Operating System
CHAPTER 1 SYSTEM SOFTWARE
CHAPTER 2 FUNDAMENTAL OF OPERATING SYSTEM
CHAPTER 3 PROCESS MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 4 THREAD MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 5 CONCURRENCY CONTROL
CHAPTER 6 DEADLOCK
CHAPTER 7 MEMORY MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 8 VIRTUAL MEMORY
CHAPTER 9 I/O HARDWARE
CHAPTER 10 I/O SOFTWARE
CHAPTER 11 SECONDARY STORAGE MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 12 FILE SYSTEMS
CHAPTER 13 PROTECTION
CHAPTER 14 SECURITY
CHAPTER 15 LINUX SYSTEM
CHAPTER 1
SYSTEM SOFTWARE
Unit Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Operating System
1.2.1 Definition of operating system
1.2.2 Functions of Operating System
1.2.3 Operating System as User Interface
1.3 I/O System Management
1.4 Assembler
1.5 Compiler
1.6 Loader
1.7 History of Operating System
1.8 Summary
1.9 Model Question
1.0 Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
Describe Basic Organization of Computer Systems
Define Operating system, functions, history and Evolution
Define assembler, linker, loader, compiler
1.1 Introduction
An operating system act as an intermediary between the user of a computer
and computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system is to provide an
environment in which a user can execute programs in a convenient and efficient
manner.
An operating system is a software that manages the computer hardware. The
hardware must provide appropriate mechanisms to ensure the correct operation of
the computer system and to prevent user programs from interfering with the proper
operation of the system.
1.2 Operating System
1.2.1 Definition of Operating System:
An Operating system is a program that controls the execution of application
programs and acts as an interface between the user of a computer and the
computer hardware.
A more common definition is that the operating system is the one program
running at all times on the computer (usually called the kernel), with all else
being applications programs.
An Operating system is concerned with the allocation of resources and
services, such as memory, processors, devices and information. The
Operating System correspondingly includes programs to manage these
resources, such as a traffic controller, a scheduler, memory management
module, I/O programs, and a file system.
1.2.2 Functions of Operating System
Operating system performs three functions:
1. Convenience: An OS makes a computer more convenient to use.
2. Efficiency: An OS allows the computer system resources to be used in an
efficient manner.
3. Ability to Evolve: An OS should be constructed in such a way as to permit
the effective development, testing and introduction of new system functions
without at the same time interfering with service.
1.2.3 Operating System as User Interface
Every general purpose computer consists of the hardware, operating system,
system programs, application programs. The hardware consists of memory,
CPU, ALU, I/O devices, peripheral device and storage device. System
program consists of compilers, loaders, editors, OS etc. The application
program consists of business program, database program.
Every computer must have an operating system to run other programs. The
operating system and coordinates the use of the hardware among the various
system programs and application program for a various users. It simply
provides an environment within which other programs can do useful work.
The operating system is a set of special programs that run on a computer
system that allow it to work properly. It performs basic tasks such as
recognizing input from the keyboard, keeping track of files and directories
on the disk, sending output to the display screen and controlling a peripheral
devices.
OS is designed to serve two basic purposes :
1. It controls the allocation and use of the computing system's resources among
the various user and tasks.
2. It provides an interface between the computer hardware and the programmer
that simplifies and makes feasible for coding, creation, debugging of
application programs.
The operating system must support the following tasks. The tasks are :
1. Provides the facilities to create, modification of program and data files using
and editor.
2. Access to the compiler for translating the user program from high level
language to machine language.
3. Provide a loader program to move the compiled program code to the
computer's memory for execution.
4. Provide routines that handle the details of I/O programming.
1.3 I/O System Management
I/O System Management
The module that keeps track of the status of devices is called the I/O traffic
controller. Each I/O device has a device handler that resides in a separate
process associated with that device.
The I/O subsystem consists of
1. A memory management component that includes buffering, caching and
spooling.
2. A general device driver interface.
Drivers for specific hardware devices.
1.4 Assembler
Input to an assembler is an assembly language program. Output is an object
program plus information that enables the loader to prepare the object program for
execution. At one time, the computer programmer had at his disposal a basic
machine that interpreted, through hardware, certain fundamental instructions. He
would program this computer by writing a series of ones and zeros(machine
language), place them into the memory of the machine.
1.5 Compiler
The high level languages – examples are FORTRAN, COBOL, ALGOL and PL/I
– are processed by compilers and interpreters. A compilers is a program that
accepts a source program in a ―high-level language‖ and produces a corresponding
object program. An interpreter is a program that appears to execute a source
program as if it was machine language. The same name (FORTRAN, COBOL etc)
is often used to designate both a compiler and its associated language.
1.6 Loader
A loader is a routine that loads an object program and prepares it for execution.
There are various loading schemes: absolute, relocating and direct-linking. In
general, the loader must load, relocate, and link the object program. Loader is a
program that places programs into memory and prepares them for execution. In a
simple loading scheme, the assembler outputs the machine language translation of
a program on a secondary device and a loader is placed in core. The loader places
into memory the machine language version of the user's program and transfers
control to it. Since the loader program is much smaller than the assembler, thos
makes more core available to user's program.
1.7 History of Operating System
Operating systems have been evolving through the years. Following table
shows the history of OS.
Generation Year Electronic devices used Types of OS and devices
First 1945 – 55 Vacuum tubes Plug boards
Second 1955 – 1965 Transistors Batch system
Third 1965 – 1980 Integrated Circuit (IC) Multiprogramming
Fourth Since 1980 Large scale integration PC
1.8 Summary
Operating Systems
An Operating system is concerned with the allocation of resources and services,
such as memory, processors, devices and information. The Operating System
correspondingly includes programs to manage these resources, such as a traffic
controller, a scheduler, memory management module, I/O programs, and a file
system.
Assembler
Input to an assembler is an assembly language program. Output is an object
program plus information that enables the loader to prepare the object program for
execution.
Loader
A loader is a routine that loads an object program and prepares it for execution.
There are various loading schemes: absolute, relocating and direct-linking. In
general, the loader must load, relocate, and link the object program
Compilers
A compilers is a program that accepts a source program ‖ in a high-level language‖
and produces a corresponding object program.
1.9 Model Question
Q. 1 Define Operating System?
Q. 2 Explain various function of operating system?
Q. 3 Explain I/O system Management?
Q. 4 Define & explain Assembler, Loader, Compiler?
CHAPTER 2
FUNDAMENTAL OF OPERATING SYSTEM
Unit Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Operating System Services
2.3 Operating System Components
2.4 Batch System
2.5 Time Sharing System
2.6 Multiprogramming
2.7 Spooling
2.8 Properties of Operating System
2.9 Summary
2.10 Model Question
2.0 Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
To describe the services an operating system provides to users, processes,
and other systems
Describe operating system services and its components.
Define multitasking and multiprogramming.
Describe timesharing, buffering & spooling.
2.1 Introduction
An operating system provides the environment within which programs are
executed. Internally, operating systems vary greatly in their makeup, since they are
organized along many different lines. The design of a new operating system is a
major task. It is important that the goals of the system be well defined before the
design begins.
We can view an operating system from several vantage points. One view
focuses on the services that the system provides, another, on the interface that it
makes available to users and programmers; a third, on its components and their
interconnections.
2.2 Operating System Services
An operating system provides services to programs and to the users of those
programs. It provided by one environment for the execution of programs.
The services provided by one operating system is difficult than other
operating system. Operating system makes the programming task easier.
The common service provided by the operating system is listed below.
1. Program execution
2. I/O operation
3. File system manipulation
4. Communications
5. Error detection
1. Program execution: Operating system loads a program into memory and
executes the program. The program must be able to end its execution, either
normally or abnormally.
2. I/O Operation : I/O means any file or any specific I/O device. Program may
require any I/O device while running. So operating system must provide the
required I/O.
3. File system manipulation : Program needs to read a file or write a file. The
operating system gives the permission to the program for operation on file.
4. Communication : Data transfer between two processes is required for some
time. The both processes are on the one computer or on different computer
but connected through computer network. Communication may be
implemented by two methods:
a. Shared memory
b. Message passing.
5. Error detection : error may occur in CPU, in I/O devices or in the memory
hardware. The operating system constantly needs to be aware of possible
errors. It should take the appropriate action to ensure correct and consistent
computing.
Operating system with multiple users provides following services.
1. Resource Allocation
2. Accounting
3. Protection
A) Resource Allocation :
If there are more than one user or jobs running at the same time, then
resources must be allocated to each of them. Operating system manages
different types of resources require special allocation code, i.e. main
memory, CPU cycles and file storage.
There are some resources which require only general request and release
code. For allocating CPU, CPU scheduling algorithms are used for better
utilization of CPU. CPU scheduling algorithms are used for better utilization
of CPU. CPU scheduling routines consider the speed of the CPU, number of
available registers and other required factors.
B) Accounting :
Logs of each user must be kept. It is also necessary to keep record of which
user how much and what kinds of computer resources. This log is used for
accounting purposes.
The accounting data may be used for statistics or for the billing. It also used
to improve system efficiency.
C) Protection :
Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled.
Security starts with each user having to authenticate to the system, usually
by means of a password. External I/O devices must be also protected from
invalid access attempts.
In protection, all the access to the resources is controlled. In multiprocess
environment, it is possible that, one process to interface with the other, or
with the operating system, so protection is required.
2.3 Operating System Components
Modern operating systems share the goal of supporting the system
components. The system components are :
1. Process Management
2. Main Memory Management
3. File Management
4. Secondary Storage Management
5. I/O System Management
6. Networking
7. Protection System
8. Command Interpreter System
2.4 Batch System
Some computer systems only did one thing at a time. They had a list of the
computer system may be dedicated to a single program until its completion,
or they may be dynamically reassigned among a collection of active
programs in different stages of execution.
Batch operating system is one where programs and data are collected
together in a batch before processing starts. A job is predefined sequence of
commands, programs and data that are combined in to a single unit called
job.
Fig. 2.1 shows the memory layout for a simple batch system.
Memory management in batch system is very simple. Memory is usually divided intotwo areas :
1.Operating system and
2.User program area.
Fig 2.1 Memory Layout for a Simple Batch System
Operating
System
User Program
Area
Resident
Portion
Transient
Program
Scheduling is also simple in batch system. Jobs are processed in the order of
submission i.e first come first served fashion.
When job completed execution, its memory is releases and the output for the
job gets copied into an output spool for later printing.
Batch system often provides simple forms of file management. Access to file
is serial. Batch systems do not require any time critical device management.
Batch systems are inconvenient for users because users can not interact with
their jobs to fix problems. There may also be long turn around times.
Example of this system id generating monthly bank statement.
Advantages o Batch System
Move much of the work of the operator to the computer.
Increased performance since it was possible for job to start as soon as the
previous job finished.
Disadvantages of Batch System
Turn around time can be large from user standpoint.
Difficult to debug program.
A job could enter an infinite loop.
A job could corrupt the monitor, thus affecting pending jobs.
Due to lack of protection scheme, one batch job can affect pending jobs.
2.5 Time Sharing Systems
Multi-programmed batched systems provide an environment where the
various system resources (for example, CPU, memory, peripheral devices)
are utilized effectively.
Time sharing, or multitasking, is a logical extension of multiprogramming.
Multiple jobs are executed by the CPU switching between them, but the
switches occur so frequently that the users may interact with each program
while it is running.
An interactive, or hands-on, computer system provides on-line
communication between the user and the system. The user gives instructions
to the operating system or to a program directly, and receives an immediate
response. Usually, a keyboard is used to provide input, and a display screen
(such as a cathode-ray tube (CRT) or monitor) is used to provide output.
If users are to be able to access both data and code conveniently, an on-line
file system must be available. A file is a collection of related information
defined by its creator. Batch systems are appropriate for executing large jobs
that need little interaction.
Time-sharing systems were developed to provide interactive use of a
computer system at a reasonable cost. A time-shared operating system uses
CPU scheduling and multiprogramming to provide each user with a small
portion of a time-shared computer. Each user has at least one separate
program in memory. A program that is loaded into memory and is executing
is commonly referred to as a process. When a process executes, it typically
executes for only a short time before it either finishes or needs to perform
I/O. I/O may be interactive; that is, output is to a display for the user and
input is from a user keyboard. Since interactive I/O typically runs at people
speeds, it may take a long time to completed.
A time-shared operating system allows the many users to share the computer
simultaneously. Since each action or command in a time-shared system
tends to be short, only a little CPU time is needed for each user. As the
system switches rapidly from one user to the next, each user is given the
impression that she has her own computer, whereas actually one computer is
being shared among many users.
Time-sharing operating systems are even more complex than are multiprogrammed
operating systems. As in multiprogramming, several jobs must
be kept simultaneously in memory, which requires some form of memory
management and protection.
2.6 Multiprogramming
When two or more programs are in memory at the same time, sharing the
processor is referred to the multiprogramming operating system.
Multiprogramming assumes a single processor that is being shared. It
increases CPU utilization by organizing jobs so that the CPU always has one
to execute.
Fig. 2.2
shows the memory layout for a multiprogramming system.
The operating system keeps several jobs in memory at a time. This set of
jobs is a subset of the jobs kept in the job pool. The operating system
picks and begins to execute one of the job in the memory.
Multiprogrammed system provide an environment in which the various
system resources are utilized effectively, but they do not provide for user
interaction with the computer system.
Jobs entering into the system are kept into the memory. Operating system
picks the job and begins to execute one of the job in the memory. Having
several programs in memory at the same time requires some form of
memory management.
Multiprogramming operating system monitors the state of all active
programs and system resources. This ensures that the CPU is never idle
unless there are no jobs.
Advantages
1. High CPU utilization.
2. It appears that many programs are allotted CPU almost simultaneously.
Disadvantages
1. CPU scheduling is requires.
2. To accommodate many jobs in memory, memory management is required.
2.7 Spooling
Acronym for simultaneous peripheral operations on line. Spooling refers to
putting jobs in a buffer, a special area in memory or on a disk where a device
can access them when it is ready.
Spooling is useful because device access data that different rates. The buffer
provides a waiting station where data can rest while the slower device
catches up. Fig 2.3 shows the spooling.
Fig 2.3 Spooling Process
Computer can perform I/O in parallel with computation, it becomes possible
to have the computer read a deck of cards to a tape, drum or disk and to
write out to a tape printer while it was computing. This process is called
spooling.
DISK
CARD
READER
PRINTER
The most common spooling application is print spooling. In print spooling,
documents are loaded into a buffer and then the printer pulls them off the
buffer at its own rate.
Spooling is also used for processing data at remote sites. The CPU sends the
data via communications path to a remote printer. Spooling overlaps the I/O
of one job with the computation of other jobs.
One difficulty with simple batch systems is that the computer still needs to
read the decks of cards before it can begin to execute the job. This means
that the CPU is idle during these relatively slow operations.
Spooling batch systems were the first and are the simplest of the
multiprogramming systems.
Advantage of Spooling
1. The spooling operation uses a disk as a very large buffer.
2. Spooling is however capable of overlapping I/O operation for one job with
processor operations for another job.
2.8 Essential Properties of the Operating System
1. Batch : Jobs with similar needs are batched together and run through the
computer as a group by an operator or automatic job sequencer. Performance is
increased by attempting to keep CPU and I/O devices busy at all times through
buffering , off line operation, spooling and multiprogramming. A Batch system is
good for executing large jobs that need little interaction, it can be submitted and
picked up latter.
2. Time sharing : Uses CPU s scheduling and multiprogramming to provide
economical interactive use of a system. The CPU switches rapidly from one user to
another i.e. the CPU is shared between a number of interactive users. Instead of
having a job defined by spooled card images, each program reads its next control
instructions from the terminal and output is normally printed immediately on the
screen.
3. Interactive : User is on line with computer system and interacts with it via an
interface. It is typically composed of many short transactions where the result of
the next transaction may be unpredictable. Response time needs to be short since
the user submits and waits for the result.
4. Real time system : Real time systems are usually dedicated, embedded systems.
They typically read from and react to sensor data. The system must guarantee
response to events within fixed periods of time to ensure correct performance.
5. Distributed : Distributes computation among several physical processors. The
processors do not share memory or a clock. Instead, each processor has its own
local memory. They communicate with each other through various communication
lines.
2.9 Summary
An operating system provides services to programs and to the users of
those programs. It provided by one environment for the execution of programs.
The services provided by one operating system is difficult than other operating
system. Operating system makes the programming task easier.
Batch operating system is one where programs and data are collected
together in a batch before processing starts. In batch operating system memory is
usually divided into two areas : Operating system and user program area.
Time sharing, or multitasking, is a logical extension of multiprogramming.
Multiple jobs are executed by the CPU switching between them, but the switches
occur so frequently that the users may interact with each program while it is
running.
When two or more programs are in memory at the same time, sharing the
processor is referred to the multiprogramming operating system.
Spooling is useful because device access data that different rates. The buffer
provides a waiting station where data can rest while the slower device catches up.
2.10 Model Question
Q. 1 Explain various operating system services?
Q. 2 Define Spooling? Describe Spooling process?
Q. 3 Differentiate Multitasking & Multiprogramming?
CHAPTER 3
PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Unit Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Concept of Process
3.1.1 Processes and Programs
3.2 Process State
3.2.1 Suspended Processes
3.2.2 Process Control Block
3.3 Process Management
3.3.1 Scheduling Queues
3.3.2 Schedulers
3.4 Context Switching
3.5 Operation on processes
3.6 Co-operating Processes
3.7 Summary
3.8 Model Question
3.0 Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
To introduce the notion of a process – a program in execution, which forms
the basis of all computation
To describe the various features of processes, including scheduling, creation
and termination, and communication.
3.1 Concept of Process
A process is sequential program in execution. A process defines the
fundamental unit of computation for the computer. Components of process
are :
1. Object Program
2. Data
3. Resources
4. Status of the process execution.
Object program i.e. code to be executed. Data is used for executing the
program. While executing the program, it may require some resources. Last
component is used for verifying the status of the process execution. A
process can run to completion only when all requested resources have been
allocated to the process. Two or more processes could be executing the same
program, each using their own data and resources.
3.1.1 Processes and Programs
Process is a dynamic entity, that is a program in execution. A process is a
sequence of information executions. Process exists in a limited span of time.
Two or more processes could be executing the same program, each using
their own data and resources.
Program is a static entity made up of program statement. Program contains
the instructions. A program exists at single place in space and continues to
exist. A program does not perform the action by itself.
3.2 Process State
When process executes, it changes state. Process state is defined as the
current activity of the process. Fig. 3.1 shows the general form of the
process state transition diagram. Process state contains five states. Each
process is in one of the states. The states are listed below.
1. New
2. Ready
3. Running
4. Waiting
5. Terminated(exist)
1. New : A process that just been created.
2. Ready : Ready processes are waiting to have the processor allocated to them
by the operating system so that they can run.
3. Running : The process that is currently being executed. A running process
possesses all the resources needed for its execution, including the processor.
4. Waiting : A process that can not execute until some event occurs such as the
completion of an I/O operation. The running process may become suspended
by invoking an I/O module.
5. Terminated : A process that has been released from the pool of executable
processes by the operating system.
Fig 3.1 Diagram for Process State
Whenever processes changes state, the operating system reacts by placing
the process PCB in the list that corresponds to its new state. Only one
process can be running on any processor at any instant and many processes
may be ready and waiting state.
3.2.1 Suspended Processes
Characteristics of suspend process
1. Suspended process is not immediately available for execution.
2. The process may or may not be waiting on an event.
3. For preventing the execution, process is suspend by OS, parent process,
process itself and an agent.
4. Process may not be removed from the suspended state until the agent orders
the removal.
Swapping is used to move all of a process from main memory to disk. When
all the process by putting it in the suspended state and transferring it to disk.
