BINARY FORMATS AND LINKERS
CIS 4390, Section 02
Syllabus — Spring 2023

Times, People and Places

Instructor: Randolph Langley

    Email: langley@cs.fsu.edu
    Office: 410C Love Building

Class time and place

CIS4390 is face-to-face this semester. We are meeting in Love 103 from 4:50pm until 6:05pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Office hours

My office hours are on Wednesdays from 11:00am until noon, and from 12:30 until 2:00pm. If these are not convenient, please contact me (langley@cs.fsu.edu) so that we can arrange alternative times or means.

Additionally, you can try visiting my office from 11:00am until 2:00pm on both Monday and Friday; while I cannot promise to be there all of the time, I will often be there and should be reasonably available if I am in the office.

Class home page

http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~langley/CIS4390/2023-Spring/

Class Description

We will study the binary structure of programs and binary-oriented programming in the Linux x86_64 world.

This class will let you become more fluent in linkers, loaders, and binary-oriented programming; while the platform that we will use is Linux x86_64, the techniques are common to most modern computing systems.

Objectives

This class will focus on developing your understanding of binary formats, linking and loading issues, and binary-oriented programming issues. By the end of this class, students will be able to

Required Text

C and C++ Compiling, Apress, 2014, Milan Stevanovic; ISBN 978-1-4302-6667-9

Additional Recommended Texts

Additional Suggestions for Texts

Class Topics

We will follow Stevanovic's text closely, so the following topics are largely developed from the chapters we will cover:

Other materials

Throughout the semester, I may add topical material, generally culled from recent news articles. I will add links to this material on the class home page.

Assessment

ITEM

POINTS

Assignments

90

Class participation

10

TOTAL

100

Grades

A 88% - 100%
B 76% - 87.99999%
C 64% - 75.99999%
D 52% - 63.99999%
F Any grade less than 52%

Class Policies

Assignments

Please turn in assignments on time. No late submission will be accepted.

Attendance

Attendance at all class meetings is expected. Please extend courtesy in class by arriving on time, staying until dismissed, and refraining from food and drink.

Excused absences

Excused absences include illness, deaths in the immediate family and other documented crises, call to active military duty or jury duty, religious holy days, and official University activities. Accommodations for these excused absences will be made and will do so in a way that does not penalize students who have a valid excuse. Consideration will also be given to students whose dependent children experience serious illness.

Communication

You should check your electronic mail frequently for information about this course, as well as the class home page. You are also encouraged to use email to ask questions and report problems.

Academic Dishonesty

There is no group work in this class. All assignments must be done solely by you. Do not solicit help from your fellow students or from any other source.

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Do not turn in other people's work as your own; this includes, but is not limited to, unattributed copying from web pages, other students' work, books, journals, or broadcast media. Citations and clear delineation of cited material as distinguished from your own original work is mandatory.

The Florida State University academic honor policy is at http://dof.fsu.edu/content/download/21140/136629/AHP2010Revision.pdf

Official FSU statement on the Academic Honor Policy: 

	ACADEMIC HONOR POLICY:
	
	The Florida State University Academic Honor Policy outlines the
	University's expectations for the integrity of students'
	academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of
	those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of
	students and faculty members throughout the process.  Students are
	responsible for reading the Academic Honor Policy and for living
	up to their pledge to "... be honest and truthful and
	... [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity at
	Florida State University."

University ADA statement

	ADA
	
	AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT:
	Students with disabilities needing academic accommodation should:
	
	(1) register with and provide documentation to the Student
	Disability Resource Center; and
	
	(2) bring a letter to the instructor indicating the need for
	accommodation and what type.  This should be done during the first
	week of class.
	
	This syllabus and other class materials are available in
	alternative format upon request.
	
	For more information about services available to FSU students with
	disabilities, contact the:
	
	Student Disability Resource Center
	874 Traditions Way
	108 Student Services Building
	Florida State University
	Tallahassee, FL 32306-4167
	(850) 644-9566 (voice)
	(850) 644-8504 (TDD)
	sdrc@admin.fsu.edu
	http://www.disabilitycenter.fsu.edu/

Please advise me at your earliest convenience (within one week) if you have a disability that will require a reasonable accommodation for the successful completion of this course. Also, as indicated above, you should register with the and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource Center, and provide me a letter indicating the need for accommodation and indicating what type.

Summary

If you are experiencing difficulty or are concerned about your progress, please speak with me immediately.



The above schedule and procedures in this class are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances, university schedule changes, or calendar errors on my part.