File and Database Systems

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

• After finishing this lecture, you should understand:

– the need for file systems.
– files, directories and the operations that can be performed on
them.
– organizing and managing a storage device’s data and free space.
– controlling access to data in a file system.
– backup, recovery and file system integrity mechanisms.
– database systems and models.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.1 Introduction

• Files
– Named collection of data that is manipulated as a unit
– Reside on secondary storage devices
• Operating systems can create an interface that
facilitates navigation of a user’s files
– File systems can protect such data from corruption or total loss
from disasters
– Systems that manage large amounts of shared data can benefit
from databases as an alternative to files

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.2 Data Hierarchy

• Information is stored in computers according to a data

hierarchy.
• Lowest level of data hierarchy is composed of bits
– Bit patterns represent all data items of interest in computer systems

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.2 Data Hierarchy

• Next level in the data hierarchy is fixed-length patterns of bits

such as bytes, characters and words
– Byte: typically 8 bits
– Word: the number of bits a processor can operate on at once
– Characters map bytes (or groups of bytes) to symbols such as letters,
numbers, punctuation and new lines
• Three most popular character sets in use today: ASCII, EBCDIC and
Unicode
– Field: a group of characters
– Record: a group of fields
– File: a group of related records

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.2 Data Hierarchy

• Highest level of the data hierarchy is a file system or

database
• A volume is a unit of data storage that may hold
multiple files

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.3 Files

• File: a named collection of data that may be

manipulated as a unit by operations such as:
– Open-prepare it to be referenced
– Close-prevent further reference
– Create-spawn a new file
– Destroy-delete a file
– Copy-duplicate a file
– Rename-give name to a file
– List-display the content of a file

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.3 Files

• Individual data items within a file may be manipulated by

operations like:
– Read-copy file content to process’s memory
– Write-copy content from process’s memory to a file
– Update-modify
– Insert- add new content to a file
– Delete-remove data item from the file
• File characteristics include:
– Location
– Accessibility
– Type-file extension
– Volatility-frequency with which addition and deletion are made to file
– Activity-% of a file’s records accessed during a given period of time
• Files can consist of one or more records

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4 File Systems

• File systems
– Organize files and manages access to data
– Responsible for file management, auxiliary storage management,
file integrity mechanisms and access methods
– Primarily are concerned with managing secondary storage space,
particularly disk storage

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4 File Systems

• File system characteristics

– Should exhibit device independence:
• Users should be able to refer to their files by symbolic names
rather than having to use physical device names
– Should also provide backup and recovery capabilities to prevent
either accidental loss or malicious destruction of information
– May also provide encryption and decryption capabilities to make
information useful only to its intended audience

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories

• Directories:
– Files containing the names and locations of other files in the file
system, to organize and quickly locate files
• Directory entry stores information such as:
– File name
– Location
– Size
– Type
– Accessed
– Modified and creation times

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories

Figure 13.1 Directory file contents example.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories

• Single-level (or flat) file system:

– Simplest file system organization
– Stores all of its files using one directory
– No two files can have the same name
– File system must perform a linear search of the directory
contents to locate each file, which can lead to poor performance

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories

• Hierarchical file system:

– A root indicates where on the storage device the root directory
begins
– The root directory points to the various directories, each of
which contains an entry for each of its files
– File names need be unique only within a given user directory
– The name of a file is usually formed as the pathname from the
root directory to the file

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories
Figure 13.2 Two-level hierarchical file system.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories

• Working directory
– Simplifies navigation using pathnames
– Enables users to specify a pathname that does not begin at the
root directory (i.e., a relative path)
– Absolute path (i.e., the path beginning at the root) = working
directory + relative path

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories
Figure 13.3 Example hierarchical file system contents.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories

• Link: a directory entry that references a data file or directory

located in a different directory
– Facilitates data sharing and can make it easier for users to access files
located throughout a file system’s directory structure
– Soft link: directory entry containing the pathname for another file
– Hard link: directory entry that specifies the location of the file
(typically a block number) on the storage device

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories

• Links (Cont.)
– Because a hard link specifies a physical location of a file, it references
invalid data when the physical location of its corresponding file
changes
– Because soft links store the logical location of the file in the file
system, they do not require updating when file data is moved
– However, if a user moves a file to different directory or renames the
file, any soft links to that file are no longer valid

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.1 Directories
Figure 13.4 Links in a file system.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.2 Metadata

• Metadata
– Information that protects the integrity of the file system
– Cannot be modified directly by users
• Many file systems create a superblock to store critical
information that protects the integrity of the file
system
– A superblock might contain:
• The file system identifier
• The location of the storage device’s free blocks
– To reduce the risk of data loss, most file systems distribute
redundant copies of the superblock throughout the storage device

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 13.4.2 Metadata

• File open operation returns a file descriptor

– A non-negative integer index into the open-file table
• From this point on, access to the file is directed
through the file descriptor
• To enable fast access to file-specific information such
as permissions, the open-file table often contains file
control blocks, also called file attributes:
– Highly system-dependent structures that might include the file’s
symbolic name, location in secondary storage, access control
data and so on

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.