Ask HN: How to learn proper systems programming?

IMHO getting into the world of malware analysis and reverse engineering could be profitable for both your brain and your pocket. And they force you to go deep from day one.

I do not have the expertise to work on either field but this is something in the plan. The good part is that most malwares are targeting Windows so you get a lot of samples.

These are some topics you might be interested in:

* C/C++

Learn C and it's standard libs (stdio etc..), if you haven't already. Choose a good book for this because many tutorials etc.. you find online are pretty incomplete. Then read one of your books about UNIX APIs.

Also it's worth learning how to use a C debugger (gdb or visual studio one).

* OS

You can look at linux source code but it would be daunting. I'd suggest starting with a Teaching OS and accompanying book, eg xv6 or minix.

Try doing modifications in it. toy OSes generally come with such exercises.

* Assembly language

Learning C doesn't give a perfect idea how machines work. Learn X86_64 assembly programming. you can inspect what assmebly output your C programs give using godbolt's compiler explorer website. Assembly is little boring so don't try to memorize instructions. The mental model is important thing.

* Basics of algorithms and data structures

Maybe you already know, because you worked in back end. But if you're not familiar with few data structures like hash tables, b trees etc.. it might be worth familiarising yourself.

Some miscellaneous topics you might get interested in: linkers / executable formats, OS level stuff related to computer networks, multi threading, file systems, SIMD / vector instructions in assembly.

As others said, write some code when learning. You don't need to do entire projects yourself, you can also play around with established projects.

I agree with the Operating Systems Three Easy Pieces textbook. It was used in one of my courses in college and even as a bad dev then, it made me appreciate a lot of things I take for granted, as well as C. Although once I got to the scheduler, mutexes, etc I lost interest haha. But making my oen linked list was a very fun exercise.

> Those bits are just bits. And it's just code... and most of it was not written by wizards. Just ordinary people like you and me. Don't be afraid man.

Code is easy and doesn't scare me. I'm scared about the platform though: code runs on platforms (POSIX, mostly), which are incredibly dated, ill-designed and full of terrible corner cases[1]. There's so many ways to shoot yourself in the foot I'm afraid to do anything sensitive on my own.

«It is not UNIX’s job to stop you from shooting your foot. If you so choose to do so, then it is UNIX’s job to deliver Mr. Bullet to Mr Foot in the most efficient way it knows.»

[1]: Dan Lu's writing on files are a good illustration of that:

- http://danluu.com/file-consistency/

- https://danluu.com/deconstruct-files/

- https://danluu.com/filesystem-errors/

Join the Handmade Network [0], which is a large online community of low-level programmers.

Later this year we're having our third conference [1], so it could prove useful* to meet up with systems programmers there.

* The usual self-plug warning (I organize these things.)

[0] https://handmade.network

[1] https://www.handmade-seattle.com