Operating Systems Frequently Asked Questions

• Programming expectations
  1. Code style, structure, and comments.
  2. How do I submit my work? Remember to include your single or pair affidavit as appropropriate.
• Getting started on UNIX
  1. Are you just getting started with UNIX? Read the UNIX primer.
  2. What is the PATH in a comamnd shell and how do I set? it?
  3. How can I securely connect to other computers or transfer files using secure shell (ssh), secure copy (scp) or secure ftp (sftp)?
  4. How can I use a graphical interface on edoras?
  5. How can I have UNIX-like environment on a Windows platform?
  6. What software is available on edoras?
• Compiling and executing C/C++ programs
  1. How do I compile a program under UNIX?
  2. My C program had a compilation error telling me to compile in C99 mode.
  3. My program compiled correctly, but when I try to execute I receive a file not found error.
  4. What editors can I use to write my program.
  5. What is a makefile?
  6. What is separate compilation and how do I use it?
  7. How can I capture all output to a file (including output from more than one process)?
• Library calls
  1. How can I understand UNIX system & library calls?
  2. How can I use a nonstandard library?
  3. How can I create a library?
  4. How can I generate random numbers?
  5. How do I interpret function signatures (prototypes)?
  6. Why do duplicate lines appear in forked stdout which has been redirected to a file?
  7. How can I use POSIX threads (pthreads)?
  8. How can I use POSIX unnamed semaphores?
  9. How can I have a thread sleep for a specified amount of time?
  10. How can I set a POSIX signal handler?
  11. How can I use a POSIX timer to interrupt a process?
  12. How can I use a POSIX timer to determine execution time?
• C/C++ language related questions
  1. How can I learn about debugging programs?
  2. How can I use a symbolic debugger on UNIX/Linux?
  3. How can I process command line arguments?
  4. What is an appropriate level of commenting?
  5. What should go in a header (.h) file?
  6. How do I determine the number of bytes (size) of various data structures?
  7. How can I have two classes or structures point to one another?
  8. How can I have an array of unspecified size be part of a structure/class?
  9. I need to understand pointers understand pointers.
  10. How can I use pointers to functions?
  11. How can I call a C function from C++?
• General questions
  1. What are the scale factors associated with international system prefixes for units such as giga, micro, milli, nano, etc.?