CHAPTER 5

FILE MANAGEMENT
 LEARNING OUTCOME
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
 Identify the basic function of file system
 Describe file organization technique
 Describe types of file structure
 Identify the methods of file allocation
 INTRODUCTION

 File management system can be define as a system

that an operating system uses to keep track of different
files.

 Consists of system utility programs that run as

privileged applications.

 File management aims to provide a convenient

programming environment for the users of the system.

 Output is saved in a file for long-term storage.

 INTRODUCTION

 There are several functions that must be performed

by an efficient file system:

✓ include storing of files in an orderly fashion

✓ accessing the stored files
✓ appending the stored files and protecting the files
from loss of data.
 FILES – A CONCEPT
 A file could be defined as contiguous set of words
(bits, bytes or instructions)
 Can store different kinds of information in a file; for
example source codes, images, text documents, and
so forth.
 FILES - ATTRIBUTES
 A file has various attributes like name, type, location, size,
protection, time and data of creation, user information etc.
 FILES - ATTRIBUTES
 Name -
 symbolic file-name, only information in human-readable form

 Type -
 for systems that support multiple types

 Location -
 pointer to a device and to file location on device

 Size -
 current file size, maximal possible size

 Protection -
 controls who can read, write, execute

 Time, Date and user identification

 data for protection, security and usage monitoring

 Information about files are kept in the directory structure,

maintained on disk
 FILE NAMING
File naming=File name + File
extension
Eg. Student.doc
In this example the Student is the
file name and doc is the file
extension
FILE NAMING
 FILE OPERATIONS

 Creating a file - A blank file is created

 Writing a file - To write some data on file.
 Reading a file - When a file is only to be read.
 Opening a file - Open a file either for reading
or writing.
 Closing a file - When a file is no longer
accessed.
 Deleting a file - The purpose of this system
call is to delete this file
 FILE SYSTEM
 There are three major file systems supported by
Microsoft Windows:

✓ FAT
✓ FAT32
✓ NTFS
 FILE ORGANIZATION
 The Pile
 Data are collected in the order they arrive
 Purpose is to accumulate a mass of data and save it
 Records may have different fields
 No structure
 Record access is by exhaustive search
 FILE ORGANIZATION
 The Sequential File
 Fixed format used for records
 Records are the same length
 All fields the same (order and length)
 Field names and lengths are attributes
of the file
 One field is the key filed
 Uniquely identifies the record
 Records are stored in key sequence
 New records are placed in a log file or transaction
file
 Batch update is performed to merge the log file with
the master file
 FILE ORGANIZATION

 Direct or Hashed File

 Directly access a block at a known address
 Key field required for each record
 FILE ORGANIZATION

 Indexed Sequential File

 Index provides a lookup capability to quickly reach
the vicinity of the desired record
 Contains key field and a pointer to the main file
 Indexed is searched to find highest key value that
is equal to or precedes the desired key value
 Search continues in the main file at the location
indicated by the pointer
 FILE ORGANIZATION
 New records are added to an overflow file
 Record in main file that precedes it is updated to
contain a pointer to the new record
 The overflow is merged with the main file during a
batch update
 Multiple indexes for the same key field can be set
up to increase efficiency
 FILE ORGANIZATION

 Partition
 Disk can be subdivided into partitions
 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
 FILE ORGANIZATION
 Partition
 FILE STRUCTURE

 The four most common file structures :

a) Unstructured (Byte Sequence)

b) Structured - Record Sequence Structure (fixed
record)
c) Structured - Record Sequence Structure (variable
record size)
d) Complex Structure (Tree)
 FILE STRUCTURE

Sequence Sequence Tree

of bytes of records of records
20
 FILE STRUCTURE
 Unstructured (Byte Sequence)
 Read or write a number of bytes
 User program decides meaning

 Structured - Record Sequence Structure (fixed

record)
 Collection of bytes treated as a unit.
 Fixed length
 Read or write a one of record at a time
 Punch cards, 80 char records, employee record.
 FILE STRUCTURE
• Tree
• Records with keys
• Read, insert, delete a specific record
• Still used on mainframe computers in some
commercial data processing
FILE ALLOCATION
 There are 3 methods of file allocation which are:
 Contiguous file allocation
 Linked list non-contiguous (using blocks)
 Linked list non-contiguous allocation (using index)
CONTIGUOUS ALLOCATION
 Is the simplest allocation scheme
 Store file as contiguous block (One file is stored after)
 Advantages
 Simple to implement
 Faster data reading
 Disadvantages
 Disk fragmentation
 Not used in commercial OSs but suitable for
Embedded OSs & CD-ROMs
 External fragmentation will occur
 Need to perform compaction
BLOCK SIZE
 For the easy of addressing & reading/writing data
are access as fixed size blocks.
 A single block can vary from the size of a single
sector to multiple sector
 It should neither be too low nor large
 4k is a good value
 Block size:
 Higher block size -> Higher data rate
 Higher block size -> Lower space utilization
 Lower block size -> Lower data rate
 Lower block size -> Higher space utilization
LINKED LIST ALLOCATION USING BLOCKS
 Files kept as a linked list of disk blocks
 First word of each block points to the next block
 Only the address of the block appears in the
directory
entry
 No disk fragmentation
 Random access is extremely slow
 Easy to use - no estimation of size necessary
LINKED LIST ALLOCATION USING BLOCKS
 Simple, only needs the starting block address
 No external fragmentation
 Easy to create a file
 Needs more space for the pointers
 Sequential access only, no random access
 Links are in many parts of the disk, a reliability
 problem
 MS-DOS and OS/2 use disk-space allocation
through a file-allocation table (FAT)
LINKED LIST ALLOCATION USING BLOCKS
LINKED LIST ALLOCATION USING AN INDEX
 Indexed allocation
 File allocation table contains a separate one-level
index for each file
 The index has one entry for each portion allocated
to the file
 The file allocation table contains block number for
the index
Brings all pointers together into the index block.
▪ Need index table
▪ Supports sequential, direct and indexed access.
▪ Dynamic access without external fragmentation, but
have overhead of index block.
LINKED LIST ALLOCATION USING AN INDEX
Index Nodes
 Index can be used to provide
 fault tolerance,
 capacity
 performance.
 Basically you create a “matrix” of index servers. The more
rows you create, the more fault tolerance you provide. The
more columns, the more content is created and the better
performance will be realized. Below is a diagram depicting
the Index server matrix (a node is the same thing as a
server).
The level
Index node environment
Real life
Task
Explain How Caching Enhances
File System Performance