Advanced UNIX Programming - Expanded Project Guides

Generated from: ADVANCED_UNIX_PROGRAMMING_DEEP_DIVE.md

Overview

This directory contains 17 comprehensive project guides for mastering Advanced UNIX Programming from first principles. Each project takes you from conceptual understanding to working implementation, covering the foundational system calls and patterns that power every application running on Linux, macOS, and BSD.

Based on “Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment” by W. Richard Stevens and Stephen A. Rago, these projects provide the hands-on experience needed to deeply understand UNIX systems programming.

Why Advanced UNIX Programming Matters

  • 96.3% of the top 1 million web servers run Linux/UNIX
  • 100% of the top 500 supercomputers run Linux
  • 3+ billion Android devices run a Linux kernel
  • The POSIX API has remained stable for 50+ years
  • Senior engineers with deep UNIX knowledge command $50K-$100K more in compensation

Project Index

# Project Difficulty Time Key Focus
1 High-Performance File Copy Utility Level 2 Weekend File I/O, syscalls, buffer optimization
2 Advanced File Information Tool Level 2 Weekend stat(), permissions, metadata
3 Recursive Directory Walker Level 3 1 Week opendir/readdir, recursion, nftw()
4 Complete Shell Implementation Level 4 2-3 Weeks fork/exec/wait, pipes, job control
5 Process Monitor and /proc Explorer Level 3 1 Week /proc filesystem, process info
6 Robust Signal Handler Framework Level 4 1-2 Weeks Signals, async-safety, self-pipe trick
7 Producer-Consumer with POSIX Threads Level 3 1 Week pthreads, mutexes, condition variables
8 Thread Pool Implementation Level 4 2 Weeks Thread management, work queues
9 System Daemon with Proper Daemonization Level 3 1 Week Double-fork, setsid(), syslog
10 File Change Watcher with inotify Level 3 1 Week inotify API, event-driven I/O
11 Event-Driven TCP Server with epoll Level 4 2 Weeks epoll, reactor pattern, C10K
12 Multi-Client Chat Server Level 3 1-2 Weeks Sockets, broadcasting, message framing
13 HTTP/1.1 Server Implementation Level 4 2-3 Weeks HTTP protocol, keep-alive, MIME
14 IPC Message Hub Level 4 2 Weeks Pipes, sockets, shared memory, mqueue
15 Terminal Emulator with PTY Level 5 3-4 Weeks PTY, termios, ANSI escape codes
16 Simple Database Library Level 5 3-4 Weeks Record locking, mmap, B-tree
17 Complete UNIX System Shell Level 5 4-6 Weeks Everything combined

Learning Paths

Best for: Those aiming for systems programming roles, kernel development, or infrastructure engineering

  1. P01-file-copy-utility.md - Foundation of all I/O
  2. P02-file-information-tool.md - File metadata and stat()
  3. P04-shell-implementation.md - Master fork/exec/wait
  4. P06-signal-handler.md - Asynchronous events
  5. P08-thread-pool.md - Concurrency fundamentals
  6. P11-epoll-server.md - I/O multiplexing at scale

Path 2: The Networking Engineer

Best for: Those building network services, distributed systems, or backend infrastructure

  1. P01-file-copy-utility.md - I/O fundamentals
  2. P12-chat-server.md - Socket programming basics
  3. P13-http-server.md - Protocol implementation
  4. P11-epoll-server.md - Handle thousands of connections
  5. P14-ipc-hub.md - Local communication patterns

Path 3: The DevOps/SRE Path

Best for: Those managing production systems, debugging issues, writing automation

  1. P05-process-monitor.md - Understanding /proc
  2. P09-system-daemon.md - How services work
  3. P04-shell-implementation.md - What happens when you run commands
  4. P15-terminal-emulator.md - Terminal magic revealed
  5. P10-file-watcher.md - File system monitoring

Path 4: The Completionist

Best for: Those building complete understanding of UNIX systems

Phase 1: Foundation (Weeks 1-4)

  • P01, P02, P03

Phase 2: Processes (Weeks 5-8)

