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Tag: linux

How to find which type of system call is used by a program

I am working on x86_64 machine. My linux kernel is also 64 bit kernel. As there are different ways to implement a system call (int 80, syscall, sysenter), i wanted to know what type of system call my machine is using. I am newbie to linux. I have written a demo program. getpid() does one system call. Can anyb…

Converting jiffies to milli seconds

How do I manually convert jiffies to milliseconds and vice versa in Linux? I know kernel 2.6 has a function for this, but I’m working on 2.4 (homework) and though I looked at the code it uses lots of macro constants which I have no idea if they’re defined in 2.4. Answer As a previous answer said, …

Parsing result of Diff in Shell Script

I want to compare two files and see if they are the same or not in my shell script, my way is: Basically, if they are the same ${diff_output} should contain nothing and the above test would evaluate to true. But when I run my script, it says [: too many arguments On the if [….] line. Any ideas? Answer

How to tell binary from text files in linux

The linux file command does a very good job in recognising file types and gives very fine-grained results. The diff tool is able to tell binary files from text files, producing a different output. Is there a way to tell binary files form text files? All I want is a yes/no answer whether a given file is binary…

Installing a Python program on Linux

I wrote a Python program. I would like to add to it an installation script that will set up everything necessary – like desktop icon, entry in the menu, home directory file, etc. I’m working on Linux (ubuntu). When a Python program is installed, what needs to happen in general? I know that it prob…

How does fork() return for child process

I know that fork() returns differently for the child and parent processes, but I’m unable to find information on how this happens. How does the child process receive the return value 0 from fork? And what is the difference in regards to the call stack? As I understand it, for the parent it goes somethin…