Description
This short assignment is intended to familiarize you with basic programming in MINIX. Your primary
task is to set up a MINIX VM and then implement a very small C program.
Implementation Specifications
Follow the instructions on the course Canvas site for setting up and configuring MINIX.
The small C program you’re to implement performs a simple operation, it reverses the data sent to its
standard input stream and writes it to the standard output stream. For the sake of simplicity, the source
code for your program can reside in the home directory of the root user, /root. There is no required
name for the source file, but this document uses reverse.c in subsequent examples.
Regardless of how you edit your source file, you’ll need to manually compile your program within your
MINIX VM. Assuming you’re in the directory with your source file, e.g., /root, you can compile your
program with the cc command, e.g., “cc reverse.c”. By default, the compiled executable will be
named a.out (for historical reasons), but you can change the name of the executable file the compiler
produces using the -o command-line switch, e.g., “cc reverse.c -o reverse” to produce an
executable file named reverse.
The name of the executable file is the command you issue at the command line to run your program.
Unless you adjust the PATH environment variable, you will need to prefix that command with the path
to the executable file, e.g. “./reverse”. If you were to execute the program so that it read input from
the console and then typed “Hello”, followed by
you’re done providing input), the program would display:
# ./reverse
Hello
^D
olleH#
The first line of the sample output above is the command prompt (#) and the command to execute the
program. The next two lines are the echoed input, and the rest is the reverse of that input. The next
command prompt appears at the end.
If you were to execute the program and type “One two”, followed by
followed by
# ./reverse
One two
three
^D
eerht
owt enO#
Note that this program reverses the entire stream, not each line in the stream. You can also redirect the
standard input stream to reverse data from other sources, such as a file. For example, to display the
reverse contents of the .profile file (located in /root) use the command
“./reverse < .profile”.
Deliverables
The following items should be submitted to the instructor. Failure to correctly submit assignment files
will result in a 10% grade penalty.
1) The completed source file, e.g., reverse.c.
Do not include any extraneous files, such as Eclipse IDE files, object files, or subversion files.
