The Linux Programmer's Toolbox

John Fusco

Mar 2007 · Pearson Education

About this ebook

Master the Linux Tools That Will Make You a More Productive, Effective Programmer

The Linux Programmer's Toolbox helps you tap into the vast collection of open source tools available for GNU/Linux. Author John Fusco systematically describes the most useful tools available on most GNU/Linux distributions using concise examples that you can easily modify to meet your needs.

You'll start by learning the basics of downloading, building, and installing open source projects. You'll then learn how open source tools are distributed, and what to look for to avoid wasting time on projects that aren't ready for you. Next, you'll learn the ins and outs of building your own projects. Fusco also demonstrates what to look for in a text editor, and may even show you a few new tricks in your favorite text editor.

You'll enhance your knowledge of the Linux kernel by learning how it interacts with your software. Fusco walks you through the fundamentals of the Linux kernel with simple, thought-provoking examples that illustrate the principles behind the operating system. Then he shows you how to put this knowledge to use with more advanced tools. He focuses on how to interpret output from tools like sar, vmstat, valgrind, strace, and apply it to your application; how to take advantage of various programming APIs to develop your own tools; and how to write code that monitors itself.

Next, Fusco covers tools that help you enhance the performance of your software. He explains the principles behind today's multicore CPUs and demonstrates how to squeeze the most performance from these systems. Finally, you'll learn tools and techniques to debug your code under any circumstances.

Coverage includes

• Maximizing productivity with editors, revision control tools, source code browsers, and "beautifiers"

• Interpreting the kernel: what your tools are telling you

• Understanding processes–and the tools available for managing them

• Tracing and resolving application bottlenecks with gprof and valgrind

• Streamlining and automating the documentation process

• Rapidly finding help, solutions, and workarounds when you need them

• Optimizing program code with sar, vmstat, iostat, and other tools

• Debugging IPC with shell commands: signals, pipes, sockets, files, and IPC objects

• Using printf, gdb, and other essential debugging tools

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1 Downloading and Installing Open Source Tools
Chapter 2 Building from Source
Chapter 3 Finding Help
Chapter 4 Editing and Maintaining Source Files
Chapter 5 What Every Developer Should Know about the Kernel
Chapter 6 Understanding Processes
Chapter 7 Communication between Processes
Chapter 8 Debugging IPC with Shell Commands
Chapter 9 Performance Tuning
Chapter 10 Debugging
Index

Ratings and reviews

If you're new to Linux, this is a really good book to familiarize yourself with how Linux functions and how the linker controls how your programs spring to life. A handy debugging reference and provides some insight into security issues involving overflow; not something I have found from such a generic title before. Excellent coverage of system calls and signal handling mechanics.

About the author

John Fusco is a software developer for GE Healthcare who specializes in Linux applications and device drivers. He has worked on Unix software for more than ten years and has been developing applications for Linux since kernel version 2.0. He has written articles for Embedded Systems Programming and Linux Journal.