Chapter 2: Operating-System

Structures

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Operating System Services
Operating systems provide an environment for execution of programs
and services to programs and users
One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful
to the user:
User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user
interface (UI).
Varies between Command-Line (CLI), Graphics User
Interface (GUI), Touch screen interface
Program execution - The system must be able to load a
program into memory and to run that program, end execution,
either normally or abnormally (indicating error)
I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which
may involve a file or an I/O device

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Operating System Services (Cont.)
One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the
user (Cont.):
File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular interest.
Programs need to read and write files and directories, create and delete
them, search them, list file Information, permission management.
Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the same
computer or between computers over a network
Communications may be via shared memory or through message
passing (packets moved by the OS)
Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible errors
May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in user
program
For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to ensure
correct and consistent computing
Sometimes, it has to halt the system/ might terminate an error-
causing process / return an error code to the program causing
error

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Operating System Services (Cont.)
Another set of OS functions exists for ensuring the efficient operation of the
system itself via resource sharing
Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs running
concurrently, resources must be allocated to each of them
Many types of resources - CPU cycles, main memory, file storage,
I/O devices.
Accounting - To keep track of which users use how much and what
kinds of computer resources
Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a
multiuser or networked computer system may want to control use of that
information, concurrent processes should not interfere with each other
Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources
is controlled
Security of the system from outsiders requires user
authentication, extends to defending external I/O devices from
invalid access attempts

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 A View of Operating System Services

Touch screen

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 User Operating System Interface - CLI

CLI or command interpreter allows direct command entry

Sometimes implemented in kernel, sometimes by systems

program
Sometimes multiple flavors implemented – shells
Primarily fetches a command from user and executes it
Sometimes commands built-in, sometimes just names of
programs
If the latter, adding new features doesn’t require shell
modification

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Bourne Shell Command Interpreter

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 User Operating System Interface - GUI

User-friendly desktop metaphor interface

Usually mouse, keyboard, and monitor
Icons represent files, programs, actions, etc
Various mouse buttons over objects in the interface cause
various actions (provide information, options, execute function,
open directory (known as a folder)
Invented at Xerox PARC
Many systems now include both CLI and GUI interfaces
Microsoft Windows is GUI with CLI “command” shell
Apple Mac OS X is “Aqua” GUI interface with UNIX kernel
underneath and shells available
Unix and Linux have CLI with optional GUI interfaces (CDE,
KDE, GNOME)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Touchscreen Interfaces

Touchscreen devices require new

interfaces
Mouse not possible or not desired
Actions and selection based on
gestures
Virtual keyboard for text entry
Voice commands.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 The Mac OS X GUI

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 System Calls
Programming interface to the services provided by the OS
Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)
Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application Programming
Interface (API) rather than direct system call use
Three most common APIs are Win32 API for Windows, POSIX API for POSIX-based
systems (including virtually all versions of UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X), and Java API for
the Java virtual machine (JVM)
Run-time environment (RTE)—the full suite of software needed to execute
applications written in a given programming language, including its compilers or
interpreters as well as other software, such as libraries and loaders.
The RTE provides a system-call interface that serves as the link to system
calls made available by the operating system.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Example of System Calls
The system-call interface intercepts function calls in the API and invokes the
necessary system calls within the operating system.
System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another file

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 System Call Implementation

Typically, a number associated with each system call

System-call interface maintains a table indexed
according to these numbers
The system call interface invokes the intended system call in OS
kernel and returns status of the system call and any return values
The caller need know nothing about how the system call is
implemented
Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a
result call
Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API
Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built
into libraries included with compiler)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 API – System Call – OS Relationship

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 System Call Parameter Passing

Often, more information is required than simply identity of desired

system call
Exact type and amount of information vary according to OS
and call
Three general methods used to pass parameters to the OS
Simplest: pass the parameters in registers
In some cases, may be more parameters than registers
Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and address
of block passed as a parameter in a register
This approach taken by Linux and Solaris
Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the
program and popped off the stack by the operating system
Block and stack methods do not limit the number or length of
parameters being passed

