devnull-cz / unix-linux-prog-in-c

Unix/Linux Programming in C course materials

This project contains source code for the material that is used to lecture "Unix/Linux Programming in C" (NSWI015) class at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague.

To get the PDFs, go to Releases.

The class home page is https://devnull-cz.github.io/unix-linux-prog-in-c/

Developer notes

It is written in LaTeX. See the Makefile on how to build the PDF document.

Trigger new release

./dev/release.sh v<XYZ>

unix-linux-prog-in-c's Issues

rework process memory layout in kernel

make clear where the user area is

Mac OS X -> macOS

add pseudo code example to thread slides

mention ftw() et. al

mention tree walk ftw(), nftw, fnmatch() for FS traversal (POSIX)

Add a picture to the dynamic linker slide

The picture needs to show a.out and ld.so.1 in the same virtual address space, main() functions for both, one or two mapped in dynamic libraries within the same address space, and possibly the ELF dynamic section listing those libraries.

replace System V semaphore API for POSIX API

• add examples

mention clang's -Wthread-safety as a debug tool in pthread slides

https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ThreadSafetyAnalysis.html

add README

create branch for web pages

mff.devnull.cz can then pull the changes from the branch periodically.

figure out what to do with unused files

• ostatni.tex
• leftovers.tex

add LICENSE file

make examples first class citizens

The examples should be generated with a macro so that they are clearly separated from the rest of the text in notes, e.g. use a box, headline etc.

slide overflow

defines for SUSv3, SUSv4

avoid SVR4 in process slide

redesign services and multi-process comm slide

remove distributed OS pic

slides should have PDF bookmarks too

content slides missing in slides-only pdfs

possibly because the slide is part of the slidecontents command ?

mention mkstemp()

somewhere in the notes below the slides

more examples for signal listing

add more examples showing most of the signals

link the fd slides

pageref the 2 fd slides (with drawings)

upload slides PDF as well

Currently the release is created with just the commented PDF due to actions/upload-release-asset#28

Once this is resolved, upload the slides PDF as well.

PDF entry for networking close() slide leads to generic close() slide

In the pdf index under section network programming subtopic close refers to a much earlier place in the document, which talks about general UNIX APIs and not about the relation of close to socket file descriptors etc. which was the intent.

add picture to process groups and sessions

appendix slides formatting

add divider + mini-chapters

build fails with new Latex due to extra \endgroup

When building with pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.22 (TeX Live 2021 Gentoo Linux) (preloaded format=pdflatex) / LaTeX2e <2020-10-01> patch level 4 / L3 programming layer <2021-02-18>, the build fails with:

(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/trig.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-cfg/graphics.cfg)))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/upquote/upquote.sty)
! Extra \endgroup.
\document ->\endgroup 
                      \the \before@document \begingroup \UseOneTimeHook {beg...
l.156 \begin{document}

Looking for \endgroup, it can be found in the pstex images under img/tex directory and also in xcomment.tex.

In networking, we need to say EPIPE/SIGPIPE is returned if writing to a closed connection

This can be easily demonstrated with tcp/connect and tcp/tcp-sink-server, ie. starting the server, starting the connect client, killing the server, and trying to write data to connect. It exits, $? shows 141.

This needs to be explained somewhere, possibly with the connect() slide.

thread semaphore slide should reference POSIX semaphore slides

Currently the POSIX semaphore slides are duplicated - once in "Process synchronization" and once in "Threads"

tagging scheme

need to agree on tagging scheme for the repo (so that pdf files can be automatically published)

commented out czech section in file-api

Under "Working with a named pipe" in file-api.tex there is a commented out section in Czech. Either remove or translate it.

pageref links are bogus

The pageref links point to bad bad pages in PDF documents.

mention __thread

As per https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21015738/thread-specific-data-vs-thread-local-storage

problems with bullets

from #42: On page 58, warn() should have a bullet and the items underneath should have a dash (but it seems right in intro.tex). Bullet points in the boxes on 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 70, 72 also seem incorrect (functions should have the bullets).

rename files under img/ directory to English

add select/poll summary and perhaps alternatives

https://daniel.haxx.se/docs/poll-vs-select.html has excellent summary + links to the notorious C10K page.

delete inetd slide

Just mention inetd somewhere around select/poll.

release needs to adapt

Release build contains some warnings:

Run actions/create-release@v1
Warning: The `set-output` command is deprecated and will be disabled soon. Please upgrade to using Environment Files. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2022-10-11-github-actions-deprecating-save-state-and-set-output-commands/

so this seems to be a problem within the create-release action, however that action is not maintained by Github anymore.

move TCP server/client code slide after the first schema image

rework utilities slide to be current

The utility slides contains refs to stuff like sccs. Move the legacy utils to notes (mention they are part of SUS) and replace the slide contents with up to date utils.

PDF with comments generated via GH action is no longer in A4 format

Starting with release v91 the PDFs generated via Github Actions seems to have the paper size wrong. v90 (Nov 2022) is fine.

add web page with rules for the labs

http://mff.devnull.cz/pvu/2016/cviceni.html

Slide "Example: setting time limit for read" should use setitimer(2)

Plus the note on setitimer() should be changed and mention an obsolete timer(2) call.

add more pics to the kernel, contexts, interrupts slide

move SO_LINGER example down to setsockopt() slide

The linger.c code that is referenced from the close() slide includes calls to getaddrinfo() and setsockopt() which follow on later slides. Move the SO_LINGER content and comments to the notes below the setsockopt() slide.

generate topics slide before each chapter

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/401093/how-to-create-new-command-that-will-produce-list-of-items-while-changing-formatt/401094#401094

spellcheck

Once translated, run spell checker on the document.

add poll() example

consider mentioning 'The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook'

The list of books in the materials contains mostly old books. Read this one (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1593272200) and consider adding it in.

generate syllabus from slide titles

Use \sltitle

merge dbx and gdb slides

maybe do a generic debugger slide (describing what debugger can do etc.)