Case Study – Windows 10

UNIT 2 CASE STUDY - LINUX

Structure

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Objectives
2.3 Linux Operating System
2.4 Evolution of Linux
2.5 Characteristics of Linux
2.6 Linux Kernel
2.7 Fundamental Architecture of Linux
2.8 Process Management in Linux
2.9 Memory Management in Linux
2.10 Linux File System
2.11 Security Features in Linux
2.12 Windows Vs Linux
2.13 Summary
2.14 Solutions/Answers
2.15 Further Readings

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Operating system is system software, which acts as an interface between user
applications and hardware devices such as input/output devices, memory, file system,
etc. It schedules both type of tasks, systems and users’, and provides common core
services such as a basic user interface. The two major goals of any operating system
(OS) are:
 Convenience: It transforms the raw hardware into a machine that is more
accessible to users.
 Efficiency: It efficientlymanages the resources ofthe overall computer system.
Operating systemconsists of the following components for achieving the goals:
 Kernel: The main task of the kernel is to optimize the usage of the hardware,
running the required programs, satisfying the user’s requirements.
 Application Programming Interface (API): A collection of rules,
which describes how services have to be required from the kernel, and
how we receive the answer from it.
 Shell: Its’ task is the interpretation of commands. The shell can be command
line (CLI - Command Line Interface, such as DOS), or graphic - GUI -
interface (e.g.: Windows)
 Services and Utilities: These supplementary programs enhance the user’s
experience (e.g.: word processors, translator programs) and are not
inseparable parts of the system. 269
Case Studies Operating systems may be categorized into various types based on their functionality
such as single user single task operating systems, single user multitasking operating
systems, multi-programmed operating system, multiuser operating systems, distributed
operating systems, network operating system, multiprocessor operating system, real
time operating systems and embedded operating systems. Disk Operating System
(DOS), Windows, UNIX, LINUX, Macintosh (macOS) are some of the examples of
the operating systems. The typical services that an operating systemprovides include:
a task scheduler, memory manager, disk manager, network manager, Other I/O services
and security manager. This section provides a case study of LINUX operating system.
This unit provides basic structure ofthe Linux, its process management; file management
and memory management techniques.

2.2 OBJECTIVES
After the completion of this unit, you will be able to:
 Understand the basic functions of Linux Operating System
 Identify the characteristics of the Linux Operating System
 Know the evolution of Linux operating system
 Understand the process management of Linux and compare with other OS
 Understand the memory management approaches in Linux
 Understand the File management in Linux
 Understand the security features of Linux

2.3 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

UNIX is a well-known OS, and is widelyused in mini and mainframe computer systems.
In recent years the popularity of UNIX has been increasing significantly due to one of
its popular descendant namely Linux operating system.
Linux is one of the popular variants’ of UNIX operating System. It is an open source
OS as its source code is freely available. Linux was designed considering UNIX
compatibility. Its functionality is quite similar to that of UNIX. Linux is provided with
GUI, so instead of typing commands to perform user tasks, one can log in graphically
to fulfill their requirements. Linux also provides the facility to handle core system
requirements through command line. Linux developers concentrated on networking
and services in the beginning, and office applications have been the last barrier to be
taken down. Apart from desktop OS, Linux is an acceptable choice as a workstation
OS, providing an easy user interface and MS compatible office applications like word
processors, spreadsheets, presentations and the like. Because of this, Linux has joined
the desktop market.
On the server side, Linux is knownas a stable and reliable platform, providing database
and trading services for companies like Amazon, US Post Office, German Army and
many others. Linux is used in firewall, proxy and web server. One can find a Linux box
within reach of every UNIX system administrator who appreciates a comfortable
management station. Clusters of Linux machines are used in the creation of movies
270
such as “Titanic”, “Shrek” and others. Day-to-day, thousands of heavy-duty jobs are Case Study – LINUX
performed by Linux across the world. It is also noteworthy that modern Linux not only
runs on workstations, mid and high-end servers, but also on “gadgets” like PDA’s,
mobiles, embedded applications and even on experimental wristwatches. This makes
Linux the only operating system all across covering a wide range of hardware.
Linux is used in a number of consumer electronic devices worldwide. Some of the
popular Linux based electronic devices are Dell Inspiron Mini (9 and 12), Garmin
Nuvi (860, 880, and 5000), Google Android Dev Phone 1, HP Mini 1000, Lenovo
IdeaPad S9, Motorola MotoRokr EM35 Phone, One Laptop Per Child XO2, Sony
Bravia Television, Sony Reader, TiVo Digital Video Recorder, Volvo In-Car Navigation
System, Yamaha Motif Keyboard etc.. From smartphones to robots, cars,
supercomputers, home appliances, personal computers to Enterprise S ervers, the Linux
operating system is everywhere.

