Chapter 2: Operating-

Operating-System
Structures

Operating System Concepts 2.1 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Chapter 2: Operating-
Operating-System Structures

Operating System Services

User Operating System Interface

System Calls

Types of System Calls

System Programs

Operating System Design and Implementation

Operating System Structure

Virtual Machines

Operating System Generation

System Boot

Operating System Concepts 2.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Objectives

To describe the services an operating system

provides to users, processes, and other systems

To discuss the various ways of structuring an
operating system

To explain how operating systems are installed
and customized and how they boot

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 Operating System Services

One set of operating-system services provides functions that are
helpful to the user:
 User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user
interface (UI)

Varies between Command-Line (CLI), Graphics User Interface
(GUI), Batch
 Program execution - The system must be able to load a program
into memory and to run that program, end execution, either
normally or abnormally (indicating error)
 I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may
involve a file or an I/O device.
 File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular
interest. Obviously, programs need to read and write files and
directories, create and delete them, search them, list file
Information, permission management.

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 Operating System Services (Cont.)

One set of operating-system services provides functions that are

helpful to the user (Cont):
 Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the
same computer or between computers over a network

Communications may be via shared memory or through message
passing (packets moved by the OS)
 Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible
errors

May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in user
program

For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to
ensure correct and consistent computing

Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the user’s and programmer’s
abilities to efficiently use the system

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 Operating System Services (Cont.)

Another set of OS functions exists for ensuring the efficient

operation of the system itself via resource sharing
 Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple
jobs running concurrently, resources must be allocated to
each of them

Many types of resources - Some (such as CPU cycles,
main memory, and file storage) may have special
allocation code, others (such as I/O devices) may have
general request and release code.
 Accounting - To keep track of which users use how much
and what kinds of computer resources

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 Operating System Services (Cont.)

 Protection and security - The owners of information

stored in a multiuser or networked computer system may
want to control use of that information, concurrent
processes should not interfere with each other

Protection involves ensuring that all access to
system resources is controlled

Security of the system from outsiders requires user
authentication, extends to defending external I/O
devices from invalid access attempts

If a system is to be protected and secure, precautions
must be instituted throughout it. A chain is only as
strong as its weakest link.

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 User Operating System Interface - CLI

CLI allows direct command entry

Sometimes implemented in kernel, sometimes by
systems program

Sometimes multiple flavors implemented – shells

Primarily fetches a command from user and executes
it
– Sometimes commands built-in, sometimes just
names of programs
» If the latter, adding new features doesn’t require
shell modification

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 User Operating System Interface - GUI

User-friendly desktop metaphor interface

 Usually mouse, keyboard, and monitor
 Icons represent files, programs, actions, etc
 Various mouse buttons over objects in the interface cause
various actions (provide information, options, execute function,
open directory (known as a folder)
 Invented at Xerox PARC

Many systems now include both CLI and GUI interfaces
 Microsoft Windows is GUI with CLI “command” shell
 Apple Mac OS X as “Aqua” GUI interface with UNIX kernel
underneath and shells available
 Solaris is CLI with optional GUI interfaces (Java Desktop, KDE)

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 System Calls

Programming interface to the services provided by the OS

Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)

Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application
Program Interface (API) rather than direct system call use

Three most common APIs are Win32 API for Windows,
POSIX API for POSIX-based systems (including virtually all
versions of UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X), and Java API for
the Java virtual machine (JVM)

Why use APIs rather than system calls?

(Note that the system-call names used throughout this text are
generic)

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 Example of System Calls

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

file

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 Example of Standard API

Consider the ReadFile() function in the Win32 API—a function for reading
from a file

A description of the parameters passed to ReadFile()

 HANDLE file—the file to be read
 LPVOID buffer—a buffer where the data will be read into and written
from
 DWORD bytesToRead—the number of bytes to be read into the buffer
 LPDWORD bytesRead—the number of bytes read during the last read
 LPOVERLAPPED ovl—indicates if overlapped I/O is being used

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 System Call Implementation

Typically, a number associated with each system call

 System-call interface maintains a table indexed according to
these numbers

The system call interface invokes intended system call in OS kernel
and returns status of the system call and any return values

The caller need know nothing about how the system call is
implemented
 Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a
result call
 Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API

Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built
into libraries included with compiler)

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 API – System Call – OS Relationship

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 Standard C Library Example

C program invoking printf() library call, which calls write() system call

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 System Call Parameter Passing

Often, more information is required than simply identity of desired

system call
 Exact type and amount of information vary according to OS
and call

Three general methods used to pass parameters to the OS
 Simplest: pass the parameters in registers

In some cases, may be more parameters than registers
 Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and address
of block passed as a parameter in a register

This approach taken by Linux and Solaris
 Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the program
and popped off the stack by the operating system
 Block and stack methods do not limit the number or length of
parameters being passed

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 Parameter Passing via Table

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 Types of System Calls

Process control

File management

Device management

Information maintenance

Communications

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 Process Control

End, abort, load, execute, create process,

terminate process

Get process attributes, set process attributes

Wait for time, wait event, signal event

Allocate and free memory

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 MS
MS--DOS execution

(a) At system startup (b) running a program

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 FreeBSD Running Multiple Programs

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 File & Device Management

File Management:
 Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list, and generally
manipulate files and directories
 Get file attributes, set file attributes

Device Management:
 Request device, release device
 Red, write, reposition
 Get device attributes, set device attributes

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 Information Maintenances &
Communication

Information Maintenances:
 Get time or date, set time or date
 Get system date, set system date
 Get (set) file, device. Or process attributes

Communication - Provide the mechanism for creating virtual
connections among processes, users, and computer
systems
 Allow users to send messages to one another’s screens, browse
web pages, send electronic-mail messages, log in remotely, transfer
files from one machine to another
 Message-passing model and shared-memory model

2007/10/1 os2, 2006 23

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 Communication Models
Communication may take place using either message
passing or shared memory.

