FILE SYSTEM INTERFACE

The file system provides the mechanism for on-line storage of and access to both data and programs of the
operating system and all the users of the computer system. The file systemconsists of two distinct parts: a collection of
files, each storing related data, and a directory structure, which organizes and provides information about all the files
in the system.

FILE CONCEPT
A file is a collection of related information that is recorded on secondary storage. Froma user's perspective, a
file is the smallest allotment of logical secondary storage and data can not be written to secondary storage unless they
are within a file.
Four terms are in common use when discussing files: Field, Record, File and Database
A field is the basic element of data. An individual field contains a single value, such asan employee’s last
name, a date, or the value of a sensor reading. It is characterized byits length and data type.
A record is a collection of related fields that can be treated as a unit by some applicationprogram. For example,
an employee record would contain such fields as name, social security number, job classification, date of hire,
and so on.
A file is a collection of similar records. The file is treated as a single entity by users andapplications and may
be referenced by name.
A database is a collection of related data. A database may contain all of the information related to an
organization or project, such as a business or a scientific study. The database itself consists of one or more types
of files.

File Attributes:
A file has the following attributes:
 Name: The symbolic file name is the only information kept in human readable form.
 Identifier: This unique tag, usually a number, identifies the file within the file system; itis the non-human-
readable name for the file.
 Type: This information is needed for those systems that support different types.
 Location: This information is a pointer to a device and to the location of the file on thatdevice.
 Size: The current size of the file (in bytes, words, or blocks), and possibly the maximumallowed size are
included in this attribute.
 Protection: Access-control information determines who can do reading, writing,executing, and so on.
 Time, date, and user identification: This information may be kept for creation, modification and last use.
These data can be useful for protection, security, and usagemonitoring.
File Operations:
The operating system can provide system calls to create, write, read, reposition, delete, andtruncate files. The file
operations are described as followed:
Creating a file: Two steps are necessary to create a file. First, space in the file system must be found for the file.
Second, an entry for the new file must be made in the directory. The directory entry records the name of the file
and the location in the file system, and possiblyother information.
Writing a file: To write a file, we make a system call specifying both the name of the file andthe information to be
written to the file. Given the name of the file, the system searches thedirectory to find the location of the file. The
system must keep a write pointer to the locationin the file where the next write is to take place. The write pointer must
be updated whenevera write occurs.
Reading a file: To read from a file, we use a system call that specifies the name of the file and where (in main memory)
the next block of the file should be put. Again, the directory is searched for the associated directory entry, and the
system needs to keep a read pointer to the location in the file where the next read is to take place. Once the read
has taken place,the read pointer is updated.
Repositioning within a file: The directory is searched for the appropriate entry, and the current-file-position is set to a
given value. Repositioning within a file does not need toinvolve any actual I/O. This file operation is also known as a
file seeks.
Deleting a file: To delete a file, we search the directory for the named file. Having found the associated directory entry,
we release all file space, so that it can be reused by other files,and erase the directory entry.
Truncating a file: The user may want to erase the contents of a file but keep its attributes. Rather than forcing the
user to delete the file and then recreate it, this function allows allattributes to remain unchanged-except for file
 length-but lets the file be reset to length zero and its file space released.

File Types:
The files are classified into different categories as follows:

The name is split into two parts-a name and an 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
When a file is used, this information must be accessed and read into computer memory. The information in the
file can be accessed in several ways. There are two major access methods as follows:
Sequential Access: Information in the file is processed in order, one record after the other. A read operation reads the
next portion of the file and automatically advances a file pointer,which tracks the I/O location. Similarly, a write appends
to the end of the file and advances tothe end of the newly written material (the new end of file). Sequential access is based
on a tape model of a file, and works as well on sequential-access devices as it does on random-accessones.
Direct Access: A file is made up of fixed length logical records that allow programs to read and write records rapidly in no
particular order. The direct-access method is based on a disk model of a file, since disks allow random access to any file
block. For direct access, the file is viewed as a numbered sequence of blocks or records. A direct-access file allows arbitrary
blocks to be read or written. There are no restrictions on the order of reading or writing for a direct- access file. For the
direct-access method, the file operations must be modified to include theblock number as a parameter. Thus, we have
read n, where n is the block number, rather thanread next, and write n rather than write next.

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
A directory is an object that contains the names of file system objects. File system allows the users to organize files
and other file system objects through the use of directories.
The structure created by placement of names in directories can take a number of forms:Single-level tree, Two-
level tree, multi-level tree or cyclic graph.
1. Single-Level Directory: The simplest directory structure is the single-level directory. All files are contained in the
 same directory, which is easy to support and understand. A single-level directory has significant limitations, when
the number of files increases or when the system has more than one user. Since all files are in the same directory,
they must haveunique names.
2. Two-Level Directory: In the two-level directory structure, each user has its own user file directory (UFD). Each
UFD has a similar structure, but lists only the files of a single user. When a user job starts or a user logs in, the

system's master file directory (MFD) is searched. The MFD is indexed by user name or account number, and
each entry points to the UFD for that user.
When a user refers to a particular file, only his own UFD is searched. Different users mayhave files with the
same name, as long as all the file names within each UFD are unique. To create a file for a user, the operating system
searches only that user's UFD to ascertain whetheranother file of that name exists. To delete a file, the operating system
confines its search to thelocal UFD; thus, it cannot accidentally delete another user's file that has the same name.

