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File-System
Interface &
Implementation
(Chap- 11 & 12)

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.0
 Topics
File concept
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File Attributes
File Operations
File Types
Access Methods
Directory Structure
Directory Implementation
Allocation Methods
Recovery

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.1
 File Concept
File is the most visible aspect of operating system.
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It provides the mechanism for on-line storage of and access to

both data and programs of the OS and all the users.
The O.S abstracts from the physical properties of its storage
devices to define a logical storage unit called file.
Files are mapped by the O.S onto the physical devices.
A file is a named collection of related information that is
recorded on secondary storage.
Data cannot be written to secondary storage unless they are
written with in a file.
File represent programs (both source and object form) and
data.
In general, a file is a sequence of bits, bytes, lines or records,
the meaning of which is defined by the file’s creator and user
Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera
11.2
 File Attributes
A file has certain attributes, which vary from one O.S to another.
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Name – only information kept in human-readable form. When a file is

named it becomes independent of the process, the user, and even the
system that created it.
Identifier – unique tag (number) identifies file within file system. It is
the non-human-readable name for the file.
Type – needed for systems that support different types
Location – is a pointer to a device and to the location of the file on
that device.
Size – current file size (in bytes, words, or blocks).
Protection – Access 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 Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.3
 File Operations
Create:- 1st , find the space. 2nd , an entry for the new file
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must be made in the directory. The directory entry records

the name of the file and location in the file system.
Write: the system must keep a write pointer to the location in
the file where the next write is to take place.
Read: use a system call that specifies the name of the file
and where the next block of the file should be put. A read
pointer is used to locate from where the next read is to take
place.
Reposition within file: also known as a file seek.
Delete: search the directory for the named file.
Truncate: erase the contents but kept the attributes.
Other common operations are: append, rename, copy etc.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.4
 Open Files
To reduce the searching time O.S keeps the information about all open
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files in a table called open-file table.

When a file operation requested, the file is specified via an index into
this table, so no searching is required.
When the file is no longer actively used, it is closed by the process
and the operating system removes its entry in the open-file system.
Several pieces of data are needed to manage open files:
 File pointer: pointer to last read/write location as a current-file-
position pointer.
 File-open count: counter of number of times a file is open and close–
to allow removal of data from open-file table.
 Disk location of the file: most file operations require the system to
modify data within the file. The information needed to locate the file on
disk is kept in memory to avoid having to read it from disk for each
operation.
 Access rights: per-process access mode information.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.5
 File Types – Name, Extension
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The name is split

into two parts:- a
name and an
extension, usually
separated by a
period operator.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.6
 Access Methods
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Sequential Access:
 Information in the file is processed in order, one record
after another.
 Editors and compilers usually access files in this method.

Direct Access:
 There is no restrictions on the order of reading or writing
for a direct access file.
 The file is viewed as a numbered sequence of blocks of
records.
 Direct access are of great use for immediate access to large
amounts of information particularly in database system.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.7
 Sequential-access File
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.8
 Simulation of Sequential Access on a Direct-access File

Not all the operating system support both sequential and

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direct access for files.

It is easy to simulate sequential access on a direct-access
file which is shown below, but the reverse is very tough and
quite inefficient.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.9
 Directory Structure
The organization of millions of data is done in two ways:
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1. Disks are split into one or more partitions (minidisks)

2. Each partition contains information
about files within it. Directory

Each disk on a system contains at least

one partition, which is a low-level structure Files F1 F1
in which files and directories reside. F1

Sometimes, partitions are used to

provide several separate areas within one
disk.

Note: Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.10
 Directory Structure (cont.)
Information in a Device Directory
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Name
Type
Address
Current length
Maximum length
Date last accessed (for archival)
Date last updated (for dump)
Owner ID (who pays)
Protection information

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.11
 Directory Structure (cont.)
Operations Performed on Directory
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Search for a file

Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.12
 Single-Level Directory
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A single directory for all users.

Disadvantages:
1. Naming problem
2. Grouping problem

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.13
 Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user.
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 Path name
 Can have the same file name for different user
 Efficient searching
 No grouping capability

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.14
 Tree-Structured Directories
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.15
 Tree-Structured Directories (Cont.)
The tree has one root directory and have many subdirectories.
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All directories have the same internal format.

One bit in each directory entry defines the entry as :
 0 - file and
 1 - subdirectory.

Creating a new file is done in current directory.

Path names can be of two types : (1) Absolute or (2) relative
An absolute path name begins at the root and follows a path
down to the specified file, giving the directory names on the path.
A relative path name defines a path from the current directory.
Advantages:
 Efficient searching
 Grouping Capability

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.16
 Acyclic-Graph Directories
Have shared subdirectories and files.
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.17
 General Graph Directory
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.18
 Directory Implementation
The selection of directory-allocation and directory-
management algorithms has a large effect on the efficiency,
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performance, and reliability of the file system.

Linear list:
 Linear list of file names with pointer to the data blocks.
 simple to program.
 Require a linear search to find a particular entry.
 time-consuming to execute.

Hash Table: linear list with hash data structure.

 decreases directory search time
 collisions – situations where two file names hash to the
same location
 Difficulty is that the hash tables are fixed size and
dependence of hash function on that size.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.19
 Allocation Methods
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Many files can be stored on the same disk.

The main problem is how to allocate free space to these
files effectively and files can be accesses quickly .
Three types of allocation methods are commonly used:

 Contiguous allocation
 Linked allocation
 Indexed allocation

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.20
 Contiguous Allocation
Each file occupies a set of contiguous blocks on the disk.
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Simple – only starting location (block #) and length (number

of blocks) are required.
If the file is n blocks long and starts at location b, then it
occupies blocks b, b+1, b+2, …, b+n-1.
Accessing is very easy( both sequential &Random access).
Problems:
 How to find space for a new file?
 Similar to dynamic storage-allocation problem.
 Files cannot grow.
 Suffers from external fragmentation.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.21
 Contiguous Allocation of Disk Space
Example:
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.22
 Linked Allocation
Each file is a linked list of disk blocks: blocks may be
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scattered anywhere on the disk.

The directory contains a pointer to the first and last blocks of
the file.
block = pointer

Advantages:
 Simple – need only starting address
 Free-space management system – no waste of space
 It can be used for effectively for sequential access
Disadvantages:
 It is very inefficient to use for random access.
 Space required for pointers.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.23
 Linked Allocation
Example:
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.24
 File-Allocation Table
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Used in MS-DOS
and OS/2

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.25
 Indexed Allocation
Brings all pointers together into the index block.
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Logical view.

index table

Need index table

Random access
Dynamic access without external fragmentation, but
have overhead of index block.
Mapping from logical to physical in a file of maximum
size of 256K words and block size of 512 words. We
need only 1 block for index table.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.26
 Example of Indexed Allocation
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.27
 UNIX (4K bytes per block)
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Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.28
 Recovery
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Consistency checking – compares data in directory

structure with data blocks on disk, and tries to fix
inconsistencies.

Backup and Restore

 Use system programs to back up data from disk to
another storage device (floppy disk, magnetic tape).
 Recover lost file or disk by restoring data from backup.

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.29
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Thank You

Operating System Concept Ranjit Kumar Behera

11.30