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1.7 System Calls

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17 views13 pages

1.7 System Calls

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revicse
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ARASU ENGINEERING

COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

CS3451 – INTRODUCTION TO
OPERATING SYSTEMS
II YEAR / IV SEMESTER
Anna University Syllabus, 2021
Regulation
Prepared by
Mrs. V. Revathy
Assistant
Professor/ CSE
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)

CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC


Example of System Calls
 System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another file

3
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)

CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC


API – System Call – OS Relationship

CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC


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

CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC


Parameter Passing via Table

CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC


Types of System Calls
 Process control
 create process, terminate process
 end, abort
 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

CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC


Types of System Calls
 File management  Information maintenance
 create file, delete file  get time or date, set time or date
 open, close file  get system data, set system data
 read, write, reposition  get and set process, file, or device
 get and set file attributes attributes
 Device management  Communications
 request device, release device  create, delete communication
connection
 read, write, reposition
 send, receive messages if message
 Get & set device attributes
passing model to host name or
 logically attach or detach devices process name
 Protection  From client to server

 Control access to resources  Shared-memory model create and


gain access to memory regions
 Get and set permissions
 transfer status information
 Allow and deny user access
 attach and detach remote devices
Ex: Windows and Unix System Calls
 C program invoking
printf() library call,
which calls write()
system call

Standard C Library Example


CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC
Example: MS-DOS
 Single-tasking
 Shell invoked when system
booted
 Simple method to run
program
 No process created
 Single memory space
 Loads program into memory,
overwriting all but the kernel
At system startup running a program
 Program exit -> shell reloaded

CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC


Example: FreeBSD
 Unix variant
 Multitasking
 User login -> invoke user’s choice of shell
 Shell executes fork() system call to create
process
 Executes exec() to load program into
process
 Shell waits for process to terminate or
continues with user commands
 Process exits with:
 code = 0 – no error
 code > 0 – error code
CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC
Thank You
CS3451-IOS/ V. REVATHY / AP/ CSE - AEC

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