3. Tree-structured directories: A tree structure is A more powerful and flexible approachto organize files and directories
in hierarchical. There is a master directory, which has under it a number of user directories. Each of these user
directories may have subdirectories and files as entries. This is true at any level: That is, at any level, a directory may
consist of entries for subdirectories and/or entries for files.

4. Acyclic-Graph Directories:
An acyclic graph allows directories to have shared subdirectories and files. The same file or subdirectory may be
in two different directories. An acyclic graph is a natural generalizationof the tree structured directory scheme.
 A shared file (or directory) is not the same as two copies of the file. With two copies, each programmer can view
the copy rather than the original, but if one programmer changes the file, the changes will not appear in the other's copy.
Shared files and subdirectories can be implemented in several ways. A common way is to create a new
directory entry called a link. A link is a pointer to another file or subdirectory.

5. General Graph Directory:

When we add links to an existing tree-structured directory, the tree structure isdestroyed, resulting in a
simple graph structure.

Free Space Management:

A file system is responsible to allocate the free blocks to the file therefore it has to keep track ofall the free blocks present
in the disk. There are mainly two approaches by using which, the free blocks in the disk are managed.

1. Bit Vector
In this approach, the free space list is implemented as a bit map vector. It contains the number of bits where each bit represents
each block.

If the block is empty then the bit is 1 otherwise it is 0. Initially all the blocks are empty therefore each bit in the bit map vector
contains 1.

LAs the space allocation proceeds, the file system starts allocating blocks to the files and settingthe respective bit to 0.

2. Linked List
It is another approach for free space management. This approach suggests linking together all the free blocks and keeping a
pointer in the cache which points to the first free block.

Therefore, all the free blocks on the disks will be linked together with a pointer. Whenever a block gets allocated, its previous
free block will be linked to its next free block.

DISK MANAGEMENT
The operating system is responsible for several aspects of disk management.
Disk Formatting
A new magnetic disk is a blank slate. It is just platters of a magnetic recording material. Before a disk can store
data, it must be divided into sectors that the disk controller can read and write. This process is called low-level formatting
(or physical formatting).
Low-level formatting fills the disk with a special data structure for each sector. The data structure for a sector
consists of a header, a data area, and a trailer. The header and trailer contain information used by the disk controller,
such as a sector number and an error- correcting code (ECC).
To use a disk to hold files, the operating system still needs to record its own data structures on the disk. It does
so in two steps. The first step is to partition the disk into one or more groups of cylinders. The operating system can
treat each partition as though it were a separate disk. For instance, one partition can hold a copy of the operating
system's executablecode, while another holds user files. After partitioning, the second step is logical formatting (or
creation of a file system). In this step, the operating system stores the initial file-system data structures onto the disk.
Boot Block
When a computer is powered up or rebooted, it needs to have an initial program to run.This initial program is
called bootstrap program. It initializes all aspects of the system (i.e. from CPU registers to device controllers and the
contents of main memory) and then starts the operating system.
To do its job, the bootstrap program finds the operating system kernel on disk, loads that kernel into memory, and
jumps to an initial address to begin the operating-system execution.
For most computers, the bootstrap is stored in read-only memory (ROM). This locationis convenient, because
ROM needs no initialization and is at a fixed location that the processor can start executing when powered up or reset.
And since ROM is read only, it cannot be infected by a computer virus. The problem is that changing this bootstrap code
requires changing the ROM hardware chips.
For this reason, most systems store a tiny bootstrap loader program in the boot ROM, whose only job is to bring
in a full bootstrap program from disk. The full bootstrap program can be changed easily: A new version is simply
written onto the disk. The full bootstrap program is stored in a partition (at a fixed location on the disk) is called the boot
blocks. A disk that has a boot partition is called a boot disk or system disk.
Bad Blocks
Since disks have moving parts and small tolerances, they are prone to failure. Sometimes the failure is complete,
and the disk needs to be replaced, and its contents restored from backup media to the new disk.
More frequently, one or more sectors become defective. Most disks even come from the factory with bad
blocks. Depending on the disk and controller in use, these blocks are handledin a variety of ways.
The controller maintains a list of bad blocks on the disk. The list is initialized during thelow-level format at the
factory, and is updated over the life of the disk. The controller can be told to replace each bad sector logically with one
of the spare sectors. This scheme is known assector sparing or forwarding.

