Chapter 10: File-System Interface

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Chapter 10: File-System Interface

File Concept

Access Methods
Directory Structure

File-System Mounting

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File Concept
A file is a named collection of related

information that is recorded on

secondary storage.
Data can NOT be written to secondary

storage unless they are within a file.

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File Structure
A file has a certain defined structure which depends

on its types:

A text file is a sequence of characters organized

into lines.

A source file is a sequence of subroutines and

function.

An object file is a sequence of bytes organized into

blocks understandable by the systems linker.

An executable file is a series of code sections that

the loader can bring into memory and execute.

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File Systems

We need a mechanism that provides longterm information storage with following

characteristics:

1. Possible to store large amount of INFO

2. INFO survives after termination of any

process
3. Multiple processes can access INFO

concurrently

The file system is the component of O.S. that

manipulate the INFO as files and directories

The file systems is the appearance of INFO

from the users standpoint that involved two
main structures :Files and directories

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Files
INFO stored in the files must be persistent,

that is, not be affected by process creation

and termination
A file is a logical storage unit defined by the

O.S. providing the user a mechanism to store

INFO on a physical storage devices such as
disk , tape , CD and etc.
user
Physical
Logical View
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O.S.
view

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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

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File Attributes
Deals with:
Location: where the file is physically located
Size: how big is the file
Type : what kind of file it is
Protection: who can access the file
Time & Date: when was the last access or
modification
User: who created the file
and other information. Some of the attributes
are shown in the next slide

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Operating System Concepts with Java 8th Edition

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File Operations
File is an abstract data type

Create
Write
Read

Reposition within file

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:

File pointer: pointer to last read/write location, per

process that has the file open

File-open count: the counter tracks the number of

opens and closes, and reaches zero on the last
close. The system can then remove the entry.

Disk location of the file: the info needed to locate

the file on disk.

Access rights: per-process access mode

information so OS can allow or deny subsequent
I/O request

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File Types Name, Extension

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Access Methods
Sequential Access

read next
write next
reset
no read after last write
(rewrite)
Direct Access

read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n
n = relative block number
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Sequential-access File

Information in the file is processed in order, one after the other.

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Simulation of Sequential Access on Direct-access File

cp: current position

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Example of Index and Relative Files

The index contains pointers to the various blocks. To find a

record in the file, we first search the index and then use the
pointer to access the file directly and to find the desired record.
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Disk Structure
Disk can be subdivided into partitions

Disks or partitions can be redundant arrays of

independent disks (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 known as a volume
Each volume containing file system also tracks that file

systems info in device directory or volume table of

contents

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A Typical File-system Organization

Each volume that contains a file system must also contain

information about the files in the system. This information is
kept in entries in a device directory which records name,
location, size and type.
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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 STRUCTURE
ONE LEVEL DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
TWO LEVEL DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
TREE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
ACYCLIC GRAPH DIRECTORY STRUCTURE

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Directories
Directories are the mechanism provided by O.S. to keep track of files.

A directory records info a bout the files in the particular partition.

Directory typically contains one entry per file. It may contain Name,

Attributes and Location or

It may contain Name and pointer to Attribute information

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Single-Level Directory
A single directory for all users

Naming problem
Grouping problem

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Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user

Path name
Can have the same file name for different user
Efficient searching
No grouping capability

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Tree-Structured Directories

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Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)

Efficient searching
Grouping Capability
Current directory (working directory)

cd /spell/mail/prog

type list

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Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)

Absolute or relative path name
Creating a new file is done in current directory
Delete a file

rm <file-name>
Creating a new subdirectory is done in current directory

mkdir <dir-name>
Example: if in current directory /mail
mkdir count

mail
prog copy prt exp count

Deleting mail deleting the entire subtree rooted by

mail
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Acyclic-Graph Directories
Have shared subdirectories and files

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Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)

Two different names (aliasing)
If dict deletes list dangling pointer

Solutions:

Backpointers, so we can delete all pointers

Variable size records a problem

Backpointers using a daisy chain organization

Entry-hold-count solution

New directory entry type

Link another name (pointer) to an existing file

Resolve the link follow pointer to locate the file

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Directory Structure
Single level directory system

No owner, problem is the files with the same names

created by two different owners

Note that in the following Figures the files are shown

by the owner names. For example the files named

A created by the same owner.

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Directory Structure
Two-level directory system
Search in directories is based on user name.

Problem is the user with the large number of files

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Directory Structure
Hierarchical directory system

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Path Names
Absolute path name: /usr/ast/mailbox. Always starts with /

(i.e.,separator)
Relative Path Name: mailbox
Current directory or working directory determines the relative path

name
In Unix . is current directory and

.. refers to parent
For example: cp ../lib/abdy.doc .