2.4 EVOLUTION OF LINUX

By the beginning of the 90s home PCs were finally powerful enough to run UNIX.
Linus Torvalds, a Computer Science student at the University of Helsinki, thought it
would be a good idea to have some sort of freelyavailable academic version of UNIX,
and promptly started to code. He started to put fourth questions, looking for answers
and solutions that would help him get UNIX on his PC. From the start, it was Linus’s
goal to have a free system that was completely compliant with the original UNIX. In
those days plug-and-play wasn’t invented yet, but number of people was interested in
having a UNIX system of their own. This was the only small obstacle. New drivers
became available for all kinds of new hardware at a continuous rising speed. As soon
as a new piece of hardware became available, someone bought it and submitted it to
the Linux test, as the system was graduallybeing called releasing more free code for an
even wider range of hardware.Around 95% of the Linux was written in C programming
language and around 2.8% in Assembly language.
Two years after Linus’announcement of the project, there were 12000 Linux users.
The project, popular with hobbyists, grew steadily, all the while staying within the
bounds of the POSIX (popular UNIX version) standard. All the features of UNIX
were added over the next couple of years, resulting in the mature operating system
Linux has become today. Linux is a full UNIX clone, fit for use on workstations as well
as on middle-range and high-end servers. There is a wide range of variations and
versions those were encountered in the development of Linux Operating System. The
following table provides the details of the various versions developed and events
happened related to Linux. The history of Linux is given in Table1.
Table 1: Evolution of Linux
S.No. Year Event/Release Version
1 1991 UniX(HP-UX) 8.0
2 1992 Hewlett Packard 9.0
3 1993 NetBSD and FreeBSD 0.8, 1.0
4 1994 Red Hat Linux, Caldera, Ransom Love and
NetBSD1.0 —
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Case Studies
5 1995 FreeBSD and HP UX 2.0, 10.0
6 1996 K Desktop Environment —
7 1997 HP-UX 11.0
8 1998 IRIXSun Solaris OS Free BSD 6.573.0
9 2000 Caldera Systems with SCO server division
announced
10 2001 LinuxMicrosoft filed a trademark suit against 2.4
Lindows.com
11 2004 Lindows name was changed to Linspire —
First release of Ubuntu
12 2005 openSUSE Project —
13 2006 Red Hat —
14 2007 Dell started distributing laptops with Ubuntu
pre-installed
16 2011 Linux kernel 3.0
17 2013 Googles Linux based Android —

Linux has several distributions. Some popular and dominant LINUX distributions for
Desktops include:
 Linux Mint
 Ubuntu
 OpenSUSE
 Mageia
 Manjaro
 Fedora
 Arch Linux
 Debian
 Kali Linux
 Elementary OS
Some of the popular Linux distributions, in the Servers category, include:
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
 CentOS
 Ubuntu Server
 SUSE Enterprise Linux

272 Let us see the architecture of LINUX in the next section.

 Case Study – LINUX
2.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF LINUX
Linux has several salient characteristic features, some of the important among them
are:
 Multiuser Capability: This is a capability of Linux OS where, the same
computer resources – hard disk, memory, etc. are accessible to multiple users.
Ofcourse, not on a single terminal, theyare given different terminals to operate
from. Aterminal will consist of at least a Monitor/VDU, keyboard and mouse
as input devices.All the terminals are then connected to the main Linux Server
or Host Machine, whose resources and connected peripheral devices such
as printer, can be used. Client/ServerArchitecture is an example of multiuser
capability of Linux, where different clients are connected to a Linux server.
The client sends request to the server with a particular data and server requests
with the processed data or the file requested, client terminal is also known as
a Dumb Terminal.
 Multitasking: Linux has the ability to handle more than one job at a time,
say for example you have executed a command for sorting for a huge list and
simultaneouslytypingin a notepad. This is managed bydividing the CPU time
intelligently by the implementation of scheduling policies and the concept of
context switching.
 Portability: Portability was the one of the main features that made Linux so
popular among the users, but portability doesn’t mean that it is smaller in file
size and can be carried on pen drive, CDs and memory cards. Instead, here
portability means that Linux OS and its application can work on different
types of hardwares in the same way. Linux kernel and application programs
support their installation even on very least hardware configuration.
 Security: Security is a very important part of any OS, for the organizations/
user who is using the system for their confidential works, Linux does provide
several security concepts for protecting their users from unauthorized access
of their data and system.
Linux provide three main security concepts:
 Authentication: This simply implies claiming the person whom you are
by assigning passwords and login names to individual users, ensuring that
nobody can gain access to their work.
 Authorization: At the file level, Linux has authorization limits to users. There
are read, write and execute permissions for each file which decide who can
access a particular file, who can modify it and who can execute it.
 Encryption: This feature encodes your files into an unreadable format that is
also known as “cyphertext”, so that even if someone succeeds in opening it
your secrets will be safe.
(i) Communication: Linux has anexcellent feature for communicatingwith the fellow
users; it can be within the network of a single main computer, or between two or
more computer networks. The users can easily exchange mail, data, program
through such networks. 273
25
Case Studies Advantages of LINUX Operating System
There are several advantages of LINUX operating system. Some of themare asfollows:
 Low cost: There is no need to spend time and huge amount money to obtain
licenses since Linux and much of its software come with the GNU General
Public License. There is no need to worry about any software’s that you use
in Linux.
 Stability: Linux has high stability compared with other operating systems.
There is no need to reboot the Linux system to maintain performance levels.
Rarely it freeze up or slow down. It has a continuous up-time of hundreds of
days or more.
 Performance: Linux provides high performance on various networks. It has
the ability to handle large numbers of users simultaneously.
 Networking: Linux provides a strong support for network functionality; client
and server systems can be easily set up on any computer running Linux. It can
perform tasks like network backup faster than other operating systems.
 Flexibility: Linux is very flexible. Linux can be used for high performance
server applications, desktop applications, and embedded systems. You can
install only the needed components for a particular use. You can also restrict
the use of specific computers.
 Compatibility: It runs all common Unix software packages and can process
all common file formats.
 Wider Choice: There is a large number of Linux distributions which gives
you a wider choice. Each organization develop and support different
distribution. You can pick the one you like best; the core functions are the
same.
 Fast and easy installation: Linux distributions come with user-friendly
installation.
 Better use of hard disk: Linux uses its resources well enough even when
the hard disk is almost full.
 Multitasking: Linux is a multitasking operating system. It can handle many
things at the same time.
 Security: Linux is one of the most secure operating systems. File ownership
and permissions make Linux more secure.
 Open source: Linux is an Open source operating systems. You can easily get
the source code for Linux and edit it to develop your personal operating
system.