DISKS STRUCTURE
Magnetic disks provide the bulk of secondary storage for modern computer systems. Each disk platter has a
flat circular shape, like a CD. Common platter diameters range from 1.8to 5.25 inches. The two surfaces of a platter are
covered with a magnetic material. We store information by recording it magnetically on the platters.
A read-write head "flies" just above each surface of every platter. The heads are attached to a disk arm, which
moves all the heads as a unit. The surface of a platter is logically divided into circular tracks, which are subdivided
into sectors. The set of tracks that are at one arm position forms a cylinder. There may be thousands of concentric
cylinders in a disk drive, andeach track may contain hundreds of sectors. The storage capacity of common disk drives
is measured in gigabytes.
(Structure of Magnetic disks (Harddisk drive))
When the disk is in use, a drive motor spins it at high speed. Most drives rotate 60 to 200times per second. Disk
speed has two parts. The transfer rate is the rate at which data flow between the drive and the computer. The
positioning time (or random-access time) consists ofseek time and rotational latency. The seek time is the time to move
the disk arm to the desired cylinder. And the rotational latency is the time for the desired sector to rotate to the disk head.
Typical disks can transfer several megabytes of data per second and they have seek times androtational latencies of
several milliseconds.
Capacity of Magnetic disks(C) = S x T x P x N
Where S= no. of surfaces = 2 x no. of disks, T= no. of tracks in a surface, P= no. of
sectors per track, N= size of each sector
Transfer Time: The transfer time to or from the disk depends on the rotation speed of the diskin the following fashion: T
= b / ( r x N)
Where T= transfer time, b=number of bytes to be transferred, N= number of bytes on a track,
r= rotation speed, in revolutions per second.
Modern disk drives are addressed as large one-dimensional arrays of logical blocks, where the logical block
is the smallest unit of transfer. The one-dimensional array of logical blocks is mapped onto the sectors of the disk
sequentially. Sector 0 is the first sector of the first track on the outermost cylinder. The mapping proceeds in order
through that track, then through the rest of the tracks in that cylinder, and then through the rest of the cylinders from
outermost to innermost.
By using this mapping, we can convert a logical block number into an old-style disk address that consists of a
cylinder number, a track number within that cylinder, and a sector number within that track. In practical, it is difficult to
perform this translation, for two reasons. First, most disks have some defective sectors, but the mapping hides this by
substituting sparesectors from elsewhere on the disk. Second, the number of sectors per track is not a constant on some
drives.
The density of bits per track is uniform. This is called Constant linear velocity (CLV). The disk rotation
speed can stay constant and the density of bits decreases from inner tracks to outer tracks to keep the data rate constant. This
method is used in hard disks and is known as constant angular velocity (CAV).

DISK SCHEDULING
The seek time is the time for the disk arm to move the heads to the cylinder containing the desired sector. The
rotational latency is the time waiting for the disk to rotate the desired sector to the disk head. The disk bandwidth is the
total number of bytes transferred divided by the total time between the first request for service and the completion of the
last transfer.
We can improve both the access time and the bandwidth by scheduling the servicing ofdisk I/O requests in a
good order. Several algorithms exist to schedule the servicing of disk I/Orequests as follows:
1. FCFS Scheduling
The simplest form of scheduling is first-in-first-out (FIFO) scheduling, which processes items from the queue in
sequential order. We illustrate this with a request queue (0-199): 98, 183, 37, 122, 14, 124, 65, 67
Consider now the Head pointer is in cylinder 53.
 (FCFS disk scheduling)
2. SSTF Scheduling
It stands for shortest-seek-time-first (SSTF) algorithm. The SSTF algorithm selects the request with the minimum
seek time from the current head position. Since seek time increases with the number of cylinders traversed by the head,
SSTF chooses the pending request closest to the current head position. We illustrate this with a request queue (0-199): 98,
183, 37, 122, 14,
124, 65, 67
Consider now the Head pointer is in cylinder 53.

(SSTF disk scheduling)

3. SCAN Scheduling
In the SCAN algorithm, the disk arm starts at one end of the disk, and moves toward theother end, servicing
requests as it reaches each cylinder, until it gets to the other end of the disk. At the other end, the direction of head
movement is reversed, and servicing continues. The head continuously scans back and forth across the disk. We illustrate
this with a request queue (0- 199): 98, 183, 37, 122, 14, 124, 65, 67
Consider now the Head pointer is in cylinder 53.
4. C-SCAN Scheduling
Circular SCAN (C-SCAN) scheduling is a variant of SCAN designed to provide a more uniform wait time.
Like SCAN, C-SCAN moves the head from one end of the disk to the other, servicing requests along the way. When
the head reaches the other end, it immediately returnsto the beginning of the disk, without servicing any requests on the
return trip. The CSCAN scheduling algorithm essentially treats the cylinders as a circular list that wraps around from
the final cylinder to the first one. We illustrate this with a request queue (0-199):
98, 183, 37, 122, 14, 124, 65, 67. Consider now the Head pointer is in cylinder 53.

(SCAN disk scheduling)

 (C-SCAN disk scheduling)
5. LOOK Scheduling
Practically, both SCAN and C-SCAN algorithm is not implemented this way. More commonly, the arm goes
only as far as the final request in each direction. Then, it reverses direction immediately, without going all the way to
the end of the disk. These versions of SCANand C-SCAN are called LOOK and C-LOOK scheduling, because they
look for a request before continuing to move in a given direction. We illustrate this with a request queue
(0-199): 98, 183, 37, 122, 14, 124, 65, 67
Consider now the Head pointer is in cylinder 53.

(C-LOOK disk scheduling)

Selection of a Disk-Scheduling Algorithm
SSTF is common and has a natural appeal.
Performance depends on the number and types of requests.
Requests for disk service can be influenced by the file allocation method.
The disk-scheduling algorithm should be written as a separate module of the operatingsystem, allowing it to be
replaced with a different algorithm if necessary. Either SSTF or LOOK is a reasonable choice for the default
algorithm.

