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Basics of system programming, including POSIX processes, process control, inter-process communication, synchronization, signals, simple memory management, file I/O and directories, shell programming, socket network programming, RPC programming in distributed systems, basic security mechanisms, and standard tools for systems programming such as debugging tools. Course Information: Credit is not given for both CS 241 and ECE 391. Prerequisite: CS 225 and CS 233. Class Schedule Information: Students must register for one lecture and one discussion section.

The CS241 textbook is comprised of opensource and free course notes, available here as a a single pdf and on the course website in html format.

Interact with a POSIX operating system in C via system calls to create system applications (2), (6)
Implement and evaluate a dynamic memory allocator (2), (6)
Analyze and implement a virtual memory subsystem (2), (6)
Create system applications that manipulate processes and threads (1), (2), (6)
Evaluate how OS schedules processes and threads (6)
Communicate and synchronize between threads and processes to create robust system applications (1), (2), (6)
Use synchronization to identify and fix potential deadlock and race conditions in concurrent programs (2), (6)
Manipulate filesystem structures (inodes etc.) (2), (6)
Design and create client and server programs to communicate across networks (1), (2), (6)
Understands and uses system security mechanisms to build secure programs (1), (2), (6)
Can analyze how a specific security error (e.g. buffer overflow, file access control, page access control) impacts the Confidentiality, Integrity and/or Availability of data or service. (1)
Can identify multiple development practices (e.g. design reviews, code reviews, testing) as important practices to build secure programs. (6)
Can briefly describe well-known security case studies (e.g. network protocol implementation errors, CPU side channel attacks) and how they comprise the Confidentiality, Integrity and/or Availability of data or service. (6)

Basic internal structure and purpose of operating systems
Input-output, file, and directory structures
Memory allocation and deallocation
Virtual memory
Interaction with the operating system kernel via system calls
Multi-process programming and inter-process communication
Multi-thread programming and inter-thread communication
Synchronization primitives including semaphores and mutexes
Deadlock causes and avoidance
Multi-core scheduling algorithms
Network programming with TCP/IP
Security elementary principles and practices (programming practices, protocols and well-known case studies)

Revisions in last 6 years	Approximately when revision was done	Reason for revision	Data or documentation available?
Standardized class content and teaching material (slides)	Fall 2008 - present	Students were frustrated by content that changed from semster to semster.	informal discussions
Standardized class content and teaching material (programming assignments)	Fall 2008 - present	Students were frustrated by new programming assignments that were not well-vetted.	informal discussions
Adpted programming assignments to reflect real-world problems (including memory management, map-reduce, web servers)	Fall 2008 - present	Students wanted to understand how systems programming is tied to the real world.
Introduced the use of undergraduate lab assistants to help on programming assignments	Spring 2011	Students needed more help during the work on their projects.	informal discussions
Introduced mini programming assignments into discussion sections to help prepapre students for programming assignments	Fall 2011 - present	Students needed more help on how to start their projects.	informal discussions
Moved lectures on memory to the beginning of the semester	Spring 2012	The sudents needed a better understanding of memory for their programming projects.	informal discussions
Introduced a programming contest for one of the projects	Fall 2010	Get the students excited.	informal discussions
Introduced an extra independent study project for interested students	Fall 2010	Allow students to get involved in more complex projects or with on-going research projects.	informal discussions

Required.