2.6 LINUX KERNEL

The Linux kernel is the main component of a Linux OS. This is the core interface
between a computer’s hardware and its processes. It communicates between the two,
274 managing resources as efficiently as possible. The kernel is so named because—like a
seed inside a hard shell—it exists within the OS and controls all major functions of the Case Study – LINUX
hardware, whether it’s a phone, laptop, server, or any other kind of computer. To put
the kernel in context, one can think of a Linux system having four layers as shown in
Fig 1.

Applications
Shell

Kernel

Hardware

Fig 1: Linux Architecture

1. The Hardware: The physical machine—the bottom or base of the system,

made up of memory (RAM), processor or central processing unit (CPU), as
well as input/output (I/O) devices such as storage, networking, and graphics.
CPU performs computations and reads from, and writes to the memory.
2. The Linux kernel: The core of the OS. It’s software residing in memory
that tells the CPU what to do.
3. Shell: The shell layer is in between application layer and the kernel. Shell
will take the input from the user applications and sends it to the kernel in
form of instructions. It also takes output from the kernel and forwards it as a
result to the user application.
4. Applications / User processes: These are the running programs that the
kernel manages. User processes are what collectively make up user space.
User processes are also known as just processes. The kernel also allows
these processes and servers to communicate with each other (known as inter-
process communication, or IPC).
Code executed by the system runs on CPUs in one or two modes: kernel mode or
user mode. Code running in the kernel mode has unrestricted access to the hardware,
while user mode restricts access to the CPU and memory to the System Call Interface.
A similar separation exists for memory (kernel space and user space).

2.5.1 Kernel Architecture of Linux

Kernel is a small and special code which is the core component of Linux OS and
directly interacts with hardware. It is the intermediate level between software and
hardware which provides low level service to user mode’s components. It is developed
in C language. Moreover, it has different blocks which manage various operations.
Kernel runs a number of processes concurrently and manages various resources. It is 275
Case Studies viewed as a resource manager when several programs run concurrently on a system.
In this case, the kernel is an instance that shares available resources like CPU time,
disk space, network connections etc.
The kernel has four jobs to perform as follows:
i. Memory management: Keep track of how much memory is used to store
what, and where.
ii. Process management: Determine which processes can use the central
processing unit (CPU), when, and for how long.
iii. Device drivers: Act as mediator/interpreter between the hardware and
processes.
iv. System calls and security: Receive requests for service from the processes
The kernel, if implemented properly, is invisible to the user, working in its own little
world known as kernel space, where it allocates memory and keeps track of where
everything is stored. What the user sees—like web browsers and files—are known as
the user space. These applicationss interact withthe kernel through a systemcall interface
(SCI).
This also means that if a process fails in user mode, the damage is limited and can be
recovered by the kernel. However, because of its access to memoryand the processor,
a kernel process crash can crash the entire system. Since there are safeguards in place
and permissions required to cross boundaries, user process crashes usuallycan’t cause
too many problems.

2.6 FUNDAMENTAL ARCHITECTURE OF LINUX

The following is the fundamental architecture of Linux given in Fig 2.

Fig. 2: Fundamental Architecture of Linux

Architecture of kernel is divided into main two parts:

1. User Space
2. Kernel Space
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2.6.1 User Space Case Study – LINUX

All user programs and applications are executed in user space. User Space cannot
directly access the memory and hardware. It accesses the hardware through kernel
space. Processes or programs which are running in user space only access some part
of memory bysystemcall. Due to full protection, crashes in user mode are recoverable.
GNU C library provides the mechanism switching user space application to kernel
space.

2.6.2 Kernel Space

All kernel programs are executed in kernel space. Kernel space accesses full part of
memory and directly interacts with hardware like RAM, Hard disk etc. It is divided in
different blocks and modules which manage all operations (like file management,
memory management, process management etc.) in kernel space and applications
running in user space. Kernel space consists of system call interface, Kernel (core
component of Linux) and device module.
System call interface is the intermediate layer between user space and kernel space.
Each application, running in user space, can interface with kernel through system call.
For example system call function on file operation are open( ), write( ), read( ) etc.
Kernel is independent from hardware. It is common for all Hardware processors
which are supported by Linux. You can run kernel on any processor like Intel, ARM,
etc. It acts as a resource manager in Kernel space and performs process
management, file management, memory management, Interrupt handler, scheduling
of process, etc. It is a powerful structure which handles all kinds of operations.