I/O SYSTEM

The role of the operating system in computer I/O is to manage and control I/O operations and I/O devices. A
device communicates with a computer system by sending signals over a cable or even through the air. The device
communicates with the machine via a connection point. If one or more devices use a common set of wires for
communication, the connection is called a bus.
When device A has a cable that plugs into device B, and device B has a cable that plugs into device C, and device
C plugs into a port on the computer, this arrangement is called a daisy chain. A daisy chain usually operates as a bus.
 Buses are used widely in computer architecture as follows:

(A typical PC bus structure)

This figure shows a PC1 bus (the common PC system bus) that connects the processormemory subsystem to the
fast devices, and an expansion bus that connects relatively slow devices such as the keyboard and serial and parallel ports.
In the upper-right portion ofthe figure, four disks are connected together on a SCSI bus plugged into a SCSI controller.
A controller is a collection of electronics that can operate a port, a bus, or a device. A serial-port controller is a
simple device controller. It is a single chip (or portion of a chip) in thecomputer that controls the signals on the wires of
a serial port.
Since the SCSI protocol is complex, the SCSI bus controller is often implemented as a separate circuit board
(or a host adapter) that plugs into the computer. It contains a processor,microcode, and some private memory to enable it
to process the SCSI protocol messages.
Some devices have their own built-in controllers. This board is the disk controller. It has microcode and a
processor to do many tasks, such as bad-sector mapping, prefetching, buffering, and caching.
An I/O port consists of four registers, called the status, control, data-in, and data-outregisters.
The status register contains bits that can be read by the host. These bits indicate statessuch as whether the
current command has completed, whether a byte is available to be read from the data-in register, and whether there
has been a device error.
The control register can be written by the host to start a command or to change the modeof a device.
The data-in register is read by the host to get input.
The data-out register is written by the host to send output.

The external devices can be grouped into three categories:

1. Human readable: Suitable for communicating with the computer user. Examples include printers and terminals,
the latter consisting of video display, keyboard, and perhaps otherdevices such as a mouse.
2. Machine readable: Suitable for communicating with electronic equipment. Examples aredisk drives, USB keys,
sensors, controllers, and actuators.
3. Communication: Suitable for communicating with remote devices. Examples are digital line drivers and modems.

ORGANIZATION OF THE I/O FUNCTION(I/O Technique)

 There are three techniques for performing I/O operations:
1. Programmed I/O: The processor issues an I/O command, on behalf of a process, to an I/O module; that process
busy waits for the operation to be completed before proceeding.
2. Interrupt-driven I/O: The processor issues an I/O command on behalf of a process. Thereare two possibilities. If
the I/O instruction from the process is non blocking, then the processor continues to execute instructions from the
process that issued the I/O command. If the I/O instruction is blocking, then the next instruction that the processor
executes isfrom the OS, which will put the current process in a blocked state and schedule another process.
3. Direct memory access (DMA): A DMA module controls the exchange of data between main memory and an I/O
module. The processor sends a request for the transfer of a block ofdata to the DMA module and is interrupted
only after the entire block has been transferred.
Interrupt-driven I/O
The basic interrupt mechanism works as follows.
The CPU hardware has a wire called the interrupt-request line that the CPU senses afterexecuting every instruction.
When the CPU detects that a controller has asserted a signal on the interrupt request line, the CPU saves a small amount
of state, such as the current value of the instruction pointer, and jumps to the interrupt-handler routine at a fixed
address in memory.
The interrupt handler determines the cause of the interrupt, performs the necessary processing, and executes a return
from interrupt instruction to return the CPU to the execution state prior to the interrupt.
The above mechanism concludes that the device controller raises an interrupt by asserting a signal on the interrupt
request line, the CPU catches the interrupt and dispatches to the interrupt handler, and the handler clears the interrupt by
servicing the device.
(Diagram of Interrupt-driven I/O cycle)
In a modern operating system, we need more sophisticated interrupt-handling features as follows:
 First, we need the ability to defer interrupt handling during critical processing.
 Second, we need an efficient way to dispatch to the proper interrupt handler fora device.
 Third, we need multilevel interrupts, so that the operating system can distinguishbetween high- and low-
priority interrupts, and can respond with the appropriatedegree of urgency.
In modern computer hardware, these three features are provided by the CPU and by the interrupt-controller
hardware.
Direct Memory Access
The DMA unit is capable of mimicking the processor and of taking over control of the system bus just like a
processor. It needs to do this to transfer data to and from memory over the system bus. The DMA technique works as
follows:
 When the processor wishes to read or write a block of data, it issues a command to the DMA module by
sending to the DMA module the following information:
 Whether a read or write is requested, using the read or write control line between the processor and the
DMA module.
 The address of the I/O device involved, communicated on the data lines.
 The starting location in memory to read from or write to, communicated on the data lines and stored
by the DMA module in its address register.
 The number of words to be read or written, again communicated via the data lines and stored in the data
count register.
 Then the processor continues with other work. It has delegated this I/O operation tothe DMA module.
 The DMA module transfers the entire block of data, one word at a time, directly to orfrom memory,
without going through the processor.
 When the transfer is complete, the DMA module sends an interrupt signal to theprocessor. Thus, the
processor is involved only at the beginning and end of the transfer.

