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Hands-On System Programming with Linux
Hands-On System Programming with Linux

Hands-On System Programming with Linux: Explore Linux system programming interfaces, theory, and practice

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Profile Icon Aivazian Profile Icon Kaiwan N. Billimoria
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€41.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4 (6 Ratings)
Paperback Oct 2018 794 pages 1st Edition
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€22.99 €32.99
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€41.99
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Aivazian Profile Icon Kaiwan N. Billimoria
Arrow right icon
€41.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4 (6 Ratings)
Paperback Oct 2018 794 pages 1st Edition
eBook
€22.99 €32.99
Paperback
€41.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
€22.99 €32.99
Paperback
€41.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m

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Hands-On System Programming with Linux

Virtual Memory

Coming back to this chapter, we will look at the meaning and purpose of virtual memory (VM) and, importantly, why it is a key concept and required one. We will cover the meaning and importance of VM, paging and address-translation, the benefits of using VM, the memory layout of a process in execution, and the internal layout of a process as seen by the kernel. We shall also delve into what segments make up the process virtual address space. This knowledge is indispensable in difficult-to-debug situations.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Virtual memory
  • Process virtual address space

Technical requirements

A modern desktop PC or laptop is required; Ubuntu Desktop specifies the following as recommended system requirements for installation and usage of the distribution:

  • 2 GHz dual core processor or better
  • RAM
    • Running on a physical host: 2 GB or more system memory
    • Running as a guest: The host system should have at least 4 GB RAM (the more, the better and smoother the experience)
  • 25 GB of free hard drive space
  • Either a DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media
  • Internet access is definitely helpful

We recommend the reader use one of the following Linux distributions (can be installed as a guest OS on a Windows or Linux host system, as mentioned):

  • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop is a good choice too as it has long term support as well, and pretty much everything should work)

Virtual memory

Modern operating systems are based on a memory model called VM. This includes Linux, Unixes, MS Windows, and macOS. Truly understanding how a modern OS works under the hood requires a deep understanding of VM and memory management – not topics we delve into in intricate detail in this book; nevertheless, a solid grasp of VM concepts is critical for Linux system developers.

No VM – the problem

Let's imagine for a moment that VM, and all the complex baggage it lugs around, does not exist. So, we're working on a (fictional) pure flat physical memory platform with, say, 64 MB RAM. This is actually not that unusual – most old OSes (think DOS) and even modern Real-Time Operating Systems...

Process memory layout

A process is an instance of a program in execution. It is seen as a live, runtime schedulable entity by the OS. In other words, it's the process that runs when we launch a program.

The OS, or kernel, stores metadata about the process in a data structure in kernel memory; on Linux, this structure is often called the process descriptor—though the term task structure is a more accurate one. Process attributes are stored in the task structure; the process PID (process identifier) – a unique integer identifying the process, process credentials, open-file information, signaling information, and a whole lot more, reside here.

From the earlier discussion, Virtual memory, we understand that a process has, among many other attributes, a VAS. The VAS is the sum-total space potentially available to it. As in our earlier example, with a fictional computer...

Summary

This chapter delved into an explanation of VM concepts, why VM matters, and its many benefits to modern operating systems and the applications running on them. We then covered the layout of the process virtual address space on the Linux OS, including some information on the text, (multiple) data, and stack segments. The true reasons for the stack, and its layout, were covered as well.

In the next chapter, the reader will learn about per-process resource limits: why they are required, how they work, and of course, the programmer interfaces required to work with them.

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Key benefits

  • Acquire insight on Linux system architecture and its programming interfaces
  • Get to grips with core concepts such as process management, signalling and pthreads
  • Packed with industry best practices and dozens of code examples

Description

The Linux OS and its embedded and server applications are critical components of today’s software infrastructure in a decentralized, networked universe. The industry's demand for proficient Linux developers is only rising with time. Hands-On System Programming with Linux gives you a solid theoretical base and practical industry-relevant descriptions, and covers the Linux system programming domain. It delves into the art and science of Linux application programming— system architecture, process memory and management, signaling, timers, pthreads, and file IO. This book goes beyond the use API X to do Y approach; it explains the concepts and theories required to understand programming interfaces and design decisions, the tradeoffs made by experienced developers when using them, and the rationale behind them. Troubleshooting tips and techniques are included in the concluding chapter. By the end of this book, you will have gained essential conceptual design knowledge and hands-on experience working with Linux system programming interfaces.

