K. C. Wang - Systems Programming in Unix/Linux

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Systems programming is an indispensable part of Computer Science and Computer Engineering education. System programming courses in Computer Science/Engineering curriculums play two important roles. First, it provides students with a wide range of knowledge about computer system software and advanced programming skills, allowing them to interface with operating system kernel, perform file operations and network programming, and make efficient use of system resources to develop application programs. Second, it prepares students with needed background to pursue advanced studies in Computer Science/Engineering, such as operating systems, embedded systems, database systems, data mining, artificial intelligence, computer networks, and distributed and parallel computing. Due to its importance, systems programming in Unix/Linux has been a popular subject matter in CS/CE education and also for self-study by advanced programmers. As a result, there are a tremendous number of books and online articles in this area. Despite these, I still find it difficult to choose a suitable book for the Systems Programming course I teach at WSU. For many years, I had to use my own class notes and programming assignments in the course. After careful thinking, I have decided to put together the materials into a book form.

The purpose of this book is to provide a suitable platform for teaching and learning the theory and practice of systems programming. Unlike most other books, this book covers systems programming topics in greater depth and it stresses programming practice. It uses a series of programming projects to let students apply their acquired knowledge and programming skills to develop practical and useful programs. The book is intended as a textbook in technical-oriented systems programming courses. It contains detailed example programs with complete source code, making it suitable for self-study also.

Undertaking this book project has proved to be another very demanding and time-consuming endeavor. While preparing the manuscripts for publication, I have been blessed with the encouragement and help from many people. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them. I want to especially thank Yan Zhang for his help in preparing figures for the book and proof-reading the manuscript.

Special thanks go to Cindy for her continuing support and inspirations, which have made this book possible. Above all, I would like to thank my family for bearing with me with endless excuses of being busy all the time.

Sample solutions of programming projects in the book are available for download at http://wang.eecs.wsu.edu/~kcw . For source code, please contact the author by email.

This book is about systems programming in the Unix/Linux (Thompson and Ritchie ) environment. It covers all the essential components of Unix/Linux, which include process management, concurrent programming, timer and time service, file systems, network programming and MySQL database system. In addition to covering the functionalities of Unix/Linux, it stresses on programming practice. It uses programming exercises and realistic programming projects to allow students to practice systems programming with hands-on experiences.

Systems programming is an indispensable part of Computer Science and Computer Engineering education. System programming courses in Computer Science/Engineering curriculums serve two main purposes. First, it provides students with a wide range of knowledge about computer system software and advanced programming skills, allowing them to interface with operating system kernel, make efficient use of system resources to develop application software. Second, it prepares students with the needed background to pursue advanced studies in Computer Science/Engineering, such as operating systems, embedded systems, database systems, data mining, artificial intelligence, computer networks, network security, distributed and parallel computing.