(Steps in a DMA transfer)

 APPLICATION I/O INTERFACE

I/O system calls encapsulate device behaviors in generic classes. Each general kind is accessed through a
standardized set of functions, called an interface. The differences are encapsulated in kernel modules called device drivers
that internally are custom tailored to each device, but that export one of the standard interfaces. Devices vary in many
dimensions: o Character-stream or block o Sequential or random-access o Sharable or dedicated o Speed of operation
o read-write, read only, or write only

(Diagram of a kernel I/O structure)

The purpose of the device-driver layer is to hide the differences among device controllers from the I/O subsystem
of the kernel, much as the I/O system calls encapsulate the behaviorof devices in a few generic classes that hide
hardware differences from applications. Makingthe I/O subsystem independent of the hardware simplifies the job of the
operating-system developer. It also benefits the hardware manufacturers. They either design new devices to be compatible
with an existing host controller interface (such as SCSI-2), or they write device drivers to interface the new hardware to
popular operating systems. Thus, new peripherals can be attached to a computer without waiting for the operating-system
vendor to develop support code.

KERNEL I/O SUBSYSTEM

Kernels provide many services related to I/O. Several services (i.e. scheduling, buffering, caching, spooling,
device reservation and error handling) are provided by the kernel's I/O subsystem and build on the hardware and
device driver infrastructure.
1. I/O Scheduling: It is used to schedule a set of I/O requests that means to determine a good order in which to
execute them. Scheduling can improve overall system performance andcan reduce the average waiting time for I/O to
complete.
2. Buffering: A buffer is a memory area that stores data while they are transferred between two devices or between a
device and an application. Buffering is done for three reasons.
 One reason is to cope with a speed mismatch between the producer and consumer of a datastream.
 A second use of buffering is to adapt between devices that have different data-transfer sizes.
 A third use of buffering is to support copy semantics for application I/O.
3. Caching: A cache is a region of fast memory that holds copies of data. Access to the cachedcopy is more efficient
than access to the original. Cache is used to improve the I/O efficiencyfor files that are shared by applications or that
are being written and reread rapidly. The difference between a buffer and a cache is that a buffer may hold the only
existing copy of adata item, whereas a cache just holds a copy on faster storage of an item that resides elsewhere.
Caching and buffering are distinct functions, but sometimes a region of memorycan be used for both purposes.
4. Spooling: A spool is a buffer that holds output for a device, such as a printer, that cannotaccept interleaved data
streams. Although a printer can serve only one job at a time, severalapplications may wish to print their output
concurrently, without having their output mixedtogether. The operating system solves this problem by intercepting all
output to the printer.
Each application's output is spooled to a separate disk file. When an application finishesprinting, the spooling
system queues the corresponding spool file for output to the printer.
The spooling system copies the queued spool files to the printer one at a time. The operating system provides a
control interface that enables users and system administrators to display the queue, to remove unwanted jobs before those
jobs print, to suspend printing whilethe printer is serviced, and so on.
5. Device Reservation:
It provides support for exclusive device access, by enabling a process to allocate an idle device, and to deallocate that
device when it is no longer needed. Many operating systems provide functions that enable processes to coordinate
exclusive access among them. It watches out fordeadlock to avoid.
Transforming I/O request to Hardware Operations
Consider reading a file from disk for a process: Determine
device holding file
 Translate name to device representation
 Physically read data from disk into buffer
 Make data available to requesting process
 Return control to process
The following steps are described the lifecycle of a blocking read request:
1. A process issues a blocking read() system call to a file descriptor of a file that has been opened previously.
2. The system-call code in the kernel checks the parameters for correctness. In the case of input, if the data are already
available in the buffer cache, the data are returned to the process and the I/O request is completed.
3. Otherwise, a physical I/O needs to be performed, so the process is removed from the run queue and is placed on
the wait queue for the device, and the I/O request is scheduled. Eventually, the I/O subsystem sends the request to
the device driver. Depending on the operating system, the request is sent via a subroutine call or via an in-kernel
message.
4. The device driver allocates kernel buffer space to receive the data, and schedules the I/O. Eventually, the driver
sends commands to the device controller by writing into the devicecontrol registers.
5. The device controller operates the device hardware to perform the data transfer.
6. The driver may poll for status and data, or it may have set up a DMA transfer into kernel memory. We assume that the
transfer is managed by a DMA controller, which generates an interrupt when the transfer completes.
7. The correct interrupt handler receives the interrupt via the interrupt-vector table, stores any necessary data, signals the
device driver, and returns from the interrupt.
8. The device driver receives the signal, determines which I/O request completed, determinesthe request's status, and
signals the kernel I/O subsystem that the request has been completed.
9. The kernel transfers data or returns codes to the address space of the requesting process, and moves the process
from the wait queue back to the ready queue.
10. Moving the process to the ready queue unblocks the process. When the scheduler assigns the process to the CPU,
the process resumes execution at the completion of the system call.
 (The life cycle of an I/O request)

Interrupt: Interrupt is a hardware mechanism in which, the device notices the CPU that itrequires its attention.
Interrupt can take place at any time. So when CPU gets an interruptsignal through the indication interrupt-request line,
CPU stops the current process and respond to the interrupt by passing the control to interrupt handler which services
device.

