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Questions and Answers On Kernel and Shell in Operating Systems

The document discusses kernels and shells in operating systems. It begins by defining the kernel as the core component of an operating system that acts as an interface between applications and hardware. It then discusses different types of kernels like monolithic, micro, hybrid, and exo kernels. It also discusses the main tasks performed by kernels like memory management, process management, and device driver management. The document then differentiates between micro and monolithic kernels. It defines shells as the user interface to operating system functions and services. It lists some popular shell types and features like command history, input/output redirection, and variable substitution.

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özlem Erdem
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149 views

Questions and Answers On Kernel and Shell in Operating Systems

The document discusses kernels and shells in operating systems. It begins by defining the kernel as the core component of an operating system that acts as an interface between applications and hardware. It then discusses different types of kernels like monolithic, micro, hybrid, and exo kernels. It also discusses the main tasks performed by kernels like memory management, process management, and device driver management. The document then differentiates between micro and monolithic kernels. It defines shells as the user interface to operating system functions and services. It lists some popular shell types and features like command history, input/output redirection, and variable substitution.

Uploaded by

özlem Erdem
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Questions and Answers on Kernel and Shell in

Operating Systems

Q1. What is a kernel?


Answer: Kernel is actually the heart of operating systems. It acts as an interface between the
applications and actual data processing done at hardware level (CPU, disk memory etc.).
Kernel lies in the centre of the operating system which manages the communication between
the user level applications and the hardware installed on the system. In other words, we can
say that it’s a platform consisting the specific set of libraries and infrastructure for the new
application made and thus help in interaction among them.

Here is a diagram that gives you a better view about what Kernel is in an Operating System

OS Kernel

Let's take another picture of the Kernel in Operating system to clear this concept in our
minds. In the second image below, the kernel lies in between the application and the
hardwares like CPU, Memory and Devices and let them interact with the applications
installed. Thus, it’s behaving like a interaction level for the other two.

Kernel in OS

After clearing the introduction of the kernel in operating system. Let's find the types. There
are following types of kernels developed-

 Monolithic Kernel
 Microlithic Kernel
 Hybrid or Modular Kernel
 Exo Kernel
 Nano Kernel

Q2. What are the tasks performed by kernel?


Answer: There are following main tasks performed by kernel:-

 Memory Management
 Process Management
 Disk and File System Management
 Networking
 Security
 Graphical User Interface (GUI)
 Device Driver Management

Note: To know more about "Operating System Design/Kernel Architecture" read Operating
System Design/Kernel Architecture

Q3. Differentiate between Micro and Monolithic kernels.


Answer: The answer for this question comes from the names. There are following major
differences-
a. Mono means everything in kernel space, whereas micro means minimal kernel space.

b. Monolithic Kernels perform Process management, Memory Management, File


Input/Output. Here all OS services run along with the main kernel thread, thus also residing
in the same memory area. Whereas,

In Micro-Kernel, very minimal support for the process management goes into the kernel. The
micro-kernel approach consists of defining a simple abstraction over the hardware, with a set
of primitives or system to implement minimal OS services such as address
space management, thread management, and inter-process communication. All other services,
including those normally provided by the kernel such as networking, are implemented in
user-space programs referred to as servers.

c. The main disadvantage of monolithic kernels is the dependency between system


components - a bug might crash the entire system - and the fact that large kernels also
Main disadvantage with micro kernels is that large amount of system calls might slow down
the system.

d. Examples of Monolithic Kernels are: Symbian os, AIX OS, Amoeba.


Examples of Micro kernels are Mach, QNX, L4, Minix.
Q4. What are hybrid kernels?
Answer: Hybrid kernels can think of like extensions of micro kernels with some features of
monolithic kernels. Basically, Hybrid kernels are a compromise between the monolithic and
microkernel designs. This implies running some services (such as the network stack or
the file system) in kernel space to reduce the performance overhead of a traditional
microkernel, but still running kernel code (such as device drivers) as servers in user space.
Hybrid kernels are used in most commercial operating systems such as Microsoft
Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7.

Q5. What are Exo-kernels?


Answer: These are the type of kernels that simply separate security from abstraction. It
makes non-overridable parts of operating system multiplex the hardware securely. The goal is
to avoid forcing any particular abstraction upon applications, instead allowing them to use or
implement whatever abstractions are best suited to their task without having to layer them on
top of other abstractions which may impose limits or unnecessary overhead.

Q6. What is a Shell in operating system?


Answer: A shell is simply software the gives a user interface to various operating system
functions and services. So, in layman words”Your interface to operating system is called
shell”. Shells provide a way for you to communicate with the operating system. This
communication is carried out either interactively (input from the keyboard is acted upon
immediately) or as a shell script. A shell script is a sequence of shell and operating system
commands that is stored in a file.

Here is a pic that gives you a brief idea about shell:

OS Shell
Q7. What are the different types of shells available?
Answer: Some most popular commercial shells are:-

 Korn shell
 Bourne Shell
 C shell
 POSIX shell

Q8. List some salient features of shells in OS.


Answer: Well, some relevant features are:-
a. Wildcard substitution in file names (pattern-matching)
Carries out commands on a group of files by specifying a pattern to match, rather than
specifying an actual file name.

b. Command aliasing
Gives an alias name to a command or phrase. When the shell encounters an alias on the
command line or in a shell script, it substitutes the text to which the alias refers.

c. Command history
Records the commands you enter in a history file. You can use this file to easily access,
modify, and reissue any listed command.

d. File name substitution


Automatically produces a list of file names on a command line using pattern-matching
characters.

e. Input and output redirection


Redirects input away from the keyboard and redirects output to a file or device other than the
terminal. For example, input to a program can be provided from a file and redirected to the
printer or to another file.
f. Piping
Links any number of commands together to form a complex program. The standard output of
one program becomes the standard input of the next.

g. Shell variable substitution


Stores data in user-defined variables and predefined shell variables.
Q9. What is Korn Shell?
Answer: Korn shell is basically a UNIX shell that was developed by David Korn in Bell
Labs. It has many features of C shell (csh) and Bourne Shell (bsh) and is one of the most
efficient shells.

Q10. What is C shell?


Answer: C shell is a unix shell created by Bill Joy.at the University of California at Berkeley
as an alternative to UNIX's original shell, the Bourne shell. These two UNIX shells, along
with the Korn shell, are the three most commonly used shells. The C shell program name
is csh. The C shell was invented for programmers who prefer syntax similar to that of
the C programming language.

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