1. Homework Assignment #1
J. H. Wang
Oct. 11, 2016

2. Homework #1 Chap.1: 1.19 Chap.2: 2.10 Programming Project for Chap. 2*
Programming Projects for Chap. 3*
(*: programming exercises)
Note: at least one programming exercises or end-of-chapter programming projects must be done and submitted
Due: two weeks (Oct. 25, 2016)

3. Chap.1
1.19: Identify several advantages and several disadvantages of open-source operating systems. Include the types of people who would find each aspect to be an advantage or a disadvantage.

4. Chap. 2
2.10: What is the main advantage of the microkernel approach to system design? How do user programs and system services interact in a microkernel architecture? What are the disadvantages of using the microkernel approach?

5. Chap. 3
3.1: Describe the differences among short-term, medium-term, and long-term scheduling.
3.8: Given an example of a situation in which ordinary pipes are more suitable than named pipes and an example of a situation in which named pipes are more suitable than ordinary pipes.

6. 3.13*: An operating system’s pid manager is responsible for managing process identifiers. When a process is first created, it is assigned a unique pid by the pid manager. The pid is returned to the pid manager when the process completes execution, and the manager may later reassign this pid. Process identifiers are discussed more fully in Sec What is most important here is to recognize that process identifiers must be unique; no two active processes can have the same pid. (…to be continued…)

7. Use the following constants to identify the range of possible pid values: #define MIN_PID 300 #define MAX_PID 5000 You may use any data structure of your choice to represent the availability of process identifiers. One strategy is to adopt what Linux has done and use a bitmap in which a value of 0 at position i indicates that a process id of value i is available and a value of 1 indicates that the process id is currently in use. (…to be continued…)

8. Implement the following API for obtaining and releasing a pid:
int allocate_map(void): Creates and initializes a daat structure for representing pids; returns -1 if unsuccessful, 1 if successful
int allocate_pid(void): Allocates and returns a pid; returns -1 if unable to allocate a pid (all pids are in use)
Void release_pid(int pid): Releases a pid
This programming problem will be modified later on in Chap.4 & 6.

9. 3.20*: Design a file-copying program named filecopy using ordinary pipes. This program will be passed two parameters: the name of the file to be copied and the name of the copied file. The program will then create an ordinary pipe and write the contents of the file to be copied to the pipe. The child process will read this file from the pipe and write it to the destination file. For example, if we invoke the program as follows: filecopy input.txt copy.txt the file input.txt will be written to the pipe. The child process will read the contents of this file and write it to the destination file copy.txt. You may write this program using either UNIX or Windows pipes.

10. Homework Submission
For hand-written exercises, please hand in your homework on paper in class
For programming exercises, please upload your source code to the program submission site as follows:
URL:
User account/Password: (You MUST use your student ID at the first login even if you visited the site before)
Please change your password as soon as possible
Program uploading: a compressed file (in .zip format) including source codes and compilation instructions if it needs special environment to compile or run
Please clearly name your program files using your ID
Note: the uploaded file size must be less than 5MB

11. More on End-of-Chapter Projects
Programming Project for Chap. 2: Linux Kernel Modules
Creating kernel modules
Kernel data structures
Programming Project for Chap. 3:
Project 1: UNIX Shell and History Feature
Creating a child process
Creating a history feature
Project 2: Linux Kernel Module for Listing Tasks
Iterating over tasks linearly
Iterating over tasks with a depth-first search tree

12. Thanks for Your Attention!