Polling: In polling is not a hardware mechanism, its a protocol in which CPU steadily checkswhether the device needs
attention. Whenever a device tells process unit that it desires hardware processing, in polling process unit keeps asking
the I/O device whether or not it desires CPU processing. The CPU ceaselessly check every and each device hooked up
thereto for sleuthing whether or not any device desires hardware attention. Each device features a command-ready bit
that indicates the standing of that device, i.e., whether or not it’s some command to be dead by hardware or not. If
command bit is ready one, then it’s some command to be dead else if the bit is zero, then it’s no commands.
Let’s see that the difference between interrupt and polling:

Interrupt Polling

1. In interrupt, the device notices theCPU that it Whereas, in polling, CPU steadily checkswhether the device
requires its attention. needs attention.
 2. An interrupt is not a protocol, its ahardware Whereas it isn’t a hardware mechanism, its a
mechanism. protocol.

3. In interrupt, the device is servicedby While in polling, the device is serviced byCPU.
interrupt handler.

4. Interrupt can take place at anytime. Whereas CPU steadily ballots the device atregular or proper
interval.

In interrupt, interrupt request line is used as While in polling, Command ready bit is usedas indication
5. indication for indicating that device requires for indicating that device requires servicing.
servicing.

In interrupts, processor is simply On the opposite hand, in polling, processor waste countless
disturbed once any device processor cycles by repeatedly checking the command-ready
6. little
interrupts it.
bit of each device.

Direct Memory Access (DMA) :

DMA Controller is a hardware device that allows I/O devices to directly access memory with less participation of the
processor. DMA controller needs the same old circuits of an interface to communicate with the CPU and Input/Output
devices.
Fig-1 below shows the block diagram of the DMA controller. The unit communicates with the CPU through data bus
and control lines. Through the use of the address bus and allowing the DMA and RS register to select inputs, the
register within the DMA is chosen by the CPU. RD and WR are two-way inputs. When BG (bus grant) input is 0, the
CPU can communicate with DMA registers. When BG (bus grant) input is 1, the CPUhas relinquished the buses
and DMA can communicate directly with the memory.
DMA Controller Register:
The DMA controller has three registers as follows.

 Address register – It contains the address to specify the desired location inmemory.
 Word count register – It contains the number of words to be transferred.
 Control register – It specifies the transfer mode.
Note –

All registers in the DMA appear to the CPU as I/O interface registers. Therefore, the CPU can both read and write into
the DMA registers under program control via the data bus.
 Block Diagram

Explanation:

The CPU initializes the DMA by sending the given information through the data bus.
 The starting address of the memory block where the data is available (to read)or where data are to be stored
(to write).
 It also sends word count which is the number of words in the memory block tobe read or write.
 Control to define the mode of transfer such as read or write.
 A control to begin the DMA transfer.
Protection

A mechanism that controls the access of programs, processes, or users to the resources defined by a computer system is
referred to as protection. You may utilize protection as a tool for multi- programming operating systems, allowing
multiple users to safely share a common logical namespace, including a directory or files.

Goals of Protection in Operating System

Various goals of protection in the operating system are as follows:

1. The policies define how processes access the computer system's resources, such as the CPU, memory, software,
and even the operating system. It is the responsibility of both theoperating system designer and the app
programmer. Although, these policies are modified at any time.
2. Protection is a technique for protecting data and processes from harmful or intentional infiltration. It contains
protection policies either established by itself, set by managementor imposed individually by programmers to
ensure that their programs are protected to the greatest extent possible.

3. It also provides a multiprogramming OS with the security that its users expect whensharing common space
such as files or directories.
Security

Security refers to providing a protection system to computer system resources such as CPU, memory, disk, software
programs and most importantly data/information stored in the computer system. If a computer program is run by an
unauthorized user, then he/she may cause severe damage to computer or data stored in it. So a computer system must be
protectedagainst unauthorized access, malicious access to system memory, viruses, worms etc.

The goal of Security System

There are several goals of system security. Some of them are as follows:

1. Integrity

Unauthorized users must not be allowed to access the system's objects, and users with insufficient rights should not modify
the system's critical files and resources.
2. Secrecy

The system's objects must only be available to a small number of authorized users. The system files should not be
accessible to everyone.

3. Availability

All system resources must be accessible to all authorized users, i.e., no single user/process should be able to consume all
system resources. If such a situation arises, service denial may occur. In this case, malware may restrict system resources
and preventing legitimate processes from accessing them.

System Authentication

One-time passwords, encrypted passwords, and cryptography are used to create a strong password and a formidable
authentication source.

1. One-time Password
It is a way that is unique at every login by the user. It is a combination of two passwords that allow the user access. The
system creates a random number, and the user supplies a matching one. An algorithm generates a random number for the
system and the user, and the output is matched using a common function.

2. Encrypted Passwords
It is also a very effective technique of authenticating access. Encrypted data is passed via the network, which transfers
and checks passwords, allowing data to pass without interruption or interception.

3. Cryptography
It's another way to ensure that unauthorized users can't access data transferred over a network. It aids in the data secure
transmission. It introduces the concept of a key to protecting the data.The key is crucial in this situation. When a user
sends data, he encodes it using a computer thathas the key, and the receiver must decode the data with the same key. As a
result, even if the data is stolen in the middle of the process, there's a good possibility the unauthorized user won't be able to
access it.

