Lec10

Lecture 10: File System
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Chapter 10: File System Interface
File Concept
Access Methods
Directory Structure
Protection
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 10.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Objectives
To explain the function of file systems
To describe the interfaces to file systems
To discuss file-system design tradeoffs, including access methods, file

sharing, file locking, and directory structures
To explore file-system protection
File Concept
File is a logical storage unit. File are mapped by the operating system onto
physical devices.
Types:
Data
numeric
character
binary
Program
Source form
Object form
File Attributes
Name – the only information kept in human-readable form
Identifier – unique tag (number) identifies file within file system
Type – needed for systems that support different types
Location – pointer to file location on device
Size – current file size
Protection – access-controls who can do reading, writing, executing
Time, date, and user identification – data for protection, security, and
usage monitoring
Information about files are kept in the directory structure, which is
maintained on the disk
File Operations
File is an abstract data type
Create
Write
Read
Reposition within file – also known as seek
Delete
Truncate – erase the contents of a file but keep its attributes
Open(Fi) – search the directory structure on disk for entry Fi, and move
the content of entry to memory
Close (Fi) – move the content of entry Fi in memory to directory
structure on disk
Open Files
Several pieces of data are needed to manage open files:
File pointer: pointer to last read/write location, unique to each
process operating on the file
File-open count: count tracks the number of opens and closes –
to allow removal of data from open-file table when last processes
closes it
Disk location of the file: the information needed to locate the file
on disk
Access rights: per-process access mode information
Open File Locking
Provided by some operating systems and file systems
File locks allow one process to lock a file and prevent other processes
from gaining access to it.
File locks are useful for files that are shared by several processes—for
example, a system log
Shared or exclusive:
Shared – several processes can acquire the lock concurrently
Exclusive – only one process at a time can acquire such a lock
File Types – Name, Extension
Included as part of the file
name - name.extension
The system uses the

extension to indicate the
type of the file and the
type of operations that
can be done on that file.
Access Methods
Sequential Access
Information in the file is processed in order, one record after the
other.
Usage: editors and compilers
Direct Access (or Relative Access)

A file is made up of fixed-length logical records
Allow programs to read and write records rapidly in no
particular order
Usage: database
Index
Build on top of a direct-access method
The index, like an index in the back of a book, contains pointers
to the various blocks
To find a record in the file, first search the index and then use
the pointer to access the file directly and to find the desired
record.
Sequential-access File
Example of Index and Relative Files
Directory Structure
A collection of nodes containing information about all files - such as
name, location, size, and type
Directory
Files
F1 F2 F4
F3
Fn
Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk.

Backups of these two structures are kept on tapes.
Disk Structure
Disk can be subdivided into partitions
Disks or partitions can be RAID (Redundant Array of
Independent Disks) protected against failure of a single disk
Disk or partition can be used raw – without a file system, or
formatted with a file system
Entity containing file system known as a volume
Each volume containing file system also tracks that file
system’s info in device directory or volume table of contents
As well as general-purpose file systems there are many
special-purpose file systems, frequently all within the same
operating system or computer
A Typical File-system Organization
Operations Performed on Directory
Search for a file
Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system

access every directory and every file within a directory structure.
Single-Level Directory
All files are contained in the same directory.
All files must have unique names.
Limitations:
when the number of files increases
when the system has more than one user
Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user.
Define path name

Can have the same file name for different user
Efficient searching
Tree-Structured Directories
Tree-Structured Directories (Cont.)
Most common directory structure.
The tree has a root directory, and every file in the system has a unique path
name.
Efficient searching
Current directory (working directory) - should contain most of the files that
are of current interest to the process.
Path names:
Absolute - begins at the root and follows a path down to the specified
file (e.g. /home/user)
Relative - defines a path from the current directory (e.g. user/dir)
Acyclic-Graph Directories
Have shared subdirectories and files
Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)
Two different names (aliasing)
If dict deletes count ⇒ dangling pointer

Solutions:
Backpointers, so we can delete all pointers
Variable size records a problem
Backpointers using a daisy chain organization
New directory entry type

Link – another name (pointer) to an existing file
Resolve the link – follow pointer to locate the file
General Graph Directory
General Graph Directory (Cont.)
How do we guarantee no cycles?
Allow only links to file not subdirectories
Garbage collection - determine when the last reference has been
deleted and the disk space can be reallocated.
Every time a new link is added use a cycle detection algorithm to
determine whether it is OK
Protection
File owner/creator should be able to control:
what can be done
by whom
Types of access
Read - Read from the file.
Write - Write or rewrite the file.
Execute - Load the file into memory and execute it.
Append - Write new information at the end of the file.
Delete - Delete the file and free its space for possible reuse.
List - List the name and attributes of the file.
Access Lists and Groups
Mode of access: read, write, execute
Three classes of users
RWX
a) owner access 7 ⇒ 111
RWX
b) group access 6 ⇒ 110
RWX
c) public access 1 ⇒ 001
Ask manager to create a group (unique name), say G, and add
some users to the group.
For a particular file (say game) or subdirectory, define an
appropriate access.
owner group public
chmod 761 game
Attach a group to a file

chgrp G game
Windows XP Access-Control
List Management
A Sample UNIX Directory Listing
End of Chapter 10
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009

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Lecture 10: File System

To describe the interfaces to file systems

To discuss file-system design tradeoffs, including access methods, file

To explore file-system protection

The system uses the

Direct Access (or Relative Access)

Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk.

Traverse the file system

Define path name

Have shared subdirectories and files

If dict deletes count ⇒ dangling pointer

New directory entry type

owner group public

chmod 761 game

Attach a group to a file

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