Linux system programming techniques : become a proficient Linux system programmer using expert recipes and techniques / Jack-Benny Persson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Persson, Jack-Benny, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Linux.

Operating systems (Computers).

Computer programming.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (432 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Birmingham, England : Packt Publishing, Limited, [2021]

Biography/History:

Persson Jack-Benny: Jack-Benny Persson is a consultant and author based in Sweden. He has written several books about Linux and programming. His passion for Linux and other Unix-like systems started as a hobby more than 20 years ago. Since then, he has spent most of his spare time reading about Linux, tinkering with Linux servers, and writing about Linux administration. Today he has his own IT and media company in Sweden that focuses on Linux. Jack-Benny holds an Advanced Higher Vocational Education Diploma as a Linux system specialist. He has also studied electronics, networking, and security.

Summary:

Find solutions to all your problems related to Linux system programming using practical recipes for developing your own system programsKey FeaturesDevelop a deeper understanding of how Linux system programming worksGain hands-on experience of working with different Linux projects with the help of practical examplesLearn how to develop your own programs for LinuxBook DescriptionLinux is the world's most popular open source operating system (OS). Linux System Programming Techniques will enable you to extend the Linux OS with your own system programs and communicate with other programs on the system. The book begins by exploring the Linux filesystem, its basic commands, built-in manual pages, the GNU compiler collection (GCC), and Linux system calls. You'll then discover how to handle errors in your programs and will learn to catch errors and print relevant information about them. The book takes you through multiple recipes on how to read and write files on the system, using both streams and file descriptors. As you advance, you'll delve into forking, creating zombie processes, and daemons, along with recipes on how to handle daemons using systemd. After this, you'll find out how to create shared libraries and start exploring different types of interprocess communication (IPC). In the later chapters, recipes on how to write programs using POSIX threads and how to debug your programs using the GNU debugger (GDB) and Valgrind will also be covered. By the end of this Linux book, you will be able to develop your own system programs for Linux, including daemons, tools, clients, and filters.What you will learnDiscover how to write programs for the Linux system using a wide variety of system callsDelve into the working of POSIX functionsUnderstand and use key concepts such as signals, pipes, IPC, and process managementFind out how to integrate programs with a Linux systemExplore advanced topics such as filesystem operations, creating shared libraries, and debugging your programsGain an overall understanding of how to debug your programs using ValgrindWho this book is forThis book is for anyone who wants to develop system programs for Linux and gain a deeper understanding of the Linux system. The book is beneficial for anyone who is facing issues related to a particular part of Linux system programming and is looking for specific recipes or solutions.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Contributors

Table of Contents

Copyright and Credits

Chapter 1: Getting the Necessary Tools and Writing Our First Linux Programs

Technical requirements

Installing Git to download the code repository

Installing GCC and GNU Make

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing GDB and Valgrind

Writing a simple C program for Linux

There's more...

Writing a program that parses command-line options

Looking up information in the built-in manual page

Searching the manual for information

Chapter 2: Making Your Programs Easy to Script

Return values and how to read them

See also

Exiting a program with a relevant return value

Redirecting stdin, stdout, and stderr

Connecting programs using pipes

Writing to stdout and stderr

Reading from stdin

Writing a pipe-friendly program

Redirecting the result to a file

Reading environment variables

How it works....

Chapter 3: Diving Deep into C in Linux

Linking against libraries using GCC

Changing C standards

Using system calls - and when not to use them

Getting information about Linux- and Unix-specific header files

Defining feature test macros

Looking at the four stages of compilation

Compiling with Make

Writing a generic Makefile with GCC options

Writing a simple Makefile

Writing a more advanced Makefile

Chapter 4: Handling Errors in Your Programs

Why error handling is important in system programming

Handling some common errors

Error handling and errno

Handling more errno macros

Using errno with strerror()

Using errno with perror()

Returning an error value

Chapter 5: Working with File I/O and Filesystem Operations

Technical requirements.

Reading inode information and learning the filesystem

Creating soft links and hard links

Creating files and updating the timestamp

Deleting files

Getting access rights and ownership

Setting access rights and ownership

Writing to files with file descriptors

Reading from files with file descriptors

Writing to files with streams

Reading from files with streams

Reading and writing binary data with streams

Moving around inside a file with lseek()

Moving around inside a file with fseek()

Chapter 6: Spawning Processes and Using Job Control

Exploring how processes are created

Using job control in Bash

Controlling and terminating processes using signals

Replacing the program in a process with execl()

Forking a process

Getting ready.

How to do it...

Executing a new program in a forked process

Starting a new process with system()

Creating a zombie process

Learning about what orphans are

Creating a daemon

Implementing a signal handler

Chapter 7: Using systemd to Handle Your Daemons

Getting to know systemd

Writing a unit file for a daemon

Enabling and disabling a service - and starting and stopping it

Creating a more modern daemon for systemd

Making the new daemon a systemd service

Reading the journal

Chapter 8: Creating Shared Libraries

The what and why of libraries

Creating a static library

Using a static library

Creating a dynamic library

Installing the dynamic library on the system

Using the dynamic library in a program

Compiling a statically linked program

Chapter 9: Terminal I/O and Changing Terminal Behavior

Viewing terminal information

Changing terminal settings with stty

Investigating TTYs and PTYs and writing to them

Checking if it's a TTY

Creating a PTY

Disabling echo for password prompts

Reading the terminal size

Chapter 10: Using Different Kinds of IPC

Using signals for IPC - building a client for the daemon

Communicating with a pipe

FIFO - using it in the shell

FIFO - building the sender

FIFO - building the receiver

Message queues - creating the sender

Message queues - creating the receiver

Communicating between child and parent with shared memory

See also.

Using shared memory between unrelated processes.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781789959789

1789959780

OCLC:

1247679504