Reasons for process suspension
1. Swapping
2. Timing
3. Interactive user request
4. Parent process request
Swapping : OS needs to release required main memory to bring in a process that is
ready to execute.
Timing : Process may be suspended while waiting for the next time interval.
Interactive user request : Process may be suspended for debugging purpose by
user.
Parent process request : To modify the suspended process or to coordinate the
activity of various descendants.
3.2.2 Process Control Block (PCB)
Each process contains the process control block (PCB). PCB is the data
structure used by the operating system. Operating system groups all
information that needs about particular process. Fig. 3.2 shows the process
control block.
Pointer
Process
State
Process Number
Program Counter
CPU registers
Memory Allocation
Event Information
List of open files
Fig. 3.2 Process Control Block
1. Pointer : Pointer points to another process control block. Pointer is used for
maintaining the scheduling list.
2. Process State : Process state may be new, ready, running, waiting and so on.
3. Program Counter : It indicates the address of the next instruction to be
executed for this process.
4. Event information : For a process in the blocked state this field contains
information concerning the event for which the process is waiting.
5. CPU register : It indicates general purpose register, stack pointers, index
registers and accumulators etc. number of register and type of register totally
depends upon the computer architecture.
6. Memory Management Information : This information may include the value
of base and limit register. This information is useful for deallocating the
memory when the process terminates.
7. Accounting Information : This information includes the amount of CPU and
real time used, time limits, job or process numbers, account numbers etc.
Process control block also includes the information about CPU scheduling,
I/O resource management, file management information, priority and so on.
The PCB simply serves as the repository for any information that may vary
from process to process.
When a process is created, hardware registers and flags are set to the values
provided by the loader or linker. Whenever that process is suspended, the
contents of the processor register are usually saved on the stack and the
pointer to the related stack frame is stored in the PCB. In this way, the
hardware state can be restored when the process is scheduled to run again.
3.3 Process Management / Process Scheduling
Multiprogramming operating system allows more than one process to be
loaded into the executable memory at a time and for the loaded process to
share the CPU using time multiplexing.
The scheduling mechanism is the part of the process manager that handles
the removal of the running process from the CPU and the selection of
another process on the basis of particular strategy.
3.3.1 Scheduling Queues
When the process enters into the system, they are put into a job queue. This
queue consists of all processes in the system. The operating system also has
other queues.
Device queue is a queue for which a list of processes waiting for a particular
I/O device. Each device has its own device queue. Fig. 3.3 shows the
queuing diagram of process scheduling. In the fig 3.3, queue is represented
by rectangular box. The circles represent the resources that serve the queues.
The arrows indicate the flow of processes in the system.
Fig. 3.3 Queuing Diagram
Queues are of two types : ready queue and set of device queues. A
newly arrived process is put in the ready queue. Processes are waiting
in ready queue for allocating the CPU. Once the CPU is assigned to
the process, then process will execute. While executing the process,
one of the several events could occur.
1. The process could issue an I/O request and then place in an I/O
queue.
2. The process could create new sub process and waits for its
termination.
3. The process could be removed forcibly from the CPU, as a result
of interrupt and put back in the ready queue.
3.3.1.1 Two State Process Model
Process may be in one of two states :
a) Running
b) Not Running
when new process is created by OS, that process enters into the
system in the running state.
Processes that are not running are kept in queue, waiting their turn to
execute. Each entry in the queue is a printer to a particular process.
Queue is implemented by using linked list. Use of dispatcher is as
follows. When a process interrupted, that process is transferred in the
waiting queue. If the process has completed or aborted, the process is
discarded. In either case, the dispatcher then select a process from the
queue to execute.
3.3.2 Schedules
Schedulers are of three types.
1. Long Term Scheduler
2. Short Term Scheduler
3. Medium Term Scheduler
3.2.2.1 Long Term Scheduler
It is also called job scheduler. Long term scheduler determines which
programs are admitted to the system for processing. Job scheduler selects
processes from the queue and loads them into memory for execution.
Process loads into the memory for CPU scheduler. The primary objective of
the job scheduler is to provide a balanced mix of jobs, such as I/O bound and
processor bound. It also controls the degree of multiprogramming. If the
degree of multiprogramming is stable, then the average rate of process
creation must be equal to the average departure rate of processes leaving the
system.
On same systems, the long term scheduler may be absent or minimal. Timesharing
operating systems have no long term scheduler. When process
changes the state from new to ready, then there is a long term scheduler.
3.2.2.2 Short Term Scheduler
It is also called CPU scheduler. Main objective is increasing system
performance in accordance with the chosen set of criteria. It is the change of
ready state to running state of the process. CPU scheduler selects from
among the processes that are ready to execute and allocates the CPU to one
of them.
Short term scheduler also known as dispatcher, execute most frequently and
makes the fine grained decision of which process to execute next. Short term
scheduler is faster than long tern scheduler.
3.2.2.3 Medium Term Scheduler
Medium term scheduling is part of the swapping function. It removes the
processes from the memory. It reduces the degree of multiprogramming. The
medium term scheduler is in charge of handling the swapped out-processes.
Medium term scheduler is shown in the Fig. 3.4
Fig 3.4 Queueing diagram with medium term scheduler
Running process may become suspended by making an I/O request.
Suspended processes cannot make any progress towards completion. In this
condition, to remove the process from memory and make space for other process.
Suspended process is move to the secondary storage is called swapping, and the
process is said to be swapped out or rolled out. Swapping may be necessary to
improve the process mix.
3.2.2.4 Comparison between Scheduler
Sr.
No.
Long Term Short Term Medium Term
1 It is job scheduler It is CPU Scheduler It is swapping
2 Speed is less than short
term scheduler
Speed is very fast Speed is in between both
3 It controls degree of
multiprogramming
Less control over
degree of
multiprogramming
Reduce the degree of
multiprogramming.
4 Absent or minimal in
time sharing system.
Minimal in time
sharing system.
Time sharing system use
medium term scheduler.
5 It select processes from
pool and load them into
memory for execution.
It select from among
the processes that are
ready to execute.
Process can be
reintroduced into
memory and its
execution can be
continued.
6 Process state is (New to
Ready)
Process state is (Ready
to Running)
-
7 Select a good process,
mix of I/O bound and
CPU bound.
Select a new process
for a CPU quite
frequently.
-
3.4 Context Switch
When the scheduler switches the CPU from executing one process to
executing another, the context switcher saves the content of all processor
registers for the process being removed from the CPU in its process being
removed from the CPU in its process descriptor. The context of a process is
represented in the process control block of a process. Context switch time is
pure overhead. Context switching can significantly affect performance, since
modern computers have a lot of general and status registers to be saved.
Content switch times are highly dependent on hardware support. Context
switch requires ( n + m ) bXK time units to save the state of the processor
with n general registers, assuming b store operations are required to save
register and each store instruction requires K time units. Some hardware
systems employ two or more sets of processor registers to reduce the amount
of context switching time.
When the process is switched the information stored is :
1. Program Counter
2. Scheduling Information
3. Base and limit register value
4. Currently used register
5. Changed State
6. I/O State
7. Accounting
3.5 Operation on Processes
Several operations are possible on the process. Process must be created and
deleted dynamically. Operating system must provide the environment for the
process operation. We discuss the two main operations on processes.
1. Create a process
2. Terminate a process
3.5.1 Create Process
Operating system creates a new process with the specified or default
attributes and identifier. A process may create several new subprocesses.
Syntax for creating new process is :
CREATE ( processed, attributes )
Two names are used in the process they are parent process and child process.
Parent process is a creating process. Child process is created by the parent
process. Child process may create another subprocess. So it forms a tree of
processes. When operating system issues a CREATE system call, it obtains a
new process control block from the pool of free memory, fills the fields with
provided and default parameters, and insert the PCB into the ready list. Thus it
makes the specified process eligible to run the process.
When a process is created, it requires some parameters. These are priority,
level of privilege, requirement of memory, access right, memory protection
information etc. Process will need certain resources, such as CPU time,
memory, files and I/O devices to complete the operation. When process
creates a subprocess, that subprocess may obtain its resources directly from
the operating system. Otherwise it uses the resources of parent process.
When a process creates a new process, two possibilities exist in terms of
execution.
1. The parent continues to execute concurrently with its children.
2. The parent waits until some or all of its children have terminated.
For address space, two possibilities occur:
1. The child process is a duplicate of the parent process.
2. The child process has a program loaded into it.
3.5.2 Terminate a Process
DELETE system call is used for terminating a process. A process may delete
itself or by another process. A process can cause the termination of another
process via an appropriate system call. The operating system reacts by
reclaiming all resources allocated to the specified process, closing files
opened by or for the process. PCB is also removed from its place of
residence in the list and is returned to the free pool. The DELETE service is
normally invoked as a part of orderly program termination.
Following are the resources for terminating the child process by parent
process.
1. The task given to the child is no longer required.
2. Child has exceeded its usage of some of the resources that it has been
allocated.
3. Operating system does not allow a child to continue if its parent terminates.
3.6 Co-operating Processes
Co-operating process is a process that can affect or be affected by the other
processes while executing. If suppose any process is sharing data with other
processes, then it is called co-operating process. Benefit of the co-operating
processes are :
1. Sharing of information
2. Increases computation speed
3. Modularity
4. Convenience
Co-operating processes share the information : Such as a file, memory etc.
System must provide an environment to allow concurrent access to these
types of resources. Computation speed will increase if the computer has
multiple processing elements are connected together. System is constructed
in a modular fashion. System function is divided into number of modules.
Process 1
Printf("abc")
Process 2
Printf("CBA")
CBAabc abCcBA abcCBA
Behavior of co-operating processes is nondeterministic i.e. it depends on
relative execution sequence and cannot be predicted a priori. Co-operating
processes are also Reproducible. For example, suppose one process writes
―ABC‖, another writes ―CBA‖ can get different outputs, cannot tell what
comes from which. Which process output first ―C‖ in ―ABCCBA‖. The
subtle state sharing that occurs here via the terminal. Not just anything can
happen, though. For example, ―AABBCC‖ cannot occur.
3.7 Summary
A process is a program in execution. As a process executes, it changes state.
The state of a process is defined by that process's current activity. Each process
may be in one of the following states: new, ready, running, waiting, or terminated.
Each process is represented in the operating system by its own process control
block (PCB).
A process, when it is not executing, placed in some waiting queue. There are
two major classes of queues in an operating system: I/O request queues and the
ready queue. The ready queue contains all the processes that are ready to execute
and are waiting for the CPU. Each process is represented by a PCB and the PCBs
can be linked together to form a ready queue. Long-term(job) scheduling is the
selection of processes that will be allowed to contend for the CPU. Normally, longterm
scheduling is heavily influenced by resources-allocation considerations,
especially memory management. Short-term(CPU) scheduling is the selection of
one process from the ready queue.
Operating systems must provide a mechanism for parent processes to create
new child processes. The parent may wait for its children to terminate before
proceeding, or the parent and children may execute concurrently. There are several
reasons for allowing concurrent execution: information sharing computation
speedup, modularity, and convenience.
The processes executing in the operating system may be either independent
processes or cooperating processes. Cooperating processes require an inter-process
communication mechanism to communicate with each other. Principally,
communication is achieved through two schemes: shared memory and message
passing. The shared-memory method requires communicating processes through
the use of these shared variables. In a shared-memory system, the responsibility for
providing communication rests with the application programmers: the operating
system needs to provide only the shared memory. The responsibility for providing
communication may rest with the operating system itself. These two schemes are
not mutually exclusive and can be used simultaneously within a single operating
system.
3.8 Model Question
Q.1 Define process and programs?
Q.2 Describe Process Control Block?
Q.3 Explain Scheduling Queues?
Q.4 Explain schedulers and its types?
Q.5 Differentiate various types of scheduler?
Q.6 Explain context switch?
Q.7 Explain operation on processes?
CHAPTER 4
THREAD MANAGEMENT
Unit Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction Of Thread
4.2 Types of Thread
4.2.1 User Level Thread
4.2.2 Kernel Level Thread
4.2.3 Advantage of Thread
4.3 Multithreading Models
4.3.1 Many to Many Model
4.3.2 Many to One Model
4.3.3 One to One Model
4.4 Difference between User Level and Kernel Level Thread
4.5 Difference between Process and Thread
4.6 Threading Issues
4.7 Summary
4.8 Model Question
4.0 Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
To introduce Thread & its types, Multithreading Models and Threading
issues.
4.1 Introduction of Thread
A thread is a flow of execution through the process code, with its own
program counter, system registers and stack. Threads are a popular way to
improve application performance through parallelism. A thread is sometimes
called a light weight process.
Threads represent a software approach to improving performance of
operating system by reducing the over head thread is equivalent to a
classical process. Each thread belongs to exactly one process and no thread
can exist outside a process. Each thread represents a separate flow of
control.
Fig. 4.1shows the single and multithreaded process.
Threads have been successfully used in implementing network servers. They
also provide a suitable foundation for parallel execution of applications on
shared memory multiprocessors.
4.2 Types of Thread
Threads is implemented in two ways :
1. User Level
2. Kernel Level
4.2.1 User Level Thread
In a user thread, all of the work of thread management is done by the
application and the kernel is not aware of the existence of threads. The
thread library contains code for creating and destroying threads, for passing
message and data between threads, for scheduling thread execution and for
saving and restoring thread contexts. The application begins with a single
thread and begins running in that thread.
Fig. 4.2 shows the user level thread.
User level threads are generally fast to create and manage.
Advantage of user level thread over Kernel level thread :
1. Thread switching does not require Kernel mode privileges.
2. User level thread can run on any operating system.
3. Scheduling can be application specific.
4. User level threads are fast to create and manage.
P
User Level
Thread
User
Space
Kernel Space
Thread
Library
Disadvantages of user level thread :
1. In a typical operating system, most system calls are blocking.
2. Multithreaded application cannot take advantage of multiprocessing.
4.2.2 Kernel Level Threads
In Kernel level thread, thread management done by the Kernel. There is no
thread management code in the application area. Kernel threads are
supported directly by the operating system. Any application can be
programmed to be multithreaded. All of the threads within an application are
supported within a single process. The Kernel maintains context information
for the process as a whole and for individuals threads within the process.
Scheduling by the Kernel is done on a thread basis. The Kernel performs
thread creation, scheduling and management in Kernel space. Kernel threads
are generally slower to create and manage than the user threads.
Advantages of Kernel level thread:
1. Kernel can simultaneously schedule multiple threads from the same process
on multiple process.
2. If one thread in a process is blocked, the Kernel can schedule another thread
of the same process.
3. Kernel routines themselves can multithreaded.
Disadvantages:
1. Kernel threads are generally slower to create and manage than the user
threads.
2. Transfer of control from one thread to another within same process requires
a mode switch to the Kernel.
4.2.3 Advantages of Thread
1. Thread minimize context switching time.
2. Use of threads provides concurrency within a process.
3. Efficient communication.
4. Economy- It is more economical to create and context switch threads.
5. Utilization of multiprocessor architectures –
The benefits of multithreading can be greatly increased in a multiprocessor
architecture.
4.3 Multithreading Models
Some operating system provide a combined user level thread and Kernel
level thread facility. Solaris is a good example of this combined approach. In
a combined system, multiple threads within the same application can run in
parallel on multiple processors and a blocking system call need not block the
entire process.
Multithreading models are three types:
1. Many to many relationship.
2. Many to one relationship.
3. One to one relationship.
4.3.1 Many to Many Model
In this model, many user level threads multiplexes to the Kernel thread of
smaller or equal numbers. The number of Kernel threads may be specific to
either a particular application or a particular machine.
Fig. 4.3 shows the many to many model. In this model, developers can
create as many user threads as necessary and the corresponding Kernel
threads can run in parallels on a multiprocessor.
4.3.2 Many to One Model
Many to one model maps many user level threads to one Kernel level thread.
Thread management is done in user space. When thread makes a blocking
system call, the entire process will be blocks. Only one thread can access the
Kernel at a time, so multiple threads are unable to run in parallel on
multiprocessors.
Fig.4.4 shows the many to one model.
K
User Level
Thread
Kernel
Thread
K
K
If the user level thread libraries are implemented in the operating system,
that system does not support Kernel threads use the many to one relationship
modes.
4.3.3 One to One Model
There is one to one relationship of user level thread to the kernel level
thread. Fig. 4.5 shows one to one relationship model. This model provides
more concurrency than the many to one model.
K
User Level
Thread
Kernel
Thread
K K
K
User Level
Thread
Kernel
Thread
It also another thread to run when a thread makes a blocking system call. It
support multiple thread to execute in parallel on microprocessors.
Disadvantage of this model is that creating user thread requires the
corresponding Kernel thread. OS/2, windows NT and windows 2000 use one
to one relationship model.
4.4 Difference between User Level & Kernel Level Thread
Sr.
No
User Level Threads Kernel Level Thread
1 User level thread are faster to create
and manage.
Kernel level thread are slower to
create and manage.
2 Implemented by a thread library at
the user level.
Operating system support directly to
Kernel threads.
3 User level thread can run on any
operating system.
Kernel level threads are specific to
the operating system.
4 Support provided at the user level
called user level thread.
Support may be provided by kernel
is called Kernel level threads.
5 Multithread application cannot take
advantage of multiprocessing.
Kernel routines themselves can be
multithreaded.
4.5 Difference between Process and Thread
Sr.
No
Process Thread
1 Process is called heavy weight process. Thread is called light weight
process.
2 Process switching needs interface with
operating system.
Thread switching does not need
to call a operating system and
cause an interrupt to the Kernel.
3 In multiple process implementation each
process executes the same code but has its
own memory and file resources.
All threads can share same set of
open files, child processes.
4 If one server process is blocked no other
server process can execute until the first
process unblocked.
While one server thread is
blocked and waiting, second
thread in the same task could
run.
5 Multiple redundant process uses more
resources than multiple threaded.
Multiple threaded process uses
fewer resources than multiple
redundant process.
6 In multiple process each process operates
independently of the others.
One thread can read, write or
even completely wipe out
another threads stack.
4.6 Threading Issues
System calls fork and exec is discussed here. In a multithreaded program
environment, fork and exec system calls is changed. Unix system have two
version of fork system calls. One call duplicates all threads and another that
duplicates only the thread that invoke the fork system call. Whether to use
one or two version of fork system call totally depends upon the application.
Duplicating all threads is unnecessary, if exec is called immediately after
fork system call.
Thread cancellation is a process of thread terminates before its completion of
task. For example, in multiple thread environment, thread concurrently
searching through a database. If any one thread returns the result, the
remaining thread might be cancelled.
Thread cancellation is of two types.
1. Asynchronous cancellation
2. Synchronous cancellation
In asynchronous cancellation, one thread immediately terminates the target
thread. Deferred cancellation periodically check for terminate by target
thread. It also allow the target thread to terminate itself in an orderly fashion.
Some resources are allocated to the thread. If we cancel the thread, which
update the data with other thread. This problem may face by asynchronous
cancellation system wide resource are not free if threads cancelled
asynchronously. Most of the operating system allow a process or thread to
be cancelled asynchronously.
4.7 Summary
A thread is a flow of control within a process. A multithreaded process contains
several different flows of control within the same address space. The benefits of
multithreading include increased responsiveness to the user, resource sharing
within the process, economy, and scalability issues such as more efficient use of
multiple core.
User level threads are threads are visible to the programmer and are
unknown to the kernel. The operating system kernel supports and manages kernel
level threads. In general, user level threads are faster to create and manage than are
kernel threads, as no intervention from the kernel is required. Three different types
of models relate user and kernel threads: the many-to-one model maps many user
threads to a single thread. The one to one model maps each user thread to a
corresponding kernel thread. The many to many model multiplexers many user
threads to a smaller or equal number of kernel threads.
