PROGRAM 7: ReverseIt.c
----------------------

Assigned: Thursday March 27, 2003
Deadline: Thursday April 03, 2003 at MIDNIGHT


The goal of this project is to introduce you to the concepts of file I/O in
UNIX. In this project you will implement a program that reads in the
content of one file and outputs the content in reverse to another file.

The program must run on ajax, and compile on ajax with the compiler located
at /opt/sfw/bin/gcc.


KEY CONCEPTS:
------------
        - File I/O
        - read/write/open
        - checking for errors
        - command line processing
        - efficiency


PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
-------------------

Write a program that creates a copy of a binary file with its contents written
in reverse, that is with the bytes in reverse order. Consider your design
carefully to find a reasonably efficient way to solve this problem. (This
will be a factor in grading this program.) One very inefficient solution is
to read one byte at a time from the end of the file forward. On the other
hand, you are to assume that the file is too large to read entirely into
memory.  You may buffer at most 10K bytes of the file in memory at any one
time.


INPUT/COMMAND LINE:
------------------

Your program should take two command line parameters, where each parameter
is the name of a file. The first parameter is the name of the input file
and the second parameter is the name of the output file.


Example Command Line:

  {ajax} ReverseIt fileToReverse.txt fileInReverse.txt
  {ajax}

EQUIREMENTS:
-----------

  o This program must be written in C.  Your program will be graded using
    the compiler on AJAX with path: /opt/sfw/bin/gcc.

  o All file I/O must be done using the routines described in chapter 1-3
    of the text.

  o You may use functions from stdio.h for error messages (fprintf(stderr,...).

  o The programs should be robust and include appropriate error checks.



OTHER REQUIREMENTS:
------------------
 * Proper commented code

 * Modularized program

 * Good software engineering techniques, hints in text book.

 * You must submit at least the following files (i.e., all the files
   necessary to compile your program):

        README.txt
        ReverseIt.c
        Makefile

 To submit the files, you will need to use the submit program.  Your files
 need to be under a common subdirectory called "1730_program7".

 Execute the below command line while in your home directory:
   submit 1730_program7 cs1730

 NOTE: you need to be LOGGED ONTO ajax when you execute the submit command.


RESOURCES:
---------

 command line argument tutorials:
        http://cplus.about.com/library/weekly/aa042902a.htm
        http://pardus-larus.student.utwente.nl/DOC/Lang/C/ctut/ctutorial/
                argc-and-argv.html
 printf tutorial:
        http://cplus.about.com/library/weekly/aa032302a.htm
        
 How to use the GCC compiler tutorial:
        http://pardus-larus.student.utwente.nl/DOC/Lang/C/ctut/ctutorial/
                The-compiler.html#The%20compiler

 GDB (GNU Debugger) tutorial
        http://cs.ecs.baylor.edu/~donahoo/tools/gdb/

All URL'S listed below have no white spaces.