LynxOS User's Guide

Introduction

About LynxOS

LynxOS is a UNIX-compatible, POSIX-compliant, real-time operating system. It is designed to be used in time-critical applications where predictable real-time response is crucial. Its full range of functionality facilitates the development of custom embedded (function-specific) systems in both native and cross development environments.

LynxOS Features

• Multiprocess and multithreaded environment

• Sophisticated memory management through hardware Memory Management Unit (MMU)

• Configurable demand-paged virtual memory

• Hierarchical, UNIX-like file system

• Modular scalable architecture

• Kernel threads

• Network File System (NFS)

• Industry standard Networking (TCP/IP)

• Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)

• Support for diskless clients

• X11R6 and Motif graphical user interface

• ELF applications and shared libraries

• Industry standard GNU tools, UNIX-like utilities and UNIX-like shell scripts

• ROM-able kernel

LynxOS Documentation

Please refer to "For More Information" in the Preface for a list of primary LynxOS documentation. In addition to online man pages, LynxOS also comes with a suite of reference guides.

Additional Documentation Resources

LynuxWorks recommends any of a number of commercially available references for more information about advanced real-time programming, networking, industry standard tools, and the software engineering processes. The lists of documents that follow offer the user a starting point in these areas; however, these references should not be viewed as a complete list of source material.

General UNIX Titles

• Frisch, Aeleen. 1996. Essential System Administration. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Hunt, Craig. 1998. TCP/IP Network Administration.O'Reilly & Associates.

• Peek, Jerry, et al. 1997. Learning the Unix Operating System (Nutshell Handbook). O'Reilly & Associates.

Linux Titles

• Welsh, Matt. 1999. Running Linux. O'Reilly & Associates.

Programming Titles

• Harbison, Samuel, and Guy Steele. 1994. C: A Reference Manual. Prentice Hall.

• Kernighan, Brian, et al. 1998. The C Programming Language. Prentice Hall.

• Libes, Don. 1994. Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Loukides, Michael Kosta. 1997. Programming with Gnu Software. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Oram, Andrew, et al. 1991. Managing Projects with Make. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Ouillane, Steve. 1995. Practical C++ Programming. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Ouillane, Steve. 1997. Practical C Programming. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Stevens, W. Richard. 1992. Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment. Addison-Wesley.

POSIX Titles

• Butenhof, David. 1997. Programming with POSIX Threads. Addison-Wesley.

• Gallmeister, Bill. 1995. POSIX 4: Programming for the Real World. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Lewine, Donald. 1991. POSIX Programmer's Guide. O'Reilly & Associates.

• Nichols, Bradford, and Dick Buttlar. 1996. Pthreads Programming. O'Reilly & Associates.

General Software Titles

• Brooks, Frederick. 1975/1995. The Mythical Man-Month, Essays on Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley.

• Humphrey, Watts S. 1989. Managing the Software Process. Addison-Wesley

About POSIX

POSIX, the Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX, is both an IEEE Standard (IEEE 1003.1) and an ISO Standard (ISO 9945-1). Although based on UNIX, the standard can be adapted to other operating systems. POSIX is a high-level programmer interface definition of portable operating systems services.

The primary benefit of developing POSIX-conformant software is that it promotes platform (hardware) independent code, aiding in source code portability.

LynxOS and POSIX Standards

LynxOS conforms to the following POSIX standards:

• POSIX 1003.1 - the operating system interface standard to ensure application portability

• POSIX 1003.1b - the base real-time extensions to POSIX 1003.1

• POSIX 1003.1c - the threads extensions to POSIX 1003.1

Benefits of POSIX

LynuxWorks views POSIX as a significant benefit to customers allowing application developers and system integrators the ability to:

• Get products to market faster

• Lower the cost of getting products to market

• Preserve software development investment

• Recycle software

• Gain a higher level of software verification

• Integrate software more easily

• Extend POSIX-conformant software with less error

LynuxWorks, Inc. 855 Branham Lane East San Jose, CA 95138 http://www.lynuxworks.com 1.800.255.5969