Polytechnic University of the Philippines

CHAPTER 10

File System Interface

MIT 603

Reported by : S h e r w i n G. G u t a y a n d C i e l o B . R a m o s

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File System Interface

• File Concept
• Access Methods
• Directory Structure
• File-System Mounting
• File Sharing
• Protection 2
 File System Interface
Objectives

• To explain the function of file systems

• To describe the interfaces to the systems
• To discuss file-system design tradeoffs, including
access methods, file sharