This lecture is based on the textbook, Operating System Concepts, 10 th Edition

Written by Abraham Silberschatz, Greg Gagne and Peter B. Galvin

Published by Wiley Publishing

Chapter 2: Operating-System
Services

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Outline

 Operating System Services

 User and Operating System-Interface
 System Calls
 System Services
 Linkers and Loaders
 Why Applications are Operating System Specific
 Design and Implementation
 Operating System Structure
 Building and Booting an Operating System
 Operating System Debugging

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Objectives

 Identify services provided by an operating system

 Illustrate how system calls are used to provide operating
system services
 Compare and contrast monolithic, layered, microkernel,
modular, and hybrid strategies for designing operating
systems
 Illustrate the process for booting an operating system
 Apply tools for monitoring operating system performance
 Design and implement kernel modules for interacting with a
Linux kernel

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 Operating System Services
 Operating systems provide an environment for execution of
programs and services to programs and users
 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), touch-screen, 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
• 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, and
permission management.

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 Operating System Services (Cont.)
 One set of operating-system services provides functions that are
helpful to the user (Cont.):
• 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
the 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.)
 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.
• Logging - 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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 Command Line interpreter

 CLI 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)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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), and 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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 Example of Standard API

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 System Call Implementation

 Typically, a number is 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 the
OS kernel and returns the status of the system call and any
return values
 The caller needs to 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 the OS interface are hidden from the programmer
by API
 Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built into
libraries included with the compiler)

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 API – System Call – OS Relationship

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 System Call Parameter Passing
 Often, more information is required than simply the 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, maybe more parameters than registers

• Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and the

address of the block passed as a parameter in a register
 This approach was 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
• end, abort
• load, execute
• get process attributes, set process attributes
• wait for time
• wait event, signal event
• allocate and free memory
• Dump memory if error
• Debugger for determining bugs, single step execution
• Locks for managing access to shared data between processes

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

 File management
• create file, delete file
• open, close file
• read, write, reposition
• get and set file attributes
 Device management
• request device, release device
• read, write, reposition
• get device attributes, set device attributes
• logically attach or detach devices

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

 Information maintenance
• get time or date, set time or date
• get system data, set system data
• get and set process, file, or device attributes
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

 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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 Example: Arduino

 Single-tasking
 No operating system
 Programs (sketch) loaded via
USB into flash memory
 Single memory space
 Boot loader loads program
 Program exit -> shell
reloaded

At system startup running a program

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example: FreeBSD
 Unix variant
 Multitasking
 User login -> invoke user’s choice of
shell
 Shell executes fork() system call to create
a process
• Executes exec() to load the program
into the process
• Shell waits for the process to
terminate or continues with user
commands
 Process exits with:
• code = 0 – no error
• code > 0 – error code

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Services
 System programs provide a convenient environment for program
development and execution. They can be divided into:
• File manipulation
• Status information is sometimes stored in a file
• Programming language support
• Program loading and execution
• Communications
• Background services
• Application programs
 Most users’ view of the operating system is defined by system
programs, not the actual system calls

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 System Services (Cont.)
 Provide a convenient environment for program development and
execution
• Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls; others
are considerably more complex

 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 Services (Cont.)
 File modification
• Text editors to create and modify files
• Special commands to search the contents of files or perform
transformations of the text
 Programming-language support – Compilers, assemblers,
debuggers and interpreters are 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 Services (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 the system
• Run by users
• Not typically considered part of OS
• Launched by command line, mouse click, finger poke

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Linkers and Loaders

 Source code compiled into object files designed to be loaded into any
physical memory location – relocatable object file
 Linker combines these into single binary executable file
• Also brings in libraries
 Program resides on secondary storage as binary executable
 Must be brought into memory by loader to be executed
• Relocation assigns final addresses to program parts and adjusts
code and data in program to match those addresses
 Modern general purpose systems don’t link libraries into executables
• Rather, dynamically linked libraries (in Windows, DLLs) are
loaded as needed, shared by all that use the same version of that
same library (loaded once)
 Object, executable files have standard formats, so operating system
knows how to load and start them

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 The Role of the Linker and Loader

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 Why Applications are Operating System Specific

 Apps compiled on one system usually not executable on other

operating systems
 Each operating system provides its unique system calls
• Own file formats, etc.
 Apps can be a multi-operating system
• Written in an interpreted language like Python, Ruby, and
interpreter available on multiple operating systems
• App is written in a language that includes a VM containing the
running app (like Java)
• Use standard language (like C), and compile separately on each
operating system to run on each
 Application Binary Interface (ABI) is the architecture equivalent of
API, which defines how different components of binary code can
interface for a given operating system on a given architecture, CPU,
etc.