2.7 PROCESS MANAGEMENT IN LINUX

Multitasking is the illusion created bythe kernel. The processor is capable of performing
the processes in parallel by switching in between multiple tasks that are running on the
system. The context switching is done in parallel rapidly and repeatedly in specific
intervals. The user is not able to notice the switching of the tasks due to small intervals.
Linux process can be visualized as running instance of a program. For example, just
open a text editor on your Linux box and a text editor process will be born.
The following are some of the tasks of process management that are handled by the
kernel.
All the processes should work independently without interfering each other until they
desired to interact. The Linux environment is a multiuser system. Even though multiple
processes are running concurrently, the problem occurred in one application will not
affect some other application.All these applications/programs that are running in parallel
will not be able to access the memory content of the other application/program. This
feature provides the security for the application’s data from the other users.
All the processes ofthe systemwill fairly utilize CPU time and share inbetween multiple
applications. The applications are assigned their priorities based on which the order of
the execution is determined.
The execution time allocated to each process (time quantum) and when to context
switch between processes should take place is decided by the kernel. This begs the 277
Case Studies question as to which process is actuallythe next. Decisions on time slot allocation and
context switching are not platform-dependent.
While context switching by the kernel, the kernel will ensure that the execution
environment of a process brought back is exactly the same when it last withdrew
processor resources. For example, the contents of the processor registers and the
structure of virtualaddressspace must be identical. This latter taskis extremelydependent
on processor type. How CPU time is allocated is determined by the scheduler policy
which is totally separate from the task switching mechanism needed to switch between
processes.
Process Priorities: Not all processes are of equal importance. In addition to process
priority, there are different criticality classes to satisfy differing demands. In general
processes can be split into real-time processes and non-real-time processes.
Real-time processes are also of two types i.e., hard real-time and delicate real-time or
soft real-time processes. Hard real-time processes are subject to strict time limits
during which certain tasks must be completed. If the flight control commands of an
aircraft are processed by computer, they must be forwarded as quickly as possible —
within a guaranteed period of time. The key characteristic of hard real-time processes
is that they must be processed within a guaranteed time frame. Note that this does not
imply that the time frame is particularly short. Instead, the system must guarantee that
a certain time frame is never exceeded, even when unlikely or adverse conditions
prevail.
In soft real time systems, the meeting of deadline is not compulsory for every time for
every task but process should get processed and give the result. Even the soft real time
systems cannot miss the deadline for every task or process according to the priority it
should meet the deadline or canmiss the deadline. If system is missing the deadline for
every time the performance of the system will be worse and cannot be used by the
users. Best example for soft real time system is personal computer, audio and video
systems, etc.. An illustration of a delicate real-time process is a compose activity to a
CD. Informationshould be procured bythe CD author at a specific rate since information
are kept in touch with the mediumin a nonstop stream. On the off chance that framework
stacking is too high, the information stream might be intruded on quickly, and this may
bring about an unusable CD, far less exceptional than a plane accident. All things
considered, the compose process should consistently be conceded CPU time when
required — before any remaining typical processes.
Linux does not support hard real-time processing, at least not in the vanilla kernel.
There are, however, modified versions such as RTLinux, Xenomai, or RATI that offer
this feature. The Linux kernel runs as a separate ‘‘process’’ in these approaches and
handles less important software, while real-time work is done outside the kernel. The
kernel may run only if no real-time critical actions are performed. Since Linux is
optimized for throughput and tries to handle common cases as fast as possible,
guaranteed response times are very hard to achieve. Nevertheless quite a bit of progress
has been made during last years to decrease the overall kernel latency, i.e., the time
that elapses between making a request and its fulfilment.
Process Hierarchy
Each process is identified by a unique positive integer called the process ID (pid). The
pid of the first process is 1, and each subsequent process receives a new, unique pid.
278
In Linux, processes form a strict hierarchy, known as the process tree. The process Case Study – LINUX
tree is rooted at the first process, known as the init process, which is typically
the init program. New processes are created via the fork() system call. This system
call creates a duplicate of the calling process. The original process is called the parent;
the new process is called the child. Every process except the first has a parent. If a
parent process terminates before its child, the kernel will reparent the child to the init
process.
When a process terminates, it is not immediately removed from the system. Instead,
the kernel keeps parts of the process resident in memory to allow the process’s parent
to inquire about its status upon terminating. This inquiry is known as waiting on the
terminated process. Once the parent process has waited on its terminated child, the
child is fully destroyed. A process that has terminated, but has not yet been waited
upon, is called a zombie. The init process routinely waits on all of its children,
ensuring that re-parented processes do not remain zombies forever.
Linux Process States
Processes are born, share resources with parents for some time, get their own copy of
resources when they are ready to make changes, go through various states depending
upontheir priorityand thenfinallydie. Following are the various statesof Linux processes:
 RUNNING – This state specifies that the process is either in execution or
waiting to get executed.
 INTERRUPTIBLE – This state specifies that the process is waiting to get
interrupted as it is in sleep mode and waiting for some action to happen that
can wake this process up. The action can be a hardware interrupt, signal etc.
 UN-INTERRUPTIBLE – It is just like the INTERRUPTIBLE state, the only
difference being that a process in this state cannot be waken up by delivering
a signal.
 STOPPED – This state specifies that the process has been stopped. This
mayhappen ifa signal like SIGSTOP, SIGTTIN etc is delivered to the process.
 TRACED – This state specifies that the process is being debugged. Whenever
the process is stopped by debugger (to help user debug the code) the process
enters this state.
 ZOMBIE – This state specifies that the process is terminated but still hanging
around in kernel process table because the parent of this process has still not
fetched the termination status of this process. Parent uses wait() family of
functions to fetch the termination status.
 DEAD – This state specifies that the process is terminated and entry is removed
from process table. This state is achieved when the parent successfully fetches
the termination status as explained in ZOMBIE state.
Linux Threads Vs Light Weight Processes
Threads in Linux are nothing but a flowofexecution of the process.Aprocess containing
multiple execution flows is known as multi-threaded process. For a non multi-threaded
process there is only execution flowthat is the main execution flowand hence it is also
known as single threaded process.
279
Case Studies Threads are often mixed with the term Light Weight Processes (LWPs). The reason
dates back to those times when Linux supported threads at user level only. This means
that even a multi-threaded application was viewed by kernel as a single process only.
This posed big challenges for the library that managed these user level threads because
it had to take care of cases that a thread execution did not hinder if any other thread
issued a blocking call. Later onthe implementation changed and processes were attached
to each thread so that kernel can take care of them. Linux kernel does not see them as
threads; each thread is viewed as a process inside kernel. These processes are known
as light weight processes.
The main difference between a LWP and a normal process is that LWPs share same
address space and other resources like open files etc. As some resources are shared
so these processes are considered to be light weight as compared to other normal
processes and hence the name light weight processes.
So, effectively we can say that threads and light weight processes are same. It’s just
that thread is a term that is used at user level while light weight process is a term used
at kernel level.
From implementation point of view, threads are created using functions exposed by
POSIX compliant pthread library in Linux. Internally, the clone() function is used to
create a normal as well as a light weight process. This means that to create a normal
process fork() is used that further calls clone() with appropriate arguments while to
create a thread or LWP, a function from pthread library calls clone() with relevant
flags. So, the main difference is generated byusing different flags that can be passed to
clone() function.

