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MODULE 5

CHAPTER 1 – FILE SYSTEM

CO – Students will be able to explain the

security aspects and algorithms for file and
storage management in Operating Systems
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FILE CONCEPT
• A file is a named collection of related information that is recorded
on secondary storage such as magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and
optical disks. In general, a file is a sequence of bits, bytes, lines or
records whose meaning is defined by the files creator and user.
• A file can be defined as a data structure which stores the sequence
of records. Files are stored in a file system, which may exist on a
disk or in the main memory. Files can be simple (plain text) or
complex (specially-formatted).
• The collection of files is known as Directory. The collection of
directories at the different levels, is known as File System.

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FILE ATTRIBUTES
• Name : Every file carries a name by which the file is recognized in
the file system. One directory cannot have two files with the same
name.
• Identifier : Along with the name, Each File has its own extension
which identifies the type of the file. For example, a text file has the
extension .txt, A video file can have the extension .mp4
• Type : In a File System, the Files are classified in different types
such as video files, audio files, text files, executable files, etc.
• Location : In the File System, there are several locations on which,
the files can be stored. Each file carries its location as its attribute.

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• Size: The Size of the File is one of its most important attribute. By
size of the file, we mean the number of bytes acquired by the file
in the memory.
• Protection : The Admin of the computer may want the different
protections for the different files. Therefore each file carries its
own set of permissions to the different group of Users.
• Time and Date : Every file carries a time stamp which contains the
time and date on which the file is last modified.

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FILE OPERATIONS
• A file is a collection of logically related data that is recorded on the
secondary storage in the form of sequence of operations.
• The content of the files are defined by its creator who is creating
the file.
• The various operations which can be implemented on a file such as
read, write, open and close etc. are called file operations.
• These operations are performed by the user by using the
commands provided by the operating system.
• Some common operations are as follows:

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Create operation: This operation is used to create a file in the file

system. To create a new file of a particular type the associated
application program calls the file system. This file system allocates
space to the file. As the file system knows the format of directory
structure, so entry of this new file is made into the appropriate
directory.
Open operation: Once the file is created, it must be opened
before performing the file processing operations. When the user
wants to open a file, it provides a file name to open the particular
file in the file system. It tells the operating system to invoke the
open system call and passes the file name to the file system.

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Write operation: A system call write is issued that specifies the

name of the file and the length of the data has to be written to the
file. Whenever the file length is increased by specified value and
the file pointer is repositioned after the last byte written.
Read operation: This operation reads the contents from a file. A
Read pointer is maintained by the OS, pointing to the position up
to which the data has been read.
Re-position or Seek operation: The seek system call re-positions
the file pointers from the current position to a specific place in the
file i.e. forward or backward depending upon the user's
requirement. This operation is generally performed with those file
management systems that support direct access files.

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Delete operation: Deleting the file will not only delete all the data
stored inside the file it is also used so that disk space occupied by it
is freed. In order to delete the specified file the directory is
searched. When the directory entry is located, all the associated
file space and the directory entry is released.
Truncate operation: Truncating is simply deleting the file except
deleting attributes. The file is not completely deleted although the
information stored inside the file gets replaced.
Close operation: When the processing of the file is complete, it
should be closed so that all the changes made permanent and all
the resources occupied should be released.

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Append operation: This operation adds data to the end of the file.
Rename operation: This operation is used to rename the existing
file.

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FILE TYPES
• There are numerous file types that an operating system uses
internally and are not generally used or required by the system
user.
• These files could be application software files, kernel files,
configuration files, metadata files, etc. Windows supports the
following file types:
Regular Files : Regular files consist of information related to the
user. The files are usually either ASCII or binary. ASCII files contain
lines of text. The major benefit of an ASCII file is that it can be
displayed or printed as it is, and it can be edited using a text editor.
Regular files are supported by both Windows as well as UNIX-based
operating systems.

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Directories : A directory in the file system is a structure that

contains references to other files and possibly other directories.
Files could be arranged by storing related files in the same
directory. Directories are supported by both Windows as well as
UNIX-based operating systems.
Character Special Files : A character special file provides access to
an I/O device. Examples of character special files include a terminal
file, a system console file, a NULL file, a file descriptor file, etc.
Block Special Files : Block special files enable buffered access to
hardware devices They also provide some abstraction from their
specifics. Unlike character special files, block special files always
allow the programmer to read and write a block of any size or
alignment. Block special files are supported by UNIX-based
operating systems.
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File types- name, extension

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Functions of a File
• They are used for storing data in a computer.
• They enable the separation of data according to some criteria.
• They enable efficient, simple, organized access to data.
• They help in isolating sensitive or important data from the rest of
the data.
• They enable locating particular data items in the storage medium.

