Operating Systems Design( 19CS2106S)

Session-7
Low-Level File System Algorithms
(Internal Representation of Files)
Session Plan
 Learning Outcomes

• To understand low level file system

algorithms ialloc, ifree and alloc.
• To explore the above algorithms in xv6 as
case study.
• To understand the design and
implementation of fs.c
Review of Session-6
 Review of Session-6-inode
• inode stands for index node.
• In Unix based operating system each file is indexed by
a number called inode(index node) or inode number.
• It’s a name of a file in the form a number.
• The inode contains the information necessary for a
process to access a file, such as file ownership, access
rights, file size, and location of the file's data in the
file system.
• inode contains the table of contents to locate a file's
data on disk.
• Also called as disk inode.
 Review of Session-6- Concept of in-core
inode
• When the file is opened, then the kernel copies
the inode(disk inode) into main memory area
called inode cache, just like the buffer cache.
• So, this copy of disk inode present in MM is
called as in-core inode.
• As the file changes, the in-core inode is updated
usually more often than the on-disk copy.
• The in-core inode contains up-to-date
information on the state of the file
• This is allocation is done using iget algorithm
 Review of Session-6- iget Algorith
• iget algorithm allocates an in-core copy of an
inode
• It is almost identical to the algorithm getblk for
finding a disk block in the buffer cache.
• Here, The kernel maps the device number and
iode number into a hash queue and searches the
queue for the inode.
• If it cannot find the inode, it allocates one from
the free list and locks it.
• The kernel then prepares to read the disk copy of
the newly accessed inode into the in-core copy.
 Review of Session-6-iput Algorithm
• iput algorithm is used to release the inodes
• When the kernel releases an inode ,it decrements
its in-core reference count.
• If the count drops to 0, the kernel writes the inode
to disk if the in-core copy differs from the disk copy.
• They differ if the file data has changed, if the file
access time has changed, or if the file owner or
access permissions have changed.
• Now, the kernel places the inode on the free list of
inodes, effectively caching the inode in case it is
needed again soon.
 bmap Algorithm

• To convert logical byte offset of a file to a

physical disk block.
 Review of Session-6-namei Algorithm

• namei algorithm is used for the conversion of a path

name to an inode.
• It follows a pathname until a terminal point is found.
• In this algorithm ,it uses intermediate inodes as it parses a
path name; call them working inodes.
• The inode where the search starts is the first working
mode.
• During each iteration of the namei loop, the kernel makes
sure that the working inode is indeed that of a directory.
• Otherwise, the system would violate the assertion that
non-directory files can only be leaf nodes of the file
system tree.
 Session-7
Low Level File System Algorithms

• ialloc & ifree

• alloc & free
 Lets start with concept of Super Block
• When a partition or disk is formatted, the
sectors in the hard disk is first divided into
small groups. This groups of sectors is called as
blocks.
• The block size is something that can be
specified when a user formats a partition.
• The most simplest definition of Superblock is
that, its the metadata of the file system.
• Similar to how i-nodes stores metadata of files,
Superblocks store metadata of the file system
 Super Block
• A request to access any file requires access to
the filesystem's superblock.
• If its superblock cannot be accessed, a
filesystem cannot be mounted (i.e., logically
attached to the main filesystem) and thus files
cannot be accessed.

• The Super block contains an array to cache

the numbers of free inodes in the file system.
 Fields of Super Block
• size of the file system,
• the number of free blocks in the file system,
• a list of free blocks available on the file system,
• the index of the next free block in the free block list,
• the size of the inode list,
• the number of free inodes in the file system,
• a list of free inodes in the file system,
• the index of the next free inode in the free mode list,
• lock fields for the free block and free inode lists,
• a flag indicating that the super block has been
modified.
 ialloc Algorithm
• ialloc algorithm allocates new inodes to
various processes.

