CH 10

Chapter 10:
File-System Interface
Chapter 10: File-System Interface
 File Concept
 Access Methods
 Directory Structure
 File-System Mounting
 File Sharing
 Protection
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 (executable)
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
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
File Operations
 File is an abstract data type
 Create
 Write
 Read
 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:
 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
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
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();
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
sharedLock.release();
} catch (java.io.IOException ioe) {
System.err.println(ioe);
}finally {
if (exclusiveLock != null)
exclusiveLock.release();
if (sharedLock != null)
sharedLock.release();
}
}
File Types – Name, Extension
Access Methods
 Sequential Access
read next
write next
reset
no read after last write
(rewrite)
 Direct Access
read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n
n = relative block number
Sequential-access File
Simulation of Sequential Access on
Direct-access File
Example of Index and Relative Files
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
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 known as a
volume
 Each volume containing file system also
tracks that file system’s info in device
directory or volume table of contents
 As well as general-purpose file systems
A Typical File-system Organization
Operations Performed on Directory
 Search for a file

 Create a file
 Delete a file
 List a directory
 Rename a file
 Traverse the file system
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, …)
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
Tree-Structured Directories (Cont.)
 Efficient searching
 Grouping Capability
 Current directory (working
directory)
 cd /spell/mail/prog
 type list
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 prtexpcount
Deleting “mail”  deleting the entire

subtree rooted by “mail”
Acyclic-Graph Directories
 Have shared subdirectories and

files
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
 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 file not
subdirectories
 Garbage collection
 Every time a new link is added
use a cycle detection algorithm
to determine whether it is OK
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
(a) Existing (b) Unmounted Partition
Mount Point
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
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
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
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
File Sharing – Consistency Semantics
 Consistency semantics specify how multiple users
are to access a shared file simultaneously
 Similar to Ch 7 process synchronization
algorithms
 Tendto 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
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
 Mode of access: read, write, execute
 Three classes of users
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 particular file (say game) or subdirectory,
define an appropriate access.
owner group public
chmod 761 game

Attach a group to a file
chgrp G game
Windows XP Access-Control
List Management
A Sample UNIX Directory Listing
End of Chapter 10

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Chapter 10:

 To explain the function of file systems

 Contiguous logical address space

// this locks the second half of the

Both the directory structure and the files

 Search for a file

 Efficiency – locating a file quickly

 A single directory for all users

prog copy prtexpcount

Deleting “mail”  deleting the entire

 Have shared subdirectories and

 How do we guarantee no cycles?

 A file system must be

 Sharing of files on multi-user systems

 User IDs identify users, allowing

 Remote file systems add new

chmod 761 game

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