Notes on software engineering, kernel development, and game programming
I think we can all agree that the faster a code-compile-test development cycle is, the better. Working on an operating system kernel like Linux throws a bit of a wrench in the development cycle that most of us are used to simply because Linux expects to be driving some hardware! This means that the kernel … Continue reading Linux Kernel Development Workflow: Testing Changes in a Virtual Machine
So I set up an old Dell Optiplex 7010 to be my home Linux development server and decided to use that as an opportunity to start learning Docker so I used that to deploy an IRC bouncer onto my home server. Obviously, the next thing to do would be to deploy monitoring software so that … Continue reading Deploying the Telegraf InfluxDB Grafana (TIG) Stack with Docker to Monitor a Linux Host
I use IRC to keep in touch with my coworkers. Many of my teammates use an IRC proxy or bouncer to stay connected to the channel so they can get caught up on any chatter or see any messages they received while they were away. In a previous post, Embrace the Remote Development Environment, I … Continue reading How to Set Up an IRC Proxy with Docker
A developer's tools are precious because that's how she gets her work done. But what about the development environment? When I was in university, I took the remote Linux servers for granted. I did a lot of development on my laptop. And then my desktop. And then I started using both. I would eventually find … Continue reading Embrace the Remote Development Environment
A while back, I participated in a software engineering capstone with a group of other computer science students to complete my degree. Our project was to create a from-scratch implementation of grsecurity's "randstruct" GCC plugin for the Clang compiler. Long story short, we ended up sending out a request for comments (RFC) on the initial … Continue reading Test Driven Development in the Clang Compiler
Look- I'm a big fan of programming books. My most recent foray was into Ben Klemens's 21st Century C. I'm already proficient with C in general, so why read yet another book on it? Well, my learning style is primarily iterative--which I suspect is true for many of us. A little review never hurt anybody. … Continue reading My Favorite Takeaways from 21st Century C
Have you ever wondered how Linux knows what PCI devices are plugged in? How does Linux know what driver to associate with the device when it detects it? In short, here's what happens: During the kernel's init process (init/main.c), various subsystems are brought up according to their "init levels." Among these early subsystems are the … Continue reading How the Linux Kernel Detects PCI Devices and Pairs Them with Their Drivers
The last term of my undergraduate Computer Science degree is almost over. Yay! My software engineering capstone project also comes to an academic close in a matter of days and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the key lessons that I’ve learned from this entire process. For the uninitiated, Computer … Continue reading Lessons Learned From an Open Source Capstone Project
You want to see what the compiler has done with the layout of your structure and you want to see it now! There are a number of reasons why you might want to do this. Maybe you want to see what kind of padding has been added (if any) or maybe you want to verify … Continue reading Inspecting Structure Memory Layouts
So you want to write a Clang plugin but you’re not sure where to start? Well this is kind of the blog post for you. I say “kind of” because I can’t tell you exactly how to write the Clang plugin you want to write, but I can give you a nudge in the right direction. … Continue reading How to Write a Clang Plugin
