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2 System Calls

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18 views14 pages

2 System Calls

Uploaded by

Jisha C Thankappan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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System Calls, Types

The mechanism used by an application program to request


service from the operating system.

 System calls causes the processor to change mode (e.g. to


"supervisor mode" or "protected mode").

This allows the OS to perform restricted actions such as


accessing hardware devices or the memory management unit.
System Calls
Systems calls are the programming interface to the services
provided by the OS

Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)


System Calls
Application
(a process, a Application
running program)
System Call Interface
…. System Calls
(OS functions)
Each has a name/number, set of parameters

Other kernel functions

Kernel/OS other kernel functions can be called by system calls


Example of System Calls

System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to


another file
System Call Implementation and Calling
 Typically,
 a number associated with each
system call
 Number used as an index to a
table: System Call table
 Table keeps addresses of system
calls (routines)
 System call runs and returns
 Caller does not know system call
implementation
 Just knows interface
Standard C Library Example
C program invoking printf() library call,
which calls the write() system call
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
Parameter Passing via Table
Accessing and executing System Calls
System calls typically not accessed directly
by programs Program
Mostly accessed by programs via a high-
API (std lib)
level Application Program Interface (API)
(i.e. a library) rather than direct system call
use OS Sys Calls
Rest of Kernel
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),
Java API for the Java virtual machine
Example of Standard API
 Consider the ReadFile() function in the Win32 API — a function for
reading from a file

 A description of the parameters passed to ReadFile()


 HANDLE file—the file to be read
 LPVOID buffer—a buffer where the data will be read into and written
from
 DWORD bytesToRead—the number of bytes to be read into the buffer
 LPDWORD bytesRead—the number of bytes read during the last read
 LPOVERLAPPED ovl—indicates if overlapped I/O is being used
Types of System Calls
 System calls can be grouped into six major categories:
 Process control
 Load, execute, end, abort, create process, get/set process
attributes, wait for time/signal, allocate/free memory
 File management (manipulation)
 Create/delete/open/close/read/write a file, get/set file attributes

 Device management
 Request/release device, read/write data, get/set attributes

 Information maintenance
 Get/set time or date, get/set system data, get/set attributes for

process/file/device
 Communications
 Create/delete connection, send/receive messages, attach/detach

devices
Protection:Protection provides a mechanism for controlling access

to the resources provided by a computer system


Types of System Calls
 Process control
 end, abort
 load, execute
 create process, terminate process
 get process attributes, set process attributes
 wait for time
 wait event, signal event
 allocate and free memory
 File management
 create file, delete file
 open, close file
 read, write, reposition
 get and set file attributes
Types of System Calls
 Device management
 request device, release device
 read, write, reposition
 get device attributes, set device attributes
 logically attach or detach devices
 Information maintenance
 get time or date, set time or date
 get system data, set system data
 get and set process, file, or device attributes
 Communications
 create, delete communication connection
 send, receive messages
 transfer status information
 attach and detach remote devices
Examples of Windows and
Unix System Calls

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