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Operating
Systems in
Practice

Lecture: Operating Systems Intro

Karl O’Connell

Operating Systems in Practice

What is an Operating System (OS)?

An operating system is software (i.e. computer programs) that

enables users and other programs to communicate with
hardware. An operating system means it’s relatively easy to use a
computer for example if we want to print a document – it’s as
easy as clicking on a print icon on the screen.

Early computer systems had no operating systems. Programs

were entered manually (in binary), ran and were monitored by the
programmer.

This was very time consuming, required specialist knowledge and

prone to errors. In time, new hardware (printers, tape & punched
cards) and software (device drivers, compilers, etc) were
developed.

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Operating Systems ….
Operating systems have two main
roles:

• An Interface

• A Manager

Operating Systems Objectives

Convenience – An OS helps to make it easy
to do tasks. Users can interface with it.

Efficiency – An OS makes efficient use of

resources such as memory, CPU, etc.

Evolution – An OS should enable

development of new systems.
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Convenience - User Interface

Most users are not concerned with hardware.

Users generally view a system as a set of applications.

Applications are developed by programmers who are

facilitated by operating system programs.

The OS hides hardware details from the programmer and

provide an interface for using the system.

Interface
• An OS is a suite of programs which provides an interface
between the user and the hardware.

• The OS enables complex interactions required by a

running program when dealing with processor(s) (CPU),
main memory (RAM), secondary storage (disks, tapes),
printers, keyboards, screens, network cards, etc.

• It also presents the user/application programmer with a

simplified (but effective) view.

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Hardware & Software Structure

Application programs
Application
programming interface
Application Libraries/utilities Software
binary interface

Operating system
Instruction Set
Architecture
Execution hardware

Memory
System interconnect
translation Hardware
( bus )

I/O devices
Main
and
memory
networking

Operating System Services

The OS provides services to users and programmers.
The user accesses these services through either
systems programs or application programs. The
programmers (both systems programmers and
application programmers) call on these services. In
general, the services provided include:

• Program Development – The OS offers a variety of

services and facilities such as editors and debuggers.
These assist developers in creating programs and
although strictly not part of the core of the OS – they are
generally supplied with the operating system.

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Services (cont.)
• Program Execution – The OS will help to compile, link,
load, run and debug programs. OS will allow normal and
abnormal termination of programs. It generally handles
the scheduling of these tasks.

• I/O operations - All input and output from/to devices is

handled by OS. The OS provides a uniform interface to
these.

• Controlled access to files – the OS will open, close,

create, delete, and move files about on disk/tape. On a
system with multiple users, it may provide protection to
individual users’ data.

Services (cont.)
• System Access – For shared or public systems,
the OS controls access to the system as a
whole. This provides protection from
unauthorized users

• Error detection – the OS watches for errors in: -

h/w (e.g. power failure, disk head crash); i/o
devices (e.g. printer out of paper); - programs
(e.g. arithmetic overflow, division by zero).

• Resource allocation - Any resources required

by programs are requested from OS.
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Services (cont.)
• Accounting - The OS keeps track of resource
use for either payment, protection or statistical
purposes. Protection accounting allows system
to record damage done. Statistics are used in
trying to improve service.

• Protection – As well as ensuring private data is

kept private (e.g. mailboxes, personnel records)
the OS protects programs from each other
(especially other OS programs).

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Users and Services

Users access these services by using
programs. These system programs use
system calls to get work done.

This means that they call on the OS to

perform services on their behalf; the
programs do not access the hardware
directly, only through the OS.

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Users and Services (cont.)

The systems programs allow the user to: (examples are
from UNIX / Linux)

• Control processes - Users can manipulate processes.

For example create (su), destroy (kill), suspend (ctrl-Z),
send to background/foreground (bg/fg), etc.

• Manipulate files - Users can edit (vi), copy (cp), delete

(rm), display (more), examine attributes (ls -l), etc. All of
these operations involve lower level actions in programs
such as open, close, read, write, etc.

