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Systems and Network Programming for Embedded Linux — A 5-day Course

Synopsis

This course focuses on the Linux system call interface. You'll learn all major system programming features, from basic file and device I/O to network communications and signal handling. You'll learn how to exploit concurrency through the use of processes and threads, and how to perform inter-process communication and synchronisation. You'll use connection-oriented and connectionless sockets to write clients and server. Hands-on exercises will use PCs running SuSE or Debian Linux and an ARM9 target board running ELinos Linux. However, the course content is generic and does not rely on features peculiar to any one Linux distribution.

Course Objectives

You will learn how to write well structured and efficient code that makes use of the POSIX API. You'll become proficient in the use of standard idioms and patterns for creating and managing multiple processes and threads, and in using the various inter-process communication mechanisms provided by the POSIX API for synchronising processes and threads. You'll also learn how to implement TCP/IP applications - both client and server side -- using the sockets API.

Prerequisites

Scheduled and On-site Courses

Courses in this subject are scheduled on an 'ad-hoc' basis. We can arrange a course at our Carshalton centre or on customer site for any client wishing to send two or more delegates on the same course.

For courses at the Carshalton Centre the fee will be:

On-site course fees are as above + expenses recharged at cost.

For a 1:1 course in Carshalton the fee is £2750 + VAT. For a 1:1 on-site course the fee is £2750 + VAT + expenses recharged at cost.

If there are any dates showing below this line, a course has been scheduled and places for individuals are available at £1750. Otherwise, no courses are currently scheduled and the above fees apply.

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

A schedule of dates for this course is not currently available. Please call 0800 651 0338 or use our contact form to enquire about places and availability.


Contents

Getting Started

  • Receiving command line arguments
  • Accessing environment variables
  • Reading and writing stdin and stdout
  • How to detect and handle system call errors

Multiprocessing

  • The memory model and life cycle of a process
  • Creating processes with fork
  • Executing programs with exec
  • Waiting for process termination
  • Returning and retrieving exit status

Multithreading

  • The memory model and life cycle of a thread
  • Creating threads with the pthreads API
  • Waiting for thread termination
  • How are threads and processes different?
  • Synchronising access to shared data
  • When to use multiple processes and threads

Basic I/O

  • Low-level input and output
  • Reading and writing files
  • Changing file attributes
  • Managing files and directories

Interprocess Communication

  • Pipes
  • Message queues
  • Shared memory
  • Semaphores

Signals

  • What are signals for?
  • Sending signals
  • Ignoring and catching signals
  • Writing signal handlers

Working with the Linux Security Model

  • Changing file permissions and ownerships
  • Accessing the user account database
  • Setting the user identity of a process

Network Communication (IPv4)

  • TCP/IP fundamentals
  • Client/server programming
  • Connection-oriented sockets
  • Connectionless sockets
  • Name resolution

Overview of IPv6 and network programming with IPv6

The Linux development environment

  • The traditional build model
  • Header files
  • Automating rebuilds with make
  • Writing platform-independent code with GNU configure
  • Using Eclipse as an integrated C development enviromnent
  • Debugging with gdb
  • Overview of Autoconf and Automake
  • Overview of Version Control using CVS or Subversion (SVN)
  • Overview of Cross Compilers and Cross Compilation Tool Chains