Operating-System Structures

Course Code: CSC 2209 Course Title: Operating Systems

Dept. of Computer Science

Faculty of Science and Technology

Lecturer No: 03 Week No: 03 Semester:

Lecturer: Name & email
Lecture Outline

1. Operating System Services

2. User Operating System Interface – CLI
3. OS provides Graphical User Interface (GUI)
4. System Calls
5. API
6. Arduino
7. System Services
8. Linkers and Loaders
9. Operating System Design and Implementation
10. Operating System Structure
11. Microkernels
Operating System Services
❑ Operating systems provide an environment for execution of programs and services to
programs and users

❑ One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the user:
❑ User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user interface (UI).
❑ Varies between Command-Line Interface (CLI), Graphics User Interface
(GUI), touch-screen, Batch
❑ Program execution - The system must be able to load a program into memory and
to run that program, end execution, either normally or abnormally (indicating error)
❑ I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may involve a file or
an I/O device
Operating System Services (cont’d)

❑ File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular interest. Programs

need to read and write files and directories, create and delete them, search them, list
file Information, permission management.
❑ Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the same computer or
between computers over a network
❑ Communications may be via shared memory or through message passing
(packets moved by the OS)
❑ Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible errors
❑ May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in user program
❑ For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to ensure correct
and consistent computing
❑ Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the user’s and programmer’s
abilities to efficiently use the system
Operating System Services (cont’d)

❑ Another set of OS functions for ensuring the efficient operation of the system itself
via resource sharing
❑ Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs running concurrently,
resources must be allocated to each of them
❑ Many types of resources - CPU cycles, main memory, file storage, I/O devices.
❑ Logging - To keep track of which users use how much and what kinds of computer
resources
❑ Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a multiuser or
networked computer system may want to control use of that information, concurrent
processes should not interfere with each other
❑ Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled
❑ Security of the system from outsiders requires user authentication, extends to
defending external I/O devices from invalid access attempts
A View of Operating System Services
Service level Architecture
User Operating System Interface - CLI

❑ CLI or command interpreter allows direct command entry

❑ Sometimes implemented in kernel, sometimes by systems
program
❑ Sometimes multiple flavors implemented – shells
❑ Primarily fetches a command from user and executes it
❑ Sometimes commands built-in, sometimes just names of programs
❑ If the latter, adding new features doesn’t require shell modification
OS provides Graphical User Interface (GUI)
❑ User-friendly desktop metaphor interface
❑ Usually mouse, keyboard, and monitor
❑ Icons represent files, programs, actions, etc.
❑ Various mouse buttons over objects in the interface cause various actions (provide
information, options, execute function, open directory (known as a folder)
❑ Invented at Xerox PARC

❑ Many systems now include both CLI and GUI interfaces

❑ Microsoft Windows is GUI with CLI “command” shell
❑ Apple Mac OS X is “Aqua” GUI interface with UNIX kernel underneath and
shells available
❑ Unix and Linux have CLI with optional GUI interfaces (CDE, KDE, GNOME)
Touchscreen Interfaces

❑ Touchscreen devices require new interfaces

❑ Mouse not possible or not desired
❑ Actions and selection based on gestures
❑ Virtual keyboard for text entry

❑ Voice commands
System Calls
System Calls
Programming interface to the services provided by the OS
Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)
Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application
Programming Interface (API) rather than direct system call use
Three most common APIs are
▪ Win32 API for Windows,
▪ POSIX API for POSIX-based systems (including virtually all
versions of UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X), and
▪ Java API for the Java virtual machine (JVM)

Note that the system-call names used throughout this text are generic
Example of System Calls
❑ System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another
file
Example of Standard API
System Call Implementation
❑ Typically, a number associated with each system call
❑ System-call interface maintains a table indexed according to these
numbers

❑ The system call interface invokes the intended system call in OS

kernel and returns status of the system call and any return values

❑ The caller need to know nothing about how the system call is
implemented
❑ Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a result call
❑ Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API
❑ Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built into libraries
included with compiler)
API – System Call – OS Relationship
System Call Parameter Passing
❑ Often, more information is required than simply identity of desired
system call
❑ Exact type and amount of information vary according to OS and call