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Users and Services (cont.)

• Use devices - Users can print (lp), clear screens
(clear), etc.

• Get information – Run commands such as who, date,

ls, ps (list processes), du (disk usage), etc.

• Write and run programs - Use editors (vi), compilers

(for Java, C++, etc.), assemblers, linkers, loaders,
debuggers, etc. are all provided.

• Run application programs – such as browsers, office

programs, etc.
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Multiprogramming
• Multiprogramming refers to the task of running several programs at the
same time. For example, a payroll program, a printing task, a statistics
program, all doing their separate work. It is up to the OS to divide its time
between the jobs.

• The OS is capable of dealing with more than one program running at the
same time. For example, while one job is waiting for input, another could be
running some computation, while yet another could be waiting for an output
device, and so on. All of these programs are said to be running
concurrently. The job scheduling task of the OS was to juggle the CPU time
so that each job got access to it in some fair and efficient manner. This task
is referred to as CPU Scheduling. CPU scheduling depends on being able
to interrupt one program and resume another.

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Multiprogramming (cont.)
• When several jobs are ready to run on the CPU they must all be
stored in main memory. In a multiprogramming system there must
be some way of managing the main memory so that each program
gets the space it needs and doesn’t interfere with the others. This
management task is known as Memory Management.

• Because multiprogramming is allowed then the OS must cope with

concurrency issues. Programs running concurrently could be half
way through printing a document or writing data to a database when
interrupted – they must be guaranteed that no other program will
interfere with the work they are doing by printing on the same paper
or reading half-baked data from the database. These issues are
concurrency issues.

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Time Sharing
In addition to multiprogramming, the OS facilitates time
sharing.

A time sharing system allows several users/programmers

access to the machine simultaneously. To each it looks as
if they have the machine to themselves.

In reality the CPU is switching from one job to the next very
quickly. All of this is possible because the CPU can multi-
program.

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Manager
• The OS also manages the allocation of
machine resources to running programs.

• These resources include the processor,

memory and storage. It must manage this
allocation fairly and efficiently.

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Managing Processes
Multiple processes run concurrently.

The CPU time has to be allocated fairly and

efficiently.

Processes need to be interrupted and

resumed at a later time.

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Managing Memory
Each process requires memory.

Each process’s memory needs to be

protected.

Data and processes constantly move around

cache, RAM and virtual memory

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Managing Storage
Data and programs can be stored in
different non-volatile devices.

Space needs to be allocated in an efficient

manner.

Data and programs need to be retrieved in

an efficient manner
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Kernel and System calls

• The kernel is the core of the OS. Kernel software has
exclusive access to system data and h/w. Remaining
software running in user mode has limited direct access
to system data and no direct access to h/w.

• All application and utility programs access the

fundamental OS operations through OS system calls.
These system calls are the only way to access the h/w;
that is, they provide the interface between the programs
and the OS.

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Kernel and System calls (cont.)

Example: write a program to output ‘Hello World’ to a screen the program will
contain some instruction like: [Link] (‘Hello World’);

This call is translated by the compiler/assembler into code which will call the
OS giving it information about the data to be output, and the output device.
That is something like:

system_i/o_display(data_address, no_of_bytes, device_identifier);

A system call to the OS will ask the kernel to take a certain number of bytes
from RAM starting at data_address and have them displayed on a particular
device. The kernel will arrange to call the correct device driver software to
communicate with the screen.

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Command Interpreter
• All operating systems must have some way of understanding and carrying
out instructions from users. This is achieved through a command
interpretation program which runs continuously. The user types a command,
the interpreter translates it into something meaningful and then calls up the
necessary system programs, utilities, or applications that will carry out the
work. The interpreter is less obvious in a GUI environment (e.g. Windows)
and more so in a command based environment (e.g. UNIX shell).

• These interpreters usually understand more than simple commands. They

can interpret and carry out ‘command programs’. That is, you can write
programs which instruct the system to carry out a complex series of tasks.
In UNIX the command interpreter is called the ‘shell’ and we will be doing
some programming with the UNIX shell.

