Assignment on:

FILE CONCEPTS AND ACCESS METHODS

Submitted To:
MAAM FARHEEN
Submitted By:
MUHAMMAD AWAIS AJMAL
Roll No: 10

BSCS
6TH Semester

Session 2016-20

Department of Computer Science & IT

The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Pakistan

 CONTENTS

 What is a File?

 Attributes of a File
 File Structure and Types

 File Access Methods

 References
 What is a File?
A file is a named collection of related information that is recorded on
secondary storage such as magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and optical disks.

OR
A file is a sequence of bits, bytes, lines or records whose meaning is defined by
the files creator and user.

ATTRIBUTES OF FILE
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 is kept in the directory structure, which is maintained

on the disk.
 File Structure and Types
 A File Structure should be according to a required format that the
operating system can understand.

A file has a certain defined structure according to its type.

 Text File

 Source File

 Object File

Text file is a sequence of characters organized into lines.

Source file is a sequence of procedures and functions.

Object file is a sequence of bytes organized into blocks that are

understandable by the machine.

A file can have various types of structure :

 Simple record structure :

 Lines
 Fixed length
 Variable length

 Complex Structures :
 Formatted document
 Relocatable load file
 Who interprets this structure?
 Operating system
 Program
 Access Methods
 File access mechanism refers to the manner in which the records of a file
may be accessed.

There are several ways to access files :

 Sequential access

 Direct/Random access

 Indexed sequential access

Sequential Access
 A sequential access is that in which the records are accessed in some
sequence, i.e., the information in the file is processed in order, one record
after the other.

 This access method is the most primitive one.

 Example: Compilers usually access files in this fashion.

Direct/Random access
 Random access file organization provides, accessing the records directly.

 Each record has its own address on the file with by the help of which it can
be directly accessed for reading or writing.

 The records need not be in any sequence within the file and they need not
be in adjacent locations on the storage medium.

Indexed Sequential Access

 This mechanism is built up on base of sequential access.

 An index is created for each file which contains pointers to various blocks.
 Index is searched sequentially and its pointer is used to access the file
directly.

REFERENCES

1) https://www.studytonight.com/operating-system/file-system
2) https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/operating-system-file-access-
methods/
3) https://www.tutorialspoint.com/operating_system/os_file_system.
htm
4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg-T2Zqq9YE