To get the most out of this book

As mentioned earlier, this book is targeted at both Linux software professionals—be they developers, programmers, architects, or QA staff members—as well as serious students looking to expand their knowledge and skills with the key topics of system programming on the Linux OS.

We assume that you are familiar with using a Linux system via the command-line interface, the shell. We also assume that you are familiar with programming in the C language, know how to use the editor and the compiler, and are familiar with the basics of the Makefile. We do not assume that you have any prior knowledge of the topics covered in the book.

To get the most out of this book—and we are very clear on this point—you must not just read the material, but must also actively work on, try out, and modify the code examples provided, and try and finish the assignments as well! Why? Simple: doing is what really teaches you and internalizes a topic; making mistakes and fixing them being an essential part of the learning process. We always advocate an empirical approach—don't take anything at face value. Experiment, try it out for yourself, and see.

To this end, we urge you to clone this book's GitHub repository (see the following section for instructions), browse through the files, and try them out. Using a Virtual Machine (VM) for experimentation is (quite obviously) definitely recommended (we have tested the code on both Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Fedora 27/28). A listing of mandatory and optional software packages to install on the system is also provided within the book's GitHub repository; please read through and install all required utilities to get the best experience.

Last, but definitely not least, each chapter has a Further reading section, where additional online links and books (in some cases) are mentioned; we urge you to browse through these. You will find the Further reading material for each chapter available on the book's GitHub repository.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packt.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packt.com.
2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Hands-on-System-Programming-with-Linux. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781788998475_ColorImages.pdf

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Let's check these out via the source code of our membugs.c program."

A block of code is set as follows:

include <pthread.h>
int pthread_mutexattr_gettype(const pthread_mutexattr_t *restrict attr,     int *restrict type);
int pthread_mutexattr_settype(pthread_mutexattr_t *attr, int type);

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

include <pthread.h>
int pthread_mutexattr_gettype(const pthread_mutexattr_t *restrict attr,      int *restrict type);
int pthread_mutexattr_settype(pthread_mutexattr_t *attr, int type);

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ ./membugs 3

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select C as the language via the drop-down."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.