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Command Interpreter (cont.)

The following represents a typical system:

The hardware is controlled (and can only be

accessed) by the operating system.

The shell acts as an interface to the operating

system by users and applications.

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The Shell

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Introduction to UNIX / Linux

UNIX was first developed about forty years ago in Bell Laboratories,
U.S.A. It is a popular and robust system that has survived over the
years. UNIX provides an environment that’s powerful and flexible and
found in business, science, educational institutions and industry.

UNIX Features

• Multitasking capability – capable of doing several things at once.

• Multi-user capability – many users can use the system concurrently.

• Portability – it was relatively easy to move UNIX from one type of computer to
another.

• E-Mail – was the first operating system to offer email.

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UNIX
The UNIX system is functionally organized at three levels:

• The kernel, which schedules tasks and manages

storage

• The shell, which connects and interprets users'

commands, calls programs from memory, and executes
them

• The tools and applications that offer additional

functionality to the operating system
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The Kernel
The heart of the operating system, the kernel
controls the hardware and turns part of the system
on and off at the programmer’s command.

If you ask the computer to list (ls) all the files in a

directory, the kernel tells the computer to read all
the files in that directory from the disk and display
them on your screen

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The Shell
• There are several types of shell, most notably the
command driven Bourne, BASH and the C Shells.
Whatever shell is used, its purpose remains the same -
to act as an interpreter between the user and the
computer

• The shell also provides the functionality of "pipes,"

whereby a number of commands can be linked together
by a user, permitting the output of one program to
become the input to another program.

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The Shell (cont.)

The shell enables the writing of operating
systems programs known as shell scripts.

A script consists of commands which are

interpreted and executed.

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UNIX tools & applications

UNIX tools are not strictly part of the OS but are always included.
These include:

Editors – used to create scripts, data files, etc. The vi editor (‘though
not user friendly) comes with every version of UNIX and Linux.

Compilers and libraries are generally included to facilitate program

development.

Most Linux systems come with a graphical user interface and often a
suite of office programs.

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UNIX Advantages
• Already exists for over 40 years

• Available for almost any hardware platform

• Multi tasking

• Multi user

• Made to keep on running (servers)

• Secure and versatile

• Scalable

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Disadvantages of UNIX
• UNIX commands can be difficult to remember –
wasn’t user friendly

• Not enough desktop or Office applications

• Has to compete with popularity of Windows

• Editors like vi difficult to use

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Linux
• In 1991 Linus Torwalds at the University of Helsinki build a UNIX-
like operating system for IBM compatible PCs. He used freely
available source code to develop what would become known as
"Linux" ("Linus' Unix"). By 1994 he released the first stable Linux
Kernel (version 1.0). This was further developed by others.

• One of the reasons for Linux’s popularity is that the source code is
freely available to everyone, and everyone can contribute to its
development. This effectively added thousands of programmers to
the Linux development team. The large number of Linux developers
yielded an operating system of unprecedented efficiency and
robustness, with countless freely available software packages for
both business and pleasure.

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Linux Advantages
• Low cost: You don’t need to spend time and money to obtain licenses.

• Stability: Linux doesn’t need to be rebooted periodically to maintain performance

levels. It doesn’t freeze up or slow down over time due to memory leaks and such.

• Performance: Linux provides persistent high performance on workstations and on

networks. It can handle unusually large numbers of users simultaneously.

• Network friendliness: Linux was developed by a group of programmers over the

Internet and has therefore strong support for network functionality.

• Flexibility: Linux can be used for high performance server applications, desktop
applications and embedded systems. You can save disk space by only installing the
components needed for a particular use.

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Linux Advantages (cont.)

• Compatibility: It runs all common UNIX software packages and can process all common file
formats.

• Choice: The large number of Linux distributions gives you a choice. Each distribution is
developed and supported by a different organization. You can pick the one you like best; the core
functionalities are the same; most software runs on most distributions.

