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CPTS 360

Systems Programming, Fall 2024


Overview

This course aims to equip students with the skills to craft system software, utilize system capabilities, and construct small-to-medium scale software systems. Throughout this course, students will (a) develop and execute C programs, (b) comprehend the fundamental methods of creating applications through libraries and interfacing with services, (c) understand memory layout, program, and process representations, and (d) implement Unix/Linux abstractions for memory management, processes, process control, inter-process communication, scheduling, file systems, and networks.

  • Instructor: Monowar Hasan

  • Email: monowar.hasan@wsu.edu

  • Class time: Tuesday, Thursday 9:10-10:25 AM

  • Class Location: Pullman Campus, Carpenter Hall 102

  • Office Hours (EME B53): Tuesday Noon-1 PM, Thursday 11 AM-noon, or by appointment

  • Course Staff (TA): Bruno Sanchez Parra (bruno.sanchezparra@wsu.edu) Matthew Bruggeman (matthew.bruggeman@wsu.edu) Tamim Ahmed (tamim.ahmed@wsu.edu) YuQun Song (yuqun.song@wsu.edu)

  • TA Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 10:30-11:30 AM, Dana 343 Owens Library 543 (Bruno) Monday and Wednesday, 11:15 AM-1:00 PM, Sloan 340 (Matthew) Friday 11 AM-Noon, Sloan 341 (Tamim) Friday 1 PM-2 PM, Sloan 340 (YuQun)

Note: The location of TA office rooms has changed due to renovations in Sloan. Check Canvas for the most updated room numbers.

Important: To better prepare yourself for office hours and posting Teams interactions, read carefully the excellent guides from Gabriel Parmer:


Acknowledgment

This course uses materials from Randal E. Bryant, David R. O'Hallaron, Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Kung-Chi Wang, Bob Lewis, Youjip Won, Tianyin Xu, Mathias Payer, Sanidhya Kashyap, Peter Reiher, and Hugh Lauer.


Course Syllabus

The course syllabus is available here.


Textbook

  1. [LKMPG] The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide, Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram, Jim Huang. This book is helpful for Lab 3.


Schedule and Class Materials

Note: The lectures and code files are hosted on the WSU OneDrive cloud. You need WSU credentials to access the materials.

WK
Date
Topic
Slides
Remarks
1

08/20 (Tue)

Course logistics & overview

Self-study:

See Git Tutorials Check Linux VM installation:

1

08/22 (Thu)

C recap

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 6.2

Self-study:

CSAPP 6.1.1 (Page 581-582), 6.1.4

2

08/27 (Tue)

Computer memory

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 6.2, 6.3, 6.4.1-6.4.2 (before Conflict Misses)

2

08/29 (Thu)

Computer memory (contd.)

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 6.4.2 (before Conflict Misses)

Self-study:

CSAPP 6.4.2 (Conflict Misses)

3

09/03 (Tue)

Computer memory (contd.)

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 6.4.3

Lecture shortened due to IT issues in the classroom. PA 0 released

3

09/05 (Thu)

Computer memory (contd.)

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 6.4.5-end, 6.5, 6.6.2, 6.6.3

Self-study:

6.4.4

4

09/10 (Tue)

Cache practice problem solution

4

09/12 (Thu)

Cache practice problem solution Linking

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.5

Self-study: 7.4 PA 0 due

5

09/17 (Tue)

No Class

MH is traveling for a conference PA 1 released

5

09/19 (Thu)

No Class

MH is traveling for a conference

6

09/24 (Tue)

Linking (contd)

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 7.6, 7.10, 7.11

Optional Reading:

CSAPP 7.7 Self-study:

CSAPP 7.4 (ELF file format), 7.14, 7.15 Run code examples

6

09/26 (Thu)

Library Interpositioning Scheduling

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 7.13.1-7.13.3

Self-study: Run code examples Informal early feedback (link) PA 1 due

7

10/01 (Tue)

Scheduling Mid-term review

Self-study:

[OSTEP] 6.1-6.3 (excluding Fig. 6.4)

7

10/03 (Thu)

Mid-term Exam

Exam duration: 60 minutes

8

10/08 (Tue)

Scheduling (contd.)

Lecture Reference:

[OSTEP] 7.1-7.10, 8.1-8.2

PA 2 released

8

10/10 (Thu)

Scheduling (contd.)

Lecture Reference:

[OSTEP] 8.5-8.6, 9.1-9.4, 9.6

9

10/15 (Tue)

Kernel programming

Lecture Reference: [OSTEP] 9.7 [LKMPG] 1-4 Self-study:

Run example kernel module

9

10/17 (Thu)

Kernel programming (contd.)

