Chapter 2: Operating-System

Services

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Outline

 Operating System Services

 User and Operating System-Interface
 System Calls
 System Services
 Linkers and Loaders
 Why Applications are Operating System Specific
 Design and Implementation
 Operating System Structure
 Building and Booting an Operating System
 Operating System Debugging

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 Objectives

 Identify services provided by an operating system

 Illustrate how system calls are used to provide operating
system services
 Compare and contrast monolithic, layered, microkernel,
modular, and hybrid strategies for designing operating
systems
 Illustrate the process for booting an operating system
 Apply tools for monitoring operating system performance
 Design and implement kernel modules for interacting with a
Linux kernel

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 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 (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
• 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.
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 Operating System Services (Cont.)
 One set of operating-system services provides functions that are
helpful to the user (Cont.):
• 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

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 Operating System Services (Cont.)
 Another set of OS functions exists 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

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 A View of Operating System Services

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 Command Line interpreter

 CLI 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

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 Bourne Shell Command Interpreter

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 User Operating System 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)

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 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

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 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

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 The Mac OS X GUI

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 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

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 Example of System Calls

 System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another file

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 Example of Standard API

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 API – System Call – OS Relationship

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 Types of System Calls

 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

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 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

 File management
• create file, delete file
• open, close file
• read, write, reposition
• get and set file attributes
 Device management
• request device, release device
• read, write, reposition
• get device attributes, set device attributes
• logically attach or detach devices

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 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

 Information maintenance
• get time or date, set time or date
• get system data, set system data
• get and set process, file, or device attributes
 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

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 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

 Protection
• Control access to resources
• Get and set permissions
• Allow and deny user access

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 Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls

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 Standard C Library Example
 C program invoking printf() library call, which calls write() system call

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 I/O Protection

 User process may accidentally or purposefully attempt to

disrupt normal operation via illegal I/O instructions
• All I/O instructions defined to be privileged
• I/O must be performed via system calls
 Memory-mapped and I/O port memory locations must
be protected too

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 Use of a System Call to Perform I/O

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 Memory Protection-
Base and Limit Registers
 A pair of base and limit registers define the logical address space
 CPU must check every memory access generated in user mode to
be sure it is between base and limit for that user

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 Hardware Address Protection

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 System Services
 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 operating system is defined by system
programs, not the actual system calls

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 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

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 The Role of the Linker and Loader

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 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.

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 Design and Implementation

 Design and Implementation of OS is 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
 Specifying and designing an OS is highly creative task of software
engineering

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 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

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 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

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 Traditional UNIX System Structure
Beyond simple but not fully layered

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 Linux System Structure
Monolithic plus modular design

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 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

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 Microkernels
 Moves as much from the kernel into user space
 Mach is an 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

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 Microkernel System Structure

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Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 macOS and iOS Structure

The best-known illustration of a microkernel operating system is Darwin, the

kernel component of the macOS and iOS operating systems.

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 iOS

 Apple mobile OS for iPhone, iPad

• Structured on Mac OS X, added functionality
• Does not run OS X applications natively
 Also runs on different CPU architecture
(ARM vs. Intel)
• Cocoa Touch Objective-C API for
developing apps
• Media services layer for graphics, audio,
video
• Core services provides cloud computing,
databases
• Core operating system, based on Mac OS X
kernel

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 Android
 Developed by Open Handset Alliance (mostly Google)
• Open Source
 Similar stack to iOS
 Based on Linux kernel but modified
• Provides process, memory, device-driver management
• Adds power management
 Runtime environment includes core set of libraries and Dalvik
virtual machine
• Apps developed in Java plus Android API
 Java class files compiled to Java bytecode then translated
to executable thnn runs in Dalvik VM
 Libraries include frameworks for web browser (webkit), database
(SQLite), multimedia, smaller libc

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 Android Architecture

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 Building and Booting an Operating System

 Operating systems generally designed to run on a class of systems

with variety of peripherals
 Commonly, operating system already installed on purchased
computer
• But can build and install some other operating systems
• If generating an operating system from scratch
 Write the operating system source code
 Configure the operating system for the system on which it will
run
 Compile the operating system
 Install the operating system
 Boot the computer and its new operating system

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 Building and Booting Linux

 Download Linux source code (http://www.kernel.org)

 Configure kernel via “make menuconfig”
 Compile the kernel using “make”
• Produces vmlinuz, the kernel image
• Compile kernel modules via “make modules”
• Install kernel modules into vmlinuz via “make
modules_install”
• Install new kernel on the system via “make install”

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 System Boot
 When power initialized on system, execution starts at a fixed memory
location
 Operating system must be made available to hardware so hardware
can start it
• Small piece of code – bootstrap loader, BIOS, stored in ROM or
EEPROM locates the kernel, loads it into memory, and starts it
• Sometimes two-step process where boot block at fixed location
loaded by ROM code, which loads bootstrap loader from disk
• Modern systems replace BIOS with Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface (UEFI)
 Common bootstrap loader, GRUB, allows selection of kernel from
multiple disks, versions, kernel options
 Kernel loads and system is then running
 Boot loaders frequently allow various boot states, such as single user
mode

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 Operating-System Debugging

 Debugging is finding and fixing errors, or bugs

 Also performance tuning
 OS generate log files containing error information
 Failure of an application can generate core dump file capturing
memory of the process
 Operating system failure can generate crash dump file containing
kernel memory
 Beyond crashes, performance tuning can optimize system performance
• Sometimes using trace listings of activities, recorded for analysis
• Profiling is periodic sampling of instruction pointer to look for
statistical trends
Kernighan’s Law: “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the
first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”

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 End of Chapter 2

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018