File System

File-System Interface
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

File Concept
 Contiguous logical address space
 Types:
• Data
Numeric
Character
Binary
• Program
 Contents defined by file’s creator
• Many types
Consider text file, source file, executable
file
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 13.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
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
 Location – pointer to file location on device
 Size – current file size
 Protection – controls who can do reading,
writing, executing
 Time, date, and user identification – data
for protection, security, and usage
monitoring
File Operations
 Create
 Write – at write pointer location
 Read – at read pointer location
 Reposition within file - seek
 Delete
 Truncate
 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:
• Open-file table: tracks 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
13.5
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
File Types – Name, Extension
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
Access Methods
 Sequential Access
 Direct Access
Sequential Access
 Operations
• read next
• write next
• Reset
• no read after last write (rewrite)
 Figure
Direct Access
 A file is fixed length logical records
 Operations
• read n
• write n
• position to n
 read next
 write next
 rewrite n
n = relative block number

 Relative block numbers allow OS to decide where
file should be placed
Simulation of Sequential Access on Direct-access File
Example of Index and Relative Files
A Typical File-system Organization
Directory Structure
 A collection of nodes containing information about all files
 Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk
Operations Performed on Directory
 Search for a file

 Create a file
 Delete a file
 List a directory
 Rename a file
 Traverse the file system
Directory Organization
The directory is organized 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
File System Mounting
 A file system must be mounted before it can be accessed
 Fig (a) is a mounted file system that can be accessed by
users.
 Fig. (b) is an unmounted files system that cannot be
accessed by users
Mount Point
 Mounting (b) over “users” results in
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
 If multi-user system
• User IDs identify users, allowing permissions and
protections to be per-user
Group IDs allow users to be in groups, permitting
group access rights
• Owner of a file / directory
• Group of a file / directory
Protection
 File owner/creator should be able to

control:
• what can be done
• by whom
 Types of access
• Read
• Write
• Execute
• Append
• Delete
• List
Windows 7 Access-Control List Management

File System

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File-System Interface

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Several pieces of data are needed to

n = relative block number

 Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk

 Search for a file

The directory is organized logically to

 Efficiency – locating a file quickly

 A single directory for all users

 File owner/creator should be able to

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