Chapter 11: File-System Interface

File Concept
Access Methods
Directory Structure
File System Mounting
File Sharing
Protection

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File Concept
Contiguous logical address space
Types:
Data
numeric
character
binary

Program

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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

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File Attributes
Name only information kept in human-readable form
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

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File Operations
Create
Write
Read
file seek reposition within file
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

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Open Files
Several pieces of data are needed to manage 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

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Open File Locking

Provided by some operating systems and file systems
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

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File Locking Example Java API

import java.io.*;
import java.nio.channels.*;
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("file.txt", "rw");
// get the channel for the file
FileChannel ch = raf.getChannel();
// this locks the first half of the file - exclusive
exclusiveLock = ch.lock(0, raf.length()/2, EXCLUSIVE);
/** Now modify the data . . . */
// release the lock
exclusiveLock.release();

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File Locking Example Java API (cont)

// this locks the second half of the file - shared

sharedLock = ch.lock(raf.length()/2+1, raf.length(),
SHARED);
/** Now read the data . . . */
// release the lock
exclusiveLock.release();
} catch (java.io.IOException ioe) {
System.err.println(ioe);
}finally {
if (exclusiveLock != null)
exclusiveLock.release();
if (sharedLock != null)
sharedLock.release();
}

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File Types Name, Extension

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Access Methods
Sequential Access

Direct Access

read next
write next
reset
no read after last write
(rewrite)
read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n

n = relative block number

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Sequential-access File

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Simulation of Sequential Access on a Direct-access File

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Example of Index and Relative Files

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Directory Structure
A collection of nodes containing information about all files

Directory

Files

F1

F2

F3

F4
Fn

Both the directory structure and the files reside on disk

Backups of these two structures are kept on tapes
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A Typical File-system Organization

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Information in a Device Directory

Name
Type
Address
Current length
Maximum length
Date last accessed (for archival)
Date last updated (for dump)
Owner ID
Protection information (discuss later)

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Operations Performed on Directory

Search for a file
Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system

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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, )

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Single-Level Directory
A single directory for all users

Naming problem
Grouping problem

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Two-Level Directory
Separate directory for each user

Path name
Can have the same file name for different user
Efficient searching
No grouping capability

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Tree-Structured Directories

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Tree-Structured Directories (Cont)

Efficient searching
Grouping Capability
Current directory (working directory)
cd /spell/mail/prog
type list

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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 exp count

Deleting mail deleting the entire subtree rooted by mail

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Acyclic-Graph Directories
Have shared subdirectories and files

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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

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General Graph Directory

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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

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File System Mounting

A file system must be mounted before it can be

accessed

A unmounted file system (i.e. Fig. 11-11(b)) is

mounted at a mount point

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(a) Existing. (b) Unmounted Partition

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Mount Point

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File Sharing
Sharing of files on multi-user systems is desirable
Sharing may be done through a protection scheme
On distributed systems, files may be shared across a network
Network File System (NFS) is a common distributed file-sharing

method

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File Sharing Multiple Users

User IDs identify users, allowing permissions and

protections to be per-user

Group IDs allow users to be in groups, permitting group

access rights

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File Sharing Remote File Systems

Uses networking to allow file system access between systems
Manually via programs like FTP
Automatically, seamlessly using distributed file systems
Semi automatically via the world wide web

Client-server model allows clients to mount remote file systems

from servers

Server can serve multiple clients

Client and user-on-client identification is insecure or complicated
NFS is standard UNIX client-server file sharing protocol
CIFS is standard Windows protocol
Standard operating system file calls are translated into remote calls

Distributed Information Systems (distributed naming services)

such as LDAP, DNS, NIS implement unified access to

information needed for remote computing

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File Sharing Failure Modes

Remote file systems add new failure modes, due to

network failure, server failure

Recovery from failure can involve state information about

status of each remote request

Stateless protocols such as NFS include all information in

each request, allowing easy recovery but less security

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File Sharing Consistency Semantics

Consistency semantics specify how multiple users are to

access a shared file simultaneously

Similar to Ch 7 process synchronization algorithms

Tend to be less complex due to disk I/O and network latency (for

remote file systems

Andrew File System (AFS) implemented complex remote file sharing

semantics

Unix file system (UFS) implements:

Writes to an open file visible immediately to other users of the

same open file

Sharing file pointer to allow multiple users to read and write

concurrently

AFS has session semantics

Writes only visible to sessions starting after the file is closed

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Protection
File owner/creator should be able to control:
what can be done
by whom

Types of access
Read
Write
Execute
Append
Delete
List

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Access Lists and Groups

Mode of access: read, write, execute
Three classes of users

RWX
a) owner access
RWX
b) group access
RWX
c) public access

111

110

001

Ask manager to create a group (unique name), say G, and add

some users to the group.

For a particular file (say game) or subdirectory, define an

appropriate access.

owner
chmod

group
761

public
game

Attach a group to a file

chgrp
Operating System Concepts with Java

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game
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