|
Free ebooks
 Operating System Linux The Linux Programmer's Toolbox
|
 Chapter 1, Downloading and Installing Open Source Tools, covers the mechanisms used to distribute open source code. I discuss the various package formats used by different distributions and the advantages and disadvantages of each. I present several tools used to maintain packages and how to use them.Chapter 2, Building from Source, covers the basics of building an open source project. I present some of the tools used to build software and alternatives that are emerging. There are several tips and tricks in this chapter that you can use to master your use of make. Chapter 3, Finding Help, looks at the various documentation formats tucked away in your Linux distribution that you may not know about. I look at the tools used to read these formats and discuss effective ways to use them. Chapter 4, Editing and Maintaining Source Files, discusses the various text editors available for programmers as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each. I present a set of features that every programmer should look for in an editor and measure each editor against these. Chapter 5, What Every Developer Should Know about the Kernel, looks at the kernel from a user’s perspective. In this chapter you will find the necessary background information required to understand the workings of a Linux system. Chapter 6, Understanding Processes, focuses on processes, their characteristics, and how to manage them. I cover a good deal of background required to introduce the tools in this chapter and understand why they are useful. Chapter 7, Communication Between Processes, introduces the concepts behind inter-process communication (IPC). This chapter contains mostly background information required for Chapter 8. Along with each IPC mechanism, I introduce the APIs required to use it along with a working example. Chapter 8, Debugging IPC with Shell Commands, presents several tools available to debug applications that use IPC. It builds on the information from Chapter 7 to help you interpret the output of these tools, which can be difficult to understand. Chapter 9, Performance Tuning, introduces tools to measure the performance of your system as well as the performance of individual applications. I present several examples to illustrate how programming can impact performance. I also discuss some of the performance issues that are unique to multi-core processors. Chapter 10, Debugging, presents several tools and techniques that you can use to debug applications. I look at some open source memory debugging tools including Valgrind and Electric Fence. I also take an in-depth look at the capabilities of gdb, and how to use it effectively. Download free linux ebook: The Linux Programmer's Toolbox
|
