KNR2753

Computer System Architecture

File Management

1
File Management System

2
 File Management System
 A file management system is a type of software that
manages data files in a computer system. It has limited
capabilities and is designed to manage individual or group
files, such as special office documents and records. It may
display report details, like owner, creation date, state of
completion and similar features useful in an office
environment.
 A file management system is also known as a file manager.

3
 Rules for Filenames
 Like devices, disk files have to identified so we can address
them. These filenames have specific rules.
 The basic form of a filename is:
Filename.ext
 The following are legal and illegal characters in a filename:
Legal: A-Z 0-9 $#&@!()-{}'`_~
Illegal: |<>\^+=?/[]";,* plus control characters and the
space
 Some other operating systems allow longer file names and
there are commercial utilities which link a database of long
names to your short names so you can find files by using
more fully descriptive names.

4
 MS-DOS
 DOS commands are issued at the prompt C:\>.
 Whatever you type after that prompt that is not in the
COMMAND.COM standard library is assumed to be the
name of a file on the default disk and DOS will search for it.
 If you type C\:> FILENAME
DOS will look for: FILENAME.COM or FILENAME.EXE or
FILENAME.BAT
The first is a command file (note the COM extension). The
second is an execution file (EXE extension). And, the third
is a batch file (a series of DOS commands in a text file)

5
MS-DOS

KNL2373 KHP/NR 6
 Simple Commands
 CLS Clears the screen and puts the cursor in the home
(upper left) position.
 FORMAT d: /s /u where
 d: defines the disk that will be formatted
 /s puts the DOS system on disk to make it bootable
 /u specifies an unconditional format (cannot unformat
the disk)
 COPY d1:FILENAME1.ext d2:filename2.ext/v
 DEL d:FILENAME.ext

7
Subdirectories

8
 File Allocation Table (FAT)
 A patented file system developed by Microsoft .
 The FAT file system is considered relatively uncomplicated,
and is consequently supported by virtually all existing
operating systems for personal computers.
 The most common implementations have a serious
drawback in that when files are deleted and new files
written to the media, their fragments tend to become
scattered over the entire media making reading and
writing a slow process. Defragmentation is one solution
to this, but is often a lengthy process in itself and has to be
repeated regularly to keep the FAT file system clean.

9
File Management System
 Provides a logical view for
the user and hides the
physical implementation
 Command shell takes user
file commands and
program file requests and
translates them for the file
manager
 Requests data transfers
from I/O device drivers
 File security and
protection of file integrity

10
 File Operations
 File as a whole  Within a file  Record Storage
 Copy, Move  Open a file
 Retrieve a
 Read a number
 List, Print of bytes from record (read)
 Load and file  Store a record
execute a  Write a (write)
program number of
 Load file into bytes to a file  Add a record to
memory  Move the file a file
pointer
 Store file from forward or  Delete a record
memory backward  Modify contents
 Append data  Move file of a record
from memory to pointer to
file beginning of a
 Compile, file
assemble a file  Close a file

11
 File Access Methods
 Sequential Access
 File is read in sequence from beginning to end
 Majority of all files
 Program source and binary files

 Random Access
 Assumes file is made up of fixed length logical records
 Hashing is a common method used to calculate the location of an
internal logical record

 Indexed Access
 Additional means for accessing and viewing records in a file
 Key indexes
 ISAM – indexed sequential access method
12
 Physical File Storage
 Contiguous (adjacent/adjoining)
 Non-contiguous
 Linked
 Indexed

 Examples
 DOS/Windows FAT
 UNIX i-nodes
 Windows NTFS

 Free space management

13
Contiguous Storage Allocation
 Assign blocks (all in a row)
to hold the file
 Access is simple for both
sequential and random
methods
 Allocation strategies to
minimize fragmentation
 First-fit, best-fit
 Eventually disk becomes
fragmented

14
Contiguous Storage Allocation
 Disadvantages
 Space must be large enough
 Have to take into account
file growth
 May need to be moved if it
outgrows its space
 Fragmentation of disk

15
Non-Contiguous Storage
Allocation (Linked)
 Non-contiguous
 Each block contains a link
to the next physical block
 Variant – links in both
directions
 Advantages:
 no fragmentation
 Adding to a file is easy

16
Non-Contiguous Storage
Allocation (Linked)
 Disadvantages:
 Not usable for random
access
 Additional disk head
searching
 Overhead in storing the
pointers
 Recovery of a defective
block is difficult

17
Non-Contiguous Storage
Allocation (Indexed)
 All link pointers are stored
together in a single block
called the index block
 One index block per file
 Advantages
 No fragmentation
 Can be used for random
access

18
Non-Contiguous Storage
Allocation (Indexed)
 Disadvantage
 Slower due to additional
access of the index block
 Additional disk head
searching
 Recovery of a defective
block is difficult

19
Windows FAT
 Linked allocation with links
stored in a table
 Table contains the first
block of each file on the
disk or disk partition
 Successive blocks contain a
link to the next block

20
Windows FAT
 Disadvantages
 Requires a tremendous
amount of space
 File integrity can be easily
compromised

21
MS DOS FAT

Linked Allocation
and File Allocation
Table

KNL2373 KHP/NR 22
 MS DOS FAT

Index blocks for indexed allocation of linked

files shown in MS-DOS FAT example

23
 Unix i-nodes
 Advantages
 Fast for small blocks
 Can accommodate very large files – 100’s of gigabytes

24
Windows NTFS
 Volumes may be a
fraction of a disk or
span many disks
 First 16 records are
metadata files
which describe the
volume
 File records made
up of attributes,
including file
information and
data
KNL2373 KHP/NR 25
 Free Space Management
 Bit map method
 one bit for each block
to indicate if it is used or free

 Linked list method

 Pointer to first free block
 Each free block has a pointer to the next
 Blocks are allocated from the beginning
 Deleted files are placed at the end

26
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
 Part of TCP/IP protocol family
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol
used to transfer computer files between a client and
server on a computer network.

27
 TELNET
 Telnet is an application layer protocol used on the Internet
or local area networks to provide a bidirectional
interactive text-oriented communication facility using a
virtual terminal connection.

28
 Domain Name System (DNS)
 Domain name system (DNS) is a hierarchical naming
system built on a distributed database. This system
transforms domain names to IP addresses and makes it
possible to assign domain names to groups of Internet
resources and users, regardless of the entities' physical
location

KNL2373 KHP/NR 29
 Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
 A uniform resource locator (URL) is the address of a
resource on the Internet. A URL indicates the location of
a resource as well as the protocol used to access it.

30
Other (Remote Access)

31
Other (File Manager)

KNL2373 KHP/NR 32
Other (File Manager)

KNL2373 KHP/NR 33
Other (File Manager)

KNL2373 KHP/NR 34
Other (File Manager)

35
Thank You

36