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FILE ALLOCATION METHODS

1. Contiguous Allocation
• Each file occupies a contiguous address space on disk.
• Assigned disk address is in linear order.
• Easy to implement. External fragmentation is a major issue with
this type of allocation technique.

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2. Linked List Allocation

• Linked List allocation solves all problems of contiguous allocation. In
linked list allocation, each file is considered as the linked list of disk
blocks. However, the disks blocks allocated to a particular file need
not to be contiguous on the disk. Each disk block allocated to a file
contains a pointer which points to the next disk block allocated to
the same file.

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Advantages
• There is no external fragmentation with linked allocation.
• Any free block can be utilized in order to satisfy the file block
requests.
• File can continue to grow as long as the free blocks are available.
• Directory entry will only contain the starting block address.
Disadvantages
• Random Access is not provided.
• Pointers require some space in the disk blocks.
• Any of the pointers in the linked list must not be broken otherwise
the file will get corrupted.
• Need to traverse each block.
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3. File Allocation Table

• The main disadvantage of linked list allocation is that the Random
access to a particular block is not provided. In order to access a
block, we need to access all its previous blocks.
• File Allocation Table overcomes this drawback of linked list
allocation. In this scheme, a file allocation table is maintained,
which gathers all the disk block links. The table has one entry for
each disk block and is indexed by block number.
• File allocation table needs to be cached in order to reduce the
number of head seeks. Now the head doesn't need to traverse all
the disk blocks in order to access one successive block.

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• It simply accesses the file allocation table, read the desired block
entry from there and access that block. This is the way by which the
random access is accomplished by using FAT. It is used by MS-DOS
and pre-NT Windows versions.

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Advantages
• Uses the whole disk block for data.
• A bad disk block doesn't cause all successive blocks lost.
• Random access is provided although its not too fast.
• Only FAT needs to be traversed in each file operation.
Disadvantages
• Each Disk block needs a FAT entry.
• FAT size may be very big depending upon the number of FAT entries.
• Number of FAT entries can be reduced by increasing the block size
but it will also increase Internal Fragmentation.

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4. Indexed Allocation
• File allocation table tries to solve as many problems as possible but
leads to a drawback.
• The more the number of blocks, the more will be the size of FAT.
Here we need a new technology which can solve such problems.
• Therefore, we need to allocate more space to a file allocation table.
Since, file allocation table needs to be cached therefore it is
impossible to have as many space in cache.
• Instead of maintaining a file allocation table of all the disk pointers,
Indexed allocation scheme stores all the disk pointers in one of the
blocks called as indexed block.

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• Indexed block doesn't hold the file data, but it holds the pointers to
all the disk blocks allocated to that particular file.
• Directory entry will only contain the index block address.

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5. Multilevel Index Allocation

• In Multilevel index allocation, we have various levels of indices.
• There are outer level index blocks which contain the pointers to the
inner level index blocks and the inner level index blocks contain the
pointers to the file data.
• The outer level index is used to find the inner level index.
• The inner level index is used to find the desired data block.
• Advantage: Random Access becomes better and efficient.
• Disadvantage: Access time for a file will be higher.

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SDSFV

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6. I-node (Index node)

• In UNIX based operating systems, each file is indexed by an Inode.
Inode are the special disk block which is created with the creation
of the file system. The number of files or directories in a file system
depends on the number of Inodes in the file system.
An Inode includes the following information
1. Attributes (permissions, time stamp, ownership details, etc) of the
file
2. A number of direct blocks which contains the pointers to first 12
blocks of the file.
3. A single indirect pointer which points to an index block. If the file
cannot be indexed entirely by the direct blocks then the single
indirect pointer is used.
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4. A double indirect pointer which points to a disk block that is a

collection of the pointers to the disk blocks which are index
blocks. Double index pointer is used if the file is too big to be
indexed entirely by the direct blocks as well as the single indirect
pointer.
5. A triple indirect pointer that points to a disk block that is a
collection of pointers. Each of the pointers is separately pointing
to a disk block which also contains a collection of pointers which
are separately pointing to an index block that contains the
pointers to the file blocks.

