research-article

Structured linux kernel projects for teaching operating systems concepts

Authors:

Oren Laadan,

Jason Nieh,

Nicolas ViennotAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '11: Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 287 - 292

https://doi.org/10.1145/1953163.1953250

Published: 09 March 2011 Publication History

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Abstract

Linux has emerged as a widely-used platform for enabling hands-on kernel programming experience to learn about operating system concepts. However, developing pedagogically-effective programming projects in the context of a complex, production operating system can be a challenge. We present a structured series of five Linux kernel programming projects suitable for a one semester introductory operating systems course to address this issue. Each assignment introduces students to a core topic and major component of an operating system while implicitly teaching them about various aspects of a real-world operating system. Projects are of modest coding complexity, but require students to understand and leverage core components of the Linux operating system. The learning benefits for students from this approach include learning from real-world operating system code examples by expert kernel designers and gaining software engineering experience managing production code complexity. We have successfully used these structured Linux kernel projects to teach over a thousand students in the introductory operating systems course at Columbia University.

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Cited By

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Ebling M(2024)Resources for Teaching Operating Systems: A Survey of Instructors and a Literature ReviewACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/368885324:4(1-28)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3688853
Wightman P(2024)Teaching Process Management with an Operating Systems Simulator: The UR-OS Experience2024 IEEE Biennial Congress of Argentina (ARGENCON)10.1109/ARGENCON62399.2024.10735859(1-6)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ARGENCON62399.2024.10735859
Marmorstein R(2021)SPIFSJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3447080.344709336:3(111-120)Online publication date: 27-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3447080.3447093
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Structured linux kernel projects for teaching operating systems concepts
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems

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Information

Published In

SIGCSE '11: Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2011

754 pages

ISBN:9781450305006

DOI:10.1145/1953163

General Chairs:
Thomas J. Cortina
Carnegie Mellon University
,
Ellen L. Walker
Hiram College
,
Program Chairs:
Laurie Smith King
College of the Holy Cross
,
David R. Musicant
Carleton College

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 09 March 2011

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SIGCSE '11: The 42nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 9 - 12, 2011

TX, Dallas, USA

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SIGCSE '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 107 of 315 submissions, 34%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

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Ebling M(2024)Resources for Teaching Operating Systems: A Survey of Instructors and a Literature ReviewACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/368885324:4(1-28)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3688853
Wightman P(2024)Teaching Process Management with an Operating Systems Simulator: The UR-OS Experience2024 IEEE Biennial Congress of Argentina (ARGENCON)10.1109/ARGENCON62399.2024.10735859(1-6)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ARGENCON62399.2024.10735859
Marmorstein R(2021)SPIFSJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3447080.344709336:3(111-120)Online publication date: 27-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3447080.3447093
Silvestro SYuen TCrosser CZhu DKorkmaz TLiu TBarnes TGarcia DHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones M(2018)A User Space-based Project for Practicing Core Memory Management ConceptsProceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3159450.3159581(98-103)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3159450.3159581
Pamplona SMedinilla NFlores P(2018)A Systematic Map for Improving Teaching and Learning in Undergraduate Operating Systems CoursesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2018.28717686(60974-60992)Online publication date: 2018
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2871768
Prekas GKogias MBugnion E(2017)ZygOSProceedings of the 26th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles10.1145/3132747.3132780(325-341)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3132747.3132780
Penna PCastro MFreitas HMehaut JCaram J(2017)Using the Nanvix Operating System in Undergraduate Operating System Courses2017 VII Brazilian Symposium on Computing Systems Engineering (SBESC)10.1109/SBESC.2017.33(193-198)Online publication date: Nov-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/SBESC.2017.33
da Costa CBrasil CSilva LMurliky LFragoso JDebom GMatias RFracalossi AKrug MOssowski S(2016)NKEProceedings of the 31st Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/2851613.2851947(1900-1902)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2851613.2851947
Vichare A(2016)Experience with an Incremental Approach to Teaching Single Processor Operating Systems2016 International Conference on Learning and Teaching in Computing and Engineering (LaTICE)10.1109/LaTiCE.2016.10(162-166)Online publication date: Mar-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/LaTiCE.2016.10
Machanick P(2016)Teaching Operating Systems: Just Enough AbstractionICT Education10.1007/978-3-319-47680-3_10(104-111)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2016
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47680-3_10
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