Book Image

Hands-On System Programming with Linux

By : Kaiwan N. Billimoria, Tigran Aivazian
Book Image

Hands-On System Programming with Linux

By: Kaiwan N. Billimoria, Tigran Aivazian

Overview of this book

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.

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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Linux System Architecture
Linux System Architecture
Technical requirements
Linux and the Unix operating system
The Unix philosophy in a nutshell
Linux system architecture
Execution contexts within the kernel
Summary
2
Virtual Memory
Virtual Memory
Technical requirements
Virtual memory
Process memory layout
Summary
3
Resource Limits
Resource Limits
Resource limits
Granularity of resource limits
Hard and soft limits
Summary
4
Dynamic Memory Allocation
Dynamic Memory Allocation
The glibc malloc(3) API family
Beyond the basics
Summary
5
Linux Memory Issues
Linux Memory Issues
Common memory issues
Summary
6
Debugging Tools for Memory Issues
Debugging Tools for Memory Issues
Tool types
Some key points
Summary
7
Process Credentials
Process Credentials
The traditional Unix permissions model
Summary
8
Process Capabilities
Process Capabilities
The modern POSIX capabilities model
Miscellaneous
Summary
9
Process Execution
Process Execution
Technical requirements
Process execution
Summary
10
Process Creation
Process Creation
Process creation
Summary
11
Signaling - Part I
Signaling - Part I
Why signals?
Available signals
Handling signals
Summary
12
Signaling - Part II
Signaling - Part II
Gracefully handling process crashes
Signaling – caveats and gotchas
Real-time signals
Sending signals
Alternative signal-handling techniques
Summary
13
Timers
Timers
Older interfaces
The newer POSIX (interval) timers mechanism
A quick mention
Summary
14
Multithreading with Pthreads Part I - Essentials
Multithreading with Pthreads Part I - Essentials
Multithreading concepts
Thread management – the essential pthread APIs
Summary
15
Multithreading with Pthreads Part II - Synchronization
Multithreading with Pthreads Part II - Synchronization
The racing problem
Locking concepts
Using the pthread APIs for synchronization
Summary
16
Multithreading with Pthreads Part III
Multithreading with Pthreads Part III
Thread safety
Thread cancelation and cleanup
Threads and signaling
Threads vs processes – look again
Pthreads – a few random tips and FAQs
Summary
17
CPU Scheduling on Linux
CPU Scheduling on Linux
The Linux OS and the POSIX scheduling model
Exploiting Linux's soft real-time capabilities
RTL – Linux as an RTOS
Summary
18
Advanced File I/O
Advanced File I/O
I/O performance recommendations
Summary
19
Troubleshooting and Best Practices
Troubleshooting and Best Practices
Troubleshooting tools
Best practices
Summary
20
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Summary

In this chapter, we have attempted to show the reader several key points, tools and techniques; among them:

  • Humans will make mistakes; this is especially true with memory unmanaged languages (C, C++).
  • There is a real need for powerful memory debug tools on nontrivial codebases.
  • We covered two of these best in class dynamic analysis tools in detail:
    • Valgrind's Memcheck
    • Sanitizers (primarily ASan)
  • Glibc allows some tuning of malloc via the mallopt(3) API, as well as via environment variables.
  • Ensuring complete code coverage when building test cases is absolutely crucial to the success of a project.
The next chapter is related to the essentials aspects of file I/O which is essential for a component reader to know. It introduces you to performing efficient file I/O on the Linux platform. We would request the readers to go through this chapter which is available here...
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