Who is this book for?

Hands-On System Programming with Linux is for Linux system engineers, programmers, or anyone who wants to go beyond using an API set to understanding the theoretical underpinnings and concepts behind powerful Linux system programming APIs. To get the most out of this book, you should be familiar with Linux at the user-level logging in, using shell via the command line interface, the ability to use tools such as find, grep, and sort. Working knowledge of the C programming language is required. No prior experience with Linux systems programming is assumed.

What you will learn

  • Explore the theoretical underpinnings of Linux system architecture
  • Understand why modern OSes use virtual memory and dynamic memory APIs
  • Get to grips with dynamic memory issues and effectively debug them
  • Learn key concepts and powerful system APIs related to process management
  • Effectively perform file IO and use signaling and timers
  • Deeply understand multithreading concepts, pthreads APIs, synchronization and scheduling
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Oct 31, 2018
Length: 794 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788998475
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Product Details

Publication date : Oct 31, 2018
Length: 794 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788998475
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Table of Contents

20 Chapters
Linux System Architecture Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Virtual Memory Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Resource Limits Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Dynamic Memory Allocation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Linux Memory Issues Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Debugging Tools for Memory Issues Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Process Credentials Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Process Capabilities Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Process Execution Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Process Creation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Signaling - Part I Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Signaling - Part II Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Timers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Multithreading with Pthreads Part I - Essentials Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Multithreading with Pthreads Part II - Synchronization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Multithreading with Pthreads Part III Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
CPU Scheduling on Linux Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced File I/O Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Troubleshooting and Best Practices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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(6 Ratings)
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4 star 33.3%
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1 star 16.7%
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P v s prasad May 20, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The book is not for beginners. I can say it is for the people who no average c programming and basic linux.But it covered all the aspects in a c programmers life w.r.t linux.the book is straight to point. nice detailed explanation with proper examples.
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Ankit Patel Jan 16, 2023
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Very well written book.Excellant explaination of concepts with examples.Code provided is high quality.
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Peter Mar 17, 2021
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The author provides all this code on Github, along with further reading suggestions on topics he can only partially cover due to space and staying on point.I'm using Arch for my *nix distro and VS Code OSS and EMACS/gcc8 depending on complexity as my IDEs to run his code along side reading it and have found no issues so far.So far, as a Linux / Unix user student coder this book has cleared up major knowledge gaps for me on parts of Linux that seemed assumed knowledge online. His style of writing is strait forward and he lets you know what the book is going to cover and what it is not, the further reading list is a great resource.
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nagamallareddy Jun 23, 2019
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Good book
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Crash and Burn Oct 09, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
The author provides a zip file with the source for all of the programs listed in each chapter, which is a real time saver. He also provides Makefiles, but the seem to need to be rewritten to be usable. Also, common.h and common.c are missing. I found a program that common.c provides, and wrote a functionally equivalent function, but I shouldn't have had to do that.In a later chapter, I ran into missing code for WARN. Both WARN, and FATAL take variable parameter lists, like printf, so I replaced the FATAL routine with this definition:#define FATAL printfand similarly for WARN#define WARN printfso the code looks like its calling either FATAL or WARN, but it's actually just calling printf.Whenever the author needs to use functionality from features described in later chapters, he tells what chapter that feature is described in; and he tells us what functionality that was used is out of the book's scope. He gives practical examples and explains why some system call or utility will dump core under certain situations.My goal with this book is to get comfortable doing system programming - i.e. using functions that access kernel level functionality. It is a lot more detailed than my System Level Programmingon Unix book is. My next step will be to move into the kernel.I'm only part-way into the book, and already it's worth the time I've spent on it.
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