Module-5

File System
Implementation
 File System Implementation

File-System Structure

File-System Implementation

Directory Implementation

Allocation Methods

Free-Space Management

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 1: File-System Structure
File is a Logical storage unit & Collection of related information

Disk provides in-place rewrite and random access

◦ I/O transfers performed in blocks of sectors (usually 512 bytes)

File system resides on secondary storage (disks)

◦ Provides efficient and convenient access to disk by allowing data to be stored, located,
retrieved easily
◦ Poses two major problems: Provided user interface to storage, algorithms to map
logical to physical storage
File control block – storage structure consisting of information about a file
Device driver controls the physical device
DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE
DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE
 Layered File System
Each File system is organized into layers
Each layer in the design uses the features of lower levels to create
new features for use by the higher levels

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 File System Layers
Device drivers manage I/O devices at the I/O control layer
Given commands like “ read block 6 ”
outputs low-level hardware specific commands to hardware controller

Basic file system issues commands like “retrieve block 123” to device
driver Also manages memory buffers and caches
Buffers hold data in transit
Caches hold frequently used data

File organization module understands files, logical address, and physical

blocks
Translates logical block # to physical block #
Manages free space, disk allocation

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 File System Layers (Cont.)
Logical file system manages metadata information
Maintains file structure by file control blocks
Directory management
Protection

Application Programs
 Written By Users
Layering useful for reducing complexity and redundancy, but adds
overhead and can decrease performance
Logical layers can be implemented by any coding method according to OS designer

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 File Allocation Methods
An allocation method refers to how disk blocks are allocated to files
There are mainly 3 types of Allocation Methods

1. Contiguous Allocation
2. Linked Allocation
3. Indexed Allocation

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 1. Contiguous Allocation
• In Contiguous Allocation each file occupies set of contiguous blocks
in the hard disk.
• Directory should contain the starting address of the block and
length(Number of blocks).

• Provides Best performance in most cases.

• Simple to implement– only starting location (block #) and length (number of
blocks) are required.
• Supports both sequential and direct access
• Problems include finding space for file, knowing file size, external fragmentation,
need for compaction off-line (downtime) or on-line

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

Contiguous Allocation
DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE
 2. Linked
 Each file is a linked list of Disk blocks.
Directory should contain address of starting node and last node

File ends at null pointer

Each block contains pointer to next block
No compaction, external fragmentation
Free space management system called when new block needed
Improve efficiency by clustering blocks into groups but increases internal
fragmentation
Reliability can be a problem
Locating a block can take many I/Os and
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Linked Allocation

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 3. Indexed
◦ Each file has its own index block which contains pointers to its data blocks.
◦ Address of the index box is kept in Directory

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 Performance
1. Contiguous Allocation
 Requires only one access to get a disk-block
 We can calculate immediately the disk address of the next block and read it
directly
Good for direct access
2. Linked Allocation
 Good for sequential access
 Not be used for an application requiring direct access

3. Indexed Allocation
 If the index block is already in memory, then the access can be made directly
 Keeping the index block in memory requires considerable space
 Good for direct access
DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE
 Free-Space Management
Managing the free blocks of hard disk in known as Free space management.
A free-space list is maintained to keep track of free disk-space (i.e. those not allocated
to some file or directory).
It contains the information about free blocks in the hard disk
During File creation
1. OS searches the free-space list for the required amount of space.
2. Allocate that space to the new file.
3. This space is then removed from the free-space list.
During file Deletion
Deleted file disk-space is added to the free-space list.

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 4 Techniques
There are mainly 4 techniques
1. Bit Vector
2. Linked List
3. Grouping
4. Counting

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 1. Bit Vector
The free-space list is implemented as a bit map/bit vector.
Each block is represented by a bit.
1. If the block is free, the bit is 1.
2. If the block is allocated, the bit is 0.

For example, consider a disk where blocks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 are free and the rest
of the blocks are allocated. The free-space bit map will be 00111101

Advantage: simplicity & efficiency

Disadvantages:
1. Inefficient unless the entire vector is kept in main memory.
2. The entire vector is written to discDR.BHAGYA
occasionally
JYOTHI Kfor recovery.
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 2. Linked List
1. Link all the free disk-blocks together as a List
2. Keep a pointer to the first free block in a special location on
the disk.
3. Cache that block in memory.

• The first block contains a pointer to the next free one, etc.

Advantage:
• Efficient

Disadvantage:
1. Not efficient, because to traverse the list, each block is read.

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE
 3.Grouping
 The addresses of first n free blocks are stored in the 1st free block.
 The last block contains addresses of another n free blocks, etc.
Advantage:
 Addresses of a large no of free blocks can be found quickly.

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

 4. Counting

 Keep the address of the first free block and the number ‘n’ of free
contiguous blocks that follow the first block.
 Takes advantage of the fact that, generally, several contiguous
blocks may be allocated/freed simultaneously.
 Each entry in the free-space list then consists of a disk address and a
count.

DR.BHAGYA JYOTHI K L,KVGCE

END