2.8 MEMORY MANAGEMENT IN LINUX

The major part of the computer is CPU of which RAM is the frontal part of the CPU.
All data items processed at CPU has to go through RAM.Aprocess, which needs to be
processed, will first be loaded in RAM and the CPU will get process data from RAM.
Memory is assisted by level one, level two, and level three cache for faster processing.
As the caches are very expensive due to technology used and also not very useful for
all the instructions, only small size caches are used in CPU.
Any information, related to the process, is copied from RAM to CPU registers and the
CPU would build its cache. Cache plays an important part of memory management on
Linux. Ifuser requests information from hard disk, it is copied to RAM and the user is
served from RAM. While the information is copied from hard disk, it is placed in page
cache.
So the page cache stores recently requested data to make it faster if the same data is
needed again. And if the user starts modifying data, it will go to RAM as well where
from it will be copied to the hard However, it only happens if the data has been staying
in RAM long enough.
Data won’t be written immediately from RAM to hard disk, but to optimize the write
operations to the hard disk, Linux works with the concept of dirty cache. It tries to
buffer as much data in order to create an efficient write request. From figure 3, it is
clear that everything on a computer goes through RAM. So using RAM on a Linux
280 computer is essential for the well working of the Linux operating system.
 Case Study – LINUX

Figure 3: Memory Management in Linux

2.9 LINUX FILE SYSTEM

Afile systemis a logical collectionof files on a partitionor disk.Apartitionis a container
for information and can span an entire hard drive if desired. File system hierarchy
standard (FHS) describes directory structure and its content in Unix and Unix like
operating system. It explains where files and directories should be located and what it
should contain. Linux partially follows FHS due to its own policy to which we may
notice some differences in the directory tree structure.
The Root Directory
All the directoriesin the Linux systemcome under the root directorywhich is represented
by a forward slash (/).
Each file is categorized based on the type of the file and is stored into a particular
directory. These types of directories and relevant file types are listed below in table 2.

Table 2: Directory Type and Types of the Files Stored

Directory type Types of files stored

Binarydirectories Contains binaryor compiled source code files, eg,/bin, /sbin, etc.
Configuration Contains configuration files of the system, eg, /etc, /boot.
directories
Data directories Stores data files, eg, /home, /root, etc.
Memory Stores device files which doesn't take up actual hard disk space,
directories eg, /dev, /proc, /sys.
Usr (Unix System Contains sharable, read only data, eg, /usr/bin, /usr/lib, etc.
Resources)
var (variable Contains larger size data, eg, /var/log, /var/cache, etc.
directory)
Non-standard Directories which do not come under standard FHS, eg,
directories lost+found, /run, etc. 281
Case Studies 2.9.1 Linux Binary Directory
Binary files are the files which contain executable files. These files are the output of
compilation of the source code. These executable files can be executed on the computer.
Binarydirectorycontains following directories:
 /bin
 /sbin
 /lib
 /opt
/bin: The ‘/bin’ directory contains user binaries, executable files, Linux commands
that are used in single user mode, and common commands that are used by all
the users, like cat, cp, cd, ls, etc.
/sbin: The‘/sbin’directoryalso contains executable files, but unlike ‘/bin’it onlycontains
system binaries which require root privilege to perform certain tasks and are
helpful for system maintenance purpose. e.g. fsck, root, init, ifconfig, etc.
/lib : The ‘/lib’ directory contains shared libraries which are often used by the ‘/bin’
and ‘/sbin’ directories. It also contains kernel module.
/opt: The term ‘opt’ is short for optional. Its main purpose is to store optional
application software packages. Add-on applications from individual vendors
should be installed in ‘/opt’. And so in some systems ‘/opt’ is empty as they
may not have any add-on application.

2.9.2 Linux Configuration Directory

The configuration directory contains configured files which configures the parameters
and initial settings for some computer programs.
Configuration directory have following sub-directories:
 /boot
 /etc
/boot : The ‘/boot’ directory contains boot loader files which are essential to boot the
system. In other words, they only contain files which are needed for a basic
Linux system to get up and going.You may find ‘/boot/grub’directory which
contains ‘/boot/grub/grub.cfg’ (older system may have /boot/grub/grub.conf)
which defines boot menu that is displayed before the kernel starts.
/etc : All the machine related configuration files are kept in ‘/etc’.Almost everything
related to the configuration of your systemis placed here. It also containstartup
and shutdown shell script which is used to start and stop a program.All the files
are static and text based and no binary files can be placed in this directory.

2.9.3 Linux Data directory

Data directory is used to store data of the system. Data directory contains following
directories:

282  /home
  /root Case Study – LINUX

 /srv
 /media
 /mnt
 /tmp
/home: The ‘/home’directory stores users personnel files. After the ‘/home’there is a
directory which is generally named at the user’s name like we have ‘/home/
sssit’. Inside this directory we have our sub-directories like Desktop,
Downloads, Documents, pictures, etc.
/root: The ‘/root’directoryis the home directoryofthe root user. The ‘/root’directory
is different from (/) root.
/srv: The term ‘srv’ is short for service. The ‘/srv’ directorycontains server specific
data for services provided by the system like www, cvs, rysync, ftp, etc.
/media: The ‘/media’ directory acts as a mount point for removable media devices
such as CD-Rom, floppy, USB devices, etc.This is newlyintroduced directory
and hence a system can run without this directory also.
/mnt : The term ‘mnt’ stands for mount. The ‘/mnt’ directory should be empty and
sysadmins can only mount temporary filesystems.
/tmp : The term ‘tmp’stands for temporary. Data stored in ‘/tmp’is temporary and
may use either disk space or RAM. When system is rebooted, files under this
directory is automatically deleted. So it is advisable that never use ‘/tmp’ to
store important data.

