File System
File Concept
Access Methods
Disk and Directory Structure
File-System Mounting
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
Contents defined by file’s creator
Many types
Consider text file, source file, executable file
File Structure
None - sequence of words, bytes
Simple record structure
Lines
Fixed length
Variable length
Complex Structures
Formatted document
Relocatable load file
Can simulate last two with first method by
inserting
appropriate control characters
Who decides:
Operating system
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
Many variations, including extended file attributes such as file
checksum
Information kept in the directory structure
File info Window on Mac OS X
File Operations
File is an abstract data type
Create
Write – at write pointer location
Read – at read pointer location
Reposition within file - seek
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:
Open-file table: tracks 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
Similar to reader-writer locks
Shared lock similar to reader lock – several processes can
acquire
concurrently
Exclusive lock similar to writer lock
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 Locking Example – Java API
import [Link].*;
import
[Link].*; public
class LockingExample {
public static final boolean EXCLUSIVE = false;
public static final boolean SHARED = true;
public static void main(String arsg[]) throws IOException {
FileLock sharedLock =
null; FileLock
exclusiveLock = null; try {
RandomAccessFile raf = new RandomAccessFile("[Link]",
"rw");
// get the channel for the file
FileChannel ch =
[Link]();
// this locks the first half of the file - exclusive
exclusiveLock = [Link](0, [Link]()/2,
EXCLUSIVE);
/** Now modify the data . . . */
// release the lock
[Link]();
File Locking Example – Java API (cont)
// this locks the second half of the file - shared
sharedLock = [Link]([Link]()/2+1, [Link](),
SHARED);
/** Now read the data . . . */
// release the lock
[Link]
();
} catch ([Link] ioe) {
[Link](ioe);
}finall
y{ if (exclusiveLock !=
null)
[Link]
e(); if (sharedLock !=
null)
} [Link]()
} ;
}
File Types – Name, Extension
File Structure
None - sequence of words, bytes
Simple record structure
Lines
Fixed length
Variable length
Complex Structures
Formatted document
Relocatable load file
Can simulate last two with first method by inserting
appropriate control characters
Who decides:
Operating system
Program
Sequential-access File
Access Methods
Sequential Access
read next
write next
reset
no read after last write
(rewrite)
Direct Access – file is fixed length logical records
read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n
n = relative block number
Relative block numbers allow OS to decide where file should be placed
Simulation of Sequential Access on
Direct-access File
Other Access Methods
Can be built on top of base methods
General involve creation of an index for the file
Keep index in memory for fast determination of location of
data to be operated on (consider UPC code plus record of
data about that item)
If too large, index (in memory) of the index (on disk)
IBM indexed sequential-access method (ISAM)
Small master index, points to disk blocks of secondary index
File kept sorted on a defined key
All done by the OS
VMS operating system provides index and relative files as another
example (see next slide)
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
Disk Structure
Disk can be subdivided into partitions
Disks or partitions can be RAID protected against failure
Disk or partition can be used raw – without a file system, or
formatted
with a file system
Partitions also known as minidisks, slices
Entity containing file system known as a volume
Each volume containing file system also tracks that file system’s
info
in device directory or volume table of contents
As well as general-purpose file systems there are many special-
purpose file systems, frequently all within the same operating
system or computer
A Typical File-system Organization
Types of File Systems
We mostly talk of general-purpose file systems
But systems frequently have may file systems, some general- and
some special- purpose
Consider Solaris has
tmpfs – memory-based volatile FS for fast, temporary I/O
objfs – interface into kernel memory to get kernel symbols for
debugging
ctfs – contract file system for managing daemons
lofs – loopback file system allows one FS to be accessed
in place of another
procfs – kernel interface to process structures
ufs, zfs – general purpose file systems
Operations Performed on Directory
Search for a file
Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system
Organize the Directory (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, …)
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 ex coun
p t
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. 10-11(b)) is mounted at a
mount point
Mount Point