Operating Systems

Prof. Navneet Goyal

Department of Computer Science & Information Systems
BITS, Pilani
Topics
• Files
• Access Methods
• Directory Structure
• File System mounting
• File sharing
• Protection
Files
• Most visible aspect of an OS
• Files provide mechanism for online
storage of and access to both data and
programs of the OS and all the users
• A typical file system consists of:
▫ Files (each storing related data)
▫ Metadata (directory structure)
Files
• Information can be stored on various
storage media
• OS provides a uniform logical view of
information storage
• OS abstracts from the physical properties
of its storage devices to define a logical
storage unit, FILE!
• Files are mapped by the OS onto physical
devices
Files
• File is a named collection of related
information that is recorded on a
secondary storage
• Smallest allotment of logical secondary
storage
• Data cannot be written on secondary
storage unless it is written on a file
• File is a very general concept
File System
• Collection of Files
File contains related data

• Directory Structure
Organizes & provides information about all files in the
system

• Partitions
Separates physically or logically large collections of
directories
Typical File System
File Attributes
• Name
• Identifier (generally a number)
• Type
• Location (device: location)
• Size (bytes, words or blocks)
• Protection (rwx)
• Time, date, & user identification
(creation, last modification, last
use)
 File Operations
• File is an ADT
• Must define operations on files
• File Operations
▫ Creating
▫ Writing
▫ Reading
▫ Repositioning within file (file seek)
▫ Deleting
▫ Truncating
• OS provides system calls for each operation
 File Operations
• Creating
▫ Space in the file system must be found for the
file
▫ Entry for the new file must be made in the
directory
• Writing a file
▫ System call specifying the name of the file and
the information to be written. System keeps a
pointer to the location where the next write is
to take place
 File Operations
• Reading
▫ System call specifying the name of the file and
where the next block of the file should be put.
▫ A process is either reading from a file or writing to a
file, the current operation location can be kept as
per process “current-file-position” pointer
▫ Both read and write ops. Use this same pointer to
save space & system complexity
• Repositioning within a file
▫ Current file position pointer is repositioned to a
given value. Need not involve an actual I/O. Also
called as file seek
 File Operations
• Deleting a file
▫ Search the directory for the names file,
release all file space, and erase the directory
entry
• Truncating a file
▫ Erases the content of a file but keeps its
attributes
 File Operations
• Other Operations
▫ Appending
▫ Renaming
▫ Copy
▫ Move
• open() system call
▫ Must be invoked before a file is used
▫ Open file table is maintained by OS
• Create & Delete work with closed files
File Types
Access Methods
• Files contain information
• Information must be accessed and read
into memory for processing
• Information in files can be accessed in
several ways
• Most systems provide only one method
• Some systems provide many
Access Methods
• Choosing the right one for a particular
application is a typical design issue
• Sequential Access
• Direct Access
• Indexes (IBMs ISAM)
Directory Structure
• Stores information about all files
• Resides on secondary storage
• Contains file’s name & Identifier
• Identifier in turn locates other file attributes
• More than 1KB of information for each file
• Directory structure size in MBs
• Backups of files and directory structure kept
on tapes
 Directory Structure
• Disks are split into one or more partitions
• Minidisks or Volumes
• Each disk contains atleast one partition
• Partitions can be larger than a disk
• Partitions are “virtual disks”
• Partition maintains information about files
in “Device Directory”
Directory Structure
A collection of nodes containing information about all files.

Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk

Backups of these two structures are kept on tapes
Information in a Directory
• Name
• Type
• Address
• Current length
• Maximum length
• Date last accessed
• Date last updated
• Owner ID
• Protection information
Directory Operations
• Search for a file
• Create a file
• Delete a file
• List a directory
• Rename a file
• Traverse the file system
How to Organize a Directory?
Issues
• Efficiency – locating a file quickly
• Naming – convenient to users
• Two users can have same name for different files
• The same file can have several different names
• Grouping – logical grouping of files by properties
(e.g. all Java programs, all games, …)
Schemes for defining the logical structure of a directory:
• Single level directory
• Two level directory
• Tree structured directory
• Acyclic graph directory
• General graph directory
Single-Level Directory
Single directory for all users: easy to support & understand

• All files in a single directory

• Naming problem (unique names)
• Grouping Problem
Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user

• each user has its own UFD (user file dir)

• UFDs have similar structure
• When a user logs in, the MFD (master file dir) is searched
• MFD is indexed by user name or accnt no.
• Each entry in MFD points to a UFD
• User name & a file name define a path name
Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user

• When a user refers to a file, only his own UFD is searched

• File names can be shared among users
• Solves the name-collision problem
• Disadvantages?
• System files?
Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user

• File name would be searched in the current UFD only

• Copy system files to each UFD!!
• Standard solution: special user directory is defined to
contain system files: say user 0
• Search procedure?
Tree-Structured Directory
 Tree-Structured Directory
• Generalization of two-level directory (with arbitrary height)
• Each user has a current directory (working directory)
▫ Can change current directory via cd command or system call
• Path names can be absolute or relative
Operations
• Creating a new file is done in current directory
• Delete a file
▫ rm <file-name>
• Creating a new subdirectory is done in current directory
▫ mkdir <dir-name>
Advantages
• Efficient searching
• Grouping Capability
 Acyclic-Graph Directory
• 2 programmers working on a joint project
• File pertaining to project stored in a
subdirectory of each user
• Shared subdirectory!
• Tree structure prohibits the sharing of files
or directories!
• A shared file or dir will exist in the file
system in two or more places at once
• AGD allows files & dirs to be shared
 Acyclic-Graph Directory
• Shared file is not the same as two copies of
the file
• With a shared file, only one actual file exists
• Shared subdirectories
• Files created in this SD will auto. appear in
all the shared SDs
• LINKS!!
 Acyclic-Graph Directory
• A link is a pointer to another file or subdirectory
• Link may be implemented as an absolute or a
relative path
• When a reference to a file is made
▫ directory is searched
▫ If directory entry is marked as a link, name of the
real file is included in the link information
▫ Link is resolved using the path name to locate
the real file
• Tree traversal is used to traverse directories
 Acyclic-Graph Directory
Duplication
• Duplicate all information in both the sharing
directories
• Original & copy indistinguishable
• Maintaining consistency when a file is modified is a
problem
 Acyclic-Graph Directory
Problems
• AGD is more flexible but more complex
• File may have multiple absolute path names.
Different file names refer to the same file!!
 Acyclic-Graph Directory
 Have shared subdirectories
and files using acyclic graph
 Two different names exist
(aliasing problem)
 If ‘dict’ deletes list ⇒
dangling pointer (UNIX case)
 Solutions:
Preserve file until all references
to it are deleted
Reference count solution
 General-Graph Directory
 Add links to an existing tree
structured directory, resulting in a
simple graph structure
 Want to avoid searching any
shared components twice
 Reference count solution does
not hold due to self-reference
=> use garbage collection
 Acyclic structure is much easier
to work with
 How do we guarantee no cycle?
 Allow links only to file not
subdirectories
 Every time a new link is
added use a cycle detection
algorithm
 General Graph Directory
• Problem with AGD: ensuring no cycles
• Allowing users to create files & directories to an existing
tree structure preserves the tree-structured nature
• But, when we allow links to be added to an existing tree
structure, the tree structure is destroyed, resulting in a
simple graph structure
 File System Mounting
• Just as a file must be opened before it is
used, a file system must be mounted before
it can be accessed
• Procedure?
 File System Mounting
Procedure
▫ The OS is given the name of the device, and the
location within the file structure at which to attach
the file system (or mount point)
▫ Typically, a mount point is an empty directory
▫ The OS verifies that the device contains a valid file
system by asking the device driver to read the
directory
▫ Finally, the OS notes in its directory structure that a
file system is mounted at the specified mount point;
This scheme enables the OS to traverse its directory
structure, switching among file systems as
appropriate
File System Mounting
 File Sharing
• Sharing of files on multi-user systems is desirable
• Sharing may be done through a protection scheme
• On distributed systems, files may be shared across
a network
• Network File System (NFS) is a common distributed
file-sharing method
 File Sharing: Multiple Users
• User IDs identify users, allowing permissions and
protections to be per-user
• Group IDs allow users to be in groups, permitting
group access rights
 File Sharing: Remote File Systems
 Uses networking to allow file system access between systems
 Manually via programs like FTP
 Automatically, seamlessly using distributed file systems
 Semi automatically via the world wide web
 Client-server model allows clients to mount remote file systems
from servers
 Server can serve multiple clients
 Client and user-on-client identification is insecure or complicated
 NFS is standard UNIX client-server file sharing protocol
 CIFS is standard Windows protocol
 Standard operating system file calls are translated into remote calls
 Distributed Information Systems (distributed naming services)
such as LDAP, DNS, NIS, Active Directory implement unified
access to information needed for remote computing
 Protection
 File owner/creator should be able to control:
what can be done
 by whom
 Types of access
 Read
 Write
 Execute
 Append
 Delete
 List
 Access Control List (ACL)
 Various users may need different types of access to a file or
directory
 The most general scheme is to associate with each file &
directory an access-control list (ACL) specifying the user name
& the types of access allowed for each user
 Advantages
 Enable complex access methodology
 Disadvantages
 Constructing such a list may be a tedious and unrewarding task,
especially if we do not know in advance the list of users in the
system
 The directory entry, previously of fixed size, now needs to be of
variable size, resulting in more complicated space
management
 Access Lists & Groups (UNIX)
 Various users may need different types of access to a file or
directory
 The most general scheme is to associate with each file &
directory an access-control list (ACL) specifying the user name
& the types of access allowed for each user
 Advantages
 Enable complex access methodology
 Disadvantages
 Constructing such a list may be a tedious and unrewarding task,
especially if we do not know in advance the list of users in the
system
 The directory entry, previously of fixed size, now needs to be of
variable size, resulting in more complicated space
management
Access Lists & Groups (UNIX)
Sample Directory Listing (UNIX)
Windows XP Access-control List
Management
UNIX File System
Working Directory
Home Directory
UNIX File Hierarchy
Some Standard Directories
Output of ls - lF
Types of Files
Special Files
Creating Links
File Ownership
File Permissions
File Modification Date
Disk partition
B S
inode list data blocks