  • P04, P05, P06

Phase 3: Concurrency (Weeks 9-12)

  • P07, P08, P09

Phase 4: Advanced I/O (Weeks 13-16)

  • P10, P11, P12

Phase 5: Integration (Weeks 17-24)

  • P13, P14, P15, P16, P17

Prerequisites

Essential (Must Have)

  • C Programming: Pointers, memory management, structs, header files
  • Basic UNIX/Linux: Terminal comfort, file permissions, shell scripting
  • Computer Architecture: Memory hierarchy, user vs kernel mode

Helpful But Not Required

  • Operating systems theory (can learn during projects 4-8)
  • Networking fundamentals (can learn during projects 12-14)

Development Environment

  • Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 38+), macOS, or FreeBSD
  • GCC 11+ or Clang 14+
  • GNU Make
  • GDB debugger
  • strace (Linux) or dtruss (macOS)

Core Books Referenced

Book Author Use
Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment Stevens & Rago Primary reference (The Bible)
The Linux Programming Interface Michael Kerrisk Modern Linux reference
UNIX Network Programming, Vol 1 W. Richard Stevens Socket programming
TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol 1 W. Richard Stevens Protocol deep dive
Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective Bryant & O’Hallaron System fundamentals

Career Impact

After completing these projects, you qualify for:

  • Systems Engineer ($140K-$220K): Meta, Google, AWS
  • Kernel Developer ($150K-$250K): Red Hat, Canonical, Intel
  • Database Engineer ($130K-$200K): PostgreSQL, MongoDB, CockroachDB
  • Performance Engineer ($140K-$210K): Trading firms, Netflix
  • Site Reliability Engineer ($130K-$200K): Google, Stripe, Datadog

File Structure

ADVANCED_UNIX_PROGRAMMING_DEEP_DIVE/
├── README.md                      # This file
├── P01-file-copy-utility.md       # Project 1: High-Performance File Copy
├── P02-file-information-tool.md   # Project 2: File Information Tool
├── P03-directory-walker.md        # Project 3: Recursive Directory Walker
├── P04-shell-implementation.md    # Project 4: Shell Implementation
├── P05-process-monitor.md         # Project 5: Process Monitor
├── P06-signal-handler.md          # Project 6: Signal Handler Framework
├── P07-producer-consumer.md       # Project 7: Producer-Consumer
├── P08-thread-pool.md             # Project 8: Thread Pool
├── P09-system-daemon.md           # Project 9: System Daemon
├── P10-file-watcher.md            # Project 10: File Watcher (inotify)
├── P11-epoll-server.md            # Project 11: epoll Server
├── P12-chat-server.md             # Project 12: Chat Server
├── P13-http-server.md             # Project 13: HTTP Server
├── P14-ipc-hub.md                 # Project 14: IPC Message Hub
├── P15-terminal-emulator.md       # Project 15: Terminal Emulator
├── P16-database-library.md        # Project 16: Database Library
├── P17-complete-shell.md          # Project 17: Complete Shell
└── assets/                        # Generated diagrams

How to Use These Guides

  1. Read the project overview to understand what you’ll build
  2. Study the theoretical foundation before coding
  3. Work through the thinking exercises to build mental models
  4. Implement without looking at hints first - struggle is learning
  5. Use hints progressively when truly stuck
  6. Verify with testing tools (strace, valgrind, gdb)
  7. Answer the interview questions to confirm understanding

Final Integration Project

After completing individual projects, combine them into a complete UNIX workstation simulation:

  1. Start your daemon (P09) as “init”
  2. Launch your shell (P17) for user interaction
  3. Use your terminal emulator (P15) for display
  4. Store data in your database (P16)
  5. Monitor with your process monitor (P05)
  6. Serve files with your HTTP server (P13)
  7. Exchange messages via your IPC hub (P14)
  8. Watch for changes with your file watcher (P10)

Success: You can boot, log in, run commands, serve web pages, and shut down cleanly - all with code you wrote.

Total time investment: 6-12 months for all projects Difficulty range: Level 2 (Weekend) to Level 5 (4-6 Weeks)