Assignment 5/6 process synchronization problem

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CS 3305A: Operating Systems
Assignment 5/6

Purpose
The goals of this assignment are the following:
• Get hands-on experience in developing mutual exclusion / semaphore / critical
section techniques/algorithms.
• Gain more experience with the C programming language from an OS’s mutual
exclusion / semaphore / critical section perspective.
Assignment Description
Using C programming language, you will be developing a mutual exclusion algorithm for
a process synchronization problem. You need to make sure that your mutual exclusion
algorithm ensures that only one process can access the critical section portion of your code
at a given point in time. You are allowed to use any mutual exclusion / semaphore related
C systems calls.
a) Description of the problem is given below:
Assume that there are a set of n bank accounts (n ≥ 1) shared by a set of x clients (x ≥
1). Clients can perform three different types of transactions with each bank account:
deposit, withdraw or transfer funds. If a particular transaction results in a negative account
balance, the transaction should be ignored (i.e. an account balance should never be less
than 0).
b) Structure of the input file:
In the following example, there are two bank accounts (a1 and a2) shared by a total of ten
clients (c1 to c10). The clients are allowed to deposit money into both the accounts,
withdraw money from both the accounts, and transfer money between the two accounts.
The initial balances of the accounts are specified in the input file. An input file is provided
below for illustrative purposes.
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a1 b 5000
a2 b 3500
c1 d a1 100 w a2 500 t a1 a2 25
c2 w a1 2500 t a1 a2 150
...
...
c9 w a1 1000 w a2 500
c10 d a1 50 d a2 200
Illustration:
(i) a1 b 5000
The above line specifies the initial balance of account #1 as $5000
(ii) c1 d a1 100 w a2 500 t a1 a2 25
The above line specifies the operations performed by client #1. client #1 deposits $100 into
Account #1, then withdraws $500 from Account #2, and then transfers $25 from Account
#1 to Account #2
The input file name will be provided to the program as a command line argument (similar
to Assignment 4). Hardcoding the input file is not allowed. A different input file will be
used to evaluate your program for marking purposes where the structure of this input file
will remain the same, and only the data will be different.
You must output the balances of each bank account after all the transactions have been
performed. For each bank account, your output should display the account followed by the
account balance. For example:
a1 b 500
a2 b 300
Your C program should output results to the screen and into a text file
“assignment_6_output_file.txt”.
c) Makefile:
You are also responsible for creating and submitting a Makefile. If you are not familiar with
Makefiles, consult this quick tutorial. You can also refer to the Makefile provided to you in
Assignment 4.
- When running make it should compile your program and build output to a6
- To run your program after compiling: ./a6 [Input filename]
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- make clean should remove the output file generated and the compiled executable
Sample Input and Output File
A sample input file “assignment_6_input_file.txt” has been provided to you with the
expected output in “expected_output.txt”.
For testing purposes. we have designed the sample input in a way where the final account
balances will always remain the same after completing the transactions. However, when
testing your program with another input file, note that due to the non-deterministic nature
of threads, the final account balances may vary when running your program multiple times.
Computing Platform for Assignments
You are responsible for ensuring that your program compiles and runs without error on the
computing platform mentioned on below. Marks will be deducted if your program fails to compile
or your program runs into errors on the specified computing platform (see below).
• Students have virtual access to the MC 244 lab, which contains 30 Fedora 28 systems. Linux
machines available to you are: linux01.gaul.csd.uwo.ca through linux30.gaul.csd.uwo.ca.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that your code compiles and runs on the above systems. You
can SSH into MC 244 machines.
• If you are off campus, you have to SSH to compute.gaul.csd.uwo.ca first (this server is also
known as sylvia.gaul.csd.uwo.ca, in honour of Dr. Sylvia Osborn), and then to one of the MC
244 systems (linux01.gaul.csd.uwo.ca through linux30.gaul.csd.uwo.ca).
• https://wiki.sci.uwo.ca/sts/computer-science/gaul
Assignment Submission
You must submit your Assignment through OWL. Be sure to test your code on one of MC 244
systems (see “Computing Platform for Assignments” section above).
Submission Information:
- Test your program on the computing platform mentioned above. Your program should not
fail to compile or run into errors
- Do NOT submit a compressed file
- Submit a Makefile that follows the requirements in c) of the Assignment Description above
Marks will be deducted if the above guidelines are not followed.