Chapter 2: Operating-System Structures

Chapter 2: Operating-System Structures

Operating System Services User Operating System Interface System Calls Types of System Calls System Programs Operating System Design and Implementation Operating System Structure Virtual Machines Operating System Generation System Boot

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Objectives
To describe the services an operating system provides to users,

processes, and other systems

To discuss the various ways of structuring an operating system To explain how operating systems are installed and customized

and how they boot

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Operating System Services

O/S provides certain services to programs and to the users of those programs. One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the user:
z z z

User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user interface (UI) Command Line Interface (CLI) uses text commands and method for entering them Batch Interface: in which commands are entered into files, and those files are executed Graphical User Interface (GUI) most commonly used. Interface is window system with a pointing device to direct I/O, choose from menus, and make selections and a keyboard to enter text. Some systems provide two or three or all of these variations. Program execution - The system must be able to load a program into memory and to run that program, end execution, either normally or abnormally (indicating error) I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may involve a file or an I/O device. For efficiency and control users cannot control I/O devices directly, therefore O/S must provide a means to do I/O

z z

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Operating System Services

z

File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular interest. Obviously, programs need to read and write files and directories, create and delete them, search them, list file Information, permission management.

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Operating System Services (Cont.)

One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to

the user (Cont):

z

Communications Processes may exchange information, on the same computer or between computers over a network
 Communications

may be via shared memory or through message passing (packets moved by the OS between processes) occur in the CPU and memory hardware (such as memory error or power failure), in I/O devices (such as parity error on tape, connectional failure on network, lack of paper in the printer), and, in user program (such as arithmetic over flow, illegal memory location access, or too much use of CPU time). each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to ensure correct and consistent computing facilities can greatly enhance the users and programmers abilities to efficiently use the system

Error detection OS needs to be constantly aware of possible errors

 May

 For

 Debugging

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Operating System Services (Cont.)

Another set of OS functions exists for ensuring the efficient operation of the system

itself via resource sharing

z

Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs running concurrently, resources must be allocated to each of them
 Many

types of resources - Some (such as CPU cycles,main memory, and file storage) may have special allocation code, others (such as I/O devices) may have general request and release code. in CPU scheduling routines that take into account the speed of the CPU. There are routines to allocate printers, modems, USP storage devices, and other peripheral devices.

 E-g

Accounting - To keep track of which users use how much and what kinds of computer resources Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a multiuser or networked computer system may want to control use of that information, concurrent processes should not interfere with each other
 Protection  Security  If

involves ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled

of the system from outsiders requires user authentication, extends to defending external I/O devices from invalid access attempts
th

a system is to be protected and secure, precautions must be instituted throughout it. A chain is only as 2.7 strong as its weakest link. Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2005 Operating System Concepts 7 Edition, Jan 14, 2005

System Calls
Programming interface to the services provided by the OS System calls are generally available in a high-level language (C or C++) Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application Program Interface (API)

rather than direct system call use

Three most common APIs are Win32 API for Windows, POSIX API for POSIX-based

systems (including virtually all versions of UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X), and Java API for the Java virtual machine (JVM)
May need to be written in a low level language such as assembly language

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Example of System Calls

Writing a simple program to read data from one file and copy them to another file. System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another file

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Standard C Library Example

C program invoking printf() library call, which calls write() system call

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Types of System Calls

Process control File management Device management Information maintenance Communications

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Layered Approach
The operating system is divided into a number of layers (levels),

each built on top of lower layers. The bottom layer (layer 0), is the hardware; the highest (layer N) is the user interface.
With modularity, layers are selected such that each uses functions

(operations) and services of only lower-level layers

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Layered Operating System

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UNIX
UNIX limited by hardware functionality, the original UNIX operating

system had limited structuring. The UNIX OS consists of two separable parts
z z

Systems programs The kernel

 Consists

of everything below the system-call interface and above the physical hardware the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management, and other operating-system functions; a large number of functions for one level

 Provides

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UNIX System Structure

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Microkernel System Structure

As UNIX expanded, the kernel became large and difficult to manage. In the mid 1980s, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed an Operating

system, called Mach, that modularized the kernel using microkernel approach.
This method structures the operating system by removing all nonessential

components from kernel and implementing them as kernel level or user level programs.
Microkernels provide minimal process and memory management, in addition to

communication facility.
Communication takes place between user modules using message passing Benefits:
z z z z

Easier to extend a microkernel Easier to port the operating system to new architectures More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode) More secure

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Virtual Machines
The idea is to abstract the hardware of a single computer (the CPU, memory,

disk drive, network interface cards, and so forth) into several different execution environments, thereby creating an illusion that each separate execution environment is running its own private computer
A virtual machine takes the layered approach to its logical conclusion. It treats

hardware and the operating system kernel as though they were all hardware
CPU is multiprogrammed among different virtual machines

VMWare VMWare runs as an application on host operating system, such as Windows or

Linux and allows this host system to concurrently run several different guest operating systems as independent virtual machines.
Example: A developer has designed an application and would like to test it on

Linux, FreeBSD, Windows NT and Windows XP

One option to is to take separate computer and run separate operating system

on that
Second option is to use a single computer and first install one operating

system, run software, then uninstall and install the other operating system and so on. Same physical machine, but process is time consuming
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 Such testing could be accomplished on the same physical computer

using VMWare
In this case programmer could test the application on host operating

system and three guest operating systems with each system running a separate virtual machine.
Fundamental idea behind a virtual machine is to abstract the hardware of a

single computer (the CPU, memory, disk drives, network interface cards and so forth) into several execution environments thereby creating the illusion that each separate execution environment is running its own private computer.
A virtual machine provides an interface identical to the underlying bare

hardware
The operating system creates the illusion of multiple processes, each executing

on its own processor with its own (virtual) memory

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Virtual Machines (Cont.)

The resources of the physical computer are shared to create the

virtual machines
z

CPU scheduling can create the appearance that users have their own processor Spooling and a file system can provide virtual card readers and virtual line printers A normal user time-sharing terminal serves as the virtual machine operators console

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Virtual Machines (Cont.)

(a) Non virtual machine

(b) virtual machine

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Virtual Machines (Cont.)

The virtual-machine concept provides complete protection of system resources since

each virtual machine is isolated from all other virtual machines. This isolation, however, permits no direct sharing of resources.
A virtual-machine system is a perfect vehicle for operating-systems research and

development. System development is done on the virtual machine, instead of on a physical machine and so does not disrupt normal system operation.
The virtual machine concept is difficult to implement due to the effort required to

provide an exact duplicate to the underlying machine

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VMware Architecture

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The Java Virtual Machine

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Operating System Generation

OS kernel is downloadable in from www.kernel.org

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End of Chapter 2