2.9.4 Linux Memory Directory

Memorydirectorycontains files ofthe whole system.All the device information, process
running indata or systemrelated informationis stored in thisdirectory. Memorydirectory
contains the following directories:
 /dev
 /proc
 /sys
/dev: The term ‘dev’is short for device. As you know in Linux operating system
everything is a file. It appears to be an ordinary file but doesn’t take up disk
space. Files which are used to represent and access devices are stored here
including terminal devices like usb.All the files stored in ‘/dev’are not related
to real devices, some are related to virtual devices also.
/dev/ The ‘/dev/tty’ file represents the command line interface that is a terminal
tty and or console attached to the system. Typing commands in a terminal is a
/dev/ part of the graphical interface like Gnome or KDE, then terminal will be
pts: represented as ‘/dev/pts/1’.
/dev/ The ‘/dev/null’ file is considered as black hole, it has unlimited storage
null: but nothing can be retrieved from it. You can discard your unwanted output
from the terminal but can’t retrieve it back. 283
Case Studies /proc: The term ‘proc’ is short for process. Same as ‘/dev’, ‘/proc’ also doesn’t
take up disk space. It contains process information. It is a pseudo file system
that contains information about running processes. It also works as virtual file
systemcontaining text information about system resources.
/sys: The term ‘sys’ is short for system. Basically it contains kernel information
about hardware. It was created for Linux 2.6 kernel. It is a kind of ‘/proc’
and is used for plug and play configuration.

2.9.5 Linux System Resources (/usr)

Although it is pronounced as user but in actual it stands for Unix System Resources.
It is also called secondaryhierarchyas it contains binaries, libraries, documentation for
all the user applications. It only contains shareable read-only data. The following are
some of the /usr sub-directories:
 /usr/bin
 /usr/include
 /usr/lib
 /usr/share
 /usr/local
 /usr/src
/usr/bin: The ‘/usr/bin’ directorycontains non-essential binarycommands for all
users. If you can’t find a command in ‘/bin’, search it in ‘/usr/bin’. It
contains a lot of commands.
/usr/include: The ‘/usr/include’ directorycontains standard include files for C.
/usr/lib: The ‘/usr/lib’ directorycontains libraries that are not directly executed
by the users. In other words, it contains binaries for the ‘/usr/bin’ and ‘/
usr/sbin’.
/usr/share: The ‘/usr/share’ directory contains architecture independent (shared)
data.
/usr/local : The ‘/usr/local’directory is used to install software locally. It means all
the user programs that you’ll install from source will be installed here.
/usr/src : The term ‘src’ is short for source. It is used to store source code like
kernel source code with its header files.

2.9.6 Variable Directory (/var)

The term ‘var’ is short for variable. Files that have an unexpected size and whose
content is expected to change continuously (that’s why it is named as variable) during
normal operation of the system are stored here. For example, log files, spool files and
cache files. The following are some of the /var sub-directories here:
 /var/log
 /var/cache
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  /var/spool Case Study – LINUX

 /var/lib
/var/log : The ‘/var/log’ directory contains all log files.
/var/cache: The ‘/var/cache’ directory stores application cache data. Cache data are
locally generated by I/O or calculation. Cache must be able to regenerate
or restore the data. These files can be deleted without any loss of data.
/var/spool: The ‘/var/spool’ directoryis used to spool the files waitingto be processed.
For example, printing queues and mail queues.
/var/lib: The ‘/var/lib’ directory stores the files that contains state information like
databases. File’s data modifies as their respective programs run.

2.9.7 Non-Standard Directories

Directories which do not come under the standard FHS are called non-standard
directories.Non-standard directories are as follows:
 /cdrom
 /run
 /lost + found
/cdrom: The ‘/cdrom’ directory is not in the standard FHS but cdrom can be
mounted on this directory. Ideally according to standard FHS cdrom
should be mounted under ‘/media’.
/run: The ‘/run’ directorystores run-time variable data. Run-time vriable data
means, data about the running system since last boot. For example,
running daemons.

/lost+found: During system crash or in any other situation when Linux file system
checker (fsck) recovers lost data, that data is stored in this directory.
Data may or may not be in a good condition.

2.10 SECURITY FEATURES IN LINUX

Linux is both more secure and less common than Windows based systems with the
consequence that attacks on Linux systems occur less frequently than on Windows
systems. Some of the security features of Open Source UNIX-like operating systems,
focusing on Linux distributions are as follows:

2.10.1 User Accounts

Linux OS includesa root account, which is the only account that maydirectly carry out
administrative functions. All of the other accounts on the system are unprivileged.
This meansthese accounts have no rightsbeyond access to files marked with appropriate
permissions, and the ability to launch network services. Only the root account may
launch network services that use port numbers lower than 1024. Any account may
start network services that use higher port numbers. Each user should have a single
account on the system. Network services may also have their own separate accounts, 285
Case Studies in order to be able to access those files on the system that they require. Utilities enable
authorized users to temporarily obtain root privileges when necessary, so that
administrators may manage the system with their own user accounts. For convenience,
accounts may be members of one or more groups. If a group is assigned access to a
resource, then every member of the group automatically has that access. The majority
of UNIX-like systems use a Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) facility to
manage access by users. For each login attempt or password change, the relevant
service runs the configured PAM modules in sequence. Some modules support
authentication sources, such as locally-stored files or LDAP directory services.
Administrators may enable other modules that carry out setup tasks during the login
process, or check login requests against particular criteria, such as a list of time periods
when access is permitted.

