Chapter 13:

File-System Interface

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Outline
▪ File Concept
▪ Access Methods
▪ Disk and Directory Structure

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 Objectives
▪ To explain the function of file systems
▪ To describe the interfaces to file systems
▪ To discuss file-system design tradeoffs, including access
methods, file sharing, file locking, and directory structures

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 File Concept
▪ Contiguous logical address space
▪ Types:
• Data
 Numeric
 Character
 Binary
• Program
▪ Contents defined by file’s creator
• Many types

 text file, A text file is a file without any formatting or fonts, and has a .txt extension in
Windows.You can create a text file on your computer with a text editor. An example of a
text editor is Notepad, which is included with Microsoft Windows.

 source file, A .SOURCE file is a source code file that contains text written in one or more
programming languages.

 executable filen executable file is a type of computer file that runs a program or performs a
specific operation on a computer. Unlike data files, executable files contain compiled code that the
computer's CPU can directly execute. Common examples of executable files include .EXE, .BAT,
.COM, and .BIN on IBM-compatible computers, and .DMG and .APP on Apple Mac computers.

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 File Attributes
▪ Name – only information kept in human-readable form
▪ Identifier – unique tag (number) identifies file within file system
▪ Type – needed for systems that support different types
▪ Location – pointer to file location on device
▪ Size – current file size
▪ Protection – controls who can do reading, writing, executing
▪ Time, date, and user identification – data for protection, security, and
usage monitoring
▪ Information about files are kept in the directory structure, which is
maintained on the disk
▪ Many variations, including extended file attributes such as file checksum
▪ Information kept in the directory structure

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 File Operations
▪ Create
▪ Write – at write pointer location
▪ Read – at read pointer location
▪ Reposition within file - seek
▪ Delete
▪ Truncate
▪ Open (Fi) – search the directory structure on disk for entry Fi, and
move the content of entry to memory
▪ Close (Fi) – move the content of entry Fi in memory to directory
structure on disk

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 Open Files
▪ Several pieces of data are needed to manage open files:
• Open-file table: tracks open files
• File pointer: pointer to last read/write location, per process that
has the file open
• File-open count: counter of number of times a file is open – to
allow removal of data from open-file table when last processes
closes it
• Disk location of the file: cache of data access information
• Access rights: per-process access mode information

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 File Types – Name, Extension

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 File Structure
▪ None - sequence of words, bytes
▪ Simple record structure
• Lines
• Fixed length
• Variable length
▪ Complex Structures:
1- Formatted document: File formats that store data in
structured, semi-structured, or unstructured forms, such as JSON,
XML, SQL, images, and audio
2- Relocatable load file: holds code and data suitable for
linking with other object files to obtain executable file.

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 File structure types are:

Text files: Series of characters organized in lines.

Object files: Series of bytes organized into blocks.

Source files: Series of functions and processes.

File systems: Methods of organizing and storing files on a disk.

Examples include FAT, NTFS, ext, and HFS.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 13.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Access Methods
▪ A file is fixed length logical records
▪ Sequential Access
▪ Direct Access
▪ Other Access Methods

▪ Sequential files store data in a linear order, suitable for batch processing.

▪ Indexed sequential files add indexes for faster access. Direct access files
allow immediate access to any data record.

▪ Hierarchical structures, such as those found in databases, organize data in a

tree-like format.

▪ The choice of file structure depends on access patterns and data requirements,
balancing speed, storage space, and complexity

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 Sequential Access
▪ Operations
• read next
• write next
• Reset
• no read after last write (rewrite)

▪ Figure

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 Direct Access
▪ Operations
• read n
• write n
• position to n
 read next
 write next
 rewrite n
n = relative block number

▪ Relative block numbers allow OS to decide where

file should be placed

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 Other Access Methods
▪ Can be other access methods built on top of base methods
▪ General involve creation of an index for the file
▪ Keep index in memory for fast determination of location of
data to be operated on (consider Universal Produce Code
(UPC code) plus record of data about that item)
▪ If the index is too large, create an in-memory index, which
an index of a disk index
▪ IBM indexed sequential-access method (ISAM)
• Small master index, points to disk blocks of secondary
index
• File kept sorted on a defined key
• All done by the OS

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 Disk Structure
▪ Disk can be subdivided into partitions
▪ Disks or partitions can be RAID protected against failure
▪ Disk or partition can be used raw – without a file system, or
formatted with a file system
▪ Partitions also known as minidisks, slices
▪ Entity containing file system is known as a volume
▪ Each volume containing a file system also tracks that file system’s
info in device directory or volume table of contents
▪ In addition to general-purpose file systems there are many
special-purpose file systems, frequently all within the same
operating system or computer

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 Operations Performed on Directory
▪ Search for a file

▪ Create a file

▪ Delete a file

▪ List a directory

▪ Rename a file

▪ Traverse the file system

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 Directory Organization
The directory is organized logically to obtain
▪ Efficiency – locating a file quickly
▪ Naming – convenient to users
• Two users can have same name for different files
• The same file can have several different names
▪ Grouping – logical grouping of files by properties, (e.g., all
Java programs, all games, …)

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 Figure Tree-Structured Directory

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 Protection
▪ File owner/creator should be able to control:
• What can be done
• By whom
▪ Types of access
• Read
• None
• Knowledge
• Write
• Execute
• updating
• Append
• Change protection
• Delete
• List

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 Access Rights

Access Rights
▪The following list is representative of access rights that can be assigned to a
particular user for a particular file:
• None: The user may not even learn of the existence of the file, much less access it.
To enforce this restriction, the user would not be allowed to read the user directory
that includes this file.
• Knowledge: The user can determine that the file exists and who its owner is. The
user is then able to petition the owner for additional access rights.
• Execution: The user can load and execute a program but cannot copy it.
Proprietary programs are often made accessible with this restriction.
• Reading: The user can read the file for any purpose, including copying and
execution. Some systems are able to enforce a distinction between viewing and
copying. In the former case, the contents of the file can be displayed to the user, but
the user has no means for making a copy.

