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The document outlines key features of the UNIX system, focusing on its hierarchical file system, processing environment, and building block primitives. It describes the organization of the file system, including path names and file types, as well as the ability to execute multiple processes simultaneously. Additionally, it highlights the modular programming philosophy of UNIX, emphasizing the use of system primitives for I/O redirection.

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4 views2 pages

User Pres

The document outlines key features of the UNIX system, focusing on its hierarchical file system, processing environment, and building block primitives. It describes the organization of the file system, including path names and file types, as well as the ability to execute multiple processes simultaneously. Additionally, it highlights the modular programming philosophy of UNIX, emphasizing the use of system primitives for I/O redirection.

Uploaded by

girishvengg
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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1.

3 USER PERSPECTIVE

This section briefly reviews high level features of the. UNIX system such as the file system, the
processing environment, and building block primitives (for example, pipes).

1.3.1 The File System

The UNIX file system is characterized by


 A hierarchical Structures

 consistent treatment of file data,

 the ability to create and delete files,

 dynamic growth of files,

 the protection of file data,

 the treatment of peripheral devices (such as terminals and tare units) as files

The file system is organized as a tree with a single root node called root (written "/"); every non-
leaf node of the file system structure is a directory of files, and files at the leaf nodes of the tree
are either directories, regular files, or special device files. The name of a file is given by a path
name that describes how to locate the file in the file system hierarchy. A path name is a sequence
of components names separated by slash characters; a component is a sequence of characters that
designates a file name that is uniquely contained in the previous (directory) component. A full
path name starts with a slash character and specifies a file that can be found by starting at the file
system root and traversing the file tree, following the branches that lead to successive component
names of the nth name. Thus, the path names "/etc/passwd", "/bin/who", and
"/usr/src/cmd/who.c" designate files in the tree shown in Figure 1.2, but "/bin/passwd" and
"/usr/src/date.c" do not. A path name does not have to start from root but can be designated
relative to the current directory of an executing process, by omitting the initial slash in the path
name. Thus, starting from directory "/dev", the path name "tty0l" designates the file whose full
path name is "/dev/tty0l".

1.3.2 Processing Environment

A program is an executable file, and a process is an instance of the program in


execution. Many processes can execute simultaneously on UNIX systems (this feature is
sometimes called multiprogramming or multitasking) with no logical limit to their number- and
many instances of a program (such as copy) can exist simultaneously in the system. Various
system calls allow processes to create new processes, terminate processes, synchronize stages of
process execution, and control reaction to various events. Subject to their use of system calls,
processes execute independently of each other.

1.3.3 Building Block Primitives


A described earlier, the philosophy of the UNIX system is to provide system primitives that
enable users to write small, modular programs that can be used as building blocks to build more
complex programs. One such primitive visible to shell users is the capability to redirect I/O.
Processes conventionally have access to three files: they read from their standard input file, write
to their standard output file, and write error messages to their standard error file.
Processes executing at a terminal typically use the terminal for these three files, but
each may be "redirected" independently. For instance, the command line
ls
lists all files in the current directory on the standard output, but the command line
ls > output
redirects the standard output to the file called "output" in the current directory, using the creat
system call mentioned above. Similarly, the command line

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