4.8 Model Question
Q. 1 Define thread and its types in detail?
Q. 2 Differentiate user level thread and kernel level thread?
Q. 3 Explain various Multithreaded Model?
Q. 4 Differentiate process and thread?
CHAPTER 5
CONCURRENCY CONTROL
Unit Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Principal of Concurrency
5.2 Race Condition
5.3 Mutual Exclusion Requirements
5.4 Mutual Exclusion Software Support
5.5 Mutual Exclusion Hardware Support
5.6 Semaphores
5.7 Monitors
5.8 Summary
5.9 Model Question
5.0 Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
To introduce the concurrency control and Race condition, critical section
problem, where solutions can be used to ensure the consistency of shared
data.
To present both software and hardware solutions of the critical section
problem.
5.1 Principle of Concurrency
In a single-processor multiprogramming system, processes are interleaved in
time to yield the appearance of simultaneous execution. Even parallel processing is
not achieved, and ever though there is a certain amount of overhead involved in
switching back and forth between processes, interleaved execution provides major
benefits in processing efficiency and in program structuring. In a multiple
processor system, it is possible not only to interleave the execution of multiple
processes but also to overlap them. It is assumed, it may seem that interleaving and
overlapping represent fundamentally different modes of execution and present
different problems. In fact, both techniques can be viewed as examples of
concurrent processing, and both present the same problems. The relative speed of
execution of processes It depends on activities of other processes, the way in which
the operating system handles interrupts, and the scheduling policies of the
operating, system.
There are quite difficulties:
1. The sharing of global resources. For example, if two processes both make use of
the same global variable and both perform reads and writes on that variable, then
the order in which the various reads and writes are executed is critical.
2. It is difficult for the operating system to manage the allocation of resources
optimally.
3. It is very difficult to locate a programming error because results are typically not
deterministic and reproducible.
Eg:
Void echo()
{
chin = getchar();
chout = chin;
putchar(chout);
}
This procedure shows the essential elements of a program that will provide a
character echo procedure; input is obtained from a keyboard one keystroke at a
time. Each input character is stored in variable chin. It is then transferred to
variable chout and sent to the display. Any program can call this procedure
repeatedly to accept user input and display it on the user's screen.
In a single - processor multiprogramming system supporting a single user.
The user can jump from one application to another, and each .application uses the
same keyboard for input and the same screen for output. Because each application
needs to use the procedure echo, it makes sense for it to be a shared procedure that
is loaded into a portion of memory global to all applications. Thus, only a single
copy of the echo procedure is used, saving space.
The sharing of main memory among processes is useful to permit efficient
and close interaction among processes Consider the following sequence:
1. Process P1 invokes the echo procedure and is interrupted immediately after
getchar returns its value and stores it in chin. At this point, the most recently
entered character, x, is stored in variable chin.
2. Process P2 is activated and invokes the echo procedure, which runs to
conclusion, inputting and then displaying a single character, y, on the screen.
3. Process P1 is resumed. By this time, the value x has been overwritten in chin
and therefore lost. Instead, chin contains y, which is transferred to chout and
displayed.
Thus, the first character is lost and the second character is displayed twice.
Because of shared global variable, chin. If one process updates the global variable
and then is interrupted, another .process may alter the variable before the first
process can use its value. However, if only one process at a time may be in that
procedure. Then the foregoing sequence would result in the following:
1. Process P1 invokes the echo procedure and is interrupted immediately after the
conclusion of the input function. At this point, the most recently entered character,
x, is stored in variable chin.
2. Process P2 is activated and invokes the echo procedure. However, because P1 is
still inside the echo procedure, although currently suspended, P2 is blocked from
entering the procedure. Therefore, P2 is suspended awaiting the availability of the
echo procedure.
3. At some later time, process PI is resumed and completes execution of echo. The
proper character, x, is displayed.
4. When PI exits' echo, this removes the block on P2. When P2 is later resumed,
the echo procedure is successfully invoked.
Therefore it is necessary to protect shared global variables. And that the only
way to do that is to control the code that accesses the variable.
5.2 Race Condition
A race condition occurs when multiple processes or threads read and write
data items so that the final result depends on the order of execution of instructions
in the multiple processes.
Suppose that two processes, P1 and P2, share the global variable a. At some
point in its execution, P1 updates a to the value 1, and at some point in its
execution, P2 updates a to the value 2. Thus, the two tasks are in a race to write
variable a. In this example the "loser" of the race (the process that updates last)
determines the final value of a.
Therefore Operating System Concerns of following things
1. The operating system must be able to keep track of the various processes
2. The operating system must allocate and deallocate various resources for each
active process.
3. The operating system must protect the data and physical resources of each
process against unintended interference by other processes.
4. The functioning of a process, and the output it produces, must be independent of
the speed at which its execution is carried out relative to the speed of other
concurrent processes.
Process Interaction can be defined as
• Processes unaware of each other
• Processes indirectly aware of each other
• Processes directly aware of each other
Concurrent processes come into conflict with each other when they are
competing for the use of the same resource.
Two or more processes need to access a resource during the course of their
execution. Each process is unaware of the existence of the other processes. There is
no exchange of information between the competing processes.
5.3 Requirements for Mutual Exclusion
1. Mutual exclusion must be enforced: Only one process at a time is allowed into
its critical section, among all processes that have critical sections for the same
resource or shared object.
2. A process that halts in its non critical section must do so without interfering with
other processes.
3. It must not be possible for a process requiring access to a critical section to be
delayed indefinitely: no deadlock or starvation.
4. When no process is in a critical section, any process that requests entry to its
critical section must be permitted to enter without delay.
5. No assumptions are made about relative process speeds or number of processors.
6. A process remains inside its critical section for a finite time only.
5.4 Mutual Exclusion – Software Support
Software approaches can be implemented for concurrent processes that
executes on a single processor or a multiprocessor machine with shared main
memory.
5.4.1 Dekkers Algorithm
Dekkers algorithm is for two processes based solely on software. Each of
these processes loop indefinitely, repeatedly entering and reentering its
critical section. A process (P0 & P1) that wishes to execute its critical
section first enters the igloo and examines the blackboard. The process
number is written on the blackboard, that process leaves the igloo and
proceeds to critical section. Otherwise that process will wait for its turn.
Process reenters in the igloo to check the blackboard. It repeats this exercise
until it is allowed to enter its critical section. This procedure is known as
busy waiting.
In formal terms, there is a shared global variable : Var turn : 0 : 1;
Process 0
- - - -
- - - -
While turn # 0 do (nothing)
<critical section>;
turn := 1;
- - - -
Process 1
- - - -
- - - -
While turn # 1 do (nothing);
<critical section>;
Turn := 0;
- - - -
The above solution satisfy the property of mutual exclusion. Drawback of the solution are
as follows:
1. Processes must strictly alternate in their use of their critical section.
2. if one process fails, the other process is permanently blocked.
Drawbacks of software solutions
1. Complicated to program.
2. busy waiting is possible.
3. it would be more efficient to block processes that are waiting.
4. makes difficult assumptions about the memory system.
5.5 Mutual Exclusion – Hardware Support
Hardware approaches to mutual exclusion.
5.5.1 Interrupt Disabling:
In a uniprocessor machine, concurrent processes cannot be overlapped; they
can only be interleaved. Furthermore, a process will continue to run until it invokes
an operating system service or until it is interrupted. Therefore, to guarantee
mutual exclusion, it is sufficient to prevent a process from being interrupted. This
capability can be provided in the form of primitives defined by the system kernel
for disabling and enabling interrupts.
eg:
while (true)
(
disable interrupts()
critical section
enable interrupts()
) remainder
Because the critical section cannot be interrupted, mutual exclusion is guaranteed.
Disadvantages
It works only in a single processor environment.
Interrupts can be lost if not serviced promptly.
A process waiting to enter its critical section could suffer from starvation.
5.5.2 Test and Set Instruction
It is special machine instruction used to avoid mutual exclusion. The test and
set instruction can be defined as follows:
boolean testset (int i)
{
if (i==o)
{
i=1;
return true;
}
else., .
{
return false;
}
The above function is carried out automatically.
Advantages
1. It is simple and easy to verify.
2. it is applicable to any number of processes.
3. it can b used to support multiple critical section.
Disadvantages
1. Busy waiting is possible.
2. Starvation is also possible.
3. There may be deadlock.
5.6 Semaphores
The solutions of the critical section problem represented in the section is not
easy to generalize to more complex problems. To overcome this difficulty,
we can use a synchronization tool call a semaphore. A semaphore S is an
integer variable that, a part from initialization, is a accessed two standard
atomic operations: wait and signal. This operations were originally termed P
(for wait;from the Dutch proberen, to test) and V (for signal ; from
verhogen, to increment).
The Classical definition of wait and signal are
Wait (S)
{
while (S <=0)
S =S – 1;
}
signal(S)
{
S = S + 1;
}
The integer value of the semaphore in the wait and signal operations must be
executed indivisibly. That is, when one process modifies the semaphore
value, no other process can simultaneously modify that same semaphore
value.
In addition, in the case of the wait(S), the testing of the integer value of S (S
0), and its possible modification (S := S – 1), must also be executed without
interruption.
Semaphores are not provided by hardware. But they have several attractive
properties:
1. Semaphores are machine independent.
2. Semaphores are simple to implement.
3. Correctness is easy to determine.
4. Can have many different critical sections with different semaphores.
5. Semaphore acquire many resources simultaneously.
Drawback of Semaphore
1. They are essentially shared global variables.
2. Access to semaphores can come from anywhere in a program.
3. There is no control or guarantee of proper usage.
4. There is no linguistic connection between the semaphore and the data to which
the semaphore controls access.
5. They serve two purposes, mutual exclusion and scheduling constraints.
5.7 Monitors
The monitor is a programming-language construct that provides equivalent
functionality to that of semaphores and that is easier to control. The monitor
construct has been implemented in a number of programming languages,
including Concurrent Pascal, Pascal-Plus, Modula-2, Modula-3, and Java. It
has also been implemented as a program library. This allows programmers
to put monitor locks on any object.
Monitor with Signal
A monitor is a software module consisting of one or more procedures, an
initialization sequence, and local data The characteristics of a monitor are
the following:
1. The local data variables are accessible only by the monitor's procedures and not
by any external procedure.
2. A process enters the monitor by invoking one of its procedures.
3. Only one process may De executing in the monitor at a time; any other process
that has invoked the monitor is blocked, waiting for the monitor to become
available.
A monitor supports synchronization by the use of condition variables that
are contained Within the monitor and accessible only within the monitor.
Condition variables are a special data type in monitors, which are operated on by
two functions:
• cwait (c): Suspend execution of the calling process on condition c. The monitor is
now available for use by another process.
• csignal (c): Resume execution of some process blocked after a cwait on the same
condition)lf there are several such processes, choose one of them; if there is no
such process, do nothing.
Monitor wait and signal operations are different from those for the
semaphore. If a process in a monitor signals and no task is waiting on the
condition variable, the signal is lost.
Although a process can enter the monitor by invoking any of its procedures,
we can think of the monitor as having a single entry point that is guarded so
that only one process may be in the monitor at a time. Other processes that
attempt to enter the monitor join a queue of processes blocked waiting for
monitor availability.
Once a process is in the monitor, it may temporarily block itself on condition
x by issuing cwait (x); it is then placed in a queue of processes waiting to
reenter the monitor when the condition changes, and resume execution at the
point in its program following the cwait (x) call.
If a process that is executing in the monitor detects a change in condition
variable x, it issues csignal (x), which alerts the corresponding condition
queue that the condition has changed.
A producer can add characters to the buffer only by means of the procedure
append inside the monitor; the producer does not have direct access to
buffer.
The procedure first-checks the condition not full to determine if there is
space available in the buffer. If not, the process executing the monitor is
blocked on that condition.
5.7 Summary
Critical section is a code that only one process at a time can be executing.
Critical section problem is design an algorithm that allows at most one process into
the critical section at a time, without deadlock. Solution of the critical section
problem must satisfy mutual exclusion, progress, bounded waiting.
Semaphore is a synchronization variable that tasks on positive integer
values. Binary semaphore are those that have only two values 0 and 1. semaphores
are not provided by hardware. Semaphore is used to solve critical section problem.
A monitor is a software module consisting of one or more procedures, an
initialization sequence and local data. Components of monitors are shared data
declaration, shared data initialization, operations on shared data and
synchronization statement.
5.8 Model Question
Q.1 Explain in brief race condition?
Q.2 Define the term critical section?
Q.3 What are the requirement for critical section problem?
Q.4 Write a short note on:
a) Semaphore
b) Monitors
Q.5 What are semaphores? How do they implement mutual exclusion?
Q.6 Describe hardware solution to the critical section problem?
CHAPTER 6
DEADLOCK
Unit Structure
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Deadlock Characterization
6.2.1 Resource Allocation Graph
6.3 Method for Handling Deadlock
6.4 Deadlock Prevention Recovery
6.5 Avoidance and Protection
6.6 Deadlock Detection
6.7 Recovery from Deadlock
6.8 Summary
6.9 Model Question
6.0 Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
To develop a description of deadlocks, which prevent sets of concurrent
processes from completing their tasks.
To present number of different methods for preventing or avoiding
deadlocks in a computer system.
6.1 Introduction
In a multiprogramming environment, several processes may compete for a
finite number of resources. A process requests resources; if the resources are not
available at that time, the process enters a wait state. It may happen that waiting
processes will never again change state, because the resources they have requested
are held by other waiting processes. This situation is called deadlock.
If a process requests an instance of a resource type, the allocation of any
instance of the type will satisfy the request. If it will not, then the instances are not
identical, and the resource type classes have not been defined properly.
A process must request a resource before using it, and must release the
resource after using it. A process may request as many resources as it requires to
carry out its designated task.
Under the normal mode of operation, a process may utilize a resource in
only the following sequence:
1. Request: If the request cannot be granted immediately, then the requesting
process must wait until it can acquire the resource.
2. Use: The process can operate on the resource.
3. Release: The process releases the resource
6.2 Deadlock Characterization
In deadlock, processes never finish executing and system resources are tied
up, preventing other jobs from ever starting.
Necessary Conditions
A deadlock situation can arise if the following four conditions hold simultaneously
in a system:
1. Mutual exclusion: At least one resource must be held in a non-sharable mode;
that is, only one process at a time can use the resource. If another process requests
that resource, the requesting process must be delayed until the resource has been
released.
2. Hold and wait : There must exist a process that is holding at least one resource
and is waiting to acquire additional resources that are currently being held by other
processes.
3. No preemption : Resources cannot be preempted; that is, a resource can be
released only voluntarily by the process holding it, after that process, has
completed its task.
4. Circular wait: There must exist a set {P0, P1, ..., Pn } of waiting processes such
that P0 is waiting for a resource that is held by P1, P1 is waiting for a resource that
is held by P2, …., Pn-1 is waiting for a resource that is held by Pn, and Pn is
waiting for a resource that is held by P0.
6.2.1 Resource-Allocation Graph
Deadlocks can be described more precisely in terms of a directed graph
called a system resource-allocation graph. The set of vertices V is partitioned into
two different types of nodes P = {P1, P2, … Pn} the set consisting of all the active
processes in the system; and R = {R1, R2, …, R1}, the set consisting of all
resource types in the system.
A directed edge from process Pi to resource type Rj is denoted by Pi → Rj, it
signifies that process Pi requested an instance of resource type Rj and is currently
waiting for that resource. A directed edge from resource type Rj toprocess Pi is
denoted by Rj_ Pi it signifies that an instance of resource type Rj has been
allocated to process Pi. A directed edge Pi_ Rj is called a request edge; a directed
edge Rj _ Pi is called an assignment edge.
When process Pi requests an instance of resource type Rj, a request edge is
inserted in the resource-allocation graph. When this request can be fulfilled, the
request edge is instantaneously transformed to an assignment edge. When the
process no longer needs access to the, resource it releases the resource, and as a
result the assignment edge is deleted.
Definition of a resource-allocation graph, it can be shown that, if the graph
contains no cycles, then no process in the system is deadlocked. If, on the other
hand, the graph contains the cycle, then a deadlock must exist.
If each resource type has several instances, then a cycle implies that a
deadlock has occurred. If the cycle involves only a set of resources types, each of
which has only a single instance, then a deadlock has occurred. Each process
involved in the cycle is deadlocked. In this case, a cycle in the graph is both a
necessary and a sufficient condition for the existence of deadlock.
A set of vertices V and a set of edges E.
V is partitioned into two types:
o P = {P1, P2, …, Pn}, the set consisting of all the processes in the
system.
o R = {R1, R2, …, Rm}, the set consisting of all resource types in the
system.
request edge – directed edge P1 Rj
assignment edge – directed edge Rj Pi
Fig. Resource Allocation Graph
If each resource type has several instance, then a cycle does not necessarily
imply that a deadlock incurred. In this case, a cycle in the graph is a necessary but
not a sufficient condition for the existence of deadlock.
Suppose that process P3requests an instance of resource type R2 Since no
resource instance is currently available, a request edge P3 → R2 is added to the
graph. At this point, two minimal cycles exist in the system:
P1 → R1 → P2 → R3 → P3 → R2 → P1
P2 → R3 → P3 → R2 → P2
Fig. Resource Allocation Graph with Deadlock
Processes P1, P2, and P3 are deadlocked. Process P2 is waiting for the
resource R3, which is held by process P3. Process P3, on the other hand, is waiting
for either process P1 or process P2 to release resource R2. In addition, process PI is
waiting for process P2 to release resource R1.
______________________________________________
6.3 Method For Handling Deadlock //Detection
There are are three different methods for dealing with the deadlock problem:
• We can use a protocol to ensure that the system will never enter a deadlock state.
• We can allow the system to enter a deadlock state and then recover.
• We can ignore the problem all together, and pretend that deadlocks never occur in
the system. This solution is the one used by most operating systems, including
UNIX.
Deadlock avoidance, on the other hand, requires that the operating system be
given in advance additional information concerning which resources a process will
request and use during its lifetime. With this additional knowledge, we can decide
for each request whether or not the process should wait. Each request requires that
the system consider the resources currently available, the resources currently
allocated to each process, and the future requests and releases of each process, to
decide whether the current request can be satisfied or must be delayed.
If a system does not employ either a deadlock-prevention or a deadlock
avoidance algorithm, then a deadlock situation may occur If a system does not
ensure that a deadlock will never occur, and also does not provide a mechanism for
deadlock detection and recovery, then we may arrive at a situation where the
system is in a deadlock state yet has no way of recognizing what has happened.
6.4 Deadlock Prevention
For a deadlock to occur, each of the four necessary-conditions must hold. By
ensuring that at least on one these conditions cannot hold, we can prevent the
occurrence of a deadlock.
6.4.1 Mutual Exclusion
The mutual-exclusion condition must hold for non-sharable resources. For
example, a printer cannot be simultaneously shared by several processes. Sharable
resources, on the other hand, do not require mutually exclusive access, and thus
cannot be involved in a deadlock.
6.4.2 Hold and Wait
1. When whenever a process requests a resource, it does not hold any other
resources. One protocol that be used requires each process to request and be
allocated all its resources before it begins execution.
2. An alternative protocol allows a process to request resources only when the
process has none. A process may request some resources and use them. Before it
can request any additional resources, however it must release all the resources that
it is currently allocated here are two main disadvantages to these protocols. First,
resource utilization may be low, since many of the resources may be allocated but
unused for a long period. In the example given, for instance, we can release the
tape drive and disk file, and then again request the disk file and printer, only if we
can be sure that our data will remain on the disk file. If we cannot be assured that
they will, then we must request all resources at the beginning for both protocols.
Second, starvation is possible.
6.4.3 No Preemption
If a process that is holding some resources requests another resource that
cannot be immediately allocated to it, then all resources currently being held are
preempted. That is this resources are implicitly released. The preempted resources
are added to the list of resources for which the process is waiting process will be
restarted only when it can regain its old resources, as well as the new ones that it is
requesting.