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 Access Rights
• Appending: The user can add data to the file, often only at the end, but
▪cannot modify or delete any of the file’s contents. This right is useful in collecting data from a
number of sources.
• Updating: The user can modify, delete, and add to the file’s data. This normally includes
writing the file initially, rewriting it completely or in part, and removing all or a portion of the
data. Some systems distinguish among different degrees of updating.
• Changing protection: The user can change the access rights granted to other users.
Typically, this right is held only by the owner of the file. In some systems, the owner can
extend this right to others. To prevent abuse of this mechanism, the file owner will typically
be able to specify which rights can be changed by the holder of this right.
• Deletion: The user can delete the file from the file system.
▪Access can be provided to different classes of users:
• Specific user: Individual users who are designated by user ID
• User groups: A set of users who are not individually defined. The system must
have some way of keeping track of the membership of user groups.
• All: All users who have access to this system. These are public files.

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 Access Lists and Groups in Unix
▪ Mode of access: read, write, execute
▪ Three classes of users on Unix / Linux
RWX
a) owner access 7  111
RWX
b) group access 6  110
RWX
c) public access 1  001
▪ Ask manager to create a group (unique name), say G, and add some
users to the group.
▪ For a file (say game) or subdirectory, define an appropriate access.

▪ Attach a group to a file

chgrp G game

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 13.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 file allocation

▪ File Allocation methods Having looked at the issues of preallocation versus

dynamic allocation and portion size, we are in a position to consider specific file
allocation methods. Three methods are in common use: contiguous, chained, and
indexed. Table 2 summarizes some of the characteristics of each method.
▪With contiguous allocation, a single contiguous set of blocks is allocated to a file at
the time of file creation (see Figure 6). Thus, this is a preallocation strategy, using
variable-size portions.
▪
▪The file allocation table needs just a single entry for each file, showing the starting
block and the length of the file. Contiguous allocation is the best from the point of view
of the individual sequential file. Multiple blocks can be read in at a time to improve I/O
performance for sequential processing. It is also easy to retrieve a single block.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 13.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
part

Table 2 File Allocation Methods

Contiguous Chained Indexed

Preallocation? Necessary Possible Possible

Fixed or Variable Size

Portions? Variable Fixed blocks Fixed blocks Variable

Portion Size Large Small Small Medium

Allocation
Frequency
Once Low to high High Low
Time to Allocate Medium Long Short Medium

File Allocation Table

Size One entry
One entry Large Medium

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 Figure 6 Contiguous File Allocation

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 Figure 7 Contiguous File Allocation (After Compaction)

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 allocation methods

▪ At the opposite extreme from contiguous allocation is

▪ II chained allocation (see Figure 8). Typically, allocation is on an individual block
basis. Each block contains a pointer to the next block in the chain. Again, the
file allocation table needs just a single entry for each file, showing the starting
block and the length of the file.

Figure 8 Chained Allocation

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 allocation methods

▪ One consequence of chaining, as described so far, is there is no accommodation of

the principle of locality. Thus, if it is necessary to bring in several blocks of a file at
a time (as in sequential processing) then a series of accesses to different parts of the
disk are required. To overcome this problem, some systems periodically consolidate
files (see Figure 9).
▪

Figure 9 Chained Allocation (After Consolidation)

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 allocation methods

▪ III Indexed allocation addresses many of the problems of contiguous and chained
allocation. In this case, the file allocation table contains a separate one-level index
for each file; the index has one entry for each portion allocated to the file.
Typically, the file indexes are not physically stored as part of the file allocation
table. Rather, the file index for a file is kept in a separate block, and the entry for
the file in the file allocation table points to that block. Allocation may be on the
basis of either fixed-size blocks (see Figure 10) or variable-size portions (see Figure
11).
▪ Allocation by blocks eliminates external fragmentation, whereas allocation by
variable-size portions improves locality. In either case, file consolidation may be
done from time to time. File consolidation reduces the size of the index in the case
of variable-size portions, but not in the case of block allocation. Indexed allocation
supports both sequential and direct access to the file and thus is the most popular
form of file allocation.

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 allocation methods

Figure 10 Indexed Allocation with Block Portions

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 allocation methods

Figure 11 Indexed Allocation with Variable-Length Portions

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 widows NTFS example

▪WINDOWS FILE SYSTEM

▪ The developers of Windows NT designed a new file system, the New Technology
File System (NTFS), which is intended to meet high-end requirements for workstations
and servers. Examples of high-end applications include the following:
• Client/server applications such as file servers, compute servers, and database
servers
• Resource-intensive engineering and scientific applications
• Network applications for large corporate systems This section provides an
overview of NTFS.

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 windows NTFS file system

NTFS Volume and File Structure

▪NTFS makes use of the following disk storage concepts:
• Sector: The smallest physical storage unit on the disk. The data size in bytes is a
power of 2 and is almost always 512 bytes.
• Cluster: One or more contiguous (next to each other on the disk) sectors. The
cluster size in sectors is a power of 2.
• Volume: A logical partition on a disk, consisting of one or more clusters and used
by a file system to allocate space. At any time, a volume consists of file system
information, a collection of files, and any additional unallocated space remaining on
the volume that can be allocated to files.
▪ A volume can be all or a portion of a single disk, or it can extend across multiple
disks. If hardware or software RAID 5 is employed, a volume consists of stripes
spanning multiple disks. The maximum volume size for NTFS is 264 clusters.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 13.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 End of Chapter 13

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018