CSCI 415/515 - Fall 2024
Systems Programming

Syllabi

General Course Information

Instructor Stephen Herwig Office Hours:
WMF 11:00am - 12:00pm, or by appt.
McGlothlin-Street Hall
Room #136
Teaching Assistant Pankaj Niroula
pniroula@wm.edu
 TuTh, 9:30am - 11:00am
McGlothlin-Street Hall
Room #139
Time/Place WMF 10:00am - 10:50am
John E. Boswell Hall
Room #201
Final Exam Tue 12/10: 2:00pm - 5:00pm

Roadmap

Readings Project Notes
Warm-up Weeks 1 and 2 (Wed 8/28 - Fri 9/6)
The Linux Programming Interface:
  • Ch 1: History and Standards
  • Ch 2: Fundamental Concepts
  • Ch 3: Systems Programming Concepts
  • Ch 7: Memory Allocation
  • Appendix B: Parsing Command-Line Options
 p1: sgrep
Due: Thu 9/12 @7:00am
  • Mon 9/2: No class (Labor Day)
File I/O and File Systems Weeks 3 and 4 (Mon 9/9 - Fri 9/20)
The Linux Programming Interface:
  • Ch 4: File I/O: The Universal I/O Model
  • Ch 5: File I/O: Further Details
  • Ch 14: File Systems
  • Ch 15: File Attributes
  • Ch 18: Directories and Links
  • Ch 13: File I/O Buffering
 p2: fedit
Due: Fri 9/27 @7:00am
  • Mon 9/9 Course drop/add deadline
Signals and Timers Week 5 (Mon 9/23 - Fri 9/27)
The Linux Programming Interface:
  • Ch 20: Signals: Fundamental Concepts
  • Ch 21: Signals: Handlers
  • Ch 22: Signals: Advanced Features
  • Ch 23: Timers and Sleeping
  • Ch 10: Time
 p3: mcron
Due: Mon 10/14 @7:00am
Processes and Pipes Weeks 6 and 7 (Mon 9/30 - Fri 10/11)
The Linux Programming Interface:
  • Ch 24: Process Creation
  • Ch 25: Process Termination
  • Ch 26: Monitoring Child Processes
  • Ch 27: Program Execution
  • Ch 44: Pipes and FIFOs
  • Ch 28: Process Creation and Program Execution in More Detail
  • Ch 6: Processes
 Extra Credit: TribeCTF
Fri 10/4 - Sun 10/6
p4: bsh
Due: Wed 10/30 @7:00am
  • Fri 10/11: No class (Fall Break)
Sockets Weeks 8, 9, 10 (Mon 10/14 - Fri 11/1)
The Linux Programming Interface:
  • Ch 58: Sockets: Fundamentals of TCP/IP Networks
  • Ch 56: Sockets Introduction
  • Ch 59: Sockets: Internet Domains
  • Ch 60: Sockets: Server Design
  • Ch 63: Alternative I/O Models
 p5: adns
Due: Fri 11/15 @ 7:00am
  • Mon 10/28: Withdrawal deadline
Threads Weeks 11 (Mon 11/4 - Fri 11/8)
The Linux Programming Interface:
  • Ch 29: Threads: Introduction
  • Ch 30: Threads: Synchronization
  • Ch 31: Threads: Thread Safety and Per-Thread Storage
 p6: revlookup
Due: Tue 12/3 @ 7:00am
Rust Week 12, 13, 14 (Mon 11/11 - Fri 11/29)
p7: rgrep
Due: Friday 12/13 @11:59pm
  • Mon 11/25 remote instruction
  • Wed 11/27: no class (Thanksgiving Break)
  • Fri 11/29: no class (Thanksgiving Break)
Review Week 15 (Mon 12/2 - Fri 12/6)