UNIX Systems Programming

Course Length: 3 Days

Key Objectives

• Install, start up, and shut down a UNIX system.
• Configure, maintain, and troubleshoot systems.
• Install, administer, monitor, and troubleshoot hardware and software.
• Add, remove, and maintain user accounts.
• Administer system security.
• Perform backups and restores.
• Optimize system performance.

Course Overview

This course describes the structure and operation of a UNIX system in terms of its file system, process control system, input/output system, security, startup and shutdown, user administration, backup and restore, and troubleshooting procedures and techniques. Students use lab exercises to apply this information to practical problem-solving. Bluestone offers both BSD and System V System Administration Courses.

Audience

Individuals who are responsible for administering and supporting the UNIX system, and anyone who wishes to understand how to monitor and troubleshoot in a UNIX environment.

Prerequisite

• UNIX Fundamentals

• UNIX Shell Programming (recommended)

Course Content

Unix Architecture Overview

• Functional Model of the Kernel
• System Calls, C Standard Library Calls & POSIX Library Calls
• Limits, pathconf(), sysconf

File System Management

• File Types, Inodes, Directory Data Blocks
• File System Attributes, struct statvfs, struct stat
• Access Modes
• Renaming a File, Changing Owner and Group
• Opening, Closing, Making or Removing a Directory
• Current Working Directory
• Links: Hard Links and Symbolic Links

Unix Process Model

• Getting and Changing Unix Process Attributes
• Testing Access Modes

File I/O

• File Descriptors
• Creating, Opening, Closing, Reading, Writing and Navigating in a File
• I/O Buffering Read, Scatter Read, Scatter Write
• File Pointers, Buffering, Temporary Files
• Streams: Open, Read, Write, Positioning

Unix Architecture Overview

• Process Life Cycle
• fork(), The Exec Interface, excel(), vfork()
• Child Process Status, Waiting for a Process

Signal Handling

• Installing a Signal Handler
• alarm(), pause(), and sleep()
• Sending Signals to Processes

Interprocess Communication with Pipes

• Pipes, Anonymous Pipes, FIFOs (Named Pipes)

System V IPC

• SVR4 IPC Objects, Creating an IPC key
• Shared Memory, Message Queues, Semaphores

Socket Interprocess Communication

• OSI Network Model
• Create and Connect a Socket
• Bind an AF_UNIX or AF_INET Socket
• Send Messages, Receive Messages

Advanced I/O

• Nonblocking I/O
• Requesting and Releasing a Lock
• Stream Messages and Functions
• Memory Mapped I/O