The Linux Programmer’s Guide - Version 0.4 - March 1995

Nov 2, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore

The Linux Programmer’s Guide (version 0.4, March 1995) provides an organized reference for Linux and Unix programming. It covers the operating system and kernel, the Linux libc package, and system calls including ioctl, process and terminal concepts, and low-level interactions. The guide explains interprocess communication through pipes and UNIX IPC, then extends to sound programming, character-cell graphics via libc/ncurses/termcap/terminfo, and practical topics like programming I/O ports and porting applications to Linux.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages131

Reading Time5 h 30 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

The Linux operating system

The Linux kernel

The Linux libc package

System calls

The “swiss army knife” ioctl

Linux Interprocess Communications

Sound Programming

Character Cell Graphics

Programming I/O ports

Porting Applications to Linux

Systemcalls in alphabetical order

Abbreviations

The Linux Programmer’s Guide Sven Goldt Sven van der Meer Scott Burkett Matt Welsh Version 0.4 March 1995 0 ...Our continuing mission: to seek out knowledge ofC, to explore strange unix commands, and to boldly code where no one has man page 4 . 2 Contents 1 The Linux operating system 7 2 The Linux kernel 9 3 The Linux libc package 11 4 System calls 13 5 The “swiss army knife” ioctl 15 6 Linux Interprocess Communications 17 6.1 Introduction .................................. 17 6.2 Half-duplex UNIX Pipes ........................... 17 6.2.1 Basic Concepts ............................ 17 6.2.2 Creating Pipes in C .......................... 19 6.2.3 Pipes the Easy Way! ......................... 23 6.2.4 Atomic Operations with Pipes .................... 27 6.2.5 Notes on half-duplex pipes: ..................... 27 6.3 Named Pipes (FIFOs-First In First Out) ................... 27 6.3.1 Basic Concepts ............................ 27 6.3.2 Creating a FIFO ........................... 27 6.3.3 FIFO Operations ........................... 28 6.3.4 Blocking Actions on a FIFO ..................... 30 6.3.5 The Infamous SIGPIPE Signal .................... 30 6.4 System V IPC ................................. 30 6.4.1 Fundamental Concepts ........................ 30 6.4.2 Message Queues ........................... 32 6.4.3 Semaphores .............................. 46 6.4.4 Shared Memory ............................ 62 7 Sound Programming 69 7.1 Programming the internal speaker ...................... 69 7.2 Programming a sound card .......................... 69 8 Character Cell Graphics 71 8. 1 I/O Function in libc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 8.1.1 Formatted Output ........................... 72 8.1.2 Formatted Input ............................ 73 8.2 The Termcap Library ............................. 74 8.2.1 Introduction .............................. 74 8.2.2 Find a Terminal Description ..................... 75 8.2.3 Look at a Terminal Description ................... 75 8.2.4 Termcap Capabilities ......................... 76 4 CONTENTS 8.3 Ncurses-Introduction ............................ 80 8.4 Initializing ................................... 82 8.5 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 8.6 Output ..................................... 85 8.6.1 Formatted Output ........................... 86 8.6.2 Insert Characters/Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 8.6.3 Delete Characters/Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 8.6.4 Boxes and Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 8.6.5 Background Character ........................ 88 8.7 Input ...................................... 88 8.7.1 Formated Input ............................ 89 8.8 Options .................................... 89 8.8.1 Input Options ............................. 90 8.8.2 Terminal Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 8.8.3 Use Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 8.9 Clear Window and Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 8.10 Updating the Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 8. 11 Video Attributes and Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 8. 12 Cursor and Window Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 8.13 Scrolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 8. 14 Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 8. 15 Soft-labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 8. 16 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 8. 17 Low-level Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

FAQs

What does the guide cover under Linux Interprocess Communications?

It covers pipes (including half-duplex concepts), named pipes (FIFOs), SIGPIPE, and System V IPC including message queues, semaphores, and shared memory.

Which sections explain terminal and character-cell graphics programming?

It includes Character Cell Graphics topics such as libc I/O, the termcap library, ncurses introduction, window initialization and output, input handling, and terminal capabilities.

How does the guide help programmers when moving applications to Linux?

It provides a dedicated section on porting applications to Linux, including signal handling details, process information and control, and portable conditional compilation.

Nov 2, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore