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COMP2560: Systems Programming

What's actually happening below the languages that hide it: manual memory management, pointers, processes and system calls, and enough of the toolchain to debug a segfault without guessing. The lab exercises assume you'll break things; that's the point.

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Manage memory manually and explain what goes wrong when you don't
• Read and write C confidently, including pointers and structs
• Explain what a process and a system call actually are
• Debug a segfault or a hang using real tools, not guesswork

Assessment

• Lab exercises20%Weekly hands-on labs; break things on purpose, then explain why.
• Assignment 1 — memory & pointers25%A C program exercising manual memory management, marked with sanitiser tooling.
• Assignment 2 — processes & system calls25%A small multi-process program using system calls directly.
• Final exam30%Closed-book exam covering memory, processes and the toolchain.

Assignments are auto-tested with memory-safety tooling in addition to manual marking; the exam is in-person and closed-book.

Timetable

Lecture: Fri 10am–11am, CSIT N103

3 tutorial option(s) — pick one on the timetable page after enrolling.

• Tutorial A: Mon 11am–12pm, CSIT Lab 3
• Tutorial B: Tue 9am–10am, CSIT Lab 3
• Tutorial C: Thu 9am–10am, CSIT Lab 4

4/4 courses added.