Program threats
The operating system's processes and kernel carry out the specified task as directed. Program Threats
occur when a user program causes these processes to do malicious operations. The common
example of a program threat is that when a program is installed on a computer, it could store and
transfer user credentials to a hacker. There are various program threats. Some of themare as
follows:

1. Virus

A virus may replicate itself on the system. Viruses are extremely dangerous and can
modify/delete user files as well as crash computers. A virus is a little piece of code that is
implemented on the system program. As the user interacts with the program, the virus
becomesembedded in other files and programs, potentially rendering the system inoperable.

2. Trojan Horse
This type of application captures user login credentials. It stores them to transfer them to a
malicious user who can then log in to the computer and access system resources.

3. Logic Bomb
A logic bomb is a situation in which software only misbehaves when particular criteria are met;
otherwise, it functions normally.

4. Trap Door
A trap door is when a program that is supposed to work as expected has a security weakness in
its code that allows it to do illegal actions without the user's knowledge.

System Threats

System threats are described as the misuse of system services and network connections to cause user
problems. These threats may be used to trigger the program threats over an entire network, known as
program attacks. System threats make an environment in which OS resources and user files may be
misused. There are various system threats. Some of them are as follows:

1. Port Scanning
It is a method by which the cracker determines the system's vulnerabilities for an attack. It is a
fully automated process that includes connecting to a specific port via TCP/IP. To protect the
attacker's identity, port scanning attacks are launched through Zombie Systems, which
previously independent systems now serve their owners while being utilized for such terrible
purposes.
2. Worm
The worm is a process that can choke a system's performance by exhausting all system resources. A
Worm process makes several clones, each consuming system resources and preventing all other
processes from getting essential resources. Worm processes can even bring a network to a halt.

3. Denial of Service
Denial of service attacks usually prevents users from legitimately using the system. For example,
if a denial-of-service attack is executed against the browser's content settings, a user may be unable
to access the internet.
RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks)

RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) is a technique that makes use of a combination of multiple disks for
storing the data instead of using a single disk for increased performance, data redundancy, or to protect data in the
case of a drive failure. The term was defined by David Patterson, Garth A. Gibson, and Randy Katz at the University
of California, Berkeley in 1987. In this article, we are going to discuss RAID and types of RAID their Advantages
and disadvantages in detail.
What is RAID?
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is like having backup copies of your important files stored in
different places on several hard drives or solid-state drives (SSDs). If one drive stops working, your data is still safe
because you have other copies stored on the other drives. It’s like having a safety net to protect your files from being
lost if one of your drives breaks down.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) in a Database Management System (DBMS) is a technology that
combines multiple physical disk drives into a single logical unit for data storage. The main purpose of RAID is to
improve data reliability, availability, and performance. There are different levels of RAID, each offering a balance of
these benefits.
How RAID Works?
It splits your data across multiple drives, so if one drive fails, your data is still safe on the others. RAID helps keep
your information secure.
What is a RAID Controller?
A RAID controller is like a boss for your hard drives in a big storage system. It works between your computer’s
operating system and the actual hard drives, organizing them into groups to make them easier to manage. This helps
speed up how fast your computer can read and write data, and it also adds a layer of protection in case one of your
hard drives breaks down. So, it’s like having a smart helper that makes your hard drives work better and keeps your
important data safer.

Types of RAID Controller

There are three types of RAID controller:
 Hardware Based: In hardware-based RAID, there’s a physical controller that manages the whole array. This
controller can handle the whole group of hard drives together. It’s designed to work with different types of
hard drives, like SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) or SCSI (Small Computer System
Interface). Sometimes, this controller is built right into the computer’s main board, making it easier to set up
and manage your RAID system. It’s like having a captain for your team of hard drives, making sure they
work together smoothly.
 Software Based: In software-based RAID, the controller doesn’t have its own special hardware. So it use
computer’s main processor and memory to do its job. It perform the same function as a hardware-based
RAID controller, like managing the hard drives and keeping your data safe. But because it’s sharing
resources with other programs on your computer, it might not make things run as fast. So, while it’s still
helpful, it might not give you as big of a speed boost as a hardware-based RAID system
 Firmware Based: Firmware-based RAID controllers are like helpers built into the computer’s main board.
They work with the main processor, just like software-based RAID. But they only implement when the
computer starts up. Once the operating system is running, a special driver takes over the RAID job. These
controllers aren’t as expensive as hardware ones, but they make the computer’s main processor work harder.
People also call them hardware-assisted software RAID, hybrid model RAID, or fake RAID.

Why Data Redundancy?

Data redundancy, although taking up extra space, adds to disk reliability. This means, that in case of disk failure, if
the same data is also backed up onto another disk, we can retrieve the data and go on with the operation. On the other
hand, if the data is spread across multiple disks without the RAID technique, the loss of a single disk can affect the
entire data.

Key Evaluation Points for a RAID System

 Reliability: How many disk faults can the system tolerate?
  Availability: What fraction of the total session time is a system in uptime mode, i.e. how available is the
system for actual use?
 Performance: How good is the response time? How high is the throughput (rate of processing work)? Note
that performance contains a lot of parameters, not just the two.
 Capacity: Given a set of N disks each with B blocks, how much useful capacity is available to the user?
RAID is very transparent to the underlying system. This means, that to the host system, it appears as a single big disk
presenting itself as a linear array of blocks. This allows older technologies to be replaced by RAID without making
too many changes to the existing code.

