IC221: Systems Programming (SP15)

Course Policy

Instructors

• Assistant Professor Adam Aviv e-mail: aviv@usna.edu *course coordinator
• Maj Joni Pepin e-mail: pepin@usna.edu

Text Book

• Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment (3rd ed.), Stevens, Rago, required. ( Title is shortened to APUE in the notes and calendar)

Extra Instruction

You are encouraged to come in for extra instruction (EI) when you are having trouble. Your individual instructors will have different feelings about drop-ins versus appointments.

MGSP

There will be three MGSP student leaders to compliment extra instruction to be held before labs and homework are due.

• Sun. 2000-2100 in MI302 (one MGSP Leader)
• Wed. 2000-2200 in MI302 (two MGSP Leaders)

Course Objectives and Assessment

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the operation of the UNIX OS from the user, systems programmer, and application programmer perspective. (supports GSO i and g)
2. Use a UNIX command shell to interact the file system, developing basic scripting, and develop command line tools. (supports GSO i)
3. Interact with the O.S. through system call API to manage processes and interact with the file system (supports GSO i)
4. Use standard debugging techniques using gdb and valgrind (supports GSO i)
5. Design simple network programs that use the socket API (supports GSO i and EC310 1)
6. Design software on UNIX that uses concurrency to solve problems. (supports GSO i)
7. Learn basic operating system security concepts such as those related to file permissions, user group permissions, unintended execution paths. (supports GSO e, i and g and EC310 2)

General Student Outcomes

• An understanding of professional, ethical, legal, security, and social issues and responsibilities (GSO e)
• Use current techniques, skills, and tools necessary for computing practices. (GSO i)
• An ability to analyze the local and global impact of computing on individuals, organizations and society (GSO g)

EC310 Course Objective Assessment

1. Describe in depth the principles, mechanisms, and technologies of information systems' hardware and software in both computers and communications domains, and describe the development of typical exploits used against vulnerabilities in information systems. (EC310 1)
2. Identify action that can be taken to protect information systems' hardware and software in both computers and communications domains against potential exploits. (EC310 2)

Grading Policy

Grading Breakdown

• Final Grades
• 20%: Final Exam
• 5%: Final Exam Practicum
• 20% : 6-week and 12-week Written Exam
• 5% : 6-week and 12-week Practicum Exam
• 35% : Labs
• 15% : Homework
• 6-Week/12-Week Grades
• 12-Week Grades: 35% Exam, 10% Practicum, 35% Labs, 20% Homework
• 6-Week Grades: 35% Exam, 10% Practicum, 35% Labs, 20% Homework

Lab Submission Policy

All labs are released on Thursday and will be due the following Wednesday at 23:59. Submission instructions will be provided for each lab.

Lab Grace days:

• Each student will have 4 grace days to submit an assignment late without penalty. You must notify the instructor through the instructor specified means 12 hours prior to the lab deadline to use a grace day
• Grace days are applied in full, a whole day is applied even if submitted less then 24 hours past the deadline. For example, a student that submits on Thursday at 1200 still uses a full grace day, and a student who submits on Friday at 2000 has used two grace days.
• Once all grace days are used, student may not submit late. The assignment will receive a zero.

Homework Submission Policy

Homeworks for each week will post on Monday nights, and are due the following Monday at the start of lecture. Homeworks must be submitted in hard copy to the instructor.

Homework Late Policy :

• Late Homework will not be accepted.
• If you are unable to attend Monday lecture for an excused absence, such as M/O or SIQ, you are expected to submit the homework at the next most convenient lecture or lab.

Honor, Collaboration and Classroom Conduct Policy

The honor and collaboration policy of this class references and adapts the language of Computer Science Department Instruction 1531.1D, Policy Concerning Programming Projects. We make the following course-specific adaptations and revisions below; however, when not explicitey stated, the policy of the departments policy holds.

Homework Assignment Collaboration

• You may work freely with classmates on the homeworks. This includes working together and solving problems together.
• You are required to indicate all collaborators on your homework assignments.
• Each student must submit an individual assignment, and the pencile-to-paper/fingers-to-keyboard work must be your own. Even when collaborating, in many situations, we do not expect two students to produce the same answer.
• Copying of homework assignments is strictly forbidden and is considred an honor violation. We define copying as the act of viewing or discussing another's answers, copying down those answers without having completed the work individually.

Programming and Lab Assignment Collaboration Policy

• All programming assignments must be the sole work of the student.
• You may not collaborate on any programming or lab assignment without instructor permission.
• You may not receive or copy program code from other students.
• You may not share your program code with other students.
• You may not view another student's program code.
• You may not view solutions to program assignments from other semesters, other classes at the USNA or elsewhere, or from other unauthorized sources, such as the Internet.
• You must be prepared to explain any program code you submit.
• All submission are subject to automated plagiarism detection.

Programming and Lab Assignment Discussion Policy

• You may discuss any assignment with other students in a abstract, problem solving way, and you are strongly encouraged to do so. However, discussion should not violate the collaboration policy as stated above, for example, you may not view other students' solutions or share your code with other students.
• You may ask an instructor for help, show an instructor your code, and use any code provided by an instructor in your submission. However, you may not share program code (or pseudocode) provided by an instructor to you with other students unless authorized and doing so would violates the collaboration policy of viewing other students' solutions or sharing your code with other students.
• If you received any assistance in completing an assignment through discussions with another student or instructor, you are required to acknowledge that assistance in your README file.
• While discussion based assistance is allowed, it in no way implies that the assisted and assisting student will submitting identical program solutions. As indicated by the collaboration policy, all programming assignments must be the sole work of the student, and it is highly unlikely, even with assistance, two students' independently programmed solutions would be identical.

Classroom Decorum

• Beverages are permitted in classrooms and labs provided they are in closed containers. No food or smokeless tobacco is permitted in classrooms or labs.
• Vulgar language and classroom disruptions will not be tolerated. A student who disrupts the class for those reasons will be asked to leave immediately and will be marked has having left early in the attendance roster and may be considered for a conduct offense.