• Easy installation: Most Linux distributions come with user-friendly installation and setup
programs.

• Multitasking: Linux is designed to do many things at the same time; e.g., a large printing job in
the background won’t slow down your other work.

• Security: Linux is one of the most secure operating systems. “Walls” and flexible file access
permission systems prevent access by unwanted visitors or viruses.

• Open source: If you develop software that requires knowledge or modification of the operating
system code, Linux’s source code is at your fingertips.

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Linux Advantages (cont.)

Linux GUIs – there are a variety of Linux
graphical user interfaces which make using
Linux easier. These can be changed by
downloading and installing the desktop
environment of your choice.

Popular choices are KDE and GNOME.

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Linux Advantages (cont.)

Software

Often when Linux is installed it comes with free office

software such as openOffice or LibreOffice.

These contain sophisticated word processing, spreadsheet,

database and presentation graphics programs.

Other software – programs for a variety of applications

(many are free) are available.

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Linux Distributions
Linux Distributions
Linux distribution is a coherent collection of free software with the kernel as its
center. To run this you normally need a Linux distribution CD.

• Red Hat Linux has been around for a while and has acquired a reputation
for consistency and reliability.

• Mandrake Linux has become very popular in recent years, especially

among new and home users.

• SuSE Linux is a serious alternative for Windows users, with solid, user-
friendly installation and configuration tools

• Others are Lycoris, Xandros, Ubunto, Lindows, Knoppix and Slackware

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Acquiring Linux
There are a number of sites from where you
download and install Linux.

Select the Linux distribution of your choice.

Download the iso which can be installed on

your computer.

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Installing Linux
Linux can be installed on your hard disk on a single
partition (also creates a swap partition)

Install on a separate partition on the computer’s hard disk e.g.

have Windows on one partition and Linux on another

Install on a CD / DVD

Install on a USB device

Install on a virtual machine.

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Linux Software
Once Linux is installed, software can be downloaded and
installed. There are various methods of installation –
software may be available in the following formats:

[Link] – a compressed archive

tar.Z – a different compressed archive

rpm – requires installing using the red hat package

manager

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Example -
Example :the java jdk environment may offer the following options:
now download this software.
Product / File Description File Size Download

Linux ARM 32 Hard Float ABI 77.92 MB [Link]

Linux ARM 64 Hard Float ABI 74.88 MB [Link]

Linux x86 168.96 MB [Link]

Linux x86 183.76 MB [Link]
Linux x64 166.09 MB [Link]
Linux x64 180.97 MB [Link]
macOS 247.12 MB [Link]
Solaris SPARC 64-bit (SVR4
139.99 MB [Link].Z
package)
Solaris SPARC 64-bit 99.29 MB [Link]
Solaris x64 140.57 MB [Link].Z
Solaris x64 97.02 MB [Link]
Windows x86 198.54 MB [Link]
Windows x64 206.51 MB [Link]

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Software Package Management + Repositories

A repository is a collection of software that can be

downloaded from a server. It requires a package
management tool to install.

This provides a significant amount of free software

across a variety of applications.

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Software Package Management

The Package Manager

Package downloading: allow users to download from a trusted provider.

Dependency resolution: provides information about what other files are

required

Standard format: makes installation easier

Quality control: tests software is secure and stable

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The Package Management apt

apt is a popular and powerful method of
package management.

It is the usual package management system

used with Ubuntu.

The apt-get command uses the tool to

interact with the operating system.
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The Package Management apt

Useful Commands:

apt-get install: Installs the package with dependencies

apt-get remove: removes package

apt-get update: updates list of available packages

apt-get upgrade: (run both) – upgrades if upgrades

available

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apt-get example
• To install a new service (e.g. at)

apt-get install at

The at daemon can now be used.

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Other Package Managers

RPM – Red Hat Package Manager

Originally created for Red Hat Linux, it is

now used in many distributions.

Zypper
This is used for package management in
openSuse and Suse.
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