Chapter 13:

File-System Interface
Outline
• File Concept
• Access Methods
• Disk and Directory Structure
• Protection
• Memory-Mapped Files
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
• text file,
• source file,
• executable file
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
Directory Structure
• A collection of nodes containing information about all files

• Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk

File Operations
• 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
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);
}finally {
if (exclusiveLock != null)
[Link]();
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
Access Methods
• A file is fixed length logical records
• Sequential Access
• Direct Access
• Other Access Methods
 Sequential Access
• Operations
• read next
• write next
• Reset
• no read after last write (rewrite)

• Figure
Direct Access
• Operations
• 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 other access methods 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 Universal Produce Code
(UPC code) plus record of data about that item)
• If the index is too large, create an in-memory index, which
an index of a disk index
• 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
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 is known as a volume
• Each volume containing a file system also tracks that file
system’s info in device directory or volume table of contents
• In addition to 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
Directory Structure
• A collection of nodes containing information about all files

• Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk

Operations Performed on Directory
• Search for a file

• Create a file

• Delete a file

• List a directory

• Rename a file

• Traverse the file system

Directory Organization
The directory is organized 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
Acyclic-Graph Directories
• Have shared subdirectories and files
• Example
 Acyclic-Graph Directories (Cont.)
• Two different names (aliasing)
• If dict deletes w/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 files not subdirectories
• Garbage collection
• Every time a new link is added use a cycle detection algorithm to
determine whether it is OK
Current Directory
• Can designate one of the directories as the current (working) directory
• cd /spell/mail/prog
• type list
• Creating and deleting a file is done in current directory
• Example of creating a new file
• If in current directory is /mail
• The command
mkdir <dir-name>
• Results in:

• Deleting “mail”  deleting the entire subtree rooted by “mail”

Protection
• File owner/creator should be able to control:
• What can be done
• By whom
• Types of access
• Read
• Write
• Execute
• Append
• Delete
• List
 Access Lists and Groups in Unix
• Mode of access: read, write, execute
• Three classes of users on Unix / Linux
RWX
a) owner access 7  111
RWX
b) group access 6  110
RWX
c) public access 1  001
• Ask manager to create a group (unique name), say G, and add some users
to the group.
• For a file (say game) or subdirectory, define an appropriate access.

• Attach a group to a file

chgrp G game
A Sample UNIX Directory Listing
Windows 7 Access-Control List Management
Memory-Mapped Files
End of Chapter 13