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FGDJ

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FGDJ

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FILE ACCESS METHODS

Sequential access
• The records are accessed in some sequence, i.e., the information in
the file is processed in order, one record after the other. This access
method is the most primitive one. Example: Compilers usually
access files in this fashion.
• In sequential access, the OS read the file word by word. A pointer is
maintained which initially points to the base address of the file. If
the user wants to read first word of the file then the pointer
provides that word to the user and increases its value by 1 word.
This process continues till the end of the file

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Direct / Random Access

• The Direct Access is mostly required in the case of database
systems. In most of the cases, we need filtered information from
the database. The sequential access can be very slow and
inefficient in such cases.
• Suppose every block of the storage stores 4 records and we know
that the record we needed is stored in 10th block. In that case, the
sequential access will not be implemented because it will traverse
all the blocks in order to access the needed record.
• Direct access will give the required result despite of the fact that
the operating system has to perform some complex tasks such as
determining the desired block number. However, that is generally
implemented in database applications.
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Indexed Access
• If a file can be sorted on any place, then an index can be assigned
to a group of certain records. However, A particular record can be
accessed by its index. The index is nothing but the address of a
record in the file.
• In index accessing, searching in a large database became very quick
and easy but we need to have some extra space in the memory to
store the index value.
• Single Level index
• Multi Level index

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DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
• Directory can be defined as the listing of the related files on the
disk. The directory may store some or the entire file attributes.
• To get the benefit of different file systems on the different
operating systems, A hard disk can be divided into the number of
partitions of different sizes. The partitions are also called volumes
or mini disks.
• Each partition must have at least one directory in which, all the
files of the partition can be listed.
• A directory entry is maintained for each file in the directory which
stores all the information related to that file.

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• A directory can be viewed as a file which contains the Meta data of

the bunch of files.

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• Every Directory supports a number of common operations on the

file:

File Creation
Search for the file
File deletion
Renaming the file
Traversing Files
Listing of files

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Single Level Directory

• The simplest method is to have one big list of all the files on the
disk. The entire system will contain only one directory which is
supposed to mention all the files present in the file system.
• All the files are contained in the same directory.

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Advantages
• Implementation is very simple.
• If the sizes of the files are very small then the searching becomes
faster.
• File creation, searching, deletion is very simple since we have only
one directory.
Disadvantages
• We cannot have two files with the same name.
• The directory may be very big therefore searching for a file may
take so much time.
• Protection cannot be implemented for multiple users.
• There are no ways to group same kind of files.
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Two Level Directory

• In two level directory systems, we can create a separate directory
for each user.
• There is one master directory which contains separate directories
dedicated to each user.
• For each user, there is a different directory present at the second
level, containing group of user's file.
• The system doesn't let a user to enter in the other user's
directory without permission.

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Characteristics of two level directory system

• Each files has a path name as /User-name/directory-name/
• Different users can have the same file name.
• Searching becomes more efficient as only one user's list needs to
be traversed.
• The same kind of files cannot be grouped into a single directory
for a particular user.
Every Operating System maintains a variable as PWD which
contains the present directory name (present user name) so that
the searching can be done appropriately.

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Tree Structured Directory

• In Tree structured directory system, any directory entry can either
be a file or sub directory. Tree structured directory system
overcomes the drawbacks of two level directory system. The
similar kind of files can now be grouped in one directory.
• Each user has its own directory and it cannot enter in the other
user's directory. However, the user has the permission to read the
root's data but he cannot write or modify this. Only administrator
of the system has the complete access of root directory.
• Searching is more efficient in this directory structure. The concept
of current working directory is used. A file can be accessed by two
types of path, either relative or absolute.
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• Absolute path is the path of the file with respect to the root
directory of the system while relative path is the path with
respect to the current working directory of the system. In tree
structured directory systems, the user is given the privilege to
create the files as well as directories.

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Permissions on the file and directory

• A tree structured directory system may consist of various levels
therefore there is a set of permissions assigned to each file and
directory.
• The permissions are R W X which are regarding reading, writing
and the execution of the files or directory. The permissions are
assigned to three types of users: owner, group and others.
• There is a identification bit which differentiate between directory
and file. For a directory, it is d and for a file, it is dot (.)

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Acyclic-Graph Structured Directories

• The tree structured directory system doesn't allow the same file
to exist in multiple directories therefore sharing is major concern
in tree structured directory system.
• We can provide sharing by making the directory an acyclic graph.
In this system, two or more directory entry can point to the same
file or sub directory. That file or sub directory is shared between
the two directory entries.
• These kinds of directory graphs can be made using links or aliases.
We can have multiple paths for a same file. Links can either be
symbolic (logical) or hard link (physical).

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If a file gets deleted in acyclic graph structured directory system,

then
In the case of soft link, the file just gets deleted and we are left
with a dangling pointer.
In the case of hard link, the actual file will be deleted only if all
the references to it gets deleted.

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DISK SCHEDULING
• A process needs two type of time, CPU time and IO time.
• For I/O, it requests the Operating system to access the disk.
• However, the operating system must be fare enough to satisfy each
request and at the same time, operating system must maintain the
efficiency and speed of process execution.
• The technique that operating system uses to determine the request
which is to be satisfied next is called disk scheduling.