• Boot area
▫ Code required to bootstrap the operating system
• Superblock
▫ Attributes and metadata of the file system itself
• inode list
▫ a linear array of inodes
• data blocks
▫ data blocks for files and directories
Superblock
• It contains
▫ Size in blocks of the file system
▫ Size in blocks of the inode list
▫ Number of free blocks and inodes
▫ Free block list(Partial)
▫ Free inode list(Partial)
• The kernel reads the superblock and
stores it in memory when mounting the
file system
Inode
• Each file has an inode associated with it
• Inode contains metadata for file
• on-disk inode refers to inode stored in
disk within the inode list
• in-core inode refers to inode stored in
memory when a file is open
INODES

 Kernel maintains file information in a

structure called inode.
 Creation, modification time stamps
 Ownership, file size etc.
 Commonly used INODE information
can be found by using ls command
On-disk inode
• The size of on-disk inode is 64 bytes
Field Size Description
di_mode 2 File type, permissions
di_uid 2 Owner UID
di_gid 2 Owner GID
di_size 4 Size in bytes
di_addr 39 Array of block addresses
: : :
In-core Inode
• It contains all the fields of on-disk inode,
and some additional fields, such as
▫ The status of the in-core inode (whether the inode is
locked, which process is waiting, etc.)
▫ The logical device number containing the file
▫ The inode number of the file
▫ Pointers to keep the inode on a free list
▫ Pointers to keep the inode on a hash queue.
▫ Block number of last block read.