SESSION 10 : File-System
Interface
SESSION 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
File Concept
Contiguous logical address space
Types:
Data
numeric
character
binary
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
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
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
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:
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
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
File Types – Name, Extension
Access Methods
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
Sequential-access File
Simulation of Sequential Access on a
Direct-access File
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
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
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 access to
information needed for remote computing
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
SESSION 10