Lecture Reference: [LKMPG] 7.1-7.3 Self-study:

Run example kernel module

10

10/22 (Tue)

Kernel programming (contd.) Virtual memory (intro)

Lecture Reference: [LKMPG] 12.2, 14.2 Self-study:

Run example kernel modules PA 2 due PA 3 released

10

10/24 (Thu)

Virtual memory

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 9.1-9.5, 9.6.1-9.6.4

Self-study:

CSAPP Read 9.4 bullets, 9.7.2

11

10/29 (Tue)

Virtual memory

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 9.7.2, 9.11

11

10/31 (Thu)

Process control

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 8.3, 8.4 (up to 8.4.4)

Self-study:

CSAPP 8.2.3-8.2.5, Program-vs-Process (8.4.6) Run code examples

12

11/05 (Tue)

Signal I/O

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 8.5.1-8.5.3 — Signals

CSAPP 10.1-10.8 — I/O

Self-study:

CSAPP Fig. 8.33 (signal-safe functions), 8.5.5 (Fig. 8.6—Correct signal handling)

Review RIO library

12

11/07 (Thu)

I/O Network programming

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 10.9-10.12 — I/O CSAPP 11.1-11.3

PA 3 due

13

11/12 (Tue)

Network programming

Lecture Reference: CSAPP 11.4 (before 11.4.1), 11.4.9, 11.5

Self-study:

Run echo server/client example PA 4 released

13

11/14 (Thu)

Network programming Concurrent programming

Lecture Reference:

CSAPP 11.6 (NW)

[OSTEP] 26.1-26.3 (Concurrency)

Self-study:

Run Tiny web server

14

11/19 (Tue)

Concurrent programming

Lecture Reference:

[OSTEP] 26, 27, 30.2

Self-study:

Run code examples

14

11/21 (Thu)

Concurrency issues and bug Recap & closing

Lecture Reference:

[OSTEP] 31.1, 31.2, 31.3, 31.6, 32. 2 (Only Atomicity-Violation Bugs), 32.3 (only Circular Wait & DL Avoidance via Scheduling)

Self-study:

[OSTEP] Fig. 30.14, 31.7

Run code examples PA 4 due

15

11/26 (Tue)

No Class

Thanksgiving break

15

11/28 (Thu)

No Class

Thanksgiving break

16

12/03 (Tue)

No Class (PA 4 demo sessions throughout the week)

PA 4 demo will be scheduled in Week 16

16

12/05 (Thu)

No Class (PA 4 demo sessions throughout the week)

Done with classes!

17

Finals Week

Final Exam: 12/12/24 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM @ Classroom

Exam syllabus: all lectures & labs


Sample Exams


Programming Assignments

We will have five programming assignments in this course. The assignments must be completed individually.

  • PA 0: C skill rehash: Design a Unix filesystem tree simulator using C Tree data structures

  • PA 1: Simulating a cache memory system

  • PA 2: Implement various CPU schedulers (first-come-first-serve, round-robin, shortest-job-first)

  • PA 3: Basic kernel-level programming on Linux

  • PA 4: Develop a web proxy that interacts with the browser and the Internet

We strongly recommend using a Linux machine (or VM) to complete the labs, as we will use a Linux environment to grade your submissions. Some labs (e.g., PA 3) will not work without a Linux environment. Check the following links for details about setting up virtual machines on your systems.

Note: for Windows systems, WSL is not recommended. You must install a standalone VM image.

Programming Assignment Submission

We will use GitHub Classroom to deliver programming assignments. This way, you can better manage your assignments using a widely-used version control system, Git.

For information on version control and how to use Git, see:

To learn more about GitHub workflow, see GitHub Quickstart.

Are you using GitHub on your machine for the first time? If you are using GitHub for the first time on your development machine, you need to authenticate your account — one way to do this is by using GitHub CLI. Install GitHub CLI using the instructions given here. Then run the following command and follow the prompts to authenticate your system: gh auth login.

Submission Workflow

  1. For each lab, you will find a GitHub Classroom link on Canvas. Once you click the link and log into your GitHub account, find your name in the student list and click it to accept the assignment. Please double-check your name and email address before accepting the assignment. If you accidentally choose another student's name, please contact the instructor.

  2. A repo named wsu-cpts360-term/paX-name will be automatically created for you and hosted on GitHub with the starter code.

  3. You can then "clone" your repository onto your development machine. You will complete assignments on your development computer and then "push" your work to the GitHub-hosted remote repository for us to grade.

  4. Final submission:

    • Copy the URL of your GitHub repository on the corresponding assignment section on Canvas.

If you have any questions about setting up GitHub, please contact the TA.


Useful Resources


Got stuck? Questions about anything? Feel free to contact the instructor on Teams (preferred) or via email: monowar.hasan@wsu.edu!

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