Chapter 10: File-System

Interface

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition, Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Chapter 10: File-System Interface
 File Concept
 Access Methods
 Directory Structure

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Objectives
 To explain the function of file systems
 To describe the interfaces to file systems
 To discuss file-system design tradeoffs, including access methods, file
sharing, file locking, and directory structures

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Concept
 Contiguous logical address space

 Types:
 Data
 numeric
 character
 binary
 Program

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Structure
 None - sequence of words, bytes
 Simple record structure

Lines
 Fixed length
 Variable length
 Complex Structures
 Formatted document
 Relocatable load file
 Can simulate last two with first method by inserting appropriate control
characters
 Who decides:
 Operating system
 Program

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.5 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 – 8th Edition 10.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Example of File Attributes

 UNIX: ls -li
26047823 -rw-r--r-- 1 Salim staff 596480 Mar 16
20:17 [Link]

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.7 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 – 8th Edition 10.8 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: counter of number of times a file is open – to allow
removal of data from open-file table when last processes closes it
 Disk location of the file: cache of data access information
 Access rights: per-process access mode information

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 File Types – Name, Extension

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.10 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 – 8th Edition 10.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Sequential-access File

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Simulation of Sequential Access on Direct-access File

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Example of Index and Relative Files

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Directory Structure

 A collection of nodes containing information about all files

Directory

Files
F1 F2 F4
F3
Fn

Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk

Backups of these two structures are kept on tapes

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 A Typical File-system Organization

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.16 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 – 8th Edition 10.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Organize the Directory (Logically) to Obtain

 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, …)

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Single-Level Directory

 A single directory for all users

Naming problem

Grouping problem

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Two-Level Directory
 Separate directory for each user

 Path name
 Can have the same file name for different user
 Efficient searching
 No grouping capability

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Tree-Structured Directories

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)
 Efficient searching

 Grouping Capability

 Current directory (working directory)

 cd /spell/mail/prog
 type list

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)

 Absolute or relative path name

 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”

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Acyclic-Graph Directories

 Have shared subdirectories and files

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)
 Two different names (aliasing)

 If dict deletes list  dangling pointer

Solutions:
 Implement sharing using symbolic links. Delete the file but allow
symbolic links to the file remain. When user tries to access the file via a
symbolic link, he is told that the file is deleted. Up to the user to delete
the link (Approach used by UNIX and Windows)
 Preserve the file until all references to it are deleted (maintain reference
count)

 New directory entry type

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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 General Graph Directory

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 General Graph Directory (Cont.)
 Problem: Reference count may not be zero even when it is no longer
possible to refer to a directory or file
 Solution: Garbage collection

 How do we guarantee no cycles?

 Allow only links to file not subdirectories
 Every time a new link is added use a cycle detection
algorithm to determine whether it is OK

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 End of Chapter 10

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