OPERATING SYSTEMS

FILE SYSTEMS
FILE - is a collection of similar records. The file is treated as a single entity by users and applications and
may be referred by name.
- A container for a collection of information. The file manager provides a protection mechanism to
allow users administrator how processes executing on behalf of different users can access the
information in a file.
- Represents programs and data. Data files may be numeric, alphabetic, binary or alpha numeric. Files
may be free form, such as text files. In general, file is sequence of bits, bytes, lines or records.
- Has a certain defined structure according to its type (TEXT FILE, SOURCE FILE, EXECUTABLE FILE, and
OBJECT FILE).

FILE STRUCTURE

1. Field - is the basic element of data. An individual field contains a single value.
2. Record - is a collection of related fields that can be treated as a unit by some application program.
3. Database - is a collection of related data. Database is designed for use by a number of different
applications.

FILE ATTRIBUTES

1. Name only information kept in human-readable form.
2. Identifier unique tag (number) identifies file within file system
3. Type needed for systems that support different types
4. Location pointer to file location on device
5. Size current file size
6. Protection controls who can do reading, writing, executing
7. Time, date, and user identification data for protection, security, and usage monitoring
8. Information about files are kept in the directory structure, which is maintained on the
disk

FILE OPERATIONS
1. Create: A new file is defined and positioned within the structure of files.
2. Delete: A file is removed from the file structure and destroyed.
3. Open: An existing file is declared to be "opened" by a process, allowing the process to perform
functions on the file.
4. Close: The file is closed with respect to a process, so that the process no longer may perform
functions on the file, until the process opens the file again.
5. Read: A process reads all or a portion of the data in a file.
6. Write: A process updates a file, either by adding new data that expands the size of the file or by
changing the values of existing data items in the file.
FILE TYPES Name, Extension
A common technique for implementing file types is to include the type as part of the file name. The
name is split into two parts: a name and an extension. Following table gives the file type with usual extension
and function.



OPERATING SYSTEMS
FILE SYSTEMS





File Management Systems
- Is that set of system software that provides services to users and applications in the use of files.
- Also referred to as simply a file system. The system that an operating system or program uses to
organize and keep track of files. For example, a hierarchical file system is one that uses directories to
organize files into a tree structure. Although the operating system provides its own file management
system, you can buy separate file management systems. These systems interact smoothly with the
operating system but provide more features, such as improved backup procedures and stricter file
protection.

o File-System Mounting
- Takes place before a computer can use any kind of storage device (such as a hard drive, CD-ROM, or
network share). The user or their operating system must make it accessible through the computer's
file system. A user can only access files on mounted media.

o Access Methods

1. Sequential Access
Data are transferred from/to file as a consecutive sequence of logical file units (bytes or records).
This is the most common method (loading images, loading memory pages, editors, compilers,
copying files, displaying directories, etc.)

2. Direct Access/Relative Access
A particular byte or record is read (it is specified by its logical sequence number, i.e. by its logical file
offset).

o Allocation Methods
- One main problem in file management is how to allocate space for files so that disk space is utilized
effectively and files can be accessed quickly.

1. Contiguous Allocation - The contiguous allocation method requires each file to occupy a set
of contiguous blocks on the disk.
2. Linked Allocation - each file is a linked list disk blocks; the disk blocks may be scattered
anywhere on the disk.
3. Indexed Allocation - Brings all pointers together into the index block.


OPERATING SYSTEMS
FILE SYSTEMS
FREE SPACE MANAGEMENT
o Bit Vector - Free-space list is implemented as a bit map or bit vector. Each block is represented by
1 bit. If the block is free, the bit is 1; if the block is allocated, the bit is 0.

o Linked List - Another approach is to link together all the free disk blocks, keeping a pointy to the
first free block in a special location on the disk and caching it in memory.

o Grouping - The importance of this implementation is that the addresses of a large number of free
blocks can be found quickly, unlike in the standard linked-list approach.

o Counting - Each entry in the free-space list then consists of a disk address and a count. Although
each entry requires more space than would a simple disk address, the overall list will be shorter, as
long as count is generally greater than 1.