Chapter 11:

Implementing File Systems

 Chapter 11: Implementing File Systems

File-System Structure
File-System Implementation
Directory Implementation
Allocation Methods
Free-Space Management
Efficiency and Performance
Recovery
Log-Structured File Systems
NFS
Example: WAFL File System

Operating System Principles 11.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Objectives

To describe the details of implementing local file systems and

directory structures
To describe the implementation of remote file systems
To discuss block allocation and free-block algorithms and trade-offs

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 File-System Structure

File structure
Logical storage unit
Collection of related information
File system resides on secondary storage (disks)
File system organized into layers
File control block – storage structure consisting of information
about a file

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 A Typical File Control Block

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 In-Memory File System Structures

The following figure illustrates the necessary file system structures

provided by the operating systems.

Figure 12-3(a) refers to opening a file.

Figure 12-3(b) refers to reading a file.

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 In-Memory File System Structures

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 Virtual File Systems

Virtual File Systems (VFS) provide an object-oriented way of

implementing file systems.

VFS allows the same system call interface (the API) to be used for
different types of file systems.

The API is to the VFS interface, rather than any specific type of file
system.

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 Schematic View of Virtual File System

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 Directory Implementation

Linear list of file names with pointer to the data blocks.

simple to program
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
fixed size

Operating System Principles 11.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Allocation Methods

An allocation method refers to how disk blocks are allocated for

files:

Contiguous allocation

Linked allocation

Indexed allocation

Operating System Principles 11.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Contiguous Allocation

Each file occupies a set of contiguous blocks on the disk

Simple – only starting location (block #) and length (number

of blocks) are required

Random access

Wasteful of space (dynamic storage-allocation problem)

Files cannot grow

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 Contiguous Allocation of Disk Space

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 Extent-Based Systems

Many newer file systems (I.e. Veritas File System) use a modified
contiguous allocation scheme

Extent-based file systems allocate disk blocks in extents

An extent is a contiguous block of disks

Extents are allocated for file allocation
A file consists of one or more extents.

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 Linked Allocation no random access

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 File-Allocation Table

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 Indexed Allocation
random access

Brings all pointers together into the index block.

Logical view.

index table

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 Example of Indexed Allocation

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 Indexed Allocation – Mapping (Cont.)

outer-index

index table file

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 Combined Scheme: UNIX (4K bytes per block)

fast for small files that use direct blocks only

else slower random access

can use sharding (actually not faster, because parallel but must still
read very big data) and mem-cache (to reduce I/O on disk)

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 Free-Space Management

Bit vector (n blocks)

0 1 2 n-1
…


0  block[i] free
bit[i] =
1  block[i] occupied

Block number calculation

(number of bits per word) *

(number of 0-value words) +
offset of first 1 bit

Operating System Principles 11.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Free-Space Management (Cont.)

Bit map requires extra space

Example:
block size = 212 bytes
disk size = 230 bytes (1 gigabyte)
n = 230/212 = 218 bits (or 32K bytes)
Easy to get contiguous files
Linked list (free list)
Cannot get contiguous space easily
No waste of space
Grouping
Counting

Operating System Principles 11.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Free-Space Management (Cont.)

Need to protect:
Pointer to free list
Bit map
 Must be kept on disk

 Copy in memory and disk may differ

 Cannot allow for block[i] to have a situation where
bit[i] = 1 in memory and bit[i] = 0 on disk
Solution:
 Set bit[i] = 1 in disk

 Allocate block[i]
 Set bit[i] = 1 in memory

Operating System Principles 11.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005

 Directory Implementation

Linear list of file names with pointer to the data blocks

simple to program
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
fixed size

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 Linked Free Space List on Disk

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 FAT (12, 16, 32) system
File Allocation Table
File allocation File allocation
Boot sector Root directory Other directories and all files
table 1 table 2 (duplicate)

0000
0001
Name Property Start
0002 3 File 1 … 2
0003 4 File 2 … 5
0004 EOF File 3 … 7 2 3 4
0005 6
0006 8 File1 File1 File1
0007 EOF
0008 EOF 5 6 7
0009 0000
… Cluster File2 File2 File3

◼ FAT12: 32MB 8 9 10
◼ FAT16: 4GB File2 empty empty
◼ FAT32: 8TB

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 Boot sector

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Operating System Principles 11.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2005
 Long file name

…
Entry 32 bytes

Entry ext N 32 bytes

…
Entry ext 2
Entry ext 1
Entry
Entry
…

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 Entry ext

Offset # byte mean

0 1 Entry order (start at 1)

1 A (10d) 5 Unicode characters –UTF16

B (11d) 1 If entry ext (= 0Fh)

E (14d) C (12d) 6 unicode characters

1C (28d) 4 2 unicode characters

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 NTFS (New Technology File System)

16 exabytes
(16 billion GB)

Standard Security
information Filename descriptor Data 31
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 Unix /Linux file system
I-node

boot block super block I-node files and directories

◼ Single indirect:
256KB
◼ Double indirect:
256*256 = 65 MB
◼ Triple indirect:
256*256*256 =
16GB

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 UNIX V7 file system

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End of Chapter 11