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Parameter Passing via Table

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Types of System Calls
Process control
create process, terminate process
end, abort(dump memory is taken and error message generated)
load, execute
get process attributes, set process attributes
wait for time
wait event, signal event
allocate and free memory
Dump memory if error
Debugger for determining bugs, single step execution
Locks for managing access to shared data between processes

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Types of System Calls

File management
create file, delete file
open, close file
read, write, reposition
get and set file attributes
Move and copy
Device management
The various resources controlled by the operating system can be thought of as
devices.
Some of these devices are physical devices (for example, disk drives), while
others can be thought of as abstract or virtual devices (for example, files).
request device, release device
read, write, reposition
get device attributes, set device attributes
logically attach or detach devices

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

Information maintenance
get time or date, set time or date
get system data, set system data
get and set process, file, or device attributes
calls may return information about the system, such as the
version number of the operating system, the amount of free
memory or disk space, and so on.
Debugging a program. Many systems provide system calls to
dump() memory.
time profile of a program to indicate the amount of time that
the program executes at a particular location or set of
locations.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Communications
create, delete communication connection
send, receive messages if message passing model to host name
or process name
get hostid() and get processid() - identifiers are then passed to the general
purpose open() and close() calls (file system) or to specific open
connection() and close connection() system calls.
The recipient - accept connection() call.
Most processes that receive connections are special-purpose daemons,
execute a wait for connection() call and are awakened when a
connection is made.
The source of the communication(client), and the receiving daemon,
(server), then exchange messages by using read message() and write
message() system calls.
The close connection() call terminates the connection

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Types of System Calls (Cont.)
Shared-memory model create and gain access to memory regions
processes use shared memory create() and shared memory
attach() system calls to create and gain access to regions of memory
owned by other processes.
The form of the data is determined by the processes and not the
operating system.
Message passing is useful for exchanging smaller amounts of data.
It is also easier to implement than is shared memory for intercomputer
communication.
Shared memory allows maximum speed and convenience of communication,
since it can be done at memory transfer speeds when it takes place within a
computer

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Protection
Control access to resources
Get and set permissions
Allow and deny user access

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 System Programs
System programs provide a convenient environment for program
development and execution. They can be divided into:
File manipulation
Status information sometimes stored in a File modification
Programming language support
Program loading and execution
Communications
Background services
Application programs
Most users’ view of the operation system is defined by system
programs, not the actual system calls

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 System Programs
Provide a convenient environment for program development and
execution
Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls; others
are considerably more complex

File management - Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump,

list, and generally manipulate files and directories

Status information
Some ask the system for info - date, time, amount of available
memory, disk space, number of users
Others provide detailed performance, logging, and debugging
information
Typically, these programs format and print the output to the
terminal or other output devices
Some systems implement a registry - used to store and
retrieve configuration information

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 System Programs (Cont.)
File modification
Text editors to create and modify files
Special commands to search contents of files or perform
transformations of the text
Programming-language support - Compilers,
assemblers, debuggers and interpreters sometimes provided
Program loading and execution- Absolute loaders,
relocatable loaders, linkage editors, and overlay-loaders,
debugging systems for higher-level and machine language
Communications - Provide the mechanism for creating virtual
connections among processes, users, and computer systems
Allow users to send messages to one another’s screens,
browse web pages, send electronic-mail messages, log in
remotely, transfer files from one machine to another

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 System Programs (Cont.)
Background Services
Launch at boot time
Some for system startup, then terminate
Some from system boot to shutdown
Constantly running system-program processes are known as
services, subsystems, or daemons.
example, a system needed a service to listen for network
connections in order to connect those requests to the correct
processes
Provide facilities like disk checking, process scheduling, error
logging, printing
Run in user context not kernel context
Known as services, subsystems, daemons

Application programs
Don’t pertain to system
Run by users
Not typically considered part of OS
Launched by command line, mouse click, finger poke
Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Operating System Design and Implementation

Design and Implementation of OS not “solvable”, but some

approaches have proven successful

Internal structure of different Operating Systems can vary widely

Start the design by defining goals and specifications

Affected by choice of hardware, type of system

User goals and System goals

User goals – operating system should be convenient to use,
easy to learn, reliable, safe, and fast
System goals – operating system should be easy to design,
implement, and maintain, as well as flexible, reliable, error-free,
and efficient

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Operating System Design and Implementation (Cont.)

Important principle to separate

Policy: What will be done? Mechanism: How to
do it?
Mechanisms determine how to do something, policies decide
what will be done
The separation of policy from mechanism is a very important
principle, it allows maximum flexibility if policy decisions are to
be changed later (example – timer)
Policy decisions are important for all resource allocation.
Whenever it is necessary to decide whether or not to allocate a
resource, a policy decision must be made.
Specifying and designing an OS is highly creative task of
software engineering

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Implementation
Much variation
Early OSes in assembly language
Then system programming languages like Algol, PL/1
Now C, C++
Actually usually a mix of languages
Lowest levels in assembly
Main body in C
Systems programs in C, C++, scripting languages like PERL,
Python, shell scripts
Eg: Android
Kernel in C with some assembly language.
System libraries are written in C or C++,
Application frameworks - which provide the developer interface to
the system — are written mostly in Java.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Implementation
More high-level language easier to port to other hardware
But slower
increased storage requirements
Emulation can allow an OS to run on non-native hardware

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Virtual Machines
The initial releases of OS/360 were strictly batch systems.
Many 360 users wanted to be able to work interactively at a terminal.
IBM developed CP/CMS and later renamed VM/370

The heart of the system, known as the virtual machine monitor, runs
on the bare hardware and does the multiprogramming, providing not one,
but several virtual machines to the next layer up.
They are exact copies of the bare hardware, including kernel/user
mode, I/O, interrupts, and everything else the real machine has.
Because each virtual machine is identical to the true hardware, each one can
run any operating system that will run directly on the bare hardware.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Virtual Machines
When a CMS(Conversational Monitor System) program executed a
system call, the call was trapped to the operating system in its own virtual
machine not to VM/370, just as it would be were it running on a real machine
instead of a virtual one.
CMS then issued the normal hardware I/O instructions for reading its virtual
disk or whatever was needed to carry out the call.
These I/O instructions were trapped by VM/370, which then performed them
as part of its simulation of the real hardware.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Virtual Machines
Limitation:
When an operating system running on a virtual machine (in user mode)
executes a privileged instruction, such as modifying the PSW or doing
I/O, it is essential that the hardware trap to the virtual-machine monitor
so the instruction can be emulated in software.
On some CPUs—notably the Pentium, its predecessors, and its clones
—attempts to execute privileged instructions in user mode are just
ignored.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Virtual Machines
Type 2 Hypervisor
Type 2 hypervisors run inside the physical host machine's operating system,
which is why they are called hosted hypervisors.
Unlike bare-metal hypervisors that run directly on the hardware, hosted
hypervisors have one software layer in between.
The system with a hosted hypervisor contains:
A physical machine.
An operating system installed on the hardware (Windows, Linux,
macOS).
A type 2 hypervisor software within that operating system.
Guest virtual machine instances.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Virtual machines
Type 1 Hypervisor Type 2
Hypervisor

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Virtual Machines
type 2 makes uses of a host operating system and its file system
to create processes, store files, and so on.
A type 1 hypervisor has no underlying support and must perform all these
functions itself.
After a type 2 hypervisor is started, it reads the installation CD-ROM (or
CDROM image file) for the chosen guest operating system and
installs the guest OS on a virtual disk, which is just a big file in the host
operating system’s file system.
Type 1 hypervisors cannot do this because there is no host operating system
to store files on. They must manage their own storage on a raw disk partition.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne