File-System Interface: Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009 Operating System Concepts - 8 Edition

Chapter 10:
File-System Interface
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Chapter 10: File-System Interface
File Concept
Access Methods
Directory Structure
File-System Mounting
File Sharing
Protection
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
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition 10.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
File Concept
Contiguous logical address space

Types:
Data: numeric, character, binary
Program (executable)
File Structure
None - sequence of words, bytes
Simple record structure

Lines
Fixed length
Variable length
Complex Structures
Formatted document
Relocatable load file
Can simulate last two with first method by inserting
appropriate control characters
Who decides:
Operating system
Program
File Attributes
Name only information kept in human-readable form
Identifier unique tag (number) identifies file within file
system
Type needed for systems that support different types
of files
Location pointer to file location on device
Size current file size and max size allowed
Protection access control info;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 step1: find space; step 2: make entry of file
Write system call(file name, info); write pointer
Read current-file-position pointer
Reposition within file ( known as file seek)
Delete find file and erase directory entry
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, per
process that has the file open
File-open count: counter of number of times a file
is open to allow removal of data from open-file
table when last processes closes it
Disk location of the file: cache of data access
information
Access rights: per-process access mode
information
Open File Locking
Provided by some operating systems and file systems
File locks provide functionality similar to reader-writer locks, A
shared lock is akin to a reader lock in that several processes can
acquire the lock concurrently. An exclusive lock behaves like a
writer lock; only one process at a time can acquire such a lock.
Mandatory or advisory:
Mandatory process acquire exclusive lock for file;
ensures locking integrity
Advisory - processes can find status of locks and decide
what to do; it is up to software developers to ensure that locks
are appropriately acquired and released.
File Locking Example Java API
import java.io.*;
import java.nio.channels.*;
public class LockingExample {
public static final boolean EXCLUSIVE = false;
public static final boolean SHARED = true;
public static void main(String arsg[]) throws IOException {
FileLock sharedLock = null;
FileLock exclusiveLock = null;
try {
RandomAccessFile raf = new RandomAccessFile("file.txt",
"rw");
// get the channel for the file
FileChannel ch = raf.getChannel();
// this locks the first half of the file - exclusive
exclusiveLock = ch.lock(0, raf.length()/2, EXCLUSIVE);
/** Now modify the data . . . */
// release the lock
Operating System Concepts 8 Edition
th exclusiveLock.release();
10.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
File Locking Example
Java API (Cont.)
// this locks the second half of the file - shared

sharedLock = ch.lock(raf.length()/2+1,
raf.length(), SHARED);
/** Now read the data . . . */
// release the lock
sharedLock.release();
} catch (java.io.IOException ioe) {
System.err.println(ioe);
}finally {
if (exclusiveLock != null)
exclusiveLock.release();
if (sharedLock != null)
sharedLock.release();
}
}
} Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition 10.10
File Types Name, Extension
Access Methods
Sequential Access: based on tape model
read next
write next
reset
no read after last write
(rewrite)
Direct Access( or relative access): based on
disk model
read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n
n = relative block number(block number provided to user by OS)
Sequential-access File
Simulation of Sequential Access on
Direct-access File
OTHER ACCESS METHODS: INDEXING
Example of Index and Relative Files
Directory Structure
A collection of nodes containing information about
all files
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 (or slices or minidisks
Disks or partitions can be RAID protected against failure
parts can also be combined to form larger structures
known as Volumes
Each volume containing file system also tracks that file
systems 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
Organize the Directory
(Logically) to Obtain
Efficiency locating a file quickly

Naming convenient to users
Two users can have same name for
different files
The same file can have several different
names
Grouping logical grouping of files by
properties, (e.g., all Java programs, all
games, )
Single-Level Directory
A single directory for all users
Naming problem
Grouping problem
Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user
Path name
Can have the same file name for different user
Efficient searching
No grouping capability
Tree-Structured Directories
Tree-Structured Directories (Cont.)
Efficient searching
Grouping Capability
Current directory (working directory)
cd /spell/mail/prog
type list
Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)
Absolute or relative path name
Creating a new file is done in current directory
Delete a file
rm <file-name>
Creating a new subdirectory is done in current directory
mkdir <dir-name>
Example: if in current directory /mail
mkdir count
mail
prog copy prt exp count
Deleting mail deleting the entire subtree rooted

by mail
Acyclic-Graph Directories
Have shared subdirectories and files
Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)
Two different names (aliasing)

If dict deletes list dangling pointer
Solutions:
Backpointers, so we can delete all pointers
Variable size records a problem
Backpointers using a daisy chain organization
Entry-hold-count solution
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
Every time a new link is added use a
cycle detection algorithm to determine
whether it is OK
File System Mounting
A file system must be mounted

before it can be accessed
A unmounted file system (i.e., Fig.
11-11(b)) is mounted at a mount
point
(a) Existing (b) Unmounted Partition
Mount Point
File Sharing
Sharing of files on multi-user systems is

desirable
Sharing may be done through a protection
scheme
On distributed systems, files may be shared
across a network
Network File System (NFS) is a common
distributed file-sharing method
File Sharing Multiple Users
User IDs identify users, allowing

permissions and protections to be per-user
Group IDs allow users to be in groups,
permitting group access rights
File Sharing Remote File Systems
Uses networking to allow file system access between systems
Manually via programs like FTP
Automatically, seamlessly using distributed file systems
Semi automatically via the world wide web
Client-server model allows clients to mount remote file systems
from servers
Server can serve multiple clients
Client and user-on-client identification is insecure or
complicated
NFS is standard UNIX client-server file sharing protocol
CIFS is standard Windows protocol
Standard operating system file calls are translated into
remote calls
Distributed Information Systems (distributed naming services)
such as LDAP, DNS, NIS, Active Directory implement unified
File Sharing Failure Modes
Remote file systems add new failure

modes, due to network failure, server
failure
Recovery from failure can involve state
information about status of each remote
request
Stateless protocols such as NFS
include all information in each request,
allowing easy recovery but less security
File Sharing Consistency Semantics
Consistency semantics specify how multiple users are to
access a shared file simultaneously
Similar to Ch 7 process synchronization algorithms
Tend to be less complex due to disk I/O and network
latency (for remote file systems
Andrew File System (AFS) implemented complex remote file
sharing semantics
Unix file system (UFS) implements:
Writes to an open file visible immediately to other users
of the same open file
Sharing file pointer to allow multiple users to read and
write concurrently
AFS has session semantics
Writes only visible to sessions starting after the file is
closed
Protection
File owner/creator should be able to control:

what can be done
by whom
Types of access
Read
Write
Execute
Append
Delete
List
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

File-System Interface: Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009 Operating System Concepts - 8 Edition

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Chapter 10:

Contiguous logical address space

File is an abstract data type

Several pieces of data are needed to manage open

// this locks the second half of the file - shared

Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk

Search for a file

Efficiency locating a file quickly

A single directory for all users

prog copy prt exp count

Deleting mail deleting the entire subtree rooted

Have shared subdirectories and files

Two different names (aliasing)

How do we guarantee no cycles?

A file system must be mounted

Sharing of files on multi-user systems is

User IDs identify users, allowing

Remote file systems add new failure

File owner/creator should be able to control:

chmod 761 game

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