Chapter 10: File-System Interface

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.1 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Chapter 10: File-System Interface

 File Concept
 Access Methods
 Directory Structure
 File-System Mounting

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Concept

 A file is a named collection of related

information that is recorded on
secondary storage.
 Data can NOT be written to secondary
storage unless they are within a file.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Structure

 A file has a certain defined structure which depends

on its types:
 A text file is a sequence of characters organized
into lines.
 A source file is a sequence of subroutines and
function.
 An object file is a sequence of bytes organized into
blocks understandable by the system’s linker.
 An executable file is a series of code sections that
the loader can bring into memory and execute.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Attributes

 Name – only information kept in human-readable form

 Identifier – unique tag (number) identifies file within file system
 Type – needed for systems that support different types
 Location – pointer to file location on device
 Size – current file size
 Protection – controls who can do reading, writing, executing
 Time, date, and user identification – data for protection,
security, and usage monitoring
 Information about files are kept in the directory structure, which
is maintained on the disk

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Operations

 File is an abstract data type

 Create
 Write
 Read
 Reposition within file
 Delete
 Truncate
 Open(Fi) – search the directory structure on disk for entry
Fi, and move the content of entry to memory
 Close (Fi) – move the content of entry Fi in memory to
directory structure on disk
Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Open Files
 Several pieces of data are needed to manage open
files:
 File pointer: pointer to last read/write location, per
process that has the file open
 File-open count: the counter tracks the number of
opens and closes, and reaches zero on the last
close. The system can then remove the entry.
 Disk location of the file: the info needed to locate
the file on disk.
 Access rights: per-process access mode
information so OS can allow or deny subsequent
I/O request

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Types – Name, Extension

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Access Methods
 Sequential Access
read next
write next
reset
no read after last write
(rewrite)
 Direct Access
read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n
n = relative block number
Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Sequential-access File

Information in the file is processed in order, one after the

other.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Simulation of Sequential Access on Direct-access File

cp: current position

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Example of Index and Relative Files

The index contains pointers to the various blocks. To find a

record in the file, we first search the index and then use the
pointer to access the file directly and to find the desired record.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Disk Structure

 Disk can be subdivided into partitions

 Disks or partitions can be redundant arrays of
independent disks (RAID) protected against failure
 Disk or partition can be used raw – without a file
system, or formatted with a file system
 Partitions also known as minidisks, slices
 Entity containing file system known as a volume
 Each volume containing file system also tracks that file
system’s info in device directory or volume table of
contents

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 A Typical File-system Organization

Each volume that contains a file system must also contain

information about the files in the system. This information is
kept in entries in a device directory which records name,
location, size and type.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Operations Performed on Directory

 Search for a file

 Create a file
 Delete a file
 List a directory
 Rename a file
 Traverse the file system

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Tree-Structured Directories

• Absolute path: begins at the root and follows a path down to the
specified file. root/spell/mail/prt/first
• Relative path: defines a path from the current directory. prt/first
given root/spell/mail as current path.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)

 Efficient searching
 Grouping Capability
 Current directory (working directory)
 pwd

 cd /spell/mail/prog

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)
 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>
Example: if in current directory /mail
mkdir count

mail

prog copy prt exp count

Deleting “mail”  deleting the entire subtree rooted by “mail”

Option1: do not delete a directory unless it is empty, such as MS-DOS
Option2: delete all files in that directory, such as UNIX rm command
with r option

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Acyclic-Graph Directories
 Have shared subdirectories and files
 Only one file exists. Any changes made by one person are
immediately visible to the other.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)

 New directory entry type

 Link – another name (pointer) to an existing file
 Resolve the link – follow pointer to locate the file

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File System Mounting

 A file system must be mounted before it can

be accessed
 A unmounted file systemis mounted at a
mount point, the location within the file
structure where the file system is to be
attached. An empty directory.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 (a) Existing. (b) Unmounted Partition

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Mount Point

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Chapter 11: File System Implementation

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Chapter 11: File System Implementation

 File-System Structure
 File-System Implementation
 Directory Implementation
 Allocation Methods
 Free-Space Management

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File-System Structure

 File structure
 Logical storage unit
 Collection of related information
 File system organized into layers
 File system resides on secondary storage (disks)
 Provides efficient and convenient access to disk by
allowing data to be stored, located retrieved easily
 File control block – storage structure consisting of
information about a file
 Device driver controls the physical device

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Layered File System

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File-System Implementation

 Boot control block contains info needed by

system to boot OS from that volume
 Volume control block contains volume details
 Directory structure organizes the files
 Per-file File Control Block (FCB) contains
many details about the file

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 A Typical File Control Block

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 In-Memory File System Structures
the necessary file system structures provided by the OS

refers to opening a file

refers to reading a file

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Directory Implementation

 Linear list of file names with pointer to the data

blocks.
 simple to program
 time-consuming to execute

 Hash Table – linear list with hash data structure.

 decreases directory search time
 collisions – situations where two file names hash
to the same location
 fixed size

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Allocation Methods

 An allocation method refers to how disk

blocks are allocated for files:
 Contiguous allocation
 Linked allocation
 Indexed allocation

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Contiguous Allocation of Disk Space

• Each file occupies a set of contiguous

blocks on the disk
• Simple – only starting location (block #)
and length (number of blocks) are
required
• Random access
• Wasteful of space (dynamic storage-
allocation problem)
• Files cannot grow

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Linked Allocation

 Each file is a linked list of disk blocks: blocks may be

scattered anywhere on the disk.

block = pointer

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Linked Allocation

•Simple – need only

starting address
•Free-space management
system – no waste of space
•No random access

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File-Allocation Table

File-allocation table (FAT) –

disk-space allocation used
by MS-DOS and OS/2.
Each block is indexed by block
number.

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Indexed Allocation

 Brings all pointers together into the index block

 Logical view

index table

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Example of Indexed Allocation

•Need index table

•Random access
•Dynamic access
without external
fragmentation, but
have overhead of
index block

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Indexed Allocation – Mapping (Cont.)

outer-index

index table file

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Combined Scheme: UNIX UFS (4K bytes per block)

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Free-Space Management
 Bit vector (n blocks)

0 1 2 n-1
…

0  block[i] free


bit[i] =
1  block[i] occupied

Block number calculation

(number of bits per word) *

(number of 0-value words) +
offset of first 1 bit

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Free-Space Management (Cont.)
 Bit map requires extra space
 Example:
block size = 212 bytes
disk size = 230 bytes (1 gigabyte)
n = 230/212 = 218 bits (or 32K bytes)
 Easy to get contiguous files
 Linked list (free list)
 Cannot get contiguous space easily
 No waste of space

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Free-Space Management (Cont.)
 Need to protect:
 Pointer to free list
 Bit map
 Must be kept on disk
 Copy in memory and disk may differ
 Cannot allow for block[i] to have a situation where bit[i] =
1 in memory and bit[i] = 0 on disk
 Solution:
 Set bit[i] = 1 in disk
 Allocate block[i]
 Set bit[i] = 1 in memory

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Linked Free Space List on Disk

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 End of Chapter 11

Operating System Concepts with Java – 8th Edition 10.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009