Operating Systems - Laboratorio (2008/2009)

Learning outcomes

The course consists of 48 hours of lectures and practical applications. It provides the students with an introduction to the operating system programming focusing on the Unix System V and Linux environments. At the end of the course the student will be able to implement shell scripts and C programs covering all the aspectes reported in the following program.

* Introduction to C programming: compiler, linker, libraries and the make program.

* Structure of a C program: variables, statements, functions and parameter passing, pointers and dynamic memory allocation, I/O and string management.

* System programming
- Shell scripts (bash)
o script structure
o selection and iteration
o input and output
o variables
o system commands
- System programming in C
o files and directories
o processes (fork / exec)
o pipe and named pipe
o semaphores
o shared memory
o message queues
- Threads:
o thread creation and termination
o thread synchronization

The exam can be taken in two modes: oral or written.

Oral mode:
During the course students must solve 4 homeworks and provide the corresponding solutions within deadlines defined by the theacher. Then, at the end of the course, on the second half of June, each student must present orally the provided solutions to the theacher.
The observance of deadlines is mandatory. Students that miss the deadline cannot take the exam in the oral mode. Besides, the oral mode can be taken only by students that pass a test on C programming.

Written mode:
The exam consists of solving some exercises related to system programming by means of shell scripts and/or C programs.

For the exam method related to the theory course, please see the corresponding course.

The total exam (theory+laboratory) must be completed within 4 sessions starting from the session when the student passes the theory exam or the laboratory exam (according to the one that is passed first).