6.4.4 Circular Wait
Circular-wait condition never holds is to impose a total ordering of all
resource types, and to require that each process requests resources in an increasing
order of enumeration.
Let R = {R1, R2, ..., Rn} be the set of resource types. We assign to each
resource type a unique integer number, which allows us to compare two resources
and to determine whether one precedes another in our ordering. Formally, we
define a one-to-one function F: R _ N, where N is the set of natural numbers.
6.5 Deadlock Avoidance
Prevent deadlocks requests can be made. The restraints ensure that at least
one of the necessary conditions for deadlock cannot occur, and, hence, that
deadlocks cannot hold. Possible side effects of preventing deadlocks by this,
melted, however, are Tow device utilization and reduced system throughput.
An alternative method for avoiding deadlocks is to require additional
information about how resources are to be requested. For example, in a system
with one tape drive and one printer, we might be told that process P will request
first the tape drive, and later the printer, before releasing both resources. Process Q
on the other hand, will request first the printer, and then the tape drive. With this
knowledge of the complete sequence of requests and releases for each process we
can decide for each request whether or not the process should wait.
A deadlock-avoidance algorithm dynamically examines the resourceallocation
state to ensure that there can never be a circular wait condition. The
resource allocation state is defined by the number of available and allocated
resources, and the maximum demands of the processes.
6.5.1 Safe State
A state is safe if the system can allocate resources to each process (up to its
maximum) in some order and still avoid a deadlock. More formally, a system is in
a safe state only if there exists a safe sequence. A sequence of processes <P1, P2, ..
Pn> is a safe sequence for the current allocation state if, for each Pi the resources
that Pj can still request can be satisfied by the currently available resources plus the
resources held by all the Pj, with j < i. In this situation, if the resources that process
Pi needs are not immediately available, then Pi can wait until all Pj have finished.
When they have finished, Pi can obtain all of its needed resources, complete its
designated task return its allocated resources, and terminate. When Pi terminates,
Pi + 1 can obtain its needed resources, and so on.
Fig. Safe, Unsafe & Deadlock State
If no such sequence exists, then the system state is said to be unsafe.
6.5.2 Resource-Allocation Graph Algorithm
Suppose that process Pi requests resource Rj. The request can be granted
only if converting the request edge Pi → Rj to an assignment edge Rj → Pi does
not result in the formation of a cycle in the resource-allocation graph.
6.5.3 Banker's Algorithm
The resource-allocation graph algorithm is not applicable to a resourceallocation
system with multiple instances of each resource type. The deadlockavoidance
algorithm that we describe next is applicable to such a system, but is
less efficient than the resource-allocation graph scheme. This algorithm is
commonly known as the banker's algorithm.
6.6 Deadlock Detection
If a system does not employ either a deadlock-prevention or a deadlock avoidance
algorithm, then a deadlock situation may occur.
• An algorithm that examines the state of the system to determine whether a
deadlock has occurred.
• An algorithm to recover from the deadlock.
6.6.1 Single Instance of Each Resource Type
If all resources have only a single instance, then we can define a deadlock
detection algorithm that uses a variant of the resource-allocation graph, called a
wait-for graph. We obtain this graph from the resource-allocation graph by
removing the nodes of type resource and collapsing the appropriate edges.
6.6.2 Several Instances of a Resource Type
The wait-for graph scheme is not applicable to a resource-allocation system
with multiple instances of each resource type.
The algorithm used are :
• Available: A vector of length m indicates the number of available resources of
each type.
• Allocation: An n x m matrix defines the number of resources of each type
currently allocated to each process.
• Request: An n x m matrix indicates the current request of each process. If
Request [i, j] = k, then process P, is requesting k more instances of resource type
Rj.
6.6.3 Detection-Algorithm Usage
If deadlocks occur frequently, then the detection algorithm should be
invoked frequently. Resources allocated to deadlocked processes will be idle until
the deadlock can be broken.
6.7 Recovery from Deadlock
When a detection algorithm determines that a deadlock exists, several
alternatives exist. One possibility is to inform the operator that a deadlock has
spurred, and to let the operator deal with the deadlock manually. The other
possibility is to let the system recover from the deadlock automatically. There are
two options for breaking a deadlock. One solution is simply to abort one or more
processes to break the circular wait. The second option is to preempt some
resources from one or more of the deadlocked processes.
6.7.1 Process Termination
To eliminate deadlocks by aborting a process, we use one of two methods. In
both methods, the system reclaims all resources allocated to the terminated
processes.
• Abort all deadlocked processes: This method clearly will break the dead – lock
cycle, but at a great expense, since these processes may have computed for a long
time, and the results of these partial computations must be discarded, and probably
must be recomputed.
• Abort one process at a time until the deadlock cycle is eliminated: This
method incurs considerable overhead, since after each process is aborted a
deadlock-detection algorithm must be invoked to determine whether a processes
are still deadlocked.
6.7.2 Resource Preemption
To eliminate deadlocks using resource preemption, we successively preempt
some resources from processes and give these resources to other processes until he
deadlock cycle is broken.
The three issues are considered to recover from deadlock
1. Selecting a victim
2. Rollback
3. Starvation
6.8 Summary
A deadlocked state occurs when two or more processes are waiting
indefinitely for an event that can be caused only one of the waiting processes.
There are three principal methods for dealing with deadlocks:
Use some protocol to prevent or avoid deadlocks, entering that the system
will never enter a deadlocked state.
Allow the system to enter a deadlocked state, detect it, and then recover.
Ignore the problem altogether and pretend that deadlocks never occur in the
system.
Deadlock prevention is a set of methods for ensuring that at least one of the
necessary condition cannot hold. Deadlock avoidance requires additional
information about how resources are to be requested. Deadlock avoidance
algorithm dynamically examines the resource allocation state to ensure that a
circular wait condition can never exist. Deadlock occur only when some process
makes a request that cannot e granted immediately.
6.9 Model Question
Q.1 Write a short note on deadlock?
Q.2 Explain the characteristic of deadlock?
Q.3 Describe various methods for deadlock prevention?
Q.4 Explain the resource allocation graph?
Q.5 Write a note on ‗safe state'?
Q.6 Explain how deadlocks are detected and corrected?
Q.7 What are the difference between a deadlock prevention and deadlock
Avoidance?
CHAPTER 7
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Unit Structure
7.0 Objectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Memory Partitioning
7.3 Swapping
7.4 Paging
7.5 Segmentation
7.6 Summary
7.7 Model Question
7.1 Objective
To provide a detailed description of various ways of organizing memory
hardware.
To discuss various memory-management techniques, including paging
and segmentation.
To provide a detailed description of the Intel Pentium, which supports
both pure segmentation and segmentation with paging.
7.1 Memory Management
Memory is central to the operation of a modern computer system. Memory is
a large array of words or bytes, each with its own address.
A program resides on a disk as a binary executable file. The program must
be brought into memory and placed within a process for it to be executed
Depending on the memory management in use the process may be moved between
disk and memory during its execution. The collection of processes on the disk that
are waiting to be brought into memory for execution forms the input queue. i.e.
selected one of the process in the input queue and to load that process into
memory. We can provide protection by using two registers, usually a base and a
limit, as shown in fig. 7.1. the base register holds the smallest legal physical
memory address; the limit register specifies the size of the range. For example, if
the base register holds 300040 and the limit register is 120900, then the program
can legally access all addresses from 300040 through 420939(inclusive).
Fig 7.1 A base and limit register define a logical address space.
The binding of instructions and data to memory addresses can be done at any
step along the way:
Compile time: If it is known at compile time where the process will reside
in memory, then absolute code can be generated.
Load time: If it is not known at compile time where the process will reside
in memory, then the compiler must generate re-locatable code.
Execution time: If the process can be moved during its execution from one
memory segment to another, then binding must be delayed until run time.
7.1.1 Dynamic Loading
Better memory-space utilization can be done by dynamic loading. With dynamic
loading, a routine is not loaded until it is called. All routines are kept on disk in a
re-locatable load format. The main program is loaded into memory and is
executed.
The advantage of dynamic loading is that an unused routine is never loaded.
7.1.2 Dynamic Linking
Most operating systems support only static linking, in which system
language libraries are treated like any other object module and are combined by the
loader into the binary program image. The concept of dynamic linking is similar to
that of dynamic loading. Rather than loading being postponed until execution time,
linking is postponed. This feature is usually used with system libraries, such as
language subroutine libraries. With dynamic linking, a stub is included in the
image for each library-routine reference. This stub is a small piece of code that
indicates how to locate the appropriate memory-resident library routing.
The entire program and data of a process must be in physical memory for the
process to execute. The size of a process is limited to the size of physical memory.
So that a process can be larger than the amount of memory allocated to it, a
technique called overlays is sometimes used. The idea of overlays is to keep in
memory only those instructions and data that are needed at any given time. When
other instructions are needed, they are loaded into space that was occupied
previously by instructions that are no longer needed.
Example, consider a two-pass assembler. During pass 1, it constructs a
symbol table; then, during pass 2, it generates machine-language code. We may be
able to partition such an assembler into pass 1 code, pass 2 code, the symbol table
1, and common support routines used by both pass 1 and pass 2.
Let us consider
Pass1 70K
Pass 2 80K
Symbol table 20K
Common routines 30K
To load everything at once, we would require 200K of memory. If only
150K is available, we cannot run our process. But pass 1 and pass 2 do not need to
be in memory at the same time. We thus define two overlays: Overlay A is the
symbol table, common routines, and pass 1, and overlay B is the symbol table,
common routines, and pass 2.
We add an overlay driver (10K) and start with overlay A in memory. When
we finish pass 1, we jump to the overlay driver, which reads overlay B into
memory, overwriting overlay A, and then transfers control to pass 2. Overlay A
needs only 120K, whereas overlay B needs 130K
As in dynamic loading, overlays do not require any special support from the
operating system.
7.1.3 Logical versus Physical Address Space
An address generated by the CPU is commonly referred to as a logical
address, whereas an address seen by the memory unit is commonly referred to as a
physical address.
The compile-time and load-time address-binding schemes result in an
environment where the logical and physical addresses are the same. The executiontime
address-binding scheme results in an environment where the logical and
physical addresses differ. In this case, we usually refer to the logical address as a
virtual address. The set of all logical addresses generated by a program is referred
to as a logical address space; the set of all physical addresses corresponding to
these logical addresses is referred to as a physical address space.
The run-time mapping from virtual to physical addresses is done by the
memory management unit (MMU), which is a hardware device.
The base register is called a relocation register. The value in the relocation
register is added to every address generated by a user process at the time it is sent
to memory. For example, if the base is at 13000, then an attempt by the user to
address location 0 dynamically relocated to location 14,000; an access to location
347 is mapped to location 13347. The MS-DOS operating system running on the
Intel 80x86 family of processors uses four relocation registers when loading and
running processes.
The user program never sees the real physical addresses. The program can
create a pointer to location 347 store it memory, manipulate it, compare it to other
addresses all as the number 347.
The user program deals with logical addresses. The memory-mapping
hardware converts logical addresses into physical addressed Logical addresses (in
the range 0 to max) and physical addresses (in the range R + 0 to R + max for a
base value R). The user generates only logical addresses.
The concept of a logical address space that is bound to a separate physical
address space is central to proper memory management.
7.2 Swapping
A process, can be swapped temporarily out of memory to a backing store,
and then brought back into memory for continued execution. Assume a
multiprogramming environment with a round robin CPU-scheduling algorithm.
When a quantum expires, the memory manager will start to swap out the process
that just finished, and to swap in another process to the memory space that has
been freed ( Fig 7.2). When each process finishes its quantum, it will be swapped
with another process.
Fig 7.2 Swapping of two processes using a disk as a blocking store
A variant of this swapping policy is used for priority-based scheduling
algorithms. If a higher-priority process arrives and wants service, the memory
manager can swap out the lower-priority process so that it can load and execute the
higher priority process. When the higher priority process finishes, the lowerpriority
process can be swapped back in and continued. This variant of swapping is
sometimes called rollout, roll in. A process is swapped out will be swapped back
into the same memory space that it occupies previously. If binding is done at
assembly or load time, then the process cannot be moved to different location. If
execution-time binding is being used, then it is possible to swap a process into a
different memory space.
Swapping requires a backing store. The backing store is commonly a fast disk. It is
large enough to accommodate copies of all memory images for all users. The
system maintains a ready queue consisting of all processes whose memory images
are on the backing store or in memory and are ready to run.
The context-switch time in such a swapping system is fairly high. Let us assume
that the user process is of size 100K and the backing store is a standard hard disk
with transfer rate of 1 megabyte per second. The actual transfer of the 100K
process to or from memory takes
100K / 1000K per second = 1/10 second
= 100 milliseconds
7.3 Contiguous Allocation
The main memory must accommodate both the operating system and the
various user processes. The memory is usually divided into two partitions, one for
the resident operating system, and one for the user processes.
To place the operating system in low memory. Thus, we shall discuss only
me situation where the operating system resides in low memory (Figure 8.5). The
development of the other situation is similar. Common Operating System is placed
in low memory.
7.3.1 Single-Partition Allocation
If the operating system is residing in low memory, and the user processes are
executing in high memory. And operating-system code and data are protected from
changes by the user processes. We also need protect the user processes from one
another. We can provide this 2 protection by using a relocation registers.
The relocation register contains the value of the smallest physical address;
the limit register contains the range of logical addresses (for example, relocation =
100,040 and limit = 74,600). With relocation and limit registers, each logical
address must be less than the limit register; the MMU maps the logical address
dynamically by adding the value in the relocation register. This mapped address is
sent to memory.
The relocation-register scheme provides an effective way to allow the
operating system size to change dynamically.
7.3.2 Multiple-Partition Allocation
One of the simplest schemes for memory allocation is to divide memory into
a number of fixed-sized partitions. Each partition may contain exactly one process.
Thus, the degree of multiprogramming is bound by the number of partitions. When
a partition is free, a process is selected from the input queue and is loaded into the
free partition. When the process terminates, the partition becomes available for
another process.
The operating system keeps a table indicating which parts of memory are
available and which are occupied. Initially, all memory is available for user
processes, and is considered as one large block, of available memory, a hole. When
a process arrives and needs memory, we search for a hole large enough for this
process.
For example, assume that we have 2560K of memory available and a
resident operating system of 400K. This situation leaves 2160K for user processes.
FCFS job scheduling, we can immediately allocate memory to processes P1, P2,
P3. Holes size 260K that cannot be used by any of the remaining processes in the
input queue. Using a round-robin CPU-scheduling with a quantum of 1 time unit,
process will terminate at time 14, releasing its memory.
Memory allocation is done using Round-Robin Sequence as shown in fig.
When a process arrives and needs memory, we search this set for a hole that is
large enough for this process. If the hole is too large, it is split into two: One part is
allocated to the arriving process; the other is returned to the set of holes. When a
process terminates, it releases its block of memory, which is then placed back in
the set of holes. If the new hole is adjacent to other holes, we merge these adjacent
holes to form one larger hole.
This procedure is a particular instance of the general dynamic storageallocation
problem, which is how to satisfy a request of size n from a list of free
holes. There are many solutions to this problem. The set of holes is searched to
determine which hole is best to allocate, first-fit, best-fit, and worst-fit are the most
common strategies used to select a free hole from the set of available holes.
First-fit: Allocate the first hole that is big enough. Searching can start either
at the beginning of the set of holes or where the previous first-fit search
ended. We can stop searching as soon as we find a free hole that is large
enough.
Best-fit: Allocate the smallest hole that is big enough. We must search the
entire list, unless the list is kept ordered by size. This strategy-produces the
smallest leftover hole.
Worst-fit: Allocate the largest hole. Again, we must search the entire list
unless it is sorted by size. This strategy produces the largest leftover hole
which may be more useful than the smaller leftover hole from a best-t
approach.
7.3.3 External and Internal Fragmentation
As processes are loaded and removed from memory, the free memory space
is broken into little pieces. External fragmentation exists when enough to the
memory space exists to satisfy a request, but it is not contiguous; storage is
fragmented into a large number of small holes.
Depending on the total amount of memory storage and the average process
size, external fragmentation may be either a minor or a major problem.
Given N allocated blocks, another 0.5N blocks will be lost due to
fragmentation. That is, one-third of memory may be unusable. This property is
known as the 50- percent rule.
Internal fragmentation - memory that is internal to partition, but is not being
used.
7.4 Paging
External fragmentation is avoided by using paging. In this physical memory
is broken into blocks of the same size called pages. When a process is to be
executed, its pages are loaded into any available memory frames. Every address
generated by the CPU is divided into any two parts: a page number(p) and a page
offset(d) (Fig 7.3). The page number is used as an index into a page table. The
page table contains the base address of each page in physical memory. This base
address is combined with the gage offset to define the physical memory address
that is sent to the memory unit.
Fig 7.3 Paging Hardware
The page size like is defined by the hardware. The size of a page is typically
a power of 2 varying between 512 bytes and 8192 bytes per page, depending on the
computer architecture. The selection of a power of 2 as a page size makes the
translation of a logical address into a page number and page offset. lf the size of
logical address space is 2m, and a page size is 2n addressing units (bytes or words),
then the high-order m - n bits of a logical address designate the page number, and
the n low-order bits designate the page offset. Thus, the logical address is as
follows:
page number
page offset
p d
m – n n
where p is an index into the page table and d is the displacement within the
page.
Paging is a form of dynamic relocation. Every logical address is bound by
the paging hardware to some physical address.
When we use a paging scheme, we have no external fragmentation: Any free
frame can be allocated to a process that needs it.
If process size is independent of page size, we can have internal
fragmentation to average one-half page per process.
When a process arrives in the system to be executed, its size, expressed in
pages, is examined. Each page of the process needs one frame. Thus, if the process
requires n pages, there must be at least n frames available in memory. If there are n
frames available, they are allocated to this arriving process. The first page of the
process is loaded into one of the allocated frames and the frame number is put in
the page table for this process. The next page is loaded into another frame, and its
frame number is put into the page table, and so on.
The user program views that memory as one single contiguous space,
containing only this one program. But the user program is scattered throughout
physical memory and logical addresses are translated into physical addresses.
The operating system is managing physical memory, it must be aware of the
allocation details of physical memory: which frames are allocated, which frames
are available, how many total frames there are, and so on. This information is
generally kept in a data structure called a frame table. The frame table has one
entry for each physical page frame, indicating whether the latter is free allocated
and, if it is allocated, to which page of which process or processes.
The operating system maintains a copy of the page table for each process.
Paging therefore increases the context-switch time.
7.5 Segmentation
A user program can be subdivided using segmentation, in which the program
and its associated data are divided into a number of segments. It is not required
that all segments of all programs be of the same length, although there is a
maximum segment length. As with paging, a logical address using segmentation
consists of two parts, in this case a segment number and an offset.
Because of the use of unequal-size segments, segmentation is similar to dynamic
partitioning. In segmentation, a program may occupy more than one partition, and
these partitions need not be contiguous. Segmentation eliminates internal
fragmentation but, like dynamic partitioning, it suffers from external
fragmentation. However, because a process is broken up into a number of smaller
pieces, the external fragmentation should be less. Whereas paging is invisible to
the programmer, segmentation usually visible and is provided as a convenience for
organizing programs and data.
Another consequence of unequal-size segments is that there is no simple
relationship between logical addresses and physical addresses. Segmentation
scheme would make use of a segment table for each process and a list of free
blocks of main memory. Each segment table entry would have to as in paging give
the starting address in main memory of the corresponding segment. The entry
should also provide the length of the segment, to assure that invalid addresses are
not used. When a process enters the Running state, the address of its segment table
is loaded into a special register used by the memory management hardware.
Consider an address of n + m bits, where the leftmost n bits are the segment
number and the rightmost m bits are the offset. The following steps are needed for
address translation:
Extract the segment number as the leftmost n bits of the logical address.