❑ Three general methods used to pass parameters to the OS

❑ Simplest: pass the parameters in registers
❑ In some cases, may be more parameters than registers
❑ Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and address of
block passed as a parameter in a register
❑ This approach taken by Linux and Solaris
❑ Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the program and popped
off the stack by the operating system
❑ Block and stack methods do not limit the number or length of parameters
being passed
Parameter Passing via Table
Types of System Calls
❑ For Process control
❑ create process, terminate process
❑ end, abort
❑ load, execute
❑ get process attributes, set process attributes
❑ wait for time
❑ wait event, signal event
❑ allocate and free memory
❑ Dump memory if error
❑ Debugger for determining bugs, single step execution
❑ Locks for managing access to shared data between processes
Types of System Calls (cont’d)

❑ For File management

❑ create file, delete file
❑ open, close file
❑ read, write, reposition
❑ get and set file attributes

❑ For Device management

❑ request device, release device
❑ read, write, reposition
❑ get device attributes, set device attributes
❑ logically attach or detach devices
Types of System Calls (cont’d)

❑ For Information maintenance

❑ get time or date, set time or date
❑ get system data, set system data
❑ get and set process, file, or device attributes

❑ For Communications
❑ create, delete communication connection
❑ send, receive messages if message passing model to host name or
process name
❑ From client to server
❑ Shared-memory model create and gain access to memory regions
❑ transfer status information
❑ attach and detach remote devices
Types of System Calls (cont’d)

❑ For Protection
❑ Control access to resources
❑ Get and set permissions
❑ Allow and deny user access
Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls
Standard C Library Example
❑ C program invoking printf() library call, which calls write()
system call
Example: Arduino

❑ Single-tasking

❑ No operating system

❑ Programs (sketch) loaded via USB into

flash memory

❑ Single memory space

❑ Boot loader loads program

At system startup running a program
❑ Program exit -> shell reloaded
System Programs (Service)
❑ System programs provide a convenient environment for program
development and execution. They can be divided into:
❑ File manipulation
❑ Status information sometimes stored in a file
❑ Programming language support
❑ Program loading and execution
❑ Communications
❑ Background services
❑ Application programs

❑ Most users’ view of the operation system is defined by system

programs, not the actual system calls
System Program (cont’d)

❑ Provide a convenient environment for program development and execution

❑ Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls; others are
considerably more complex
❑ File management - Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list, and
generally manipulate files and directories
❑ Status information
❑ Some ask the system for info - date, time, amount of available memory, disk
space, number of users
❑ Others provide detailed performance, logging, and debugging information
❑ Typically, these programs format and print the output to the terminal or other
output devices
❑ Some systems implement a registry - used to store and retrieve configuration
information
System Program (cont’d)

❑ File modification
❑ Text editors to create and modify files
❑ Special commands to search contents of files or perform transformations of the text

❑ Programming-language support - Compilers, assemblers, debuggers and

interpreters sometimes provided
❑ Program loading and execution- Absolute loaders, relocatable loaders, linkage
editors, and overlay-loaders, debugging systems for higher-level and machine
language
❑ Communications - Provide the mechanism for creating virtual connections
among processes, users, and computer systems
❑ Allow users to send messages to one another’s screens, browse web pages, send
electronic-mail messages, log in remotely, transfer files from one machine to another
System Services (cont’d)

❑ Background Services
❑ Launch at boot time
❑ Some for system startup, then terminate
❑ Some from system boot to shutdown
❑ Provide facilities like disk checking, process scheduling, error logging,
printing
❑ Run in user context not kernel context
❑ Known as services, subsystems, daemons

❑ Application programs
❑ Don’t pertain to system
❑ Run by users
❑ Not typically considered part of OS
❑ Launched by command line, mouse click, finger poke
Linkers and Loaders
❑ Source code compiled into object files designed to be loaded into any physical memory location
– relocatable object file

❑ Linker combines these into single binary executable file

❑ Also brings in libraries

❑ Program resides on secondary storage as binary executable

❑ Must be brought into memory by loader to be executed

❑ Relocation assigns final addresses to program parts and adjusts code and data in program
to match those addresses

❑ Modern general-purpose systems don’t link libraries into executables

❑ Rather, dynamically linked libraries (in Windows, DLLs) are loaded as needed, shared by
all that use the same version of that same library (loaded once)

❑ Object, executable files have standard formats, so operating system knows how to load and start
them
The Role of the Linker and Loader
Why Applications are Operating System Specific