Msg Passing Shared Memory

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 System Programs

System programs provide a convenient environment for

program development and execution. The can be divided
into:
 File manipulation
 Status information
 File modification
 Programming language support
 Program loading and execution
 Communications
 Application programs

Most users’ view of the operation system is defined by
system programs, not the actual system calls

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 System Programs

Provide a convenient environment for program development

and execution
 Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls; others
are considerably more complex

File management - Create, delete, copy, rename, print,
dump, list, and generally manipulate files and directories

Status information
 Some ask the system for info - date, time, amount of available
memory, disk space, number of users
 Others provide detailed performance, logging, and debugging
information
 Typically, these programs format and print the output to the
terminal or other output devices
 Some systems implement a registry - used to store and
retrieve configuration information

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 System Programs (cont.)

File modification
 Text editors to create and modify files
 Special commands to search contents of files or perform
transformations of the text

Programming-language support - Compilers, assemblers,
debuggers and interpreters sometimes provided

Program loading and execution- Absolute loaders,
relocatable loaders, linkage editors, and overlay-loaders,
debugging systems for higher-level and machine language

Communications - Provide the mechanism for creating
virtual connections among processes, users, and computer
systems

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 Operating System Design and
Implementation

Design and Implementation of OS not “solvable”, but some
approaches have proven successful

Internal structure of different Operating Systems can vary
widely

Start by defining goals and specifications

Affected by choice of hardware, type of system (batch, time-
shared, single user, multiple user,…)

User goals and System goals
 User goals – operating system should be convenient to use,
easy to learn, reliable, safe, and fast
 System goals – operating system should be easy to design,
implement, and maintain, as well as flexible, reliable, error-free,
and efficient

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 Operating System Design and
Implementation (Cont.)

Important principle to separate
Policy: What will be done?
Mechanism: How to do it?

Mechanisms determine how to do something,
policies decide what will be done
 The separation of policy from mechanism is a very
important principle, it allows maximum flexibility if policy
decisions are to be changed later

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 Simple Structure

MS-DOS – written to provide the most

functionality in the least space
 Not divided into modules
 Although MS-DOS has some structure, its interfaces and
levels of functionality are not well separated

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 MS
MS--DOS Layer Structure

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 UNIX

UNIX – limited by hardware functionality, the original

UNIX operating system had limited structuring. The
UNIX OS consists of two separable parts
 Systems programs
 The kernel

Consists of everything below the system-call interface
and above the physical hardware

Provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory
management, and other operating-system functions; a
large number of functions for one level

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 UNIX System Structure

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 Layered Approach

The operating system is divided into a number of

layers (levels), each built on top of lower layers.
The bottom layer (layer 0), is the hardware; the
highest (layer N) is the user interface.

With modularity, layers are selected such that
each uses functions (operations) and services of
only lower-level layers

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 Layered Operating System

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 Microkernel System Structure

Moves as much from the kernel into “user” space

Communication takes place between user
modules using message passing

Benefits:
 Easier to extend a microkernel
 Easier to port the operating system to new architectures
 More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode)
 More secure

Detriments:
 Performance overhead of user space to kernel space
communication

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 Mac OS X Structure

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 Modules

Most modern operating systems implement kernel modules

 Uses object-oriented approach
 Each core component is separate
 Each talks to the others over known interfaces
 Each is loadable as needed within the kernel

Overall, similar to layers but with more flexible

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 Solaris Modular Approach

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 Virtual Machines

A virtual machine takes the layered approach to its logical

conclusion. It treats hardware and the operating system
kernel as though they were all hardware

A virtual machine provides an interface identical to the
underlying bare hardware

The operating system creates the illusion of multiple
processes, each executing on its own processor with its own
(virtual) memory

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 Virtual Machines (Cont.)

The resources of the physical computer are shared to create the

virtual machines
 CPU scheduling can create the appearance that users have
their own processor
 Spooling and a file system can provide virtual card readers and
virtual line printers
 A normal user time-sharing terminal serves as the virtual
machine operator’s console

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 Virtual Machines (Cont.)

Non-virtual Machine Virtual Machine

(a) Nonvirtual machine (b) virtual machine

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 Virtual Machines (Cont.)

The virtual-machine concept provides complete protection of system

resources since each virtual machine is isolated from all other virtual
machines. This isolation, however, permits no direct sharing of
resources.

A virtual-machine system is a perfect vehicle for operating-systems
research and development. System development is done on the
virtual machine, instead of on a physical machine and so does not
disrupt normal system operation.

The virtual machine concept is difficult to implement due to the effort
required to provide an exact duplicate to the underlying machine

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 VMware Architecture

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 The Java Virtual Machine

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 Operating System Generation

Operating systems are designed to run on any of a class of

machines; the system must be configured for each specific
computer site

SYSGEN program obtains information concerning the specific
configuration of the hardware system

Booting – starting a computer by loading the kernel

Bootstrap program – code stored in ROM that is able to locate the
kernel, load it into memory, and start its execution

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 System Boot

Operating system must be made available to hardware so

hardware can start it
 Small piece of code – bootstrap loader, locates the kernel,
loads it into memory, and starts it
 Sometimes two-step process where boot block at fixed
location loads bootstrap loader
 When power initialized on system, execution starts at a fixed
memory location

Firmware used to hold initial boot code

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 End of Chapter 2

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