2.10.2 File Permissions

Every file and directory on a Linux is marked with three sets of file permissions that
determine how it may be accessed, and by whom:
 The permissions for the owner, the specific account that is responsible for the
file
 The permissions for the group that may use the file
 The permissions that apply to all other accounts
Each set may have none or more of the following permissions on the item – read, write
and execute
A user mayonlyrun a program file if theybelong to a set that has the execute permission.
For directories, the execute permission indicates that users in the relevant set may see
the files within it, although they may not actually read, write or execute any file unless
the permissions of that file permit it. Executable files with the setUID property
automatically run with the privileges of the file owner, rather than the account that
activates them. Avoid setting the execute permission or setUID on anyfile or directory
unless you specifically require it. The root account has full access to every file on the
system, regardless of the permissions attached to that file.

2.10.3 Data Verification

To create a checksum for a file, or to test a file against a checksum, use
the sha1sum utility. SHA1 supersedes the older MD5 method, and you should always
use SHA1. Linux also supply the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) system for encrypting
and digitally signing files, such as emails. Many documents refer to GnuPG as gpg,
which is the name of the main GnuPG command. The files that you sign or encrypt with
GnuPG are compatible with other applications that follow the OpenPGP standard.
The Evolution email application automatically supports both signing and encrypting
emails with GnuPG. Evolution is the default email application for several of the main
Linux distributions, including Fedora, Novell Linux Desktop, Red Hat Enterprise Linux,
and Ubuntu.

2.10.4 Encrypted Storage

Create one or more encrypted volumes for your sensitive files. Each volume is a
286 single file which may enclose other files and directories of your choice. To access the
contents of the volume, you must provide the correct decryption password to a utility, Case Study – LINUX
which then makes the volume available as if it were a directory or drive. The contents
of an encrypted volume cannot be read when the volume is not mounted. You may
store or copy encrypted volume files as you wish without affecting their security. For
example, the cross-platform Truecrypt utility enables you to create and access your
encrypted volumes with all popular operating systems. In extreme cases, you may
decide to encrypt an entire disk partition that holds or caches data, so that none of the
contents may be read by unauthorized persons. On Linux you may use either LUKS,
CryptoFS or EncFS to encrypt disks.

2.10.5 Remote Access

Majority Linux Distributions includes a version of OpenSSH, an implementation of
the SSH standard for secure remote access. An SSH service uses strong encryption
bydefault, and provides the following facilities:
 Remote command-line access
 Remote command execution
 Remote access to graphical software
 File transfers

2.10.6 OS Management
Majority of Linux distributions incorporate software management facilities based
on package files and sets of specially prepared Web sites, known
as repositories or channels. Package management utilities construct or update working
copies of software fromthese packages, and execute anyother setup tasks that packages
require. Repositories enable the management tools to automaticallyprovide the correct
version of each software product, by downloading the required packages directly
from the relevant repository. Most systems also use checksums and digital signature
tests to ensure that packages are authentic and correct. Inaddition, package management
tools can identify outdated versions of software by checking the software installed on
a system against the packages in the repositories. This means that you can ensure that
all of the supported software on your system does not suffer from known security
vulnerability, simplybyrunning the update routine.

2.10.7 Backup and System Recovery

You may easily restore program files for all of the software that is included with your
distribution with the software management tools. In order to fully recover a system
from accident, or deliberate compromise, you must also have access to copies of the
data, configuration, and log files. These files require some form of separate backup
mechanism.
All effective backup systems provide the ability to restore versions of your files from
several earlier points in time. You maydiscover that the current system is damaged or
compromised at any time, and need to revert to previous versions of key files, so
keeping only one additional copy of a key file should not be considered an adequate
backup. Majority of the Linux distributions provide a wide range of backup tools,
and leave it to the administrator to configure a suitable backup arrangement for their
systems. 287
Case Studies 2.10.8 Monitoring and Audit Facilities
On Linux systems, the syslog and klogd services record activity as it is reported by
different parts ofthe system. The Linuxkernel reports to klogd, whilst the other services
and facilities on the system send log messages to a syslog service. Distributions provide
several tools for reading and analyzing the system log files.
Several facilities on any UNIX-like system may also email reports and notifications
directly to the root account, via the SMTP service. Edit the aliases file to redirect
messages for root to another email address, and you will receive these emails at the
specified address.

2.10.9 Application Isolation

Linux operating systemprovides several methods of limiting the ability of a programto
affect either other running programs, or the host system itself.
 Mandatory Access Control (MAC) supplements the normal UNIX security
facilities of a system byenforcing absolute limits that cannot be circumvented
by any program or account.
 Virtualization enables you to assign a limited set of hardware resources to a
virtual machine, which maybe monitored and backed up byseparate processes
on the host system.
 Linux Container facilities, such as Docker, run processes within a generated
filesystem and separate them from the normal processes of the host system
 The chroot utility runs programs within a specified working directory, and
prevents them from accessing any other directory on that system.