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Important terms related to disk scheduling

 Seek Time : Seek time is the time taken in locating the disk arm to
a specified track where the read/write request will be satisfied.
 Rotational Latency : It is the time taken by the desired sector to
rotate itself to the position from where it can access the R/W
heads.
 Transfer Time : It is the time taken to transfer the data.
 Disk Access Time : Disk access time is given as,
Disk Access Time = Rotational Latency + Seek Time + Transfer Time
 Disk Response Time : It is the average of time spent by each
request waiting for the IO operation.

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DISK SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS

• The main purpose of disk scheduling algorithm is to select a disk
request from the queue of IO requests and decide the schedule
when this request will be processed.
FCFS SCHEDULING
• It is the simplest Disk Scheduling algorithm.
• It services the IO requests in the order in which they arrive.
• There is no starvation in this algorithm, every request is serviced.

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Eg: Consider a disk queue with requests for I/O to blocks on

cylinders 98, 183,37,122,14,124,65,67 in the order. The disk head is
initially at the cylinder 53.

0 14 37 53 65 67 98 122 124 183

No. of Head movements = (183-53)+(183-37)+(122-37)+(122-14)+(124-

14)+(124-65)+(67-65) = 640
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SSTF SCHEDULING
• Shortest seek time first (SSTF) algorithm selects the disk I/O
request which requires the least disk arm movement from its
current position regardless of the direction. It reduces the total
seek time as compared to FCFS.
 Disadvantages
• It may cause starvation for some requests.
• Switching direction on the frequent basis slows the working of
algorithm.
• It is not the most optimal algorithm

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Eg: queue = 98,183,37,122,14,124,65,67. Head starts at 53.

0 14 37 53 65 67 98 122 124 183

No. of head movements = (67-53)+(67-14)+(183-14) = 236

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SCAN SCHEDULING
• It is also called as Elevator Algorithm.
• In this algorithm, the disk arm moves into a particular direction till
the end, satisfying all the requests coming in its path, and then it
turns back and moves in the reverse direction satisfying requests
coming in its path.
• It works in the way an elevator works, elevator moves in a direction
completely till the last floor of that direction and then turns back.
• Eg: queue = 98,183,37,122,14,124,65,67. Head starts at 53.
Assume that the disk arm is moving towards left(to zero)

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0 14 37 53 65 67 98 122 124 183

No. of head movements = 53+183 = 236

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C – SCAN SCHEDULING
• In C-SCAN algorithm, the arm of the disk moves in a particular
direction servicing requests until it reaches the last cylinder, then it
jumps to the last cylinder of the opposite direction without
servicing any request then it turns back and start moving in that
direction servicing the remaining requests.

• Eg: Queue = 98,183,37,122,14,124,65,67 . Head starts at 53.

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0 14 37 53 65 67 98 122 124 183 199

No. of head movements = (199-53)+37 = 183

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LOOK SCHEDULING
• It is like SCAN scheduling Algorithm to some extant except the
difference that, in this scheduling algorithm, the arm of the disk
stops moving inwards (or outwards) when no more request in that
direction exists.
• This algorithm tries to overcome the overhead of SCAN algorithm
which forces disk arm to move in one direction till the end
regardless of knowing if any request exists in the direction or not.
Eg: Consider the following disk request sequence for a disk with 100
tracks 98, 137, 122, 183, 14, 133, 65, 78 Head pointer starting at 54
and moving in left direction. Find the number of head movements in
cylinders using LOOK scheduling.

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Number of head movement = 40 + 51 + 13 + +20 + 24 + 11 + 4 +

46 = 209
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Prepared By Mr. EBIN PM, AP, Chandigarh

University 28
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STUDENTS

C Look Scheduling
• C Look Algorithm is similar to C-SCAN algorithm to some extent.
• In this algorithm, the arm of the disk moves outwards servicing
requests until it reaches the highest request cylinder, then it jumps
to the lowest request cylinder without servicing any request then it
again start moving outwards servicing the remaining requests.
• It is different from C SCAN algorithm in the sense that, C SCAN
force the disk arm to move till the last cylinder regardless of
knowing whether any request is to be serviced on that cylinder or
not.

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Eg: Consider the following disk request sequence for a disk with 100
tracks 98, 137, 122, 183, 14, 133, 65, 78 . Head pointer starting at
54 and moving in left direction. Find the number of head
movements in cylinders using C LOOK scheduling.

Number of head movements = 11 + 13

+ 20 + 24 + 11 + 4 + 46 + 169 = 298
Prepared By Mr. EBIN PM, AP EDULINE 58

Prepared By Mr. EBIN PM, AP, Chandigarh

University 29