Hands-On System Programming with C++

A hands-on guide to making system programming with C++ easy

Key Features

• Write system-level code leveraging C++17
• Learn the internals of the Linux Application Binary Interface (ABI) and apply it to system programming
• Explore C++ concurrency to take advantage of server-level constructs

Book Description

C++ is a general-purpose programming language with a bias toward system programming as it provides ready access to hardware-level resources, efficient compilation, and a versatile approach to higher-level abstractions.

This book will help you understand the benefits of system programming with C++17. You will gain a firm understanding of various C, C++, and POSIX standards, as well as their respective system types for both C++ and POSIX. After a brief refresher on C++, Resource Acquisition Is Initialization (RAII), and the new C++ Guideline Support Library (GSL), you will learn to program Linux and Unix systems along with process management. As you progress through the chapters, you will become acquainted with C++’s support for IO. You will then study various memory management methods, including a chapter on allocators and how they benefit system programming. You will also explore how to program file input and output and learn about POSIX sockets. This book will help you get to grips with safely setting up a UDP and TCP server/client.

Finally, you will be guided through Unix time interfaces, multithreading, and error handling with C++ exceptions. By the end of this book, you will be comfortable with using C++ to program high-quality systems.

What you will learn

• Understand the benefits of using C++ for system programming
• Program Linux/Unix systems using C++
• Discover the advantages of Resource Acquisition Is Initialization (RAII)
• Program both console and file input and output
• Uncover the POSIX socket APIs and understand how to program them
• Explore advanced system programming topics, such as C++ allocators
• Use POSIX and C++ threads to program concurrent systems
• Grasp how C++ can be used to create performant system applications

Who this book is for

If you are a fresh developer with intermediate knowledge of C++ but little or no knowledge of Unix and Linux system programming, this book will help you learn system programming with C++ in a practical way.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with System Programming
2. Learning the C, C++17 and POSIX Standards
3. System Types for C++ and POSIX
4. C++, RAII and the GSL Refresher
5. Programming Linux / Unix System
6. Learning to Program Console Input / Output
7. A Comprehensive Look at Memory Management
8. Learning to Program File Input / Output
9. A Hands-On Approach to Allocators
10. Programming POSIX Sockets using C++
11. Time Interfaces in Unix
12. Learn to Program POSIX and C++ Threads
13. Error Handling with Exceptions

About the Author

Dr. Rian Quinn is a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the Advanced Technologies Business Unit at Assured Information Security, Inc. focused on trusted computing, hypervisor related technologies, machine learning/artificial intelligence, and cyber security for more than 10 years and has 9 years of technical management and business development experience. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, specializations in information assurance and computer architectures, from Binghamton University. He is the co-founder and lead developer of the Bareflank Hypervisor, and is an active member of several open source projects, including Microsoft’s Guideline Support Library (GSL) and OpenXT.