Use the segment number as an index into the process segment table to find
the starting physical address of the segment.
Compare the offset, expressed in the rightmost m bits, to the length of the
segment. If the offset is greater than or equal to the length, the address is
invalid.
The desired physical address is the sum of the starting physical address of
the segment plus the offset.
Segmentation and paging can be combined to have a good result.
7.6 Summary
Memory management algorithms for multi programmed operating systems
range from the simple single user system approach to paged segmentation. The
most important determinant of the method used in a particular system is the
hardware provided, every memory address generated by the CPU must be checked
for legality and possibly mapped to a physical address, the checking cannot be
implemented in software. Hence, we are constrained by the hardware available.
The various memory management algorithms(continuous allocation, paging,
segmentation, and combinations of paging and segmentation) differ in many
aspects. In computing different memory management strategies, we use hardware
support, performance, fragmentation, relocation, swapping, sharing and protection.
7.7 Model Question
Q.1 Differentiate internal and external fragmentation?
Q.2 Explain segmentation?
Q.3 What are hardware is required for paging?
Q.4 Write a note on virtual memory?
Q.5 Explain Page replacement algorithm in detail?
Q.6 compare demand paging and segmentation?
Q.7 Explain page replacement algorithm?
CHAPTER 8
VIRTUAL MEMORY
Unit Structure
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Virtual Memory
8.2 Demand Paging
8.3 Performance of demand paging
8.4 Virtual Memory Concepts
8.5 Page Replacement Algorithms
8.6 Allocation Algorithms
8.7 Summary
8.8 Model Question
8.0 Objective
To describe the benefits of a virtual memory system.
To explain the concepts of demand paging, page-replacement algorithms,
and allocation of page frames.
To discuss the principle of the working-set model.
8.1 Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is a technique that allows the execution of process that may
not be completely in memory. The main visible advantage of this scheme is
that programs can be larger than physical memory.
Virtual memory is the separation of user logical memory from physical
memory this separation allows an extremely large virtual memory to be
provided for programmers when only a smaller physical memory is available
( Fig 8.1 ).
Following are the situations, when entire program is not required to load
fully.
1. User written error handling routines are used only when an error occurs in
the data or computation.
2. Certain options and features of a program may be used rarely.
3. Many tables are assigned a fixed amount of address space even though only
a small amount of the table is actually used.
The ability to execute a program that is only partially in memory would
counter many benefits.
1. Less number of I/O would be needed to load or swap each user program into
memory.
2. A program would no longer be constrained by the amount of physical
memory that is available.
3. Each user program could take less physical memory, more programs could
be run the same time, with a corresponding increase in CPU utilization and
throughput.
Fig. 8.1 Diagram showing virtual memory that is larger than physical memory.
Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand paging. It can also be
implemented in a segmentation system. Demand segmentation can also be used to
provide virtual memory.
8.2 Demand Paging
A demand paging is similar to a paging system with swapping(Fig 8.2).
When we want to execute a process, we swap it into memory. Rather than
swapping the entire process into memory.
When a process is to be swapped in, the pager guesses which pages will be
used before the process is swapped out again Instead of swapping in a whole
process, the pager brings only those necessary pages into memory. Thus, it avoids
reading into memory pages that will not be used in anyway, decreasing the swap
time and the amount of physical memory needed.
Hardware support is required to distinguish between those pages that are in
memory and those pages that are on the disk using the valid-invalid bit scheme.
Where valid and invalid pages can be checked checking the bit and marking a page
will have no effect if the process never attempts to access the pages. While the
process executes and accesses pages that are memory resident, execution proceeds
normally.
Fig. 8.2 Transfer of a paged memory to continuous disk space
Access to a page marked invalid causes a page-fault trap. This trap is the
result of the operating system's failure to bring the desired page into memory. But
page fault can be handled as following (Fig 8.3):
Fig. 8.3 Steps in handling a page fault
1. We check an internal table for this process to determine whether the
reference was a valid or invalid memory access.
2. If the reference was invalid, we terminate the process. If .it was valid, but we
have not yet brought in that page, we now page in the latter.
3. We find a free frame.
4. We schedule a disk operation to read the desired page into the newly
allocated frame.
5. When the disk read is complete, we modify the internal table kept with the
process and the page table to indicate that the page is now in memory.
6. We restart the instruction that was interrupted by the illegal address trap. The
process can now access the page as though it had always been memory.
Therefore, the operating system reads the desired page into memory and restarts
the process as though the page had always been in memory.
The page replacement is used to make the frame free if they are not in used. If
no frame is free then other process is called in.
8.2.1 Advantages of Demand Paging:
1. Large virtual memory.
2. More efficient use of memory.
3. Unconstrained multiprogramming. There is no limit on degree of
multiprogramming.
8.2.2 Disadvantages of Demand Paging:
1. Number of tables and amount of processor over head for handling page
interrupts are greater than in the case of the simple paged management
techniques.
2. due to the lack of an explicit constraints on a jobs address space size.
8.3 Page Replacement Algorithm
There are many different page replacement algorithms. We evaluate an
algorithm by running it on a particular string of memory reference and computing
the number of page faults. The string of memory references is called reference
string. Reference strings are generated artificially or by tracing a given system and
recording the address of each memory reference. The latter choice produces a large
number of data.
1. For a given page size we need to consider only the page number, not the
entire address.
2. if we have a reference to a page p, then any immediately following references
to page p will never cause a page fault. Page p will be in memory after the
first reference; the immediately following references will not fault.
Eg:- consider the address sequence
0100, 0432, 0101, 0612, 0102, 0103, 0104, 0101, 0611, 0102, 0103,
0104, 0101, 0610, 0102, 0103, 0104, 0104, 0101, 0609, 0102, 0105
and reduce to 1, 4, 1, 6,1, 6, 1, 6, 1, 6, 1
To determine the number of page faults for a particular reference string and
page replacement algorithm, we also need to know the number of page frames
available. As the number of frames available increase, the number of page faults
will decrease.
8.3.1 FIFO Algorithm
The simplest page-replacement algorithm is a FIFO algorithm. A FIFO
replacement algorithm associates with each page the time when that page was
brought into memory. When a page must be replaced, the oldest page is chosen.
We can create a FIFO queue to hold all pages in memory.
The first three references (7, 0, 1) cause page faults, and are brought into
these empty eg. 7, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1 and consider 3 frames.
This replacement means that the next reference to 0 will fault. Page 1 is then
replaced by page 0.
8.3.2 Optimal Algorithm
An optimal page-replacement algorithm has the lowest page-fault rate of all
algorithms. An optimal page-replacement algorithm exists, and has been called
OPT or MIN. It is simply
Replace the page that will not be used
for the longest period of time.
Now consider the same string with 3 empty frames.
The reference to page 2 replaces page 7, because 7 will not be used until
reference 18, whereas page 0 will be used at 5, and page 1 at 14. The reference to
page 3 replaces page 1, as page 1 will be the last of the three pages in memory to
be referenced again. Optimal replacement is much better than a FIFO.
The optimal page-replacement algorithm is difficult to implement, because it
requires future knowledge of the reference string.
8.3.3 LRU Algorithm
The FIFO algorithm uses the time when a page was brought into memory;
the OPT algorithm uses the time when a page is to be used. In LRU replace the
page that has not been used for the longest period of time.
LRU replacement associates with each page the time of that page's last use.
When a page must be replaced, LRU chooses that page that has not been used for
the longest period of time.
Let SR be the reverse of a reference string S, then the page-fault rate for the
OPT algorithm on S is the same as the page-fault rate for the OPT algorithm on SR.
8.3.4 LRU Approximation Algorithms
Some systems provide no hardware support, and other page-replacement
algorithm. Many systems provide some help, however, in the form of a reference
bit. The reference bit for a page is set, by the hardware, whenever that page is
referenced. Reference bits are associated with each entry in the page table Initially,
all bits are cleared (to 0) by the operating system. As a user process executes, the
bit associated with each page referenced is set (to 1) by the hardware.
8.3.4.1 Additional-Reference-Bits Algorithm
The operating system shifts the reference bit for each page into the highorder
or of its 8-bit byte, shifting the other bits right 1 bit, discarding the low-order
bit.
These 8-bit shift registers contain the history of page use for the last eight
time periods. If the shift register contains 00000000, then the page has not been
used for eight time periods; a page that is used at least once each period would
have a shift register value of 11111111.
8.3.4.2 Second-Chance Algorithm
The basic algorithm of second-chance replacement is a FIFO replacement
algorithm. When a page gets a second chance, its reference bit is cleared and its
arrival e is reset to the current time.
8.3.4.3 Enhanced Second-Chance Algorithm
The second-chance algorithm described above can be enhanced by
considering troth the reference bit and the modify bit as an ordered pair.
1. (0,0) neither recently used nor modified best page to replace.
2. (0,1) not recently used but modified not quite as good, because the page
will need to be written out before replacement.
3. (1,0) recently used but clean probably will be used again soon.
4. (1,1) recently used and modified probably will be used again, and write
out will be needed before replacing it
8.4 Counting Algorithms
There are many other algorithms that can be used for page replacement.
• LFU Algorithm: The least frequently used (LFU) page-replacement algorithm
requires that the page with the smallest count be replaced. This algorithm suffers
from the situation in which a page is used heavily during the initial phase of a
process, but then is never used again.
• MFU Algorithm: The most frequently used (MFU) page-replacement algorithm
is based on the argument that the page with the smallest count was probably just
brought in and has yet to be used.
8.5 Page Buffering Algorithm
When a page fault occurs, a victim frame is chosen as before. However, the
desired page is read into a free frame from the pool before the victim is written out.
This procedure allows the process to restart as soon as possible, without waiting
for the victim page to be written out. When the victim is later written out, its frame
is added to the free-frame pool.
When the FIFO replacement algorithm mistakenly replaces a page
mistakenly replaces a page that is still in active use, that page is quickly retrieved
from the free-frame buffer, and no I/O is necessary. The free-frame buffer provides
protection against the relatively poor, but simple, FIFO replacement algorithm.
8.6 Summary
It is desirable to be able to execute a process whose logical address space
larger than the available physical address space. Virtual memory is a technique that
enables us to map a logical address space onto a smaller physical memory. Virtual
memory allows us to run extremely large processes and to raise the degree of
multiprogramming, increasing CPU utilization. Virtual memory also enables us to
use an efficient type of process creation known as copy-on-write, where in parent
and child processes share actual pages of memory.
Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand paging. pure demand
paging never brings in a page until that page is referenced. The first reference
causes page fault to the operating system. If total memory requirements exceed the
capacity of physical memory, then it may be necessary to replace pages from
memory to free frames for new pages. Various page replacement algorithm are
used.
In addition to a page replacement algorithm, a frame allocation policy is
needed. Allocation can be fixed, suggesting local page replacement, or dynamic,
suggesting global replacement.
8.7 Model Question
Q.1 Define and explain Virtual Memory?
Q.2 Explain advantages and disadvantages Demand Paging
Q.3 Define and explain Performance of demand paging?
Q.4 Describe Page Replacement Algorithms?
Q.5 Explain various Allocation Algorithms?
CHAPTER 9
I/O HARDWARE
Unit Structure
9.0 Objectives
9.1 Principal of I/O Hardware
9.2 Polling
9.3 I/O Devices
9.4 Device Controllers
9.5 Direct Memory Access
9.6 Summary
9.7 Model Question
9.0 Objective
Explore the structure of an operating system's I/O subsystem.
Discuss the principles of I/O hardware and its complexity.
9.1 I/O Hardware
Computers operate a great many kinds of devices. General types include
storage devices (disks, tapes), transmission devices (network cards,
modems), and human-interface devices (screen, keyboard, mouse).
A device communicates with a computer system by sending signals over a
cable or even through the air. The device communicates with the machine
via a connection point termed a port (for example, a serial port). If one or
more devices use a common set of wires, the connection is called a bus.
When device A has a cable that plugs into device B, and device B has a
cable that plugs into device C, and device C plugs into a port on the
computer, this arrangement is called a daisy chain. It usually operates as a
bus.
A controller is a collection of electronics that can operate a port, a bus, or a
device. A serial-port controller is an example of a simple device controller.
It is a single chip in the computer that controls the signals on the wires of a
serial port.
The SCSI bus controller is often implemented as a separate circuit board (a
host adapter) that plugs into the computer. It typically contains a processor,
microcode, and some private memory to enable it to process the SCSI
protocol messages. Some devices have their own built-in controllers.
An I/O port typically consists of four registers, called the status, control,
data-in, and data-out registers. The status register contains bits that can be
read by the host. These bits indicate states such as whether the current
command has completed, whether a byte is available to be read from the
data-in register, and whether there has been a device error. The control
register can be written by the host to start a command or to change the mode
of a device. For instance, a certain bit in the control register of a serial port
chooses between full-duplex and half-duplex communication, another
enables parity checking, a third bit sets the word length to 7 or 8 bits, and
other bits select one of the speeds supported by the serial port.
The data-in register is read by the host to get input, and the data out register
is written by the host to send output. The data registers are typically 1 to 4
bytes. Some controllers have FIFO chips that can hold several bytes of input
or output data to expand the capacity of the controller beyond the size of the
data register. A FIFO chip can hold a small burst of data until the device or
host is able to receive those data.
9.2 POLLING
Incomplete protocol for interaction between the host and a controller can be
intricate, but the basic handshaking notion is simple. The controller indicates
its state through the busy bit in the status register. (Recall that to set a bit
means to write a 1 into the bit, and to clear a bit means to write a 0 into it.)
The controller sets the busy bit when it is busy working, and clears the busy
bit when it is ready to accept the next command. The host signals its wishes
via the command-ready bit in the command register. The host sets the
command-ready bit when a command is available for the controller to
execute.
For this example, the host writes output through a port, coordinating with the
controller by handshaking as follows.
1. The host repeatedly reads the busy bit until that bit becomes clear.
2. The host sets the write bit in the command register and writes a byte into the
data-out register.
3. The host sets the command-ready bit.
4. When the controller notices that the command-ready bit is set, it sets the
Busy.
5. The controller reads the command register and sees the write command.
6. It reads the data-out register to get the byte, and does the I/O to the device.
7. The controller clears the command-ready bit, clears the error bit in the
status register to indicate that the device I/O succeeded, and clears the busy
bit to indicate that it is finished.
The host is busy-waiting or polling: It is in a loop, reading the status register
over and over until the busy bit becomes clear. If the controller and device
are fast, this method is a reasonable one. But if the wait may be long, the
host should probably switch to another task
9.3 I/O Devices
Categories of I/O Devices
1. Human readable
2. machine readable
3. Communication
1. Human Readable is suitable for communicating with the computer user.
Examples are printers, video display terminals, keyboard etc.
2. Machine Readable is suitable for communicating with electronic equipment.
Examples are disk and tape drives, sensors, controllers and actuators.
3. Communication is suitable for communicating with remote devices.
Examples are digital line drivers and modems.
Differences between I/O Devices
1. Data rate : there may be differences of several orders of magnitude between
the data transfer rates.
2. Application: Different devices have different use in the system.
3. Complexity of Control: A disk is much more complex whereas printer
requires simple control interface.
4. Unit of transfer: Data may be transferred as a stream of bytes or characters
or in larger blocks.
5. Data representation: Different data encoding schemes are used for different
devices.
6. Error Conditions: The nature of errors differs widely from one device to
another.
9.4 Direct Memory Access
A special control unit may be provided to allow transfer of a block of data
directly between an external device and the main memory, without
continuous intervention by the processor. This approach is called Direct
Memory Access(DMA).
DMA can be used with either polling or interrupt software. DMA is
particularly useful on devices like disks, where many bytes of information
can be transferred in single I/O operations. When used in conjunction with
an interrupt, the CPU is notified only after the entire block of data has been
transferred. For each byte or word transferred, it must provide the memory
address and all the bus signals that control the data transfer.
Interaction with a device controller is managed through a device driver.
Device drivers are part of the operating system, but not necessarily part of
the OS kernel. The operating system provides a simplified view of the
device to user applications (e.g., character devices vs. block devices in
UNIX). In some operating systems (e.g., Linux), devices are also accessible
through the /dev file system.
In some cases, the operating system buffers data that are transferred between
a device and a user space program (disk cache, network buffer). This usually
increases performance, but not always.
9.5 Device Controllers
A computer system contains a multitude of I/O devices and their respective
controllers:
● network card
● graphics adapter
● disk controller
● DVD-ROM controller
● serial port
● USB
● sound card
9.6 Summary
The basic hardware elements involved in I/O buses, device controllers, and
the device themselves. The work of moving data between devices and main
memory is performed by the CPU as programmed I/O or is offloaded to a DMA
controller. The kernel module that controls a device driver.
The system call interface provided to applications is designed to handle
several basic categories of hardware, including block devices, character devices,
memory mapped files, network sockets, and programmed interval timers. The
system calls usually block the processes that issue them, but non blocking and
asynchronous calls are used by the kernel itself and by applications that must not
sleep while waiting for an I/O operation to complete.
The kernel's I/O subsystem provides numerous services. Among these are
I/O scheduling, buffering, caching. Spooling, device reservation, and error
handling.
9.7 Model Question
Q.1 Define and Explain Direct Memory Access?
Q.2 Explain device controllers?
Q.3 Explain concept of I/O Hardware?
Q.4 Explain concept of Polling?
Q.5 Explain I/O devices?
CHAPTER 10
I/O SOFTWARE
Unit Structure
10.0 Objectives
10.1 Principle of I/O Software
10.1.1 Interrupts
10.2.2 Application I/O Interfaced
10.1.3 Clocks and Timers
10.1.4 Blocking and Non-blocking I/O
10.2 Kernel I/O Subsystem
10.2.1 Scheduling
10.2.2 Buffering
10.2.3 Caching
10.2.3 Spooling and Device Reservation
10.2.4 Error Handling
10.3 Device Drivers
10.4 Summary
10.5 Model Question
10.0 Objective
Explore the structure of an operating system's I/O subsystem.
Discuss the principles of I/O software.
Provide details of the performance aspects of I/O software.
10.1 PRINCIPLES OF I/O SOFTWARE
10.1.1 Interrupts
The CPU hardware has a wire called the interrupt request line that the CPU
senses after executing every instruction. When the CPU detects that a
controller has asserted a signal on the interrupt request line, the CPU saves a
small amount of state, such as the current value of the instruction pointer,
and jumps to the interrupt-handler routine at a fixed address in memory.
The interrupt handler determines the cause of the interrupt, performs the
necessary processing, and executes a return from interrupt instruction to
return the CPU to the execution state prior to the interrupt. We say that the
device controller raises an interrupt by asserting a signal on the interrupt
request line, the CPU catches the interrupt and dispatches to the interrupt
handler, and the handler clears the interrupt by servicing the device. Figure
12.3 summarizes the interrupt-driven I/O cycle.
This basic interrupt mechanism enables the CPU to respond to an
asynchronous event, such as a device controller becoming ready for service.
In a modern operating system, we need more sophisticated interrupthandling
features.
First, we need the ability to defer interrupt handling during critical
processing. Second, we need an efficient way to dispatch to the proper
interrupt handler for a device, without first polling all the devices to see
which one raised the interrupt. Third, we need multilevel interrupts, so that
the operating system can distinguish between high- and low-priority
interrupts, and can respond with the appropriate degree of urgency.
In modern computer hardware, these three features are provided by the CPU
and by the interrupt-controller hardware.
CPUs have two interrupt request lines. One is the non-maskable interrupt,
which is reserved for events such as unrecoverable memory errors. The
second interrupt line is maskable. It can be turned off by the CPU before the
execution of critical instruction sequences that must not be interrupted. The
maskable interrupt is used by device controllers to request service.
