CS3331 Reading List: Week 1

Course Material
The slides used in class are available in the common directory with filenames 01-Basics.pdf and 02-Hardware-OS.pdf.
If you wish to print these slides, print them double-sided and print as many slides as possible on the same page. Let us save a tree!

Programming Material
None for this week

Homework Assignment
Practice the following:
  • The common directory has a file 01-Basics.tar.gz which includes all short examples discussed in class. Make a copy to your local directory and figure out some way to unzip and untar this file. Then, compile these programs and follow the discussion in class to practice the Unix operators & and |.
  • Use these programs (e.g., pA.c and pB.c) to practice I/O redirection operators > and <.
  • Learn to use the Unix commands ps, top and kill as discussed in class.
  • Run a program with an infinite loop in the background, find the process ID of this program with the ps command, and use the kill command to terminate it.
  • Run a program with an infinite loop in the foreground, move to another window, find the process ID of this program with the the ps command, and use the kill command to terminate it.
  • Do the same with the INT option rather than KILL. What does the INT option mean?
  • Do the same with the TERM, and QUIT options rather than KILL. What does these two options mean?
  • Run a program with an infinite loop in the foreground, use the Ctrl-Z key to suspend it, use the bg command to make this suspended program running in the background, and use the kill command to terminate it.
We do not collect your practice work; but, similar problems will appear in quizzes and exams in the future. Note that I will not make any announcement in class for these short quizzes. In other word, short quizzes may take place at any time as long as I see it is appropriate.