Chapter 13: File-System

Interface

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Chapter 13: File-System Interface
 File Concept
 Access Methods
 Disk and Directory Structure

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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 – 9th Edition 13.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Operations Performed on Directory
 Search for a file

 Create a file

 Delete a file

 List a directory

 Rename a file

 Traverse the file system

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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, …)

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Single-Level Directory
 A single directory for all users

 Naming problem
 Grouping problem

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Two-Level Directory
 Separate directory for each user

 Path name
 Can have the same file name for different user
 Efficient searching
 No grouping capability

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Tree-Structured Directories

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Tree-Structured Directories (Cont.)
 Efficient searching
 Grouping Capability
 Current directory (working directory)
 cd /spell/mail/prog
 type list

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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: Suppose the current directory is -- “/mail“
 mkdir count

 Deleting “mail”  deleting the entire subtree rooted by “mail”

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Acyclic-Graph Directories

Have shared subdirectories and files

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)
 Files/subdirectories have two different names (aliasing)
 Only one actual file exists, so any changes made by
one person are immediately visible to the other.
 How do we implement shared files and subdirectories?
 Can duplicate the inode information about the shared
file/subdirectory in each of the subdirectories that
“point’ to the shared structure.
 If some information changes about the file it had to
be updated in several places.
 Have a new directory entry type:
 Link – another name (pointer) to an existing file or
subdirectory.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Acyclic-Graph Directories -- Links
 A link may be implemented as an absolute or a relative
path name.
 When a reference to a file is made, the directory is searched.
If the directory entry is marked as a link, then the name of
the real file is included in the link information.
 We resolve the link by using that path name to locate the
real file.
 Links are easily identified by their format in the directory
entry (or by having a special type on systems that support
types) and are effectively indirect pointers.
 The operating system ignores these links when traversing
directory trees to preserve the acyclic structure of the
system.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Acyclic-Graph Directories -- Deletion
 If dict /count is deleted  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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 General Graph Directory

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Access Control
 Mode of access: read, write, execute
 Three classes of users on Unix / Linux:
 owner
 group
 public
 With each file and subdirectory we keep 9 protection
bits, 3 for owner, 3 for group, 3 for public.

RWX
a) owner access 7  111
RWX
b) group access 6  110
RWX
c) public access 1  001

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Access Control (Cont.)
 To create a group, ask the system manager to create a new
group (unique name), say G, and to add some users to the
group (say, Judi, Mark)
 For a particular file (or subdirectory), say game, define an
appropriate access.
 Attach a group, say G, to a file , say game – using the
command “chgrp”

chgrp G game

 Set protection for file “game” -- using the command “chmod”

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 A Sample UNIX Directory Listing
 Example:

 Explanation:
 “into.ps” is a file owned by “pbg” with group ”staff”
 “lib” is a subdirectory owned by “pbg” with group “faculty”

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 13.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 13

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013