This address is an offset in a table called the interrupt vector. This vector
contains the memory addresses of .specialized interrupt handlers. The
purpose of a vectored interrupt mechanism is to reduce the need for a single
interrupt handler to search all possible sources of interrupts to determine
which one needs service.
The interrupt mechanism also implements a system of interrupt priority
levels. This mechanism enables the CPU to defer the handling of lowpriority
interrupts without masking off all interrupts, and makes it possible
for a high-priority interrupt to preempt the execution of a low-priority
interrupt.
The interrupt mechanism is also used to handle a wide variety of exceptions,
such as dividing by zero, accessing a protected or nonexistent memory
address, or attempting to execute a privileged instruction from user mode.
A system call is a function that is called by an application to invoke a kernel
service. The system call checks the arguments given by the application,
builds a data structure to convey the arguments to the kernel, and then
executes a special instruction called a software interrupt, or a trap.
Interrupts can also be used to manage the flow of control within the kernel.
If the disks are to be used efficiently, we need to start the next I/O as soon as
the previous one completes. Consequently, the kernel code that completes a
disk read is implemented by a pair of interrupt handlers. The high-priority
handler records the I/O status, clears the device interrupt, starts the next
pending I/O, and raises a low-priority interrupt to complete the work. The
corresponding handler completes the user level I/O by copying data from
kernel buffers to the application space and then by calling the scheduler to
place the application on the ready queue.
10.2.2 Application I/O Interfaced
Structuring techniques and interfaces for the operating system enable I/O
devices to be treated in a standard, uniform way. For instance, how an
application can open a file on a disk without knowing what kind of disk it is,
and how new disks and other devices can be added to a computer without
the operating system being disrupted.
The actual differences are encapsulated in ken modules called device drivers
mat internally are custom tailored to each device but that export one of the
standard interfaces.
The purpose of the device-driver layer is to hide the differences among
device controllers from the I/O subsystem of the kernel, much as the I/O
system calls.
Character-stream or block. A character-stream device transfers bytes one by one,
whereas a block device transfers a block of bytes as a unit.
Sequential or random-access. A sequential device transfers data in a fixed order
that is determined by the device, whereas the user of a random-access device can
instruct the device to seek to any of the available data storage locations.
Synchronous or asynchronous. A synchronous device is one that performs data
transfers with predictable response times. An asynchronous device exhibits
irregular or unpredictable response times.
Sharable or dedicated. A sharable device can be used concurrently by several
processes or threads; a dedicated device cannot.
Speed of operation. Device speeds range from a few bytes per second to a few
gigabytes per second.
Read-write, read only, or write only. Some devices perform both input and
output, but others support only one data direction. For the purpose of application
access, many of these differences are hidden by the operating system, and the
devices are grouped into a few conventional types.
Operating systems also provide special system calls to access a few
additional devices, such as a time-of-day clock and a timer. The performance
and addressing characteristics of network I/O differ significantly from those
of disk I/O, most operating systems provide a network I/O interface that is
different from the read-write-seek interface used for disks.
10.1.3 Clocks and Timers
Most computers have hardware clocks and timers that provide three basic
functions:
1. Give the current time
2. Give the elapsed time
3. Set a timer to trigger operation X at time T
These functions are used heavily by the operating system, and also by time
sensitive applications. The hardware to measure elapsed time and to trigger
operations is called a programmable interval timer.
10.1.4 Blocking and Non-blocking I/O
One remaining aspect of the system-call interface relates to the choice
between blocking I/O and non-blocking (asynchronous) I/O. When an
application calls a blocking system call, the execution of the application is
suspended. The application is moved from the operating system's run queue
to a wait queue.
After the system call completes, the application is moved back to the run
queue, where it is eligible to resume execution, at which time it will receive
the values returned by the system call.
Some user-level processes need non-blocking I/O.
10.2 Kernel I/O Subsystem
Kernels provide many services related to I/O. The services that we describe
are I/O scheduling, buffering caching, spooling, device reservation, and error
handling.
10.2.1 Scheduling
To schedule a set of I/O requests means to determine a good order in which
to execute them. The order in which applications issue system calls rarely is
the best choice. Scheduling can improve overall system performance, can
share device access fairly among processes, and can reduce the average
waiting time for I/O to complete. Operating-system developers implement
scheduling by maintaining a queue of requests for each device. When an
application issues a blocking I/O system call, the request is placed on the
queue for that device.
The I/O scheduler rearranges the order of the queue to improve the overall
system efficiency and the average response time experienced by
applications.
10.2.2 Buffering
A buffer is a memory area that stores data while they are transferred between
two devices or between a device arid an application. Buffering is done for
three reasons.
One reason is to cope with a speed mismatch between the producer and
consumer of a data stream.
Second buffer while the first buffer is written to disk. A second use of
buffering is to adapt between devices that have different data transfer sizes.
A third use of buffering is to support copy semantics for application I/O.
10.2.3 Caching
A cache is region of fast memory that holds copies of data. Access to the
cached copy is more efficient than access to the original.
Caching and buffering are two distinct functions, but sometimes a region of
memory can be used for both purposes.
10.2.3 Spooling and Device Reservation
A spool is a buffer that holds output for a device, such as a printer, that
cannot accept interleaved data streams. The spooling system copies the
queued spool files to the printer one at a time.
In some operating systems, spooling is managed by a system daemon
process. In other operating systems, it is handled by an in kernel thread.
10.2.4 Error Handling
An operating system that uses protected memory can guard against many
kinds of hardware and application errors.
10.3 Device drivers
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program
allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device.
A driver typically communicates with the device through the computer bus
or communications subsystem to which the hardware connects. When a
calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands
to the device.
Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke
routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware-dependent and
operating-system-specific.
They usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary
asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface.
10.4 Summary
The system call interface provided to applications is designed to handle
several basic categories of hardware, including block devices, character devices,
memory mapped files, network sockets, and programmed interval timers. The
system calls usually block the processes that issue them, but non blocking and
asynchronous calls are used by the kernel itself and by applications that must not
sleep while waiting for an I/O operation to complete.
The kernel's I/O subsystem provides numerous services. Among these are I/O
scheduling, buffering, caching. Spooling, device reservation, and error handling.
I/O system calls are costly in terms of CPU consumption because of the many
layers of software between a physical device and an application.
10.5 Model Question
Q.1 Explain application of I/O interface?
Q.2 Describe blocking and non blocking I/O?
Q.3 Explain following concepts
a) Clock and Timers
b) Device Drivers
Q.4 Write a short notes on
a) Scheduling
b) Buffering
c) Error Handling
Q.5 Explain spooling mechanism?
Q.6 Explain Caching in details?
CHAPTER 11
SECONDARY STORADE MANAGEMENT
Unit Structure
11.0 Objectives
11.1 Disk Structure
11.2 Disk Scheduling
11.3 Disk Management
11.4 Swap Space Management
11.5 Disk Reliability
11.6 Stable Storage Implementation
11.7 Summary
11.8 Model Question
11.0 Objective
Describe the physical structure of secondary and tertiary storage devices and
the resulting effects on the uses of the devices.
Explain the performance characteristics of mass-storage devices.
Discuss operating-system services provided for mass storage.
11.1 Disk Structure
Disk provide bulk of secondary storage of computer system. The disk can be
considered the one I/O device that is common to each and every computer.
Disks come in many size and speeds, and information may be stored
optically or magnetically. Magnetic tape was used as an early secondary
storage medium, but the access time is much slower than for disks. For
backup, tapes are currently used.
Modern disk drives are addressed as large one dimensional arrays of logical
blocks, where the logical block is the smallest unit of transfer. The actual
details of disk I/O operation depends on the computer system, the operating
system and the nature of the I/O channel and disk controller hardware.
The basic unit of information storage is a sector. The sectors are stored on a
flat, circular, media disk. This media spins close to one or more read/write
heads. The heads can move from the inner portion of the disk to the outer
portion.
When the disk drive is operating, the disk is rotating at constant speed. To
read or write, the head must be positioned at the desired track and at the
beginning of the desired sector on that track. Track selection involves
moving the head in a movable head system or electronically selecting one
head on a fixed head system. These characteristics are common to floppy
disks, hard disks, CD-ROM and DVD.
11.2 Disk Performance Parameters
When the disk drive is operating, the disk is rotating at constant speed. To
read or write, the head must be positioned at the desired track and at the
beginning of the desired sector on that track.
Track selection involves moving the head in a movable-head system or
electronically selecting one head on a fixed-head system. On a movablehead
system, the time it takes to position the head at the track is known as
seek time.
When once the track is selected, the disk controller waits until the
appropriate sector rotates to line up with the head. The time it takes for the
beginning of the sector to reach the head is known as rotational delay, or
rotational latency. The sum of the seek time, if any, and the rotational delay
equals the access time, which is the time it takes to get into position to read
or write.
Once the head is in position, the read or write operation is then performed as
the sector moves under the head; this is the data transfer portion of the
operation; the time required for the transfer is the transfer time.
Seek Time Seek time is the time required to move the disk arm to the
required track. It turns out that this is a difficult quantity to pin down. The
seek time consists of two key components: the initial startup time and the
time taken to traverse the tracks that have to be crossed once the access arm
is up to speed.
Ts = m x n + s
Rotational Delay Disks, other than floppy disks, rotate at speeds ranging
from 3600 rpm up to, as of this writing, 15,000 rpm; at this latter speed,
there is one revolution per 4 ms. Thus, on the average, the rotational delay
will be 2 ms. Floppy disks typically rotate at between 300 and 600 rpm.
Thus the average delay will be between 100 and 50 ms.
Transfer Time The transfer time to or from the disk depends on the rotation
speed of the disk in the following fashion:
T= b/rN
where
T = transfer time
b = number of bytes to be transferred
N = number of bytes on a track
r = rotation speed, in revolutions per second
Thus the total average access time can be expressed as
Ta = Ts +
where Ts is the average seek time.
11.3 Disk Scheduling
The amount of head needed to satisfy a series of I/O request can affect the
performance. If desired disk drive and controller are available, the request
can be serviced immediately. If a device or controller is busy, any new
requests for service will be placed on the queue of pending requests for that
drive. When one request is completed, the operating system chooses which
pending request to service next.
Different types of scheduling algorithms are as follows.
1. First Come, First Served scheduling algorithm(FCFS).
2. Shortest Seek Time First (SSTF) algorithm
3. SCAN algorithm
4. Circular SCAN (C-SCAN) algorithm
5. Look Scheduling Algorithm
11.3.1 First Come, First Served scheduling algorithm(FCFS).
The simplest form of scheduling is first-in-first-out (FIFO) scheduling,
which processes items from the queue in sequential order. This strategy has
the advantage of being fair, because every request is honored and the
requests are honored in the order received. With FIFO, if there are only a
few processes that require access and if many of the requests are to clustered
file sectors, then we can hope for good performance.
Priority With a system based on priority (PRI), the control of the scheduling
is outside the control of disk management software.
Last In First Out ln transaction processing systems, giving the device to the
most recent user should result. In little or no arm movement for moving
through a sequential file. Taking advantage of this locality improves
throughput and reduces queue length.
11.3.2 Shortest Seek Time First (SSTF) algorithm
The SSTF policy is to select the disk I/O request the requires the least
movement of the disk arm from its current position. Scan With the exception
of FIFO, all of the policies described so far can leave some request
unfulfilled until the entire queue is emptied. That is, there may always be
new requests arriving that will be chosen before an existing request.
The choice should provide better performance than FCFS algorithm.
Under heavy load, SSTF can prevent distant request from ever being
serviced. This phenomenon is known as starvation. SSTF scheduling is
essentially a from of shortest job first scheduling. SSTF scheduling
algorithm are not very popular because of two reasons.
1. Starvation possibly exists.
2. it increases higher overheads.
11.3.3 SCAN scheduling algorithm
The scan algorithm has the head start at track 0 and move towards the
highest numbered track, servicing all requests for a track as it passes the
track. The service direction is then reserved and the scan proceeds in the
opposite direction, again picking up all requests in order.
SCAN algorithm is guaranteed to service every request in one complete pass
through the disk. SCAN algorithm behaves almost identically with the SSTF
algorithm. The SCAN algorithm is sometimes called elevator algorithm.
11.3.4 C SCAN Scheduling Algorithm
The C-SCAN policy restricts scanning to one direction only. Thus, when the
last track has been visited in one direction, the arm is returned to the
opposite end of the disk and the scan begins again.
This reduces the maximum delay experienced by new requests.
11.3.5 LOOK Scheduling Algorithm
Start the head moving in one direction. Satisfy the request for the closest
track in that direction when there is no more request in the direction, the
head is traveling, reverse direction and repeat. This algorithm is similar to
innermost and outermost track on each circuit.
11.4 Disk Management
Operating system is responsible for disk management. Following are some
activities discussed.
11.4.1 Disk Formatting
Disk formatting is of two types.
a) Physical formatting or low level formatting.
b) Logical Formatting
Physical Formatting
Disk must be formatted before storing data.
Disk must be divided into sectors that the disk controllers can read/write.
Low level formatting files the disk with a special data structure for each
sector.
Data structure consists of three fields: header, data area and trailer.
Header and trailer contain information used by the disk controller.
Sector number and Error Correcting Codes (ECC) contained in the header
and trailer.
For writing data to the sector – ECC is updated.
For reading data from the sector – ECC is recalculated.
Low level formatting is done at factory.
Logical Formatting
After disk is partitioned, logical formatting used.
Operating system stores the initial file system data structures onto the disk.
11.4.2 Boot Block
When a computer system is powered up or rebooted, a program in read only
memory executes.
Diagnostic check is done first.
Stage 0 boot program is executed.
Boot program reads the first sector from the boot device and contains a
stage-1 boot program.
May be boot sector will not contain a boot program.
PC booting from hard disk, the boot sector also contains a partition table.
The code in the boot ROM instructs the disk controller to read the boot
blocks into memory and then starts executing that code.
Full boot strap program is more sophisticated than the bootstrap loader in the
boot ROM.
11.5 Swap Space Management
Swap space management is low level task of the operating system. The main
goal for the design and implementation of swap space is to provide the best
throughput for the virtual memory system.
11.5.1 Swap-Space Use
The operating system needs to release sufficient main memory to bring in a process
that is ready to execute. Operating system uses this swap space in various way.
Paging systems may simply store pages that have been pushed out of main
memory. Unix operating system allows the use of multiple swap space are usually
put on separate disks, so the load placed on the I/O system by paging and swapping
can be spread over the systems I/O devices.
11.5.2 Swap Space Location
Swap space can reside in two places:
1. Separate disk partition
2. Normal file System
If the swap space is simply a large file within the file system, normal file
system routines can be used to create it, name it and allocate its space. This
is easy to implement but also inefficient. External fragmentation can greatly
increase swapping times. Catching is used to improve the system
performance. Block of information is cached in the physical memory, and by
using special tools to allocate physically continuous blocks for the swap file.
Swap space can be created in a separate disk partition. No file system or
directory structure is placed on this space. A separate swap space storage
manager is used to allocate and deallocate the blocks. This manager uses
algorithms optimized for speed. Internal fragmentation may increase. Some
operating systems are flexible and can swap both in raw partitions and in file
system space.
11.6 Stable Storage Implementation
The write ahead log, which required the availability of stable storage.
By definition, information residing in stable storage is never lost.
To implement such storage, we need to replicate the required information on
multiple storage devices (usually disks) with independent failure modes.
We also need to coordinate the writing of updates in a way that guarantees
that a failure during an update will not leave all the copies in a damaged
state and that, when we are recovering from failure, we can force all copies
to a consistent and correct value, even if another failure occurs during the
recovery.
11.6 Disk Reliability
Good performance means high speed, another important aspect of
performance is reliability.
A fixed disk drive is likely to be more reliable than a removable disk or tape
drive.
An optical cartridge is likely to be more reliable than a magnetic disk or
tape.
A head crash in a fixed hard disk generally destroys the data, whereas the
failure of a tape drive or optical disk drive often leaves the data cartridge
unharmed.
11.7 Summary
Disk drives are the major secondary storage I/O devices on most computers.
Most secondary devices are either magnetic disks or magnetic tapes. Modern disk
drives are structured as large one dimensional arrays of logical disk blocks. Disk
scheduling algorithms can improve the effective bandwidth, the average response
time, and the variance response time. Algorithms such as SSTF, SCAN, C-SCAN.
LOOK, and CLOOK are designed to make such improvements through strategies
for disk queue ordering.
Performance can be harmed by external fragmentation. The operating
system manages block. First, a disk must be low level formatted to create the
sectors on the raw hardware, new disks usually come preformatted. Then, disk is
partitioned, file systems are created, and boot blocks are allocated to store the
system bootstrap program. Finally when a block is corrupted, the system must have
a way to lock out that block or to replace it logically with a space.
Because of efficient swap space is a key to good performance, systems
usually bypass the file system and use raw disk access for paging I/O. Some
systems dedicate a raw disk partition to swap space, and others use a file within
the file system instead.
11.8 Model Question
Q.1 Explain disk structure?
Q.2 Explain following scheduling algorithms:
1. First Come, First Served scheduling algorithm(FCFS).
2. Shortest Seek Time First (SSTF) algorithm
3. SCAN algorithm
4. Circular SCAN (C-SCAN) algorithm
5. Look Scheduling Algorithm
Q.3 Explain swap space management?
Q. 4 Explain Disk management and types?
Q.5 Describe disk reliability?
CHAPTER 12
FILE SYSTEMS
Unit Structure
12.0 Objectives
12.1 File Concept
12.2 File Support
12.3 Access Methods
12.4 Directory Systems
12.5 File Protection
12.6 Free Space Management
12.7 Summary
12.8 Model Question
12.0 Objective
To explain the function of file systems.
To describe the interfaces to the file systems.
To discuss file system design tradeoffs, including access methods, file
sharing, file locking, and directory structure.
To explore file system protection.
12.1 File Concept
v A 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. Files have unique file
names and may be created and deleted. Restrictions on access control usually
apply at the file level.
v A file is 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. File protection is a
fundamental property of files because it allows different people to store their
information on a shared computer.
v 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.
v A file has a certain defined structure according to its type.
1 Text File
2 Source File
3 Executable File
4 Object File
File Structure
Four terms are use for files
• Field
• Record
• Database
A field is the basic element of data. An individual field contains a single
value. A record is a collection of related fields that can be treated as a unit by some
application program.
A file is a collection of similar records. The file is treated as a singly entity
by users and applications and may be referenced by name. Files have file names
and maybe created and deleted. Access control restrictions usually apply at the file
level.
A database is a collection of related data. Database is designed for use by a
number of different applications. A database may contain all of the information
related to an organization or project, such as a business or a scientific study. The
database itself consists of one or more types of files. Usually, there is a separate
database management system that is independent of the operating system.
File Attributes
File attributes vary from one operating system to another. The common
attributes are,
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 directory structure, which is
maintained on the disk
File Operations
Any file system provides not only a means to store data organized as files,
but a collection of functions that can be performed on files. Typical operations
include the following:
Create: A new file is defined and positioned within the structure of files.
Delete: A file is removed from the file structure and destroyed.
Open: An existing file is declared to be "opened" by a process, allowing the
process to perform functions on the file.
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.
Read: A process reads all or a portion of the data in a file.
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.
File Type Usual Extension Function
Executable exe, com, bin Read to run machine
language program.
Object obj, o Compiled, machine
language, not linked
Source Code c, cc, java, pas asm, a Source code in various
language
Text txt, doc Textual data, documents
File Management Systems:
A file management system is that set of system software that provides services to
users and applications in the use of files. following objectives for a file
management system:
• To meet the data management needs and requirements of the user which include
storage of data and the ability to perform the aforementioned operations.
• To guarantee, to the extent possible, that the data in the file are valid.
• To optimize performance, both from the system point of view in terms of overall
throughput.