2.10.10 Protection Against Virus and Malware

The security features of Linux or UNIX-like systems described above combine to
form a strong defense against malware:
 Software is often supplied in the form of packages, rather than programs
 If you download a working program, it cannot run until you choose to mark
the files as executable
 By default, applications such as the OpenOffice.org suite and the Evolution
email client do not run programs embedded in emails or documents
 Web browsers require you to approve the installation of plug-ins
 Software vulnerabilities can be rapidly closed by vendors supplying updated
packages to the repositories

2.11 WINDOWS VS LINUX

Microsoft Windows offeredby Microsoft mainlytargets the personal computing market.
Windows OS has two versions i.e. 32 bits and 64 bits and is available in both clients as
well as server versions. Windows was first released in the year 1985 and the latest
client version of windows is Windows 10 which was released in the year 2015. Talking
about the most recent server version, we have Windows server 2019.
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Linux is a group of Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel. It belongs Case Study – LINUX
to the family of free and open source software. It is usually packaged in a Linux
distribution. Linux was first released in the year 1991. It is most commonly used for
servers; however, a desktop version of Linux is also available which is very much
popular and give a good competition to the Windows OS.
The comparison of both the popular Operating systems is compiled in the Table 2 as
shown below:
Table 2: Windows Vs Linux Operating Systems
Features Windows Linux
Developer Microsoft Corporation Linus Torvalds, community.
Writtenin C++, Assembly Assembly language, C
OS family Graphical Operating Unix-like Operating System family
systemfamily
License Proprietarycommercial GPL(GNU General Public License)
software v2 and others
User Interface Windows shell Unix shell
Kernel type Windows NT family Monolithic kernel (whole operating
has a hybrid kernel system works in the kernel space).
(combination of
microkernel and
monolithic kernel);
Windows CE(Embedded
compact) also have
hybrid kernel; Windows
9x and earlier series has
a monolithic kernel
(MS-DOS).
Source model Closed source software; Open source software
source available (through
shared source initiative).
Initial release November 20, 1985 September 17, 1991
Windows is older than
Linux.
Available in 138 languages Multi-lingual
Platforms ARM, IA-32, Itanium, Alpha, H8/300, Hexagon, Itanium,
x86-64, DEC Alpha, m68k, Microblaze, MIPS, PA-RISC,
MIPS, PowerPC. PowerPC, RISC-V, s390, SuperH,
NDS32, Nios II, OpenRISC,
SPARC, ARC Unicore32, x86,
Xtensa, ARM, C6x.
Package Windows Installer (.msi), Packaged in a Linux distribution
manager Windows Store (.appx). (distro). 289
Case Studies
Booting Can only be done from Can be done from any
disk. the prime disk.
Default Windows PowerShell BASH
command line
Ease of use Windows has a rich GUI CUI / GUI
and can be easily used by
technical as well as non-
technical persons. It is
very simple and user-
friendly.
Reliability Windows is less reliable Highly reliable and secure. It has a
than Linux. Over the deep-rooted emphasis on
process recent years, Windows management, system
security, and reliability has been uptime.
improved a lot. However,
it still has some system
instabilities and security
weaknesses because of
its oversimplified design.
Update Windows update happens
Users have fullcontrol whenanupdate in the current moment is
made. Installation takes less time which maybe sometimes
and no reboot is required. inconvenient to users.
Takes more time to install
and requires a reboot.
Access Every user does not have Users have access over the source
access to the source code. code of kernel and can modify it
Only the selected members accordingly. This gives a benefit that
of the group have access bugs in OS will be fixed faster.
to the source code. However, the drawback is that the
developers maytake undue advantage
of the loophole.


Check Your Progress 1
1) Mention the important features of LINUX Operating System.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Describe the architecture of LINUX.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................

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2.12 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have discussed issues broadly related to features of LINUX OS,
Architecture and components of LINUX, process management, memory
management and file system in LINUX operating system. In this unit, we also discussed
several theoretical concepts of LINUX system in detail, often useful in your lab for
practice.

2.13 SOLUTIONS / ANSWERS

1) Linux is provided with lot of features, which are listed below.

i. Linux operating system can work on different types of hardware devices and
Linux kernel supports the installation of any kind of hardware platform.

ii. Linux is an Open Source software i.e., Linux Source code is freely
available. Linux also allow us to upgrade the source code. Manycollaborative
groups are working to upgrade and develop their own versions.

iii. Multiuser: Linuxoperatingsystemis a multiuser system, whichmeans, multiple

users can access the system resources such as RAM, Memoryor Application
programs at the same time.

iv. Multiprogramming: Linux operating system is a multiprogramming system,

which means multiple applications can run at the same time.

v. Hierarchical File System: Linux operating system affords a standard file

structure in which system files or user files are arranged.
vi. Shell: Linux operating system offers a special interpreter program that can
be used to execute commands of the OS. It can be used to do several types
of operations like call application programs, and so on.

vii. Security: Linux operating system offers user security systems using
authentication features like encryption of data or password protection
or controlled access to particular files.

2) Linux Architecture: Linux Operating System is a four-layered architecture.

Hardware: All physical components of the computer that provides services to the
user like CPU, RAM, Hard Disk, Monitor, Printer, etc., are known as hardware
components of the computers.

Kernel: This is the main component of the Linux operating system. Only through
the Kernel, we can directly communicate with the hardware components.

Shell: The shell layer is in between application layer and the kernel. Shell will take
the input from the user applications and sends to the kernel in the form of
instructions and takes output from the kernel and forwards it as a result to the user
application.
Applications: These are the utility programs for the users that run on shell. These
applications like text editor, web browsers, spread sheet applications, etc.
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2.14 FURTHER READINGS
1. Richard Pertersen, Linux: The Complete Reference, Sixth Edition, McGraw Hill,
2017.
2. MachteltGarrels, Introduction to Linux: A Hands-On Guide, UNIX Academy
Publicaions, 2007.
3. Jason Cannon, Linux for Beginners:An Introductionto the Linux Operating System
and Command Line, Kindle Edition, 2013.
4. Linux System Programming, Robert Love, O’Reilly, 2014.
5. K. Srirengan, Understanding UNIX, PHI, 2002.

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