| This book is suitable for use as a reference text to provide background for a primary textbook in a first-level course on operating systems. It is not intended for use as an introductory operating-system textbook; the reader should have already encountered terminology such as memory management, process scheduling, and I/O systems [Silberschatz et al., 2002]. Familiarity with the concepts of network protocols [Comer, 2000; Stallings, 2000; Tanenbaum, 2003] will be useful for understanding some of the later chapters. This book can be used in combination with a copy of the FreeBSD system for more advanced operating systems courses. Students' assignments can include changes to, or replacements of, key system components such as the scheduler, the paging daemon, the filesystems, thread signalling, various networking layers, and I/O management. The ability to load, replace, and unload modules from a running kernel allows students to experiment without the need to compile and reboot the system. By working with a real operating system, students can directly measure and experience the effects of their changes. Because of the intense peer review and insistence on well-defined coding standards throughout its 25-year lifetime, the FreeBSD kernel is considerably cleaner, more modular, and thus easier to understand and modify than most software projects of its size and age. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter. The exercises are graded into three categories indicated by zero, one, or two asterisks. The answers to exercises that carry no asterisks can be found in the text. Exercises with a single asterisk require a step of reasoning or intuition beyond a concept presented in the text. Exercises with two asterisks present major design projects or open research questions. |