• To provide I/O support for a variety of storage device types.
• To minimize or eliminate the potential for lost or destroyed data.
• To provide a standardized set of I/O interface routines to use processes.
TO provide I/O support for multiple users, in the case of multiple-user
systems File System Architecture. At the lowest level, device drivers
communicate directly with peripheral devices or their controllers or channels. A
device driver is responsible for starting I/O operations on a device and processing
the completion of an I/O request. For file operations, the typical devices controlled
are disk and tape drives. Device drivers are usually considered to be part of the
operating system.
The I/O control, consists of device drivers and interrupt handlers to transfer
information between the memory and the disk system. A device driver can be
thought of as a translator.
The basic file system needs only to issue generic commands to the
appropriate device driver to read and write physical blocks on the disk.
The file-organization module knows about files and their logical blocks, as
well as physical blocks. By knowing the type of file allocation used and the
location of the file, the file-organization module can translate logical block
addresses to physical block addresses for the basic file system to transfer. Each
file's logical blocks are numbered from 0 (or 1) through N, whereas the physical
blocks containing the data usually do not match the logical numbers, so a
translation is needed to locate each block. The file-organization module also
includes the free-space manager, which tracks unallocated and provides these
blocks to the file organization module when requested.
The logical file system uses the directory structure to provide the fileorganization
module with the information the latter needs, given a symbolic file
name. The logical file system is also responsible for protection and security.
To create a new file, an application program calls the logical file system.
The logical file system knows the format of the directory structures. To create a
new file, it reads the appropriate directory into memory, updates it with the new
entry, and writes it back to the disk.
Once the file is found the associated information such as size, owner, access
permissions and data block locations are generally copied into a table in memory,
referred to as the open-file fable, consisting of information about all the currently
opened files.
The first reference to a file (normally an open) causes the directory structure
to be searched and the directory entry for this file to be copied into the table of
opened files. The index into this table is returned to the user program, and all
further references are made through the index rather than with a symbolic name.
The name given to the index varies. Unix systems refer to it as a file descriptor,
Windows/NT as a file handle, and other systems as a file control block.
Consequently, as long as the file is not closed, all file operations are done on
the open-file table. When the file is closed by all users that have opened it, the
updated file information is copied back to the disk-based directory structure.
File-System Mounting
As a file must be opened before it is used, a file system must be mounted
before it can be available to processes on the system. The mount procedure
is straight forward. The stem is given the name of the device, and the
location within the file structure at which to attach the file system (called the
mount point).
The operating system verifies that the device contains a valid file system. It
does so by asking the device driver to read the device directory and verifying
that the directory has the expected format. Finally, the operating system
notes in its directory structure that a file system is mounted at the specified
mount point. This scheme enables the operating system to traverse its
directory structure, switching among file systems as appropriate.
Allocation Methods
The direct-access nature of disks allows us flexibility in the implementation
of files. Three major methods of allocating disk space are in wide use:
contiguous, linked and indexed. Each method has its advantages and
disadvantages.
Contiguous Allocation
The contiguous allocation method requires each file to occupy a set of
contiguous blocks on the disk. Disk addresses define a linear ordering on the
disk. Notice that with this ordering assuming that only one job is accessing
the disk, accessing block b + 1 after block b normally requires no head
movement.
When head movement is needed, it is only one track. Thus, the number of
disk seeks required for accessing contiguously allocated files is minimal.
Contiguous allocation of a file is defined by the disk address and length (in
block units) of the first block. If the file is n blocks long, and starts at
location!), then it occupies blocks b, b + 1, b + 2, ..., b + n – 1. The directory
entry for each file indicates the address of the starting block and the length
of the area allocate for this file.
Accessing a file that has been allocated contiguously is easy. For sequential
access, the file system remembers the disk address of the last block
referenced and, when necessary, reads the next block. For direct access to
block i of a file that starts at block b, we can immediately access block b + i.
The contiguous disk-space-allocation problem can be seen to be a particular
application of the general dynamic storage-allocation First Fit and Best Fit
are the most common strategies used to select a free hole from the set of
available holes. Simulations have shown that both first-fit and best-fit are
more efficient than worst-fit in terms of both time and storage utilization.
Neither first-fit nor best-fit is clearly best in terms of storage utilization, but
first-fit is generally faster.
These algorithms suffer from the problem of external fragmentation. As files
are allocated and deleted, the free disk space is broken into little pieces.
External fragmentation exists whenever free space is broken into chunks. It
becomes a problem when the largest contiguous chunks is insufficient for a
request; storage is fragmented into a number of holes, no one of which is
large enough to store the data. Depending on the total amount of disk storage
and the average file size, external fragmentation may be either a minor or a
major problem.
To prevent loss of significant amounts of disk space to external
fragmentation, the user had to run repacking routine that copied the entire
file system onto another floppy disk or onto a tape. The original floppy disk
was then freed completely, creating one large contiguous free space. The
routine then copied the files back onto the floppy disk by allocating
contiguous space from this one large hole. This scheme effectively compacts
all free space into one contiguous space, solving the fragmentation problem.
The cost of this compaction is time.
The time cost is particularly severe for large hard disks that use contiguous
allocation, where compacting all the space may take hours and may be
necessary on a weekly basis. During this down time, normal system
operation generally cannot be permitted, so such compaction is avoided at
all costs on production machines.
A major problem is determining how much space is needed for a file. When
the file is created, the total amount of space it will need must be found and
allocated.
The user will normally over estimate the amount of space needed, resulting
in considerable wasted space.
Linked Allocation
Linked allocation solves all problems of contiguous allocation. With link
allocation, each file is a linked list disk blocks; the disk blocks may be
scattered anywhere on the disk.
This pointer is initialized to nil (the end-of-list pointer value) to signify an
empty file. The size field is also set to 0. A write to the file causes a free bio
to be found via the free-space management system, and this new block is the
written to, and is linked to the end of the file
There is no external fragmentation with linked allocation, and any free!
block on the free-space list can be used to satisfy a request. Notice also that
there is no need to declare the size of a file when that file is created. A file
can continue to grow as long as there are free blocks. Consequently, it is
never necessary to compact disk space.
The major problem is that it can be used effectively for only sequential
access files. To find the ith block of a file we must start at the beginning of
that file, and follow the pointers until we get to the ith block. Each access to
a pointer requires a disk read and sometimes a disk seek. Consequently, it is
inefficient to support a direct-access capability for linked allocation files.
Linked allocation is the space required for the pointers If a pointer requires 4
bytes out of a 512 Byte block then 0.78 percent of the disk is being used for
pointer, rather than for information.
The usual solution to this problem is to collect blocks into multiples, called
clusters, and to allocate the clusters rather than blocks. For instance, the file
system define a cluster as 4 blocks and operate on the disk in only cluster
units.
Pointers then use a much smaller percentage of the file's disk space. This
method allows the logical-to-physical block mapping to remain simple, but
improves disk throughput (fewer disk head seeks) and decreases the space
needed for block allocation and free-list management. The cost of this
approach an increase in internal fragmentation.
Yet another problem is reliability. Since the files are linked together by
pointers scattered all over the disk, consider what would happen if a
pointer— were lost or damaged. Partial solutions are to use doubly linked
lists or to store the file name and relative block number in each block;
however, these schemes require even more overhead for each file.
An important variation, on the linked allocation method is the use of a file
allocation table (FAT). This simple but efficient method of disk-space
allocation is used by the MS-DOS and OS/2 operating systems. A section of
disk at the beginning of each-partition is set aside to contain the table. The
table has one entry for each disk block, and is indexed by block number. The
FAT is used much as is a linked list. The directory entry contains the block
number of the first block of the file. The table entry indexed by that block
number then contains the block number of the next block in the file. This
chain continues until the last block, which has a special end-of-file value -as
the table entry. Unused blocks are indicated by a 0 table value. Allocating a
new block to a file is a simple matter of finding the first 0-valued table entry,
and replacing the previous end-of-file value with the address of the new
block. The 0 is then replaced with the end-offile value. An illustrative
example is the FAT structure of for a file consisting of disk blocks 217, 618,
and 339.
Indexed Allocation
Linked allocation solves the external-fragmentation and size-declaration
problems of contiguous allocation. The absence of a FAT, linked allocation
cannot support efficient direct access, since the pointers to the blocks are
scattered with the blocks themselves all over the disk and need to be
retrieved in order Indexed allocation solves this problem by bringing all the
pointers together into one location: the index block.
Each file has its own index block, which is an array of disk-block addresses.
The ith entry in the index block points to the ith block of the file. The
directory contains the address of the index block.
When the file is created, all pointers in the index block are set to nil. When
the ith block is first written, a block is obtained: from the free space manager,
and its address- is put in the ith index-block entry.
Allocation supports direct access, without suffering from external
fragmentation because any free block on he disk may satisfy a request for
more space.
Indexed allocation does suffer from wasted space. The pointer overhead of
the index block is generally greater than the pointer overhead of linked
allocation.
1. Linked scheme. An index block is normally one disk block. Thus, it
can be read and written directly by itself.
2. Multilevel index. A variant of the linked representation is to use a
first-level index block to point to a set of second-level index blocks,
which in turn point to the file blocks. To access a block, the operating
system uses the first-level index to find a second-level index block,
and that block to find the desired data block.
Free-Space Management
Since there is only a limited amount of disk space, it is necessary to reuse the space
from deleted files for new files, if possible.
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.
For example consider a disk where blocks 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17,
18, 25, 26, and 27 are free, and the rest of the blocks are allocated. The freespace
bit map would be
001111001111110001100000011100000 …..
The main advantage of this approach is that it is relatively simple and
efficient to find the first free block or n consecutive free blocks on the disk.
The calculation of the block number is
(number of bits per word) x (number of 0-value words) + offset of first 1 bit
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. This first block contains a pointer to the next free disk block,
and so on. Block 2 would contain a pointer to block 3, which would point to
block 4, which would point to block 5, which would point to block 8, and so
on. Usually, the operating system simply needs a free block so that it can
allocate that block to a file, so the first block in the free list is used.
Grouping
A modification of the free-list approach is to store the addresses of n free
blocks in the first free block. The first n-1 of these blocks are actually free.
The importance of this implementation is that the addresses of a large
number of free blocks can be found quickly, unlike in the standard linkedlist
approach.
Counting
Several contiguous blocks may be allocated or freed simultaneously,
particularly when space is allocated with the contiguous allocation algorithm
or through clustering. A list of n free disk addresses, we can keep the
address of the first free block and the number n of free contiguous blocks
that follow the first block.
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.
14.9 Summary
A file is an abstract data type defined and implemented by the operating
system. It is a sequence of logical records. A logical record may be a byte, a line,
or a more complex data item. The operating system may specifically support
various record types or may leave that support to the application program.
The major task for the operating system is to map the logical file concept
onto physical storage devices such as magnetic tape or disk. All the file
information kept in the directory structure. File system is implemented on the disk
and memory.
Disk address define a linear addressing on the disk. Continuous allocation
algorithm suffers from the external fragmentation. Free space management
techniques are bit vector, linked list. Grouping, counting.
Since file are the main information storage mechanism in most computer
systems, file protection is needed. Access to files can be controlled separately for
each type of access – read, write, execute, append, delete, list directory, and so on.
File protection can be provided by access lists, passwords, or other techniques.
14.10 Model Question
Q.1 Explain the file concept?
Q.2 List the different types of files?
Q.3 Describe the different types of access methods?
Q.4 What are the advantages and disadvantages of continuous, linked and
indexed allocation methods?
Q.5 Explain the file system structure?
Q.6 What are different types of partitions and mounting?
CHAPTER 13
PROTECTION
Unit Structure
13.0 Objectives
13.1 Goals of Protection
13.2 Domain of Protection
13.3 Access Matrix
13.4 Revocation of Access Rights
13.5 Summary
13.6 Model Question
13.0 Objective
Discuss the goals and principles of protection in a modern computer system.
Explain how protection domains combined with an access matrix are used to
specify the resources a process may access.
Examine capability and language-based protection systems
13.1 Goals of Protection
Protection can improve reliability by detecting latent errors at the interfaces
between component subsystems. Early detection of interface errors can often
prevent contamination of a healthy subsystem by a malfunctioning subsystem.
Also, an unprotected resource cannot defend against use by an unauthorized or
incompetent user. A protection oriented system provides means to distinguish
between authorized and unauthorized usage.
The role of protection in a computer system is to provide a mechanism for the
enforcement of the policies governing resource use. These policies can be
established in a variety of ways. Some are fixed in the design of the system, while
others are formulated by the management of a system. Still others are defined by
the individual users to protect their own files and programs. A protection system
must have the flexibility to enforce a variety of policies. The application
programmer needs to use protection mechanism.
13.2 Principles of Protection
Frequently, a guiding principle can be used throughout a project, such as the
design of an operating system. Following this principle simplifies design
decisions and keeps the system consistent and easy to understand. A key,
time tested guiding principle for protection is the principle of least privilege.
It dictates that programs, users, and even systems be given just enough
privileges to perform their tasks.
An operating system following the principle of least privilege implements its
features, programs, system calls, and data structures so that failure or
compromise of a component does the minimum damage and allows the
minimum damage to be done.
The principle of least privilege can help produce a more secure computing
environment.
13.3 Domain of Protection
A computer system is a collection of processes and objects. By objects, we
mean both hardware objects (such as the CPU, memory segments, printers,
disks, tape drives), and software objects (such as files, programs, and
semaphore).
Protection domain is process that operates within a protection domain, which
specifies the resources that the process may access. Each domain defines a
set of objects and .the types of operations that may be invoked on each
object.
The ability to execute an operation on an object is an access right. A domain
is a collection of access ' rights, each of which is an ordered pair <objectname,
rights-set>. For example, if domain D has the access right <file F,
{read, write}>, then a process executing in domain D can both read and
write file F, if cannot, however, perform any other operation on that object.
Fig System with three protection domains.
Domains do not need to be disjoint; they may share access rights. The
association between a process and a domain may be either static or dynamic.
A domain can be realized in a variety of ways:
1. Each user may be a domain. The set of objects that can be accessed depends
on the identity of the user. Domain switching occur when the user is
changed — generally when one user logs out and another user logs in.
2. Each process may be a domain. In this case, the set of objects that can be
accessed depends on the identity of the process. Domain switching
corresponds to one process sending a message to another process, and then
waiting for a response.
3. Each procedure may be a domain. In this case, the set of objects that can be
accessed corresponds to the local variables define Domain switching occurs
when a procedure call is made.
13.3 Access Matrix
Our model of protection can be viewed abstractly as a matrix, called an
access matrix. The rows of the access matrix represent domains, and the
columns represent objects. Each entry in the matrix consists of a set of
access rights.
Because objects are defined explicitly by the column, we can omit the object
name from the access right. The entry access (i, j) defines the set of
operations that a process, executing in domain Di, can invoke on object Oj.
We consider the access matrix shown in Figure. There are four domains and
four objects: three files (F1, F2, F3), and one laser printer. When a process
executes in domain D1, it can read files F1 and F3.. A process executing in
domain D4 has the same privileges as it does in domain D1, but in addition,
it can also write onto files F1 and F3. Note that the laser printer can be
accessed only by a process executing in domain D2.
The access-matrix scheme provides us with the mechanism for specifying a
variety of policies. More specifically, we must ensure that a process
executing in domain Di can access only those objects specified in row i, and
then only as allowed by the access matrix entries.
Object
Domain
F1 F2 F3 printer
D1 Read Read
D2 Print
D3 read Execute
D4 Read write Read write
Fig Access Matrix
Policy decisions concerning protection can be implemented by the access
matrix. The users normally decide the contents of the access-matrix entries.
Allowing controlled change to the contents of the access-matrix entries
requires three additional operations: copy, owner, and control.
13.4 Revocation of Access Rights
In a dynamic protection system, we may sometimes need to revolve access
rights to objects shared by different users. Various questions about revocation may
arise:
Immediate versus delayed. Does revocation occur immediately, or is it
delayed? If revocation is delayed, can we find out when it will take place?
Selective versus general. When an access right to an object revoked, does it
affect all the users who have an access right to that object, or can we specify
a select group of users whose access rights should be revoked?
Partial versus total. Can a subset of the rights associated with an object be
revoked, or must we revoke all access rights for this object?
Temporary versus permanent. Can access be revoked permanently (that is,
the revoked access right will never again be available), or can access be
revoked and later be obtained again?
Schemes that implements revocation for capabilities include the following:
Reacquisition. Periodically, capabilities are deleted from each domain. If a
process wants to use a capability, it may find that capability has been
deleted. The process may then try to reacquire the capability. If access has
been revoked, the process will not be able to reacquire the capability.
Back pointers. A list of pointers is maintained with each object, pointing to
all capabilities associated with that object. When revocation is required, we
can follow this pointers, changing the capabilities as necessary. This scheme
was adopted in the MULTICS system.
Indirection. The capabilities point indirectly, not directly, to the objects.
Each capability points to a unique entry in a global trade, which in turn
points to the object. We implement revocation by searching the global table
for the desired entry and deleting it. It does not allow selective revocation.
Keys. A key is a unique bit pattern that can be associated with a capability.
This key is defined when the capability is created, and it can be neither
modifier\ed nor inspected by the process that owns the capability. A master
key is associated with each object; it can be defined or replaced with the setkey
operation.
13.5 Summary
Computer system contains many objects, and they need to be protected from
misuse. Objects may be hardware (such as memory, CPU time, and I/O devices) or
software(such as files, programs, and semaphores). An access right is permission
to perform an operation on an object. A domain is a set of access rights. Processes
execute in domains and may use any of the access rights in the domain to access
and manipulate objects. During its lifetime, a process may be either bound to a
protection domain or allowed to switch from one domain to another.
The access matrix is a general model of protection that provides a
mechanism for protection without imposing a particular protection policy on the
system or its users. The separation of policy and mechanism is an important design
policy.
Real systems are much more limited than the general model and tend to
provide protection for files.
13.6 Model Question
Q. 1 Define and explain Access matrix?
Q. 2 How does the systems that implement the principle of least privilege still
have protection systems?
Q.3 Discuss strengths and weaknesses of implementing an access matrix using
access list?
Q. 4 Explain Domain Structure?
CHAPTER 14
SECURITY
Unit Structure
14.0 Objectives
14.1 The security problem
14.2 Authentication
14.3 One Time passwords
14.4 Program Threats
14.5 System Threats
14.6 Threat Monitoring
14.7 Encryption
14.8 Computer Security Classifications
14.9 Summary
14.10 Model Question
14.0 Objective
To discuss security threats and attacks.
To explain the fundamentals of encryption, authentication, and hashing.
To examine the uses of cryptography in computing.
To describe the various countermeasures to security attacks.
14.1 The Security Problem
The operating system can allow users to protect their resources. We say that
a system is secure if its resources art used and accessed as intended under all
circumstances. Unfortunately, it is not generally possible to achieve total security.
Security violations of the system can be categorized as being either intentional
(malicious) or accidental. Among the forms of malicious access are the following:
• Unauthorized reading of data (theft of information).
• Unauthorized modification of data.
• Unauthorized destruction of data.
To protect the system, we must take security measures at two levels:
• Physical: The site or sites containing the computer systems must be physically
secured against armed or surreptitious entry by intruders.
• Human: Users must be screened carefully so that the chance of authorizing a
user who then gives access to an intruder (in exchange for a bribe, for example) is
reduced.
Security at both levels must be maintained if operating-system security is to
be ensured.
Fig 14.1 Standard Security Attack.
14.2 Authentication
A major security problem for operating systems is the authentication problem. The
protection system depends on an ability to identify the programs and processes that
are executing. Authentication is based on one or more of three items: user
possession (a key or card), user knowledge (a user identifier and password), and a
user attribute (fingerprint) retina pattern, or signature).
v Constraining set of potential senders of a message
Ø Complementary and sometimes redundant to encryption.