• We know that , the Super Block contains new

free inodes.
 ialloc Algorithm
• The kernel first verifies that no other processes
have locked access to the super block free inode
list.
• If the list of inode numbers in the super block is
not empty, the kernel assigns the next mode
number, allocates a free in-core inode for newly
assigned disk inode using algorithm iget (reading
the inode from disk if necessary), copies the disk
inode to the in-core copy, initializes the fields in
the inode, and returns the locked inode.
 ialloc Algorithm
• If the super block list of free inodes is empty,
the kernel searches the disk and places as
many free inode numbers as possible into the
super block.
• The kernel reads the inode list on disk, block
by block, and fills the super block list of inode
• numbers to capacity, remembering the
highest-numbered inode that it finds.
• Call that inode the "remembered" inode;
• it is the last one saved in the super block.
ialloc Algorithm
ialloc Algorithm
 ifree Algorithm
• After incrementing the total number of
available inodes in the file system, the kernel
checks the lock on the super block.
• If locked, it avoids race conditions by returning
immediately: The inode number is not put into
the super block, but it can be found on disk
and is available fo reassignment.
 ifree Algorithm
• If the list is not locked, the kernel checks if it has
room for more inode numbers and, if it does,
places the inode number in the list and returns.
• If the list is full, the kernel may not save the newly
freed mode there: It compares the number of the
freed inode with that of the remembered inode.
• If the freed inode number is less than the
remembered inode number, it "remembers" the
newly freed inode number, discarding the old
remembered mode number from the super block.
ifree Algorithm
 Allocation & Free of Disk Blocks
• When a process writes data to a file, the
kernel must allocate disk blocks from the file
system for direct data blocks and, sometimes,
for indirect blocks.
• The file system super block contains an array
that is used to cache the numbers of free disk
blocks in the file system.
• This allocation can be done using alloc
algorithm
 alloc Algorithm

• When the kernel wants to allocate a block

from a file system, it allocates the next
available block in the super block list.
• Once allocated, the block cannot be
reallocated until it becomes free.
• If the allocated block is the last available block
in the super block cache, the kernel treats it as
a pointer to a block that contains a list of free
blocks.
 alloc Algorithm
• It reads the block, populates the super block
array with the new list of block numbers, and
then proceeds to use the original block number.
• It allocates a buffer for the block and clears the
buffer's data (zeros it).
• The disk block has now been assigned, and the
kernel has a buffer to work with.
• If the file system contains no free blocks, the
calling process receives an error
alloc Algorithm
 free Algorithm
• The algorithm free for freeing a block is the reverse
of the one for allocating a block.
• If the super block list is not full, the block number of
the newly freed block is placed on the super block
list.
• If, however, the super block list is full, the newly
freed block becomes a link block; the kernel writes
the super block list into the block and writes the
block to disk.
• It then places the block number of the newly freed
block in the super block list: That block number is
the only member of the list.
• Xv6 Case Study:ialloc, itrunc, balloc, bfree
Functions
 ialloc: xv6 Case Study

• To allocate a new inode (for example, when

creating a file), xv6 calls ialloc.

• This function was mentioned at line no.5204

of xv6 code sheet no.52 of file fs.c
Xv6 function of ialloc
 balloc & bfree in xv6

• xv6’s block allocator maintains a free bitmap on

disk, with one bit per block.

• A zero bit indicates that the corresponding

block is free; a one bit indicates that it is in use.

• The block allocator provides two functions:

balloc allocates a new disk block, and bfree
frees a block.
• The loop in balloc at (5022) considers
every block, starting at block 0 up to
sb.size, the number of blocks in the file
system.
• It looks for a block whose bitmap bit is
zero, indicating that it is free.
• If balloc finds such a block, it updates
the bitmap and returns the block.
Xv6 function of balloc
bfree (5052) finds the right bitmap block and
clears the right bit
 itrunc
• itrunc frees a file’s blocks, resetting the inode’s
size to zero.

• itrunc (5456) starts by freeing the direct

blocks (5462-5467), then the ones listed in the
indirect block (5472-5475), and finally the
indirect block itself (5477-5478).
Xv6 function of itrunc
• Design and implementation of Algorithms in
fs.c
 fs.c
• fs.c is the file that consists of the xv6
functions of file system implementations.

• fs.c exists from code sheets 49-57 in xv6 code

sheet manual.
 File system implementation: Five layers:

• Blocks: allocator for raw disk blocks.

• Log: crash recovery for multi−step updates.
• Files: inode allocator, reading, writing,
metadata.
• Directories: inode with special contents (list of
other inodes!)
• Names: paths like /usr/rtm/xv6/fs.c for
convenient naming