Contents

 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

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What is Kernel ?
 Modules or sub-systems that
provide the operating system
functions.
 The Core of OS

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Types of kernels
 Micro kernel (Modular kernel)
 Monolithic kernel

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Micro kernel
 It includes code only necessary to
allow the system to provide major
functionality.
 IPC
 Some memory management
 Low level process management &
scheduling
 Low level input / output
 Such as Amoeba, Mach and …
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Monolithic kernel
 It includes all the necessary
functions.
 Such as Linux and …

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Micro vs. Monolithic
 Micro
 Flexible
 Modular
 Easy to implement
 Monolithic
 Performance

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Contents
 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

8
Kernel Architecture
Overview
 User Space
 Kernel Space

User Space
System Call
Kernel Space

Hardware

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User Space
 The User Space is the space in memory
where user processes run.
 This Space is protected.
 The system prevents one process from
interfering with another process.
 Only Kernel processes can access a user
process

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Kernel Space
 The kernel Space is the space in memory
where kernel processes run.
 The user has access to it only through the
system call.

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System Call
 User Space and Kernel Space are
in different spaces.
 When a System Call is executed,
the arguments to the call are
passed from
User Space to Kernel Space.
 A user process becomes a kernel
process when it executes a system
call.
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User Space and Kernel Space
Relationship

User Data Flow

User Library Routine

Kernel
Service

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Contents
 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

14
Kernel Functional
Overview
 File System
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

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Kernel Functional Overview

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Functional Layer &
Architectural Layer
User Space

System Call
MM
FS PM
Hardware

DM Net

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Contents
 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

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File System
 It is responsible for storing information on
disk and retrieving and updating this
information.
 The File System is accessed through
system calls such as : open, read, write, …
 Example :
 FAT16, FAT32, NTFS
 ext2, ext3
…

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Type of Files
 The Unix system has the following types of
files:
 Ordinary Files
 Contain information entered into them by a user, an
application or …
 Directory Files
 Manage the cataloging of the file system
 Special Files (devices)
 Used to access the peripheral devices
 FIFO Files for Pipes

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Extended File System
/

/bin /etc /dev … /usr /home /root

ls ping A B

data.txt pic.gif

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File System Structure
Boot Super inode Block
Block Block List List

 Boot Block : information needs to boot the system

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Inode
 Each file has an inode structure that
is identified by an i-number.
 The inode contains the information
required to access the file.
 It doesn’t contain file name.

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Inode (Cont.)

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Directories

File
inode Number
Name

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Virtual File System
 It manages all the different file
system.
 It is an abstraction layer between the
application program and the file
system implementations.

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Virtual File System (Cont.)
 It describes the system’s file in terms
of superblocks and inodes (the same
way as the Ext2).

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Virtual File System (Cont.)
 Inode cache
 Directory Cache

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Contents
 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

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Process Management
 The Unix OS is a time-sharing
system.
 Every process is scheduled to run for
a period of time (time slice).
 Kernel creates, manages and deletes
the processes

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Process Management (Cont.)
 Every process (except init) in the system is create
as the result of a fork system call.
 The fork system call splits a process into two
processes (Parent and Child).
 Each process has a unique identifier (Process ID).

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Process Structure
 Each process is represented by a
task_struct data structure.
 Itcontains the specifications of each process
such as:
 State
 Scheduling information
 Identifier
 …

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Process Structure (cont.)
 The task_vector is an array of pointers to
every task_struct data structure in the
system.
 This means that the maximum number of
processes in the system is limited by the size of
the task vector

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Type of Processes
 Running
 The process is either running or it is ready to run.
 Waiting
 The process is waiting for an event or for a resource.
 Stopped
 The process has been stopped, usually by receiving a
signal.
 Zombie
 This is a halted process which, for some reason, still has
a task_struct data structure in the task vector.

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Contents
 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

35
Device Driver
 On of the purpose of an OS is to hide the
system’s hardware from user.
 Instead of putting code to manage the HW
controller into every application, the code
is kept in the Linux kernel.
 It abstracts the handling of devices.
 All HW devices look like regular files.

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Type of devices
 Character devices
A character device is one that can be accessed
as a stream of bytes.
 Example : Keyboard, Mouse, …
 Block devices
A block device can be accessed only as
multiples of a block.
 Example : disk, …
 Network devices
 They are created by Linux kernel.

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Major Number and Minor Number

 Major Number
 Themajor number identifies the driver
associated with the device.
 Minor Number
 The minor number is used only by the driver
specified by the major number; other parts of
the kernel don't use it.
 It is common for a driver to control several
devices, the minor number provides a way for
the driver to differentiate among them.

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Device Driver (Cont.)

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Contents
 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

40
Memory Management
 Physical memory is limited.
 Virtual memory is developed to overcome
this limitation.

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Virtual memory
 Large Address space
 Protection
 Memory mapping
 Fair physical memory allocation
 Shared virtual memory

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Physical and Virtual memory

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Swap memory
 It is a configurable partition on disk
treated in a manner similar to
memory.

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Contents
 What is Kernel ?
 Kernel Architecture Overview
 UserSpace
 Kernel Space
 Kernel Functional Overview
 FileSystem
 Process Management
 Device Driver
 Memory Management
 Networking

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Network layers

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Linux network layers

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BSD socket layer
 It is a general interface (abstract
layer).
 Used in networking and IPC.
 Socket address families:
 UNIX
 INET
 AX25
 IPX
 APPLETALK
 X25

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What is socket?

main() main()
{ {
FILE *fd; int sockfd;
fd = fopen (…); sockfd = socket (…);
process (fd); process (sockfd);
fclose (fd); close (sockfd);
} }

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INET socket layer
 It supports the Internet address
family.
 Its interface with BSD socket layer is
through a set of operation which is
registered with BSD socket layer.

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Type of sockets
 Stream Socket
 Provide
a reliable, sequenced, two-way
connection (such as TCP).
 Datagram Socket
A connection-less and unreliable connection
(such as UDP).
 Raw Socket
 Used for internal network protocols.

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Question?

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