cpe 453—Introduction to Operating Systems—Spring 2025

Sections 03 and 05 (Nico)

Dr. Phillip Nico

Welcome to the cpe 453 home page for sections 03 and 05. This page will serve as a repository for information and materials related to the course.

Administrative Information

General Information

• Announcements—Check here for the latest info.
• FAQ—Everything you always wanted to know that someone else has asked.
• Instructions for Homework Submission
• Instructions for using Late Days
• Coding standards for submitted work
• Office Hours
• We have a Piazza forum here. (I don't actually know if Poly has bought a license or if we're going to be asked to kick in (they have a new "contribution model", a la Wikipedia). I'm trying to find out.)

Supplemental Course Information

• My lecture notes.

Assignments and Solutions

In case of any discrepancies in the versions of assignments made below, the postscript file will be considered definitive.

• Programming Assignments:
  • Program 1 Information (postscript) (PDF)
  • Program 2 Information (postscript) (PDF)
  • Program 3 Information (postscript) (PDF)
  • Program 4 Information (postscript) (PDF)
  • Program 5 Information (postscript) (PDF)
  • Program 6 Information (postscript) (PDF) (yes, really)
  
  
• Program Solutions
  • Program 1 Solutions (postscript) (PDF)
  • Program 2 Solutions (postscript) (PDF)
  • Program 3 Solutions (postscript) (PDF) (Don't read if you're still planning on using a late day for this (why??))

Laboratory Exercises

• Exercises:
  • Lab 1: (postscript) (PDF)
  • Lab 2: (postscript) (PDF)
    A bootable Minix disk image is available here.
  • Lab 3: (postscript) (PDF)
  • Lab 4: (postscript) (PDF)
  • Lab 5: (postscript) (PDF)
  
  
• Solutions:
  • Lab 1: (postscript) (PDF)
  • Lab 2: Reports Varied
  • Lab 3: (postscript) (PDF) (As above, don't read if you haven't done it. Seriously, the benefit is in doing it.

Previous Exams

• Library of problems from previous midterms (postscript) ( PDF)

Other Course Resources

• Minix
  • A good web site devoted to Minix can be found here.
  • In particular, see the tutorial on Writing Device Drivers. Note that this is directed at versions of minix newer than our 3.1.8, but there is a 3.1.8 version in /src/minix/drivers/hello on your system for your reading pleasure. Through the magic of version control, the version of the tutorial for 3.1.8 can be found here.
  • A very interesting paper, Lessons Learned from 30 Years of MINIX
  • A letter Dr. Tanenbaum wrote to Intel upon discovering that Minix is most likely the most widely deployed operating system in the world.
• Information on UNIX
  • An interesting paper by Dennis Ritchie on The Evolution of the Unix Time-Sharing System
  • Another one by Ritchie and Thompson, The Unix Time-Sharing System
  • And some reflections from a few years later: The Unix Time-Sharing System---A Retrospective
  • A well-documented UNIX family tree.
  • A (much) less serious biography of unix.
  • In case you're having trouble remembering what was in cpe357, here are my lecture notes from cpe357 in Spring 2025.

• LaTeX
  • For those of you who are interested in writing up your labs using LaTeX, I have provided a template to get you started. Download the tarball here. It contains both a document template and a very useful Makefile.

• Documentation
  • Information on using ssh and sftp.
  • Information on the vi editor
    • A quick Beginners Guide to vi (text)
    • A more substantial vi Reference (text)
  • Information on the emacs editor
    • First and foremost, run the emacs tutorial (run emacs, then type Ctrl-h t).
    • The GNU Emacs home page
    • You can also consult the emacs quick-reference card. (PDF)
  • Information on Valgrind, an incredibly valuable tool for finding memory errors.
  • Information on the gdb debugger
    • A quick introduction to gdb.
    • You can also consult the gdb quick-reference card in postscript or PDF form.
    • Information on gdb's alternative graphical interface (ironically called the Text User Interface, or TUI) can be found here. (or just use emacs :)).
  • Information on the Valgrind, an incredibly valuable tool for finding memory errors.
  • Information on pointers
    • Some notes from the Stanford CS Education Library on Pointers and Memory.
    • A companion claymation short on the subject: Binky the Pointer
  • Some quick notes on make.
  • Since I distribute so much information as postscript, here is some Help with postscript (html).

Grades

• You should be able to look at a current snapshot of my gradebook here.
• Along with that, some quick reflections on what grades mean:
  • First, a football analogy by Sanford Pinsker
  • Second, a description of different categories of papers by Cal Poly's Prof. Rummell. While the description refers to papers, the analogy to code is clear (other than bits about "sentence structures pleasingly varied").
  And what they do not.
• Plus some quick insight into the secret of academic success.