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 Design and Implementation

 Design and Implementation of OS is 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 – the operating system should be convenient to
use, easy to learn, reliable, safe, and fast
• System goals – the 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 a highly creative task of
software engineering

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 Policy and Mechanism

 Policy: What needs to be done?

• Example: Interrupt after every 100 seconds
 Mechanism: How to do something?
• Example: timer
 Important principle: separate policy from mechanism
 The separation of policy from mechanism is a very
important principle; it allows maximum flexibility if policy
decisions are to be changed later.
• Example: change 100 to 200

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 Implementation
 Many variations
• Early OSes in assembly language
• Then system programming languages like Algol, PL/1
• Now C, C++
 Usually a mix of languages
• Lowest levels of assembly
• Main body in C
• Systems programs in C, C++, scripting languages like PERL,
Python, shell scripts
 More high-level language accessible 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
• Simple structure – MS-DOS
• More complex – UNIX
• Layered – an abstraction
• Microkernel – Mach

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 Monolithic Structure – Original 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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 Linux System Structure
Monolithic plus modular design

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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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 Microkernels
 Moves as much from the kernel into user space
 Mach is an 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Modules
 Many modern operating systems implement loadable kernel
modules (LKMs)
• Uses an object-oriented approach
• Each core component is separate
• Each talk 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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 Hybrid Systems

 Most modern operating systems are 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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 macOS and iOS Structure

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Darwin

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 Android
 Developed by Open Handset Alliance (mostly Google)
• Open Source
 Similar stack to iOS
 Based on Linux kernel but modified
• Provides process, memory, device-driver management
• Adds power management
 Runtime environment includes core set of libraries and Dalvik
virtual machine
• Apps developed in Java plus Android API
 Java class files compiled to Java bytecode then translated
to executable thnn runs in Dalvik VM
 Libraries include frameworks for web browser (webkit), database
(SQLite), multimedia, smaller libc

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 Android Architecture

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 Building and Booting an Operating System

 Operating systems generally designed to run on a class of systems

with variety of peripherals
 Commonly, operating system already installed on purchased
computer
• But can build and install some other operating systems
• If generating an operating system from scratch
 Write the operating system source code
 Configure the operating system for the system on which it will
run
 Compile the operating system
 Install the operating system
 Boot the computer and its new operating system

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 Building and Booting Linux

 Download Linux source code (http://www.kernel.org)

 Configure kernel via “make menuconfig”
 Compile the kernel using “make”
• Produces vmlinuz, the kernel image
• Compile kernel modules via “make modules”
• Install kernel modules into vmlinuz via “make
modules_install”
• Install new kernel on the system via “make install”

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 System Boot
 When power initialized on system, execution starts at a fixed memory
location
 Operating system must be made available to hardware so hardware
can start it
• Small piece of code – bootstrap loader, BIOS, stored in ROM or
EEPROM locates the kernel, loads it into memory, and starts it
• Sometimes two-step process where boot block at fixed location
loaded by ROM code, which loads bootstrap loader from disk
• Modern systems replace BIOS with Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface (UEFI)
 Common bootstrap loader, GRUB, allows selection of kernel from
multiple disks, versions, kernel options
 Kernel loads and system is then running
 Boot loaders frequently allow various boot states, such as single user
mode

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 Operating-System Debugging

 Debugging is finding and fixing errors, or bugs

 Also performance tuning
 OS generate log files containing error information
 Failure of an application can generate core dump file capturing
memory of the process
 Operating system failure can generate crash dump file containing
kernel memory
 Beyond crashes, performance tuning can optimize system performance
• Sometimes using trace listings of activities, recorded for analysis
• Profiling is periodic sampling of instruction pointer to look for
statistical trends
Kernighan’s Law: “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the
first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”

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 Performance Tuning

 Improve performance by removing bottlenecks

 OS must provide means of computing and displaying measures of
system behavior
 For example, “top” program or Windows Task Manager

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 Tracing
 Collects data for a specific event, such as steps involved
in a system call invocation
 Tools include
• strace – trace system calls invoked by a process
• gdb – source-level debugger
• perf – collection of Linux performance tools
• tcpdump – collects network packets

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 BCC

 Debugging interactions between user-level and kernel code nearly

impossible without toolset that understands both and an instrument
their actions
 BCC (BPF Compiler Collection) is a rich toolkit providing tracing
features for Linux
• See also the original DTrace
 For example, disksnoop.py traces disk I/O activity

 Many other tools (next slide)

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 Linux bcc/BPF Tracing Tools

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 2.59 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 End of Chapter 2

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018