❑ Apps compiled on one system usually not executable on other operating systems

❑ Each operating system provides its own unique system calls

❑ Own file formats, etc

❑ Apps can be multi-operating system

❑ Written in interpreted language like Python, Ruby, and interpreter available on multiple
operating systems
❑ App written in language that includes a VM containing the running app (like Java)
❑ Use standard language (like C), compile separately on each operating system to run on each

❑ Application Binary Interface (ABI) is architecture equivalent of API, defines how

different components of binary code can interface for a given operating system on a
given architecture, CPU, etc
Operating System Design and Implementation

❑ Design and Implementation of OS not “ solvable”, but some

approaches have proven successful
❑ Internal structure of different Operating Systems can vary widely

❑ Start the design by defining goals and specifications

❑ Affected by choice of hardware, type of system

❑ User goals and System goals

❑ User goals – operating system should be convenient to use, easy to learn,
reliable, safe, and fast
❑ System goals – operating system should be easy to design, implement, and
maintain, as well as flexible, reliable, error-free, and efficient
Operating System Design and Implementation (cont’d)

❑ Important principle to separate

Policy: What will be done?

Mechanism: How to do it?
❑ Mechanisms determine how to do something; policies decide what
will be done
❑ The separation of policy from mechanism is a very important
principle, it allows maximum flexibility if policy decisions are to be
changed later (example – timer)
❑ Specifying and designing an OS is highly creative task of software
engineering
Implementation
❑ Much variation
❑ Early OSes in assembly language
❑ Then system programming languages like Algol, PL/1
❑ Now C, C++

❑ Usually a mix of languages

❑ Lowest levels in assembly
❑ Main body in C
❑ Systems programs in C, C++, scripting languages like PERL, Python, shell scripts

❑ More high-level language easier to port to other hardware

❑ But slower

❑ Emulation can allow an OS to run on non-native hardware

Operating System Structure

❑ General-purpose OS is very large program

❑ Various ways to structure ones

❑ Simple structure – MS-DOS
❑ More complex – UNIX
❑ Layered – an abstraction
❑ Microkernel – Mach
Simple Structure (MS DOS)
Monolithic Structure – Original UNIX
❑ UNIX – limited by hardware functionality, the original UNIX
operating system had limited structuring. The UNIX OS
consists of two separable parts
❑ Systems programs
❑ The kernel
❑ Consists of everything below the system-call interface and above the
physical hardware
❑ Provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management, and
other operating-system functions; a large number of functions for one
level
Traditional UNIX System Structure
Beyond simple but not fully layered
Linux System Structure
Monolithic plus modular design
Layered Approach
❑ The operating system is divided into a
number of layers (levels), each built on
top of lower layers. The bottom layer
(layer 0), is the hardware; the highest
(layer N) is the user interface.

❑ With modularity, layers are selected

such that each uses functions
(operations) and services of only
lower-level layers
Microkernels
❑ Moves as much from the kernel into user space

❑ Mach example of microkernel

❑ Mac OS X kernel (Darwin) partly based on Mach

❑ Communication takes place between user modules using message passing

❑ Benefits:
❑ Easier to extend a microkernel
❑ Easier to port the operating system to new architectures
❑ More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode)
❑ More secure

❑ Detriments:
❑ Performance overhead of user space to kernel space communication
Microkernel System Structure
Modules Structure of OS
❑ Many modern operating systems
implement loadable kernel
modules (LKMs)
❑ Uses object-oriented approach
❑ Each core component is
separate
❑ Each talks to the others over
known interfaces
❑ Each is loadable as needed
within the kernel

❑ Overall, similar to layers but with

more flexible
❑ Linux, Solaris, etc.
Hybrid Systems
❑ Most modern operating systems are actually not one pure model
❑ Hybrid combines multiple approaches to address performance, security,
usability needs
❑ Linux and Solaris kernels in kernel address space, so monolithic plus
modular for dynamic loading of functionality
❑ Windows mostly monolithic plus microkernel for different subsystem
personalities

❑ Apple Mac OS X hybrid, layered, Aqua UI plus Cocoa programming

environment
❑ kernel consisting of Mach microkernel and BSD Unix parts, plus I/O kit
and dynamically loadable modules (called kernel extensions)
Books
❑ Operating Systems Concept
❑ Written by Galvin and Silberschatz
❑ Edition: 9th
References
❑ Operating Systems Concept
❑ Written by Galvin and Silberschatz
❑ Edition: 9th