Chapter 1: Introduction and System
Structures
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Operating-System Structures
Operating System Services
User Operating System Interface
System Calls
Types of System Calls
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Operating System Services
Operating systems provide an environment for execution of programs and
services to programs and users
One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the
user:
User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user interface (UI).
Varies between Command-Line (CLI), Graphics User Interface (GUI),
Batch
Program execution - The system must be able to load a program into
memory and to run that program, end execution, either normally or
abnormally (indicating error)
I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may involve a
file or an I/O device
File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular interest.
Programs need to read and write files and directories, create and delete
them, search them, list file Information, permission management.
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Operating System Services (Cont.)
Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the
same computer or between computers over a network
Communications may be via shared memory or through message
passing (packets moved by the OS)
Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible
errors
May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in
user program
For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to
ensure correct and consistent computing
Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the user’s and
programmer’s abilities to efficiently use the system
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Operating System Services (Cont.)
Another set of OS functions exists for ensuring the efficient operation of the
system itself via resource sharing
Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs running
concurrently, resources must be allocated to each of them
Many types of resources - Some (such as CPU cycles, main memory,
and file storage) may have special allocation code, others (such as I/O
devices) may have general request and release code
Accounting - To keep track of which users use how much and what kinds
of computer resources
Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a multiuser
or networked computer system may want to control use of that information,
concurrent processes should not interfere with each other
Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is
controlled
Security of the system from outsiders requires user authentication,
extends to defending external I/O devices from invalid access attempts
If a system is to be protected and secure, precautions must be
instituted throughout it. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
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A View of Operating System Services
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User Operating System Interface - CLI
Command Line Interface (CLI) or command interpreter allows direct
command entry
Sometimes implemented in kernel, sometimes by systems
program
Sometimes multiple flavors implemented – shells
Primarily fetches a command from user and executes it
Sometimes commands built-in, sometimes just names of
programs
» If the latter, adding new features doesn’t require shell
modification
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
User Operating System Interface - GUI
User-friendly desktop metaphor interface
Usually mouse, keyboard, and monitor
Icons represent files, programs, actions, etc
Various mouse buttons over objects in the interface cause various
actions (provide information, options, execute function, open directory
(known as a folder)
Invented at Xerox PARC
Many systems now include both CLI and GUI interfaces
Microsoft Windows is GUI with CLI “command” shell
Apple Mac OS X as “Aqua” GUI interface with UNIX kernel underneath
and shells available
Solaris is CLI with optional GUI interfaces (Java Desktop, KDE)
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Bourne Shell Command Interpreter
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System Calls
Programming interface to the services provided by the OS
Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)
Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application Program
Interface (API) rather than direct system call use
Three most common APIs are Win32 API for Windows, POSIX API for
POSIX-based systems (including virtually all versions of UNIX, Linux,
and Mac OS X), and Java API for the Java virtual machine (JVM)
Why use APIs rather than system calls?
(Note that the system-call names used throughout this text are
generic)
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Example of System Calls
System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another file
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Example of Standard API
Consider the ReadFile() function in the
Win32 API—a function for reading from a file
A description of the parameters passed to ReadFile()
HANDLE file—the file to be read
LPVOID buffer—a buffer where the data will be read into and written from
DWORD bytesToRead—the number of bytes to be read into the buffer
LPDWORD bytesRead—the number of bytes read during the last read
LPOVERLAPPED ovl—indicates if overlapped I/O is being used
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
System Call Implementation
Typically, a number associated with each system call
System-call interface maintains a table indexed according to these
numbers
The system call interface invokes intended system call in OS kernel
and returns status of the system call and any return values
The caller need know nothing about how the system call is
implemented
Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a result
call
Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API
Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built into
libraries included with compiler)
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API – System Call – OS Relationship
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Standard C Library Example
C program invoking printf() library call, which calls write() system call
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System Call Parameter Passing
Often, more information is required than simply identity of desired
system call
Exact type and amount of information vary according to OS and
call
Three general methods used to pass parameters to the OS
Simplest: pass the parameters in registers
In some cases, may be more parameters than registers
Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and address of
block passed as a parameter in a register
This approach taken by Linux and Solaris
Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the program and
popped off the stack by the operating system
Block and stack methods do not limit the number or length of
parameters being passed
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Parameter Passing via Table
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Types of System Calls
Process control
end, abort
load, execute
create process, terminate process
get process attributes, set process attributes
wait for time
wait event, signal event
allocate and free memory
File management
create file, delete file
open, close file
read, write, reposition
get and set file attributes
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Types of System Calls (Cont.)
Device management
request device, release device
read, write, reposition
get device attributes, set device attributes
logically attach or detach devices
Information maintenance
get time or date, set time or date
get system data, set system data
get and set process, file, or device attributes
Communications
create, delete communication connection
send, receive messages
transfer status information
attach and detach remote devices
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System Services
• System programs provide a convenient
environment for program development and
execution. They can be divided into:
• File manipulation
• Status information sometimes stored in a file
• Programming language support
• Program loading and execution
• Communications
• Background services
• Application programs
• Most users’ view of the operating system is
defined by system programs, not the actual
system calls
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
System Services
• System programs provide a convenient environment
for program development and execution. They can
be divided into:
• File manipulation
• Status information sometimes stored in a file
• Programming language support
• Program loading and execution
• Communications
• Background services
• Application programs
• Most users’ view of the operating system is defined by
system programs, not the actual system calls
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
System Services (Cont.)
• File modification
• Text editors to create and modify files
• Special commands to search contents of files or perform
transformations of the text
• Programming-language support - Compilers, assemblers,
debuggers and interpreters sometimes provided
• Program loading and execution- Absolute loaders, relocatable
loaders, linkage editors, and overlay-loaders, debugging
systems for higher-level and machine language
• Communications - Provide the mechanism for creating virtual
connections among processes, users, and computer systems
• Allow users to send messages to one another’s screens,
browse web pages, send electronic-mail messages, log in
remotely, transfer files from one machine to another
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
System Services (Cont.)
• Background Services
• Launch at boot time
• Some for system startup, then terminate
• Some from system boot to shutdown
• Provide facilities like disk checking, process scheduling,
error logging, printing
• Run in user context not kernel context
• Known as services, subsystems, daemons
• Application programs
• Don’t pertain to system
• Run by users
• Not typically considered part of OS
• Launched by command line, mouse click, finger poke
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 2.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
Linkers and Loaders
• Source code compiled into object files designed to be loaded into any
physical memory location – relocatable object file
• Linker combines these into single binary executable file
• Also brings in libraries
• Program resides on secondary storage as binary executable
• Must be brought into memory by loader to be executed
• Relocation assigns final addresses to program parts and adjusts code
and data in program to match those addresses
• Modern general purpose systems don’t link libraries into executables
• Rather, dynamically linked libraries (in Windows, DLLs) are loaded as
needed, shared by all that use the same version of that same library
(loaded once)
• Object, executable files have standard formats, so operating system knows
how to load and start them
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The Role of the Linker and Loader
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THANK YOU
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