CSCI 415/515 - Fall 2025
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 Yuchen Wang
ywang142@wm.edu
 TBD
Time/Place WMF 10:00am - 10:50am
John E. Boswell Hall
Room #341
Final Exam Mon 12/8: 2:00pm - 5:00pm

Roadmap

Readings Project Notes
Warm-up Weeks 1 and 2 (Wed 8/27 - Fri 9/5)
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
  • Mon 9/1: No class (Labor Day)
File I/O and File Systems Weeks 3 and 4 (Mon 9/8 - Fri 9/19)
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
  • Mon 9/8: Course drop/add deadline
Signals and Timers Week 5 (Mon 9/22 - Fri 9/26)
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
Processes and Pipes Weeks 6 and 7 (Mon 9/29 - Fri 10/10)
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
  • Fri 10/10: No class (Fall Break)
Sockets Weeks 8, 9, 10 (Mon 10/13 - Fri 10/31)
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
  • Mon 10/27: Withdrawal deadline
Threads Weeks 11 (Mon 11/3 - Fri 11/7)
The Linux Programming Interface:
  • Ch 29: Threads: Introduction
  • Ch 30: Threads: Synchronization
  • Ch 31: Threads: Thread Safety and Per-Thread Storage
Rust Week 12, 13, 14 (Mon 11/10 - Fri 11/28)
  • Mon 11/24 remote instruction
  • Wed 11/26: no class (Thanksgiving Break)
  • Fri 11/28: no class (Thanksgiving Break)
Review Week 15 (Mon 12/1 - Fri 12/5)