File Concept
Contiguous logical address space
Chapter 10: File-System
Interface
Types:
Data
numeric
character
binary
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition,
Program
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.4
Chapter 10: File-System Interface
File Structure
File Concept
None - sequence of words, bytes
Access Methods
Simple record structure
Directory Structure
Lines
File-System Mounting
Fixed length
Variable length
File Sharing
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Complex Structures
Protection
Formatted document
Relocatable load file
Can simulate last two with first method by inserting appropriate control
characters
Who decides:
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.2
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operating system
Program
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
Objectives
10.5
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
File Attributes
To explain the function of file systems
Name only information kept in human-readable form
To describe the interfaces to file systems
Identifier unique tag (number) identifies file within file system
To discuss file-system design tradeoffs, including access methods, file
Type needed for systems that support different types
sharing, file locking, and directory structures
Location pointer to file location on device
To explore file-system protection
Size current file size
Protection 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
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.3
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Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.6
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
File Operations
File Locking Example Java API
File is an abstract data type
Create
Write
Read
Reposition within file
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
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.7
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Open Files
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
exclusiveLock.release();
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
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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();
}
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
}
}
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.8
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Open File Locking
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.11
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
File Types Name, Extension
Provided by some operating systems and file systems
Mediates access to a file
Mandatory or advisory:
Mandatory access is denied depending on locks held and requested
Advisory processes can find status of locks and decide what to do
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.9
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.12
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Access Methods
Example of Index and Relative Files
Sequential Access
read next
write next
reset
no read after last write
(rewrite)
Direct Access
read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n
n = relative block number
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.13
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
Sequential-access File
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
10.16
Directory Structure
A collection of nodes containing information about all files
Directory
Files
F1
F2
F3
F4
Fn
Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk
Backups of these two structures are kept on tapes
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.14
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Simulation of Sequential Access on a Direct-access File
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.15
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.17
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
A Typical File-system Organization
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.18
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operations Performed on Directory
Search for a file
Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user
Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system
Path name
Can have the same file name for different user
Efficient searching
No grouping capability
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.19
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Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.22
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Tree-Structured Directories
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, )
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.20
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Single-Level Directory
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.23
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)
Efficient searching
A single directory for all users
Grouping Capability
Current directory (working directory)
cd /spell/mail/prog
type list
Naming problem
Grouping problem
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.21
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Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.24
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)
General Graph Directory
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
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.25
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
Acyclic-Graph Directories
10.26
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
General Graph Directory (Cont.)
How do we guarantee no cycles?
Have shared subdirectories and files
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.28
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)
Two different names (aliasing)
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
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
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Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
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
If dict deletes list dangling pointer
mount point
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
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Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.30
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(a) Existing. (b) Unmounted Partition
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
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.31
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Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
Mount Point
10.34
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
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 access to
information needed for remote computing
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.32
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File Sharing
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.35
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
File Sharing Failure Modes
Sharing of files on multi-user systems is desirable
Remote file systems add new failure modes, due to network failure,
Sharing may be done through a protection scheme
Recovery from failure can involve state information about status of
On distributed systems, files may be shared across a network
Stateless protocols such as NFS include all information in each
server failure
each remote request
request, allowing easy recovery but less security
Network File System (NFS) is a common distributed file-sharing method
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
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Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.36
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File Sharing Consistency Semantics
Windows XP Access-control List Management
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
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
10.37
Protection
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.40
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
A Sample UNIX Directory Listing
File owner/creator should be able to control:
what can be done
by whom
Types of access
Read
Write
Execute
Append
Delete
List
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
10.38
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
10.41
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
Access Lists and Groups
Mode of access: read, write, execute
Three classes of users
a) owner access
b) group access
c) public access
RWX
111
RWX
110
RWX
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
chmod
group
End of Chapter 10
public
761
game
Attach a group to a file
chgrp
Operating System Concepts 8th Edition
game
10.39
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Operating System Concepts 8th Edition,
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2009
