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Mobile Operating System and Its File System

The document analyzes the file systems of mobile operating systems, focusing on Android and iOS, highlighting their design, features, optimization techniques, and security measures. It discusses the importance of file systems in managing data on mobile devices with limited storage and performance constraints. The paper also compares various file systems used by Android, such as EXT4 and F2FS, and introduces Apple's APFS, emphasizing their advantages and disadvantages.

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19 views5 pages

Mobile Operating System and Its File System

The document analyzes the file systems of mobile operating systems, focusing on Android and iOS, highlighting their design, features, optimization techniques, and security measures. It discusses the importance of file systems in managing data on mobile devices with limited storage and performance constraints. The paper also compares various file systems used by Android, such as EXT4 and F2FS, and introduces Apple's APFS, emphasizing their advantages and disadvantages.

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khaleex21
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© © All Rights Reserved
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MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEM FILE SYSTEM AND ITS

RELATION TO SECONDARY STORAGE


ABSTRACT
The file system of the mobile operating system plays an essential role in the management,
storage, and retrieval of data on mobile devices. With the evolution of mobile devices,
file systems in mobile devices have been developed to maximize data security,
performance, and power efficiency while taking into account the particular hardware
limitations of these devices. Given the emphasis on the Android and iOS platforms, this
paper offers a thorough analysis of the mobile file system, examining its design, salient
features, optimization techniques, and security measures.

INTRODUCTION
A mobile operating system serves as an intermediary between mobile devices hardware
and its software application, allowing users to interact with their devices. Every operating
system has a file system that governs how data is stored, organized, and retrieved. The
filing system of mobile devices is particularly important because of its limited storage
capacity, resource constraint, and need for high-performance operation while minimizing
battery.
Specialized file systems used by mobile operating systems like Android and iOS are very
different from those found in desktop OSes, both in terms of operation and architecture.
The components, functions, and optimizations of mobile operating systems' file systems
are examined in this paper, with particular attention paid to iOS's Apple File System
(APFS) and Android's ext4.

FILE SYSTEM IN MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEM


For the majority of users, a general-purpose operating system's file system is its most
noticeable feature. All users of the computer system can access and store data and
applications of the operating system online thanks to the file system. It is divided into two
main sections: a directory structure that arranges and offers details about every file in the
system, and a collection of files that each store relevant data [1, p. 529]. These functions
are optimized to for speed, reliability, and security due to limited hardware resources.
ANDROID FILE SYSTEM:
With some Android-specific features, the Android file system directory is comparable to
that of a standard Linux installation, allowing Android to leverage the file management
functionality inherent in Linux [2].
Here is a picture of the Android file system directory:
[2, p. 594]

Typical Directory Tree of Android


The essential components of the operating system, such as configuration files, system
libraries, and system binaries, are located under the system directory. A basic collection
of Android apps, including Camera, Calculator, and Alarmclock, are also included.
Then the data directory gives the principal location used by applications to store their
private data. This contains the users data such as contacts, SMS, settings, and all android
applications you have installed.
The cache directory is basically used for temporary storage by the OS. Here, the android
stores data and app components that are frequently accessed.
Then we have the mnt/sdcard directory a nonvolatile memory card that can be integrated
with Android devices, is what the mnt/sdcard directory represents rather than a partition
on the device's internal memory. A detachable memory card, the SD card allows users to
take it out and connect it to their computer.
File Systems Used by Android
Flash Memory File System
ExFAT: The exFAT file system, which was originally built by Microsoft for flash
memory, is not included in the standard Linux kernel. However, it still supports Android
smartphones in some circumstances. It stands for Extended File Allocation Table.

Advantages:
 Eliminates the FAT32 file size limit.
 In practical transfers, it performs marginally better than FAT32/VFAT.
 Nearly every contemporary smartphone has built-in support.
Disadvantages:
 Older devices probably don't support it.
 Similar to FAT32, it uses space inefficiently.
 EXT4 is more dependable than any other FAT filesystems.

F2FS: Based on append-only logging, F2FS is a Linux file system that was created with
the features of flash storage in mind. It is optimized to run smoothly on contemporary
flash storage devices. On a server system, F2FS is demonstrated to outperform EXT4 by
up to 2.5× (SATA SSD) and 1.8× (PCIe SSD). It also reduces the elapsed time of
numerous actual workloads by up to 40% [3].
Advantages:
 Faster read/write speeds in theory.
 The ability to extend the life of your flash storage by requiring fewer writes.
 The absence of the 4GB file size limit are some drawbacks.
Disadvantages:
 Formatted SD cards may have mounting issues and certain apps may not
function properly.
 Stability is largely dependent on the kernel maintainer
 Not all phones support it.

EXT2/EXT3/EXT4: The Linux file system adheres to the EXTended file systems
specifications, or Ext for short. The EXT4 is the most recent of them and has been taking
the place of the YAFFS2 and JFFS2 file systems on Android smartphones.
Advantages:
 EXT4 has the advantage of not having a 4GB file size restriction.
 It is thought to be an extremely stable file system.
 It has a lot of features, including encryption.
 All contemporary cellphones support it.
Disadvantages:
 EXT4 formatted external SD cards may have mounting issues and certain
apps may not function properly, which is a drawback.
APPLE FILE SYSTEM:
Apple, Inc., released a new file system in 2017 to replace the HFS+ file system, which
was 30 years old. Due to the fact that the HFS+ had been stretched to add new features, it
made the process very complex, along with lines of code, and adding new features
became very difficult. With this in mind, they came up with the idea of starting a new file
system from scratch, that would implement new and current technologies and
methodologies, and also provide the exact set of features needed.
Apple File System (APFS) is a proprietary file system that prioritized encryption during
its design. The goal is for the system to run on all current Apple devices, ranging from the
iPhone to the Mac computers.
Advantages:
 It is fetaure-rich, including 64-bit pointers.
 Clones for files and directories.
 Space sharing.
 Fast directory sizing [1, p. 592]

RELATION BETWEEN THE FILE SYSTEM AND SECONDARY STORAGE


A file on secondary storage is made up of several blocks. Block allocation to files is the
responsibility of the operating system or file management system. Two managerial
concerns are brought up by this. Files must be assigned space on secondary storage first,
and then the amount of space that is available for allocation must be monitored. We'll see
that these two jobs are connected; that is, the strategy used for free space management
may be influenced by the strategy used for file allocation. Additionally, we will observe
that the allocation policy and file structure interact [2, p. 572].
The majority of the secondary storage used to maintain file systems is provided by disks.
They are useful for this because of two features:
1. The disk can be rewritten in place; a block can be read from the disk, changed,
and then written back into the same block.
2. A disk has immediate access to any information block it contains. As a result,
accessing any file in a sequential or random manner is easy, and the drive must
move the read-write heads and wait for the media to rotate in order to switch
between files.
By making it simple to save, locate, and retrieve data, file systems offer effective and
practical access to the storage medium. There are two distinct design issues with the a file
system. Determining how the file system should seem to the user is the first challenge.
Defining a file and its properties, the activities that can be performed on a file, and the
directory structure for file organization are all part of this process. Developing methods
and data structures to translate the logical file system onto the actual secondary storage
devices is the second challenge [1, p. 564].

References:
[1] Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, Greg Gagne. Operating System Concepts,
10th edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2018.
[2] W.Stallings. Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles, 9th edition. Pearson,
2017.
[3] Changman Lee, Dongho Sim, Joo-Young Hwang, and Sangyeun Cho. F2FS: A New
File System for Flash Storage
[4]Android File System: https://medium.com/@aditi.kale20/file-system-of-android-
a89dcbb693f1

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