Different RAID Levels:

 RAID-0 (Stripping)
 RAID-1 (Mirroring)
 RAID-2 (Bit-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
 RAID-3 (Byte-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
 RAID-4 (Block-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)

Raid Controller

1. RAID-0 (Stripping)

 Blocks are “stripped” across disks.

RAID-0

 In the figure, blocks “0,1,2,3” form a stripe.

 Instead of placing just one block into a disk at a time, we can work with two (or more) blocks placed into a
disk before moving on to the next one.

Raid-0
Evaluation
 Reliability: 0
There is no duplication of data. Hence, a block once lost cannot be recovered.
 Capacity: N*B
The entire space is being used to store data. Since there is no duplication, N disks each having B blocks are
fully utilized.
Advantages
 It is easy to implement.
 It utilizes the storage capacity in a better way.
Disadvantages
 A single drive loss can result in the complete failure of the system.
 It’s not a good choice for a critical system.

2. RAID-1 (Mirroring)
 More than one copy of each block is stored in a separate disk. Thus, every block has two (or more) copies,
lying on different disks.

Raid-1

 The above figure shows a RAID-1 system with mirroring level 2.

 RAID 0 was unable to tolerate any disk failure. But RAID 1 is capable of reliability.

Evaluation
Assume a RAID system with mirroring level 2.
 Reliability: 1 to N/2
1 disk failure can be handled for certain because blocks of that disk would have duplicates on some other
disk. If we are lucky enough and disks 0 and 2 fail, then again this can be handled as the blocks of these
disks have duplicates on disks 1 and 3. So, in the best case, N/2 disk failures can be handled.
 Capacity: N*B/2
Only half the space is being used to store data. The other half is just a mirror of the already stored data.
Advantages
 It covers complete redundancy.
 It can increase data security and speed.
Disadvantages
 It is highly expensive.
 Storage capacity is less.

3. RAID-2 (Bit-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)

 In Raid-2, the error of the data is checked at every bit level. Here, we use Hamming Code Parity Method to
find the error in the data.
 It uses one designated drive to store parity.
  The structure of Raid-2 is very complex as we use two disks in this technique. One word is used to store bits
of each word and another word is used to store error code correction.
 It is not commonly used.
Advantages
 In case of Error Correction, it uses hamming code.
 It Uses one designated drive to store parity.
Disadvantages
 It has a complex structure and high cost due to extra drive.
 It requires an extra drive for error detection.

4. RAID-3 (Byte-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)

 It consists of byte-level striping with dedicated parity striping.
 At this level, we store parity information in a disc section and write to a dedicated parity drive.
 Whenever failure of the drive occurs, it helps in accessing the parity drive, through which we can reconstruct
the data.

Raid-3

 Here Disk 3 contains the Parity bits for Disk 0, Disk 1, and Disk 2. If data loss occurs, we can construct it
with Disk 3.
Advantages
 Data can be transferred in bulk.
 Data can be accessed in parallel.
Disadvantages
 It requires an additional drive for parity.
 In the case of small-size files, it performs slowly.

5. RAID-4 (Block-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)

 Instead of duplicating data, this adopts a parity-based approach.

Raid-4
  In the figure, we can observe one column (disk) dedicated to parity.
 Parity is calculated using a simple XOR function. If the data bits are 0,0,0,1 the parity bit is XOR(0,0,0,1) =
1. If the data bits are 0,1,1,0 the parity bit is XOR(0,1,1,0) = 0. A simple approach is that an even
number of ones results in parity 0, and an odd number of ones results in parity 1.

Raid-4

 Assume that in the above figure, C3 is lost due to some disk failure. Then, we can recompute the data bit
stored in C3 by looking at the values of all the other columns and the parity bit. This allows us to recover lost
data.
Evaluation
 Reliability: 1
RAID-4 allows recovery of at most 1 disk failure (because of the way parity works). If more than one disk
fails, there is no way to recover the data.
 Capacity: (N-1)*B
One disk in the system is reserved for storing the parity. Hence, (N-1) disks are made available for data
storage, each disk having B blocks.
Advantages
 It helps in reconstructing the data if at most one data is lost.
Disadvantages
 It can’t help reconstructing data when more than one is lost.
Advantages of RAID
 Data redundancy: By keeping numerous copies of the data on many disks, RAID can shield data from
disk failures.
 Performance enhancement: RAID can enhance performance by distributing data over several drives,
enabling the simultaneous execution of several read/write operations.
 Scalability: RAID is scalable, therefore by adding more disks to the array, the storage capacity may be
expanded.
 Versatility: RAID is applicable to a wide range of devices, such as workstations, servers, and personal PCs
Disadvantages of RAID
 Cost: RAID implementation can be costly, particularly for arrays with large capacities.
 Complexity: The setup and management of RAID might be challenging.
 Decreased performance: The parity calculations necessary for some RAID configurations, including
RAID 5 and RAID 6, may result in a decrease in speed.
 Single point of failure: RAID is not a comprehensive backup solution while offering data redundancy. The
array’s whole contents could be lost if the RAID controller malfunctions.