UNIX System Programming with Go: Streams, Pipes, and Processes

Command-line utilities and system-level applications form the backbone of modern infrastructure. To build resilient tools, you must understand how your code interacts with the underlying operating system. This text-based course guides you through the core mechanisms of UNIX system programming using the Go programming language, bridging the gap between high-level code and low-level OS behaviors. You will transition from writing basic scripts to engineering robust system tools that handle data streams, manage external processes, and respect system signals. By reading through clear, structured explanations and analyzing real-world code patterns, you will gain a deep mental model of how UNIX and Go work together. What you'll learn: - Understand the fundamentals of UNIX file descriptors and standard streams (stdin, stdout, stderr) - Manage system processes, execute external commands, and handle process lifecycles in Go - Implement pipelines to stream data efficiently between processes without high memory overhead - Handle OS signals gracefully to ensure clean shutdowns and resource cleanup - Apply modern Go concurrency patterns and context cancellation to system-level operations - Write testable command-line interfaces using standard Go testing packages The course begins with foundational definitions of files, streams, and descriptors before moving into practical process control and signal handling. You will explore how Go's runtime maps to OS-level primitives, ensuring you write safe and highly performant tools. This course is designed for beginner to intermediate Go developers who want to deepen their understanding of system programming. No prior experience with UNIX internals is required.