
   • Command-line arguments
   • The environment list
   • Process credentials
   • Process groups and sessions (*)
   • Nonlocal gotos
9. Signals
   • Overview of signals
   • Signal dispositions
   • Useful signal-related functions
   • Signal handlers
   • Signal sets, the signal mask, and pending signals
   • Designing signal handlers
10. Signals: Signal Handlers
    • Async-signal-safe functions
    • Interrupted system calls
    • SA_SIGINFO signal handlers
    • The signal trampoline (*)
11. Process Creation and Termination
    • Creating a new process: fork()
    • File descriptors and fork()
    • Process termination
    • Monitoring child processes
    • Orphans and zombies
    • The SIGCHLD signal
    • PID file descriptors
12. Executing Programs
    • Executing programs: execve()
    • The exec() library functions
    • File descriptors and exec()
    • Process attributes during fork() and exec()
13. System Call Tracing with strace (*)
    • Getting started
    • Tracing child processes
    • Filtering strace output

(*) Topics marked with an asterisk will be covered subject to time constraints.

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