Chapter 2: Operating-System
Structures
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
Chapter 2: Operating-System Structures
Operating System Services
User Operating System Interface
System Calls
Types of System Calls
System Programs
Operating System Design and Implementation
Operating System Structure
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Objectives
To describe the services an operating system provides to
users, processes, and other systems
To discuss the various ways of structuring an operating
system
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Operating System Services
Two major tasks of an operating system
– 1) Providing a convenient environment for users/applications
Provide some set of services for user applications
Visible to users
– 2) Resource allocation and management
Not much visible to users
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Operating System Services
- 1) 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
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Operating System Services (Cont.)
- 1) One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to
the user (Cont.):
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.
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
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Operating System Services (Cont.)
- 2) 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 - CPU cycles, main memory, file storage,
I/O devices.
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
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A View of Operating System Services
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User Operating System Interface - CLI
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
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Bourne Shell Command Interpreter
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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 is “Aqua” GUI interface with UNIX kernel
underneath and shells available
Unix and Linux have CLI with optional GUI interfaces (CDE,
KDE, GNOME)
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Touchscreen Interfaces
Touchscreen devices require new
interfaces
Mouse not possible or not desired
Actions and selection based on
gestures
Virtual keyboard for text entry
Voice commands.
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The Mac OS X GUI
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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
Programming 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),
Java API for the Java virtual machine (JVM)
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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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 the 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
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API – System Call – OS Relationship
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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
create process, terminate process
load, execute
get process attributes, set process attributes
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
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Types of System Calls
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
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Types of System Calls (Cont.)
Communications
create, delete communication connection
send, receive messages if message passing model to host
name or process name
From client to server
Shared-memory model create and gain access to memory
regions
transfer status information
attach and detach remote devices
Protection
Control access to resources
Get and set permissions
Allow and deny user access
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Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls
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Standard C Library Example
C program invoking printf() library call, which calls write() system call
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System Programs
System services provide a convenient environment for program
development and execution. They can be divided into:
File manipulation
Status information sometimes stored in a File modification
Programming language support
Program loading and execution
Communications
Background services
Other system utilities/applications may come with OS
Most users’ view of the operation system is defined by system
programs, not the actual system calls
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System Programs
Provide a convenient environment for program development and execution
Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls (e.g. create file);
others are considerably more complex (e.g. compiler)
File management - Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list, and
generally manipulate files and directories
Status information
Some ask the system for info - date, time, amount of available memory,
disk space, number of users
Others provide detailed performance, logging, and debugging information
Typically, these programs format and print the output to the terminal or
other output devices
Some systems implement a registry - used to store and retrieve
configuration information
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System Programs (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
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System Programs (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, but sometimes comes with it
E.g. games, math solvers, plotting tools, database systems,
spreadsheets, word processors, …)
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User
User Interface (GUI/CLI)
System Programs Application Programs
System Calls
Rest of Kernel
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Operating System Design and Implementation
Design and Implementation of OS not “solvable”, but some
approaches have proven successful
Internal structure of different Operating Systems can vary widely
Start the design by defining goals and specifications
Affected by choice of hardware, type of system
User goals and System goals
User goals – operating system should be convenient to use,
easy to learn, reliable, safe, and fast
System goals – operating system should be easy to design,
implement, and maintain, as well as flexible, reliable, error-free,
and efficient
Specifying and designing an OS is highly creative task of software
engineering
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Implementation
Much variation
Early OSes in assembly language
Then system programming languages like Algol, PL/1
Now C, C++
Actually usually a mix of languages
Lowest levels in assembly
Main body in C
Systems programs in C, C++, scripting languages like PERL,
Python, shell scripts
More high-level language easier to port to other hardware
But slower
Emulation can allow an OS to run on non-native hardware
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Operating System Structure
General-purpose OS is very large program
Various ways to structure ones
Monolithic structure– Original UNIX
Layered – an abstraction
Microkernel – Mach
Modules
Hybrid systems
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Monolithic Structure -- UNIX
UNIX – limited by hardware functionality, the original UNIX operating
system had limited structuring. The UNIX OS consists of two separable
parts
Systems programs
The kernel
Consists of everything below the system-call interface and
above the physical hardware
Provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory
management, and other operating-system functions; a large
number of functions for one level
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Traditional UNIX System Structure
Beyond simple but not fully layered
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Layered Approach
The operating system is divided
into a number of layers (levels),
each built on top of lower
layers. The bottom layer (layer
0), is the hardware; the highest
(layer N) is the user interface.
With modularity, layers are
selected such that each uses
functions (operations) and
services of only lower-level
layers
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Microkernel System Structure
Moves as much from the kernel into user space
Mach example of microkernel
Mac OS X kernel (Darwin) partly based on Mach
Communication takes place between user modules using
message passing
Benefits:
Easier to extend a microkernel
Easier to port the operating system to new architectures
More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode)
More secure
Detriments:
Performance overhead of user space to kernel space
communication
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Microkernel System Structure
Application File Device user
Program System Driver mode
messages messages
Interprocess memory CPU kernel
Communication managment scheduling mode
microkernel
hardware
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Modules
Many modern operating systems implement loadable kernel
modules
Uses object-oriented approach
Each core component is separate
Each talks to the others over known interfaces
Each is loadable as needed within the kernel
Overall, similar to layers but with more flexible
Linux, Solaris, etc
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Solaris Modular Approach
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Hybrid Systems
Most modern operating systems are actually not one pure model
Hybrid combines multiple approaches to address
performance, security, usability needs
Linux and Solaris kernels in kernel address space, so
monolithic, plus modular for dynamic loading of functionality
Windows mostly monolithic, plus microkernel for different
subsystem personalities
Apple Mac OS X hybrid, layered, Aqua UI plus Cocoa
programming environment
Below is kernel consisting of Mach microkernel and BSD Unix
parts, plus I/O kit and dynamically loadable modules (called
kernel extensions)
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End of Chapter 2
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018