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Internal Representation of Files - 5

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12 views8 pages

Internal Representation of Files - 5

Uploaded by

jesawid181
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Internal Representation of Files(5)

Inode assignment to a new file

Process A Process B Process C

Assigns inode I from


super block

Sleeps while reading


inode(a)
Tries to assign inode
from super block use
Super block empty(b) the
Search for free inodes on lock
disk, puts inode I in su-
per block (c)
Inode I in core
Does usual activ-
ity Completes search,
assigns another in-
ode(d) Assigns inode I from
super block
I is in use!
Assign another
inode(e)
Race Condition in Assigning
ifree
algorithm
Allocation of disk blocks
 When a process writes data to a file, the kernel must allocate
disk 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 number of free disk blocks in the file system.
 The utility program mkfs organizes the data blocks of file
system in a linked list.
 Each link in the list contains the array of free disk block
numbers, and one array entry is the number of next block
of the linked list
 Kernel allocates the next available block in the super block
list
 If the allocated block is the last block in the super block
cache, the kernel treats it as a pointer to a block that
contains a list of free block numbers, and then proceeds to
use the original block number
 The algorithm 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 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 rites the block to disk.
 Kernel then places the block number of the newly freed block in the super block list
Other file types

pipe
 fifo(first-in-first-out)
 its data is transient: Once data is read from a pipe, it cannot be read again, no deviation from
that order
 use only direct block
special file
 include block device, character device
 the inode contains the major and minor device number
 major number indicates a device type such as terminal or disk
 minor number indicates the unit number of the device
References

The design of Unix Operating System - Maurice J. Bach (PHI)

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