COURSE SYLLABUS

Instructor
P. Tobin Maginnis

Fall Semester 1999
CSCI 323 - Systems Programming

Catalog Data:   Systems Programming. Instruction set formats;
                assembles; macroprocessors; loaders; linkage editors;
                dynamic linking and loading, dynamic binding.
                Prerequisite: 112. (3).

Textbooks:   1. M. Beck, et. al., Linux Kernel Internals
                Addison-Wesley, 1996, ISBN 0-201-87741-4
             2. Welsh, M. & L. Kaufman, Running Linux,
                2nd ed., O'Reilly & Associates, 1996
Recommended: 1. Loukides, M., System Performance Tuning,
                O'Reilly & Associates, 1992
             2. Parker, T., Linux System Administrators
                Survival Guide, Sams Publishing, 1996
             3. Hunt, C., TCP/IP Network Administration,
                2nd Ed., O'Reilly & Associates, 1997
             4. Albitz, P. & C. Liu, DNS & Bind, 2nd ed.,
                O'Reilly & Associates, 1997
             5. Laurie, B. & P. Laurie, Apache: The
                Definitive Guide, O'Reilly & Associates, 1997

Coordinator:    P. Tobin Maginnis, Associate Professor of Computer
                and Information Science.

Goals:          Show students how to exploit the vast amount of
                open system software available today.  Provide an
                in-depth analysis of the UNIX operating system
                design with an emphasis on component interactions.
                Describe operating system administration issues
                including: installation, configuration, and
                performance tuning.

Prerequisite by Topic:
        1.      Familiarity with general purpose high-level language
        2.      Familiarity with general programming concepts

Topics:
        1.      Linux archives, disk partitions, and bootup (1 hour)
        2.      Compiling the Linux kernel (2 hours)
        3.      X-Window design, installation, and configuration
                (4 hours)
        4.      Linux kernel overview, data structures, algorithms,
                system call interface.  (3 hours)
        5.      Network daemon design, installation, and configuration
                (3 hours)
        6.      Inter-process communication (3 hours)
        7.      WWW design, installation, and configuration (3 hours)
        8.      The Linux file system (3 hours)
        9.      System management (3 hours)
       10.      Linux device drivers (3 hours)
       11.      Linux socket, TCP, & IP implementation (4 hours)
       12.      Linux kernel dynamic load modules (2 hours)
       12.      Performance tuning issues: measure & manage (2 hours)
       13.      Tests (three plus the final exam)


Exercises:

Unit One Program Exercise, CSCI 323 Systems Programming
  Install Linux on one of the Departmental machines.

Unit Two Program Exercise, CSCI 323 Systems Programming
  Install, configure, and test a X-Window desktop
  environment.

Unit Three Program Exercise, CSCI 323 Systems Programming
  Configure the network daemons for a typical multiuser
  Internet host.

Unit Four Program Exercise, CSCI 323 Systems Programming
  Create a virtual WWW host with virtual e-mail.

Unit Five Program Exercise, CSCI 323 Systems Programming
  Set up a private network that allows direct access
  to the Internet.

Unit Six Program Exercise, CSCI 323 Systems Programming
  Configure a MS-Windows shared hard disk and configure
  the MS-Windows 3.1x emulation routines.

Course Grading:

        Three written tests @ 100 points each            300
        Six program exercises @ 16.66 points each        100
                                                         ---
        Total course points                              400

        First ten questions of the final must replace a previous test,
        last ten questions count 4 bonus points for each question.

        Grading scale:
        360 and up -> A
        320 to 359 -> B
        280 to 319 -> C
        240 to 279 -> D
        Below  340 -> F