Linux/UNIX Network Programming course outline

1. Course Introduction
2. Sockets: Concepts and UNIX Domain
   • Socket types and domains
   • Creating and binding a socket
   • System calls: stream sockets
   • UNIX domain stream sockets
   • System calls: datagram sockets
   • UNIX domain datagram sockets
   • Further details of UNIX domain sockets
3. UNIX Domain Sockets: Ancillary Data
   • Ancillary data
   • Ancillary message types
   • Example: passing a file descriptor over a socket
   • Further details
4. Sockets: Internet Domain
   • Internet domain sockets
   • Data-representation issues
   • Loopback and wildcard addresses
   • Host addresses and port numbers
   • Host and service conversion
   • Internet domain sockets example
   • Additional sockets system calls
5. Alternative I/O Models
   • Nonblocking I/O
   • Signal-driven I/O
   • I/O multiplexing: poll()
   • Event-loop programming
6. Alternative I/O Models: epoll
   • Problems with poll() and select()
   • The epoll API
   • epoll events
   • Performance considerations
   • Edge-triggered notification
   • epoll API quirks
7. TCP/IP Overview
   • The TCP/IP protocol stack
   • The link layer
   • The network layer: IP
   • The transport layer
   • Port numbers
   • User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
   • Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
8. Useful Tools
   • Displaying devices and addresses
   • netstat and ss
   • tcpdump and wireshark
9. Open File Descriptions and Descriptor Duplication (*)
   • Relationship between file descriptors and open files
   • Duplicating file descriptors
10. Raw Sockets (*)
    • Overview of creating and using raw sockets
    • Raw sockets example

(*) Topics marked with an asterisk are optional, and will be covered as necessary and time permits.

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