Ø Also can prove message unmodified.
v An authentication algorithm consists of following components:
Ø A set K of keys.
Ø A set M of messages.
Ø A set A of authenticators.
Ø A function S : K → (M→ A)
§ That is, for each k K, S(k) is a function for generating authenticators
from messages.
§ Both S and S(k) for any k should be efficiently computable functions.
Ø A function V : K → (M× A→ {true, false}). That is, for each k K, V(k) is a
function for verifying authenticators on messages.
§ Both V and V(k) for any k should be efficiently computable functions.
v For a message m, a computer can generate an authenticator a A such that
V(k)(m, a) = true only if it possesses S(k).
v Thus, computer holding S(k) can generate authenticators on messages so that
any other computer possessing V(k) can verify them.
v Computer not holding S(k) cannot generate authenticators on messages that can
be verified using V(k).
v Since authenticators are generally exposed (for example, they are sent on the
network with the messages themselves), it must not be feasible to derive S(k)
from the authenticators.
Authentication – Hash Functions
Ø Basis of authentication.
Ø Creates small, fixed-size block of data (message digest, hash value) from
m.
Ø Hash Function H must be collision resistant on m
Must be infeasible to find an m' ≠ m such that H(m) = H(m').
Ø If H(m) = H(m'), then m = m'
The message has not been modified.
Ø Common message-digest functions include MD5, which produces a 128-bit
hash, and SHA-1, which outputs a 160-bit hash.
Authentication – MAC
v Symmetric encryption used in message-authentication code (MAC)
authentication algorithm.
v Simple example:
Ø MAC defines S(k)(m) = f (k, H(m)).
§ Where f is a function that is one-way on its first argument.
k cannot be derived from f (k, H(m)).
§ Because of the collision resistance in the hash function, reasonably
assured no other message could create the same MAC.
§ A suitable verification algorithm is V(k)(m, a) ≡ ( f (k,m) = a).
§ Note that k is needed to compute both S(k) and V(k), so anyone able to
compute one can compute the other.
Authentication – Digital Signature
v Based on asymmetric keys and digital signature algorithm.
v Authenticators produced are digital signatures.
v In a digital-signature algorithm, computationally infeasible to derive S(ks ) from
V(kv)
Ø V is a one-way function.
Ø Thus, kv is the public key and ks is the private key.
v Consider the RSA digital-signature algorithm.
Ø Similar to the RSA encryption algorithm, but the key use is reversed
Ø Digital signature of message S(ks )(m) = H(m)ks mod N
Ø The key ks again is a pair d, N, where N is the product of two large,
randomly chosen prime numbers p and q.
Ø Verification algorithm is V(kv)(m, a) ≡ (akv mod N = H(m))
§ Where kv satisfies kvks mod (p − 1)(q − 1) = 1
v Why authentication if a subset of encryption?
Ø Fewer computations (except for RSA digital signatures).
Ø Authenticator usually shorter than message.
Ø It Can be basis for non-repudiation.
14.3 One Time passwords
To avoid the problems of password sniffing and shoulder surfing, a system
could use a set of paired passwords. When a session begins, the system
randomly selects and presents one part of a password pair; the user must
supply the other part. In this system, the user is challenged and must respond
with the correct answer to that challenge.
This approach can be generalized to the use of an algorithm as a password.
The algorithm might be an integer function.
In this one-time password system, the password is different in each instance.
Anyone capturing the password from one session and trying to reuse it in
another session will fail.
The user uses the keypad to enter the shared secret, also known as a personal
identification number (PIN). Another variation on one-time passwords is the
use of a code book, or one time pad.
14.4 Program Threats
In an environment where a program written by one user may be used by
another user, there is an opportunity for misuse, which may result in unexpected
behavior. There are two common methods. Trojan horses and Trap doors.
14.4.1 Trojan Horse
Many systems have mechanisms for allowing programs written by users to
be executed by other users. If these programs are executed in a domain that
provides the access rights of the executing user, they may misuse these
rights.
A code segment that its environment is called a Trojan horse. The Trojanhorse
problem is exacerbated by long search paths. The search path lists the
set of directories to search when an ambiguous program name is given. The
path is searched for a file of that name and the file is executed. All the
directories in the search path must be secure, or a Trojan horse could be
slipped into the user's path and executed accidentally.
A variation of the Trojan horse would be a program that emulates a login
program. The emulator stored away the password, printed out a login error
message, and exited; the user was then provided with a genuine login
prompt.
This type of attack can be defeated by the operating system printing a usage
message at the end of an interactive session or by a non-trappable key
sequence, such as the control-alt-delete combination that Windows NT uses.
14.4.2 Trap Door
The designer of a program or system might leave a hole in the software that
only Operating System is capable of using. A clever trap door could be included in
a compiler. The compiler could generate standard object code as well as a trap
door, regardless of the source code being compiled.
14.5 System Threats
Most operating systems provide a means for processes to spawn other processes.
14.5.1 Worms
A worm is a process that uses the spawn mechanism to clobber system
performance. The worm spawns copies of itself, using up system resources
and perhaps locking out system use by, all other processes. Since they may
reproduce themselves among systems and thus shut down the entire network.
The worm was made up of two programs a grappling hook (also called
bootstrap or vector) program and the main program. The grappling hook
consisted of 99 lines of C code compiled and run on each machine it
accessed. The grappling hook connected to the machine where it originated
and uploaded a copy of the main worm onto the "hooked" system. The main
program proceeded to search for other machines to which the newly infected
system could connect easily.
The attack via remote access was one of three infection methods built into
the worm.
14.5.2 Viruses
Another form of computer attack is a virus. Like worms, viruses are
designed to spread into other programs and can wreak havoc in a system,
including modifying or destroying files and causing system crashes and
program malfunctions. Whereas a worm is structured as a complete,
standalone program, a virus is a fragment of code embedded in a legitimate
program. Viruses are a major problem for computer users, especially users
of microcomputer systems.
Even if a virus does infect a program, its powers are limited because other
aspects of the system are protected in multi-user. Single-user systems have
no such protections and, as a result, a virus has free run.
Viruses are usually spread by users downloading viral programs from public
bulletin boards or exchanging floppy disks containing an infection. The best
protection against computer viruses is prevention, or the practice of Safe
computing.
14.6 Threat Monitoring
The security of a system can be improved by two management techniques.
One is threat monitoring: The system can check for suspicious patterns of
activity in an attempt to detect a security violation.
Another technique is an audit log. An audit log simply records the time,
user, and type of all accesses to an object. Networked computers are much
more susceptible to security attacks than are standalone systems.
One solution is the use of a firewall to separate trusted and un-trusted
systems. A firewall is a computer or router that sits between the trusted and
the un-trusted. It limits network access between the two security domains,
and monitors and logs all connections. A firewall therefore may need to
allow http to pass.
14.7 Encryption
Encryption is one common method of protecting information transmitted
over unreliable links. The basic mechanism works as follows.
1. The information (text) is encrypted (encoded) from its initial readable
form (called clear text), to an internal form (called cipher text). This
internal text form, although readable, does not make any sense.
2. The cipher text can be stored in a readable file, or transmitted over
unprotected channels.
3. To make sense of the cipher text, the receiver must decrypt (decode) it
back into clear text.
Even if the encrypted information is accessed by an unauthorized person or
program, it will be useless unless it can be decoded.
v Encryption algorithm consists of
Ø Set of K keys.
Ø Set of M Messages.
Ø Set of C ciphertexts (encrypted messages).
Ø A function E : K → (M→C). That is, for each k K, E(k) is a function for
generating ciphertexts from messages.
§ Both E and E(k) for any k should be efficiently computable functions.
Ø A function D : K → (C → M). That is, for each k K, D(k) is a function for
generating messages from ciphertexts.
§ Both D and D(k) for any k should be efficiently computable functions.
v An encryption algorithm must provide this essential property: Given a
ciphertext c C, a computer can compute m such that E(k)(m) = c only if it
possesses D(k).
Ø Thus, a computer holding D(k) can decrypt ciphertexts to the plaintexts used
to produce them, but a computer not holding D(k) cannot decrypt
ciphertexts.
v Since ciphertexts are generally exposed (for example, sent on the network), it is
important that it be infeasible to derive D(k) from the ciphertexts.
14.8 Computer Security Classifications
The U.S. Department of Defense outlines four divisions of computer
security: A, B, C, and D.
D – Minimal security.
C – Provides discretionary protection through auditing. Divided into C1 and
C2. C1 identifies cooperating users with the same level of protection. C2
allows user-level access control.
B – All the properties of C, however each object may have unique
sensitivity labels. Divided into B1, B2, and B3.
A – Uses formal design and verification techniques to ensure security.
14.9 Summary
Protection is an internal problem. Security, in contrast, must consider both
the computer system and the environment people, buildings, businesses, valuable
objects, and threats within which the system is used.
The data stored in the computer system must be protected from unauthorized
access, malicious destruction or alteration, and accidental introduction of
inconsistency. It is easier to protect against accidental loss of data consistency than
to protect against malicious access to the data.
Several types of attacks can be launched against programs and against
individual computes or the masses. Encryption limits the domain of receivers of
data, while authentication limits the domain of senders. User authentication
methods are used to identify legitimate users of a system.
14.10 Model Question
Q. 1 Define and explain Encryption?
Q. 2 Explain authentication process?
Q. 3 Explain various types of system threats?
Q.4 Write a note on following
a) viruses
b) Computer Security Specification
Q. 5 Explain types of Program threats?
CHAPTER 15
LINUX SYSTEM
Unit Structure
15.0 Objectives
15.1 Linux introduction and File System
15.2 Basic Features
15.3 Advantages
15.4 Basic Architecture of UNIX/Linux System
15.5 Summary
15.6 Model Question
15.0 Objective
To explore the history of the UNIX operating system from which Linux is
derived and the principles which Linux is designed upon.
To examine the Linux process model and illustrate how Linux schedules
processes and provides inter-process communication.
To explore how Linux implements file systems and manages I/O devices.
15.1 Linux introduction and File System
Linux looks like UNIX system. Linux is developed by Linux Torvalds.
Linux development began in 1991. Linux source code is available for free on the
internet. The basic Linux system is standard environment for applications and user
programming.
15.1.1 Components of a Linux System
Any Linux system consists of three components.
1. Kernel
2. System libraries
3. System utilities
Kernel:
The Kernel is responsible for maintaining all the important abstraction of the
operating system. It includes virtual memory and processes. Kernel is most
important component of the Linux system.
System libraries:
It contains standard set of functions through which application can interact
with the Kernel. System library implements much of the operating system
functionality that does not need the full privileges of Kernel code.
System utilities:
System utilities are programs that perform individual, specialized
management tasks.
Fig.15.1 shows the components of the Linux system.
All the Kernel code executes in the processors privileged mode with full
access to all the physical resources of the computer. Linux refers to this
privileged mode as Kernel mode. In Linux, no user mode code is built into
the Kernel.
System
Management
programs
User
Processes
User utility
programs
Compilers
System shared libraries
Linux Kernel
Loadable Kernel modules
Fig. 15.1 Components of Linux system
Any operating system support code that does not need to urn in Kernel mode
is placed into the system libraries instead.
The Kernel is created as a single, monolithic binary. All Kernel code and
data structures are kept in a single address space, no context switches are
necessary when a process calls an operating system function. Core
scheduling, virtual memory code also occupied same address space.
Linux Kernel provides all the functionality necessary to run processes, and it
provides system services to give arbitrated and protected access to hardware
resources
The Linux system includes a wide variety of user mode programs both
system utilities and user utilities.
15.2 Kernel Modules
Kernel code executes in Kernel mode with full access to all the physical
resources of the computer. Sections of Kernel code that can be compiled,
loaded and unloaded independent of the rest of the Kernel.
A Kernel module may typically implement a device driver, a file system, or
a networking protocol. The module interface allows third parties to write and
distribute, on their own teams, device drivers or file systems that could not
be distributed under the GPL.
The loadable Kernel modules run in privileged Kernel mode. Kernel
modules allow a Linux system to be setup with a standard, minimal Kernel,
without any extra device drivers built in. Kernel management allows
modules to be dynamically loaded into memory when needed.
Linux Kernel modules has three component.
1. Module management
2. Driver registration
3. Conflict resolution mechanism
1. Module management
1. It support loading modules into memory and letting them talk to the
rest of the Kernel.
2. Linux maintains an internal symbol table in the Kernel.
3. Module loading is split into two separate sections:
a. Managing sections of module code in Kernel memory
b. Handling symbols that modules are allowed to reference.
4. Symbol table does not contain the full set of symbol defined in the
Kernel during latter compilation
5. The module requestor manages loading requested, but currently
unloaded modules.
6. It also regularly queries the Kernel to see whether a dynamically
loaded module is still in use and will unload it when it is no longer
actively needed
7. Original service request will complete once the module is loaded.
2. Driver Registration.
1. Allows modules to tell the rest of the kernel that a new driver has
become available.
2. Kernel maintains dynamic tables of all known drivers.
3. Kernel also provides a set of routines to allow drivers to be added or
removed.
4. Registration table contains following:
a. Device drivers
b. File systems
c. Network protocols
d. Binary format.
5. Device drivers may be block or character devices.
6. Files system contains network file system, virtual file system etc.
7. Network protocol includes IPX, packet filtering rules for a network.
3. Conflict Resolution
1. A mechanisms that allows different device drivers to reserve hardware
resources and to protect those resources from accidental use by
another driver.
2. Linux provides a ventral conflict resolution mechanism.
3. Conflict resolution module aims are
a. To prevent modules from clashing over access to hardware
resources.
b. Prevent auto probes from interfering with existing device
drivers.
c. Resolve conflicts among multiple drivers trying to access the
same hardware.
4. Kernel maintains lists of allocated hardware resources.
15.3 Basic Features
UNIX has a number of features, mostly good and some bad, but it is necessary to
know at least some of them:
1. UNIX is Portable: Portability is the ability of the software that operates on one
machine to operate on another, different machine. In UNIX there are two types of
portability, that of the UNIX operating system itself (i.e. the Kernel program) and
of the application program.
Advantages of portability are:
a) Portable application program decrease the programming costs.
b) Retraining is avoided as the end user works on a similar system with enhanced
capabilities.
2. Open system: The system that more than one system can access the same data
at the same time. Several people involved in a common project can conveniently
access each other's data. Apart from data, other resources like memory (RAM), the
CPU(the chip), or the hard disk can be used by many users simultaneously.
3. Multi-user Capability: This means that more than one system can access the
same data at the same time. Several people involved in a common project can
conveniently access each other's data. Apart from data, other resources like
memory(RAM), the CPU(the chip), or the hard disk can be used by many users
simultaneously.
4. Multi-tasking Capability: Multi-tasking means that a user can perform more
than one tasks at the same time. A user can do this by placing some tasks in the
background while he works on a task in the foreground. An ampersand(&) placed
at the end of the command line sends the process in background.
5. Hierarchical File System: Hierarchical structure offers maximum flexibility for
grouping information in a way that reflects in natural structure. The programs and
data can be organized conveniently since files can be grouped according to usage.
6. The shell: User interaction with UNIX is controlled by the shell, a powerful
command interpreter. The shell has various capabilities like redirecting the
application input and output and also to progress a group of files with a single
command.
7. UNIX has built in networking: The UNIX has various built in programs and
utilities like UUCP, mail, write, etc. With these utilities one can communicate with
other user or one server to another.
8. Security: Computer system security means protecting hardware and the
information contained within the system. Security means to avoid:
a) Unauthorized access to the computer system.
b) Unauthorized examination of output.
c) Unauthorized tapping of data.
d) Destruction of software data by mistake or on purpose.
e) Examination of sensitive data by unauthorized users and alteration of sensitive
data without detection.
The UNIX provides the features like:
a) Password protection for system access.
b) Control access to individual files.
c) Encryption of data files.
9. Software Development Tools: UNIX offers an excellent variety of tools for
software development for all phases, from program editing to maintenance of
software.
15.4 Basic Architecture of UNIX/Linux System
Fig Architecture of UNIX System
The figure shows the architecture of the UNIX system in the form of various
layers. The inner most layer i.e. core is the hardware of the computer system. The
kernel is a software which directly comes in contact with the hardware and controls
the hardware. A layer above this is the shell. Above this the various utilities like
Id
Kernel
HARDWAR
E
Shell
Id
vi
ed
grep
wc
date
a.out
CC
compilers
Application
Programs
USE
R
USE
R
USE
R USE
R
nroff, troff, vi, as, etc. and the various compilers and other application program
reside. Let us see these layers and their functions in detail:
1. Hardware: The hardware at the centre of the structure provides the operating
system with basic services. The hardware constitutes all the peripherals like
memory (RAM, HDD, FDD, CD etc), processor, mouse and other input devices,
terminal (i.e. VDUs), printers etc.
2. The Kernel: The operating system interacts directly with the hardware,
providing common services to programs and insulating user program complexities
of hardware. The operating system is also called as Kernel. This kernel interacts
directly with the hardware. Because of this hardware isolation of user program, it is
easy to move the user programs easily between UNIX systems running on different
hardware.
3. Shell: Shell is actually the interface between the user and the Kernel that isolates
the user from knowledge of Kernel functions. The shell accepts the commands
keyed in by the users and checks for their syntax and gives out error messages if
something goes. These command after getting interpreted by the shell are provided
to kernel for appropriate action. It also provides the features of pipe ( | ) and
redirection ( i.e. <, >, >>, <<). The shell also has a programming capability of its
own. There are a number of shells available in various UNIX flavours but common
area)
Bourne Shell (sh)
b) C Shell ( csh )
c) Korn Shell (ksh)
The other shells are: bash, restricted Shell(rsh) and visual Shell(vsh). The
bourne Shell (sh) is also called a standard shell.
4. UNIX utilities: The UNIX system Kernel does only level jobs necessary to
schedule processes, keep track of files, and control hardware devices.
All other operating system functions are done by utility programs written as
software tools.
Following are some of the utilities that play a prominent role in the operating of the
UNIX system.
a) Init initializes the process creation mechanism.
For each terminal where a login is allowed, init creates a process that prints the
login: message.
b) Getty process ―conditions‖ the connection to the terminal so that the
terminal can communicate with the computer and then prints the login:
message.
c) Login when an user responds to the login prompt the login program replaces
getty. If the user account has a password, login prints the password :
message and checks to see that the password entered is correct.
If correct, program named in password file, usually Bourne shell or C
shell replaces login and the user is successfully logged into the system.
d) stty changes a terminal characteristics.
e) mkfs builds a file system.
f) mknod builds a special file system.
g) mount unmount mounts and unmounts a file system.
h) syne writes a disk block images from memory to disk.
15.5 Summary
Linux is a modern, free operating system based on UNIX standards. It has
designed to run efficiently and reliably on common PC hardware; it also runs on a
variety of other platforms. It provide a programming interface and user interface
compatible with standard UNIX systems and can run a large number of UNIX
applications, including an increasing number of commercially supported
applications.
Linux has not evolved in a vacuum a completely Linux system includes
many components that were developed independently of Linux. The core Linux
operating system kernel is entirely original, but allows much existing free UNIX
software to run, resulting in a entire UNIX compatible operating system free from
proprietary code.
The Linux kernel is implemented as a traditional monolithic kernel for
performance reasons, but it is modular enough in design to allow most drivers to be
dynamically loaded and unloaded at run time.
15.6 Model Question
Q.1 List different components of a linux system?
Q.2 What are Kernel modules?
Q.3 Explain Basic architecture of UNIX/Linux system?
Q.4 Explain basic features of UNIX/Linux?
Q.5 Define and explain Shell?
Windows is the best operating system with user friendly features but I think they should work more on internet security. You can find more discussion on this topic at this Question and Answer Website.
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