CS 351: Systems Programming

Calendar

The course calendar is tentative and subject to change.

Aug 21

• Slides: Syllabus & Overview
• Detailed syllabus

Aug 23 - Sep 4

• Topic: C
• Slides: C Primer; C Primer (abridged)
• Reading: K&R
• Reading: Pro Git chapters 1 and 2

Sep 6

• Topic: The Process
• Slides: The Process & ECF
• Reading: CS:APP 8.1-8.2

Sep 11

• Topic: The UNIX process management API
• Slides: Process Management 145
• Reading: CS:APP 8.3-8.4.2

Sep 13

• Topic: The UNIX process management API, part 2
• Slides: Process Management 2
• Reading: CS:APP 8.4.3-8.4.6

Sep 18 - Sep 25

• Topic: Signals and Signal Handling
• Slides: Process Management 3
• Reading: CS:APP 8.5-8.6

Sep 27 - Oct 4

• Topic: Memory Hierarchy and Caching
• Slides: Memory Hierarchy and Caching
• Reading: CS:APP 6.1-6.6

Oct 9

• Midterm Exam

Oct 18 - Oct 25

• Topic: Virtual Memory
• Slides: Virtual Memory
• Reading: CS:APP 9.1-9.7

Oct 30

• Topic: Dynamic Memory Allocation
• Slides: Dynamic Memory Allocation
• Reading: CS:APP 9.9.1-9.9.4

Nov 1 - Nov 8

• Topic: Implementing malloc
• Slides: Implementing malloc
• Reading: CS:APP 9.9.5-9.9.14

Nov 8 - Nov 13

• Topic: Garbage collection
• Slides: Garbage collection
• Reading: CS:APP 9.10

Nov 15 - Nov 22

• Topic: System-level I/O
• Reading: CS:APP 10.1-10.12

Fri, Dec 6

• Final Exam 8AM-10AM in SB 104

Machine Problems

Please note:

• Start early! (but wait until the MP is assigned -- i.e., the assigned date is filled in)
• Read through the entire writeup before starting to code.
• Ensure that your code compiles with no errors nor warnings.
• Machine problems are individual assignments. Plagiarism will result in everyone involved getting a zero.

1. Preliminaries (5 points)

   • Pro Git: read chapters 1 and 2
   • Assigned: Aug 26;
     Due: Sep 1

2. Unix Utilities (32 points)

   • Assigned: 9/2;
     Due: 9/22

3. Writing a Shell (80 points)

   • Assigned: 9/23;
     Due: 10/20

4. Cache Simulation & Optimization (53 points)

   • Assigned: 10/14;
     Due: 11/3

5. Implementing a Dynamic Memory Allocator (80 points)

   • Assigned: 11/11;
     Due: 12/1

Resources

Instructor

Michael Saelee

• Office: SB 226C
• Hours: Wed 12:45PM-3PM, Fri 12:45PM-1:45PM

TAs

All hours in SB 108:

Section 01: Andrew Neth

• Hours: Wed 5PM-7PM

Section 01: Truong Q. Pham

• Hours: Tue 3:30PM-5:30PM

Section 02: Evan Tang

• Mon 4:15PM-5:15PM, Wed 2PM-3PM

Section 03: Paavan Soni

• Hours: Tue/Thu 11:30AM-12:30PM

Section 04: Nicholas C. Wanninger

• Hours: Mon/Tue 4:30PM-5:30PM

Primary references

• Course syllabus
• Vimeo channel
• Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective
  • Table of Contents
• The C Programming Language / "K&R"
• The Linux Programming Interface
• Advanced Unix Programming (AUP)

C

• The C Standard Library
• The comp.lang.c FAQ
• "The C Book"
• Some handy educational materials having to do with C, pointers, and data structures @ the Stanford CS Education Library

Library / Syscall references

• Beej's Guide to UNIX IPC
• Linux man pages on the WWW
• GNU C Library (glibc) documentation; of particular interest:
  • Signal handling
  • Low-level Input/Output

Other references

• A Tiny Guide to Programming in 32-bit x86 Assembly Language
• An survey of dynamic storage allocation techniques: Paul Wilson et. al., Dynamic Storage Allocation: A Survey and Critical Review, 1995.
• Doug Lea's malloc
• An interactive VM simulator and overview

Development Tools

• The Bash manual
• Learn one of these editors:
  • The GNU Emacs manual
  • The Vim manual
• The git version control tool:
  • Pro Git
  • Git Magic.
• GDB, the GNU debugger:
  • The GDB manual
  • A handy reference card
  • A guide to using gdb to debug child processes

Exams and Study Guides

• The IIT final exam schedule
• Sample exams:
  • Midterm Fall 2019, Written solutions
  • Midterm Fall 2017
  • Midterm Spring 2015
  • Midterm Spring 2012
  • Sample final, Spring 2015, Solutions
  • Final, Fall 2012
• Practice caching problem
• Practice VM translation exercises; solutions:
  • Problem #1: (a) 0xE7 (b) 0xCA
  • Problem #2: (a) 0xCB (b) 0x92
  • Problem #3: (a) 0xA0 (b) 0x00
• Practice GC problem