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Tree-Structured Directories

Absolute path: begins at the root and follows a path down to the
specified file. root/spell/mail/prt/first
Relative path: defines a path from the current directory. prt/first
given root/spell/mail as current path.
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Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)

Efficient searching

Grouping Capability
Current directory (working directory)
pwd
cd

/spell/mail/prog

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Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)

Creating a new file is done in current directory
Delete a file

rm <file-name>
Creating a new subdirectory is done in current directory
mkdir <dir-name>
Example: if in current directory /mail
mkdir count
mail
prog

copy prt exp count

Deleting mail deleting the entire subtree rooted by mail

Option1: do not delete a directory unless it is empty, such as MS-DOS
Option2: delete all files in that directory, such as UNIX rm command
with r option
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Acyclic-Graph Directories
Have shared subdirectories and files
Only one file exists. Any changes made by one person are

immediately visible to the other.

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Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)

New directory entry type

Link another name (pointer) to an existing file

Resolve the link follow pointer to locate the file

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File System Mounting

A file system must be mounted before it can

be accessed
A unmounted file systemis mounted at a

mount point, the location within the file

structure where the file system is to be
attached. An empty directory.

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(a) Existing. (b) Unmounted Partition

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Mount Point

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Chapter 11: File System Implementation

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Chapter 11: File System Implementation

File-System Structure

File-System Implementation
Directory Implementation
Allocation Methods
Free-Space Management

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File-System Structure
File structure

Logical storage unit

Collection of related information

File system organized into layers

File system resides on secondary storage (disks)

Provides efficient and convenient access to disk by

allowing data to be stored, located retrieved easily

File control block storage structure consisting of

information about a file

Device driver controls the physical device

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Layered File System

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File-System Implementation
Boot control block contains info needed by

system to boot OS from that volume

Volume control block contains volume details
Directory structure organizes the files
Per-file File Control Block (FCB) contains

many details about the file

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File System Implementation

Generally, several on-disk and in-memory structures are used to implement a file

system.
Sector is the smallest user-accessible portion of the disk, usually it is 512 bytes

for magnetic disks and 2048 bytes for optical disks. The term block was used
earlier for sector. Nowadays, sector has become a common name. A file block
usually consists of several (power of 2) contiguous disk blocks. Usually file block
size is a configuration parameter that can be set.
On-disk structures

Boot control block: contains information needed by the system to boot an

operating system from that partition.

Volume control block: contains volume (partition) details such as number of

blocks in the partition, free block counts, free block pointers, and free FCB
count and FCB pointers. In Unix File systems, it is called superblock; In NT
File Systems, it is called Master File Table.

Directory structure: used to organize files.

A FCB contains the files details such as owner, permissions, location of data
blocks, etc. In UFS, it is called inode.

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File System Implementation

In-memory information used for file system management as well as

performance improvement

Mount table: contains information about each mounted partition

Directory structure: holds directory information of recently

accessed directories.

System-wide open file table: contains a copy of the FCB of each

open file, as well as other information.

Per-process open-file table: contains a pointer to the appropriate

entry in the system-wide open-file table.

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FILE SYSTEM
In computing, a file system (or filesystem) is a type of data

store which can be used to store, retrieve and update a set of files. The
term refers to either the abstract data structures used to define files, or
the actual software or firmware components that implement the
abstract ideas.
Some file systems are used on local data storage devices; others

provide file access via a network protocol (e.g. NFS, SMB,

or 9Pclients). Some file systems are "virtual", in that the "files" supplied
are computed on request (e.g. procfs) or are merely a mapping into a
different file system used as a backing store. The file system manages
access to both the content of files and the metadata about those files.
It is responsible for arranging storage space; reliability, efficiency, and
tuning with regard to the physical storage medium are important design
considerations.

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TYPES OF FILE SYSTEM

Disk File System
Optical Discs
Flash File System
Tape File System
Database File System
Transactional File System
Network File System
Shared Disk File System
Special File System
Device File System
Other Special File System
Virtual File System
(Details refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system)

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File-System Structure
File structure

Logical storage unit

Collection of related information

File system resides on secondary storage (disks).

File system organized into layers.
File control block storage structure consisting of information about a

file, called inode in UNIX/Linux

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A Typical File Control Block

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Layered File System

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File System Layers

Application programs
Logical file system
Manages metadata information which includes all of the information about the file
system structure
It manages the directory structure to provide the file-organization module with the
information its needs, given a symbolic name.
It maintains file structure via File Control Blocks (FCB).
It is also responsible for protection and security
File organization module
Knows about the files and their logical and physical blocks
Can translate logical block address to physical block address for the basic file
system to transfer
It also includes a free-space manager which keeps track of unallocated blocks
Basic file system
This needs only issue generic commands to the appropriate device drivers to read
and write physical blocks on the disk
Each physical block is identified by its disk address (e.g., drive 3, cylinder 10, track
2, sector 20)
I/O control
Contains the device drivers and interrupt handlers to transfer information between
main memory and the disk.

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Moving-head Disk Machanism

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File System Implementation

To illustrate the use of these structures, let us look at how create and open work

Creating a file: application program calls the logical file system to create a
file. The logical file system allocates a new FCB, reads the appropriate
directory into memory, and updates it with the new file name and FCB and
writes back to disk

Opening a file: The open call passes a file name to the file system.

The file systems searches the directory structure for the given file
name, and the FCB of the file is copied into a system-wide open-file
table in memory.

An entry is also made in the per-process open file table, with a pointer
to the entry in the system-wide open-file table and some other fields.

The other fields can include a pointer to the current location in the file
and access mode in which the file is open.

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In-Memory File System Structures

The following figure illustrates the necessary file system structures

provided by the operating systems.

Figure (a) refers to opening a file.
Figure (b) refers to reading a file.

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In-Memory File System Structures

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Partitions and Mounting

A disk can be sliced into multiple partitions

A partition can span multiple disks
A partition can be
raw, containing no file system
UNIX swap space can use raw partition because it uses its own format
and does not use a file system
cooked, containing a file system
Boot information can be stored in a separate partition
This has its own format, because at boot time the system does not have
file-system device drivers loaded and therefore cannot interpret file-system
format.
For example, for PCs that can be dual-booted, a boot loader that
understands multiple operating systems can occupy the boot space.
The root partition that contains the operating system kernel and other
system files is mounted at boot time.

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Virtual File Systems

Virtual File Systems (VFS) is a technique for integrating multiple types

of file systems into a directory structure.

It separates file-systems-generic operations from their

implementation by defining a clean VFS interface.
It provides a mechanism for uniquely representing a file
throughout a network. VFS is based on a file-representation
structure, called vnode which contains a networkwide unique
numerical designator for each file.
VFS allows the same system call interface (the API) to be used for
different types of file systems.
The API is to the VFS interface, rather than any specific type of file

system.

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Schematic View of Virtual File System

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Directory Implementation methods

Linear list of file names with pointer to the data blocks.

simple to program

time-consuming to execute
for example, to create a file in a directory the entire list has to
be searched to check if there is a file with the same name
To delete a file, the entire directory needs to be searched as
well
Hash Table linear list with hash data structure.
decreases directory search time
collisions situations where two file names hash to the same
location

A chained-overflow hash table can be used to overcome the fixed

size, but it might require stepping through a linked list of colliding
hash table entries.

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A Typical File Control Block

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In-Memory File System Structures

the necessary file system structures provided by the OS

refers to opening a file

refers to reading a file

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Directory Implementation
Linear list of file names with pointer to the data

blocks.

simple to program

time-consuming to execute

Hash Table linear list with hash data structure.

decreases directory search time

collisions situations where two file names hash

to the same location

fixed size

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Allocation Methods
An allocation method refers to how disk

blocks are allocated for files:

Contiguous allocation
Linked allocation
Indexed allocation

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Contiguous Allocation of Disk Space

Each file occupies a set of contiguous

blocks on the disk
Simple only starting location (block #)
and length (number of blocks) are
required
Random access
Wasteful of space (dynamic storageallocation problem)
Files cannot grow
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Linked Allocation
Each file is a linked list of disk blocks: blocks may be

scattered anywhere on the disk.

block

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Linked Allocation

Simple need only

starting address
Free-space management
system no waste of space
No random access

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File-Allocation Table

File-allocation table (FAT)

disk-space allocation used
by MS-DOS and OS/2.
Each block is indexed by block
number.

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Indexed Allocation
Brings all pointers together into the index block

Logical view

index table

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Example of Indexed Allocation

Need index table

Random access
Dynamic access
without external
fragmentation, but
have overhead of
index block

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Indexed Allocation Mapping (Cont.)

outer-index

index table

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file

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Combined Scheme: UNIX UFS (4K bytes per block)

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Free-Space Management
Bit vector (n blocks)

0 1

n-1

bit[i] =

0 block[i] free
1 block[i] occupied

Block number calculation

(number of bits per word) *
(number of 0-value words) +
offset of first 1 bit

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Free-Space Management (Cont.)

Bit map requires extra space

Example:
block size = 212 bytes
disk size = 230 bytes (1 gigabyte)
n = 230/212 = 218 bits (or 32K bytes)

Easy to get contiguous files

Linked list (free list)

Cannot get contiguous space easily

No waste of space

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Free-Space Management (Cont.)

Need to protect:

Pointer to free list

Bit map
Must be kept on disk
Copy in memory and disk may differ
Cannot allow for block[i] to have a situation where bit[i] =
1 in memory and bit[i] = 0 on disk
Solution:
Set bit[i] = 1 in disk
Allocate block[i]

Set bit[i] = 1 in memory

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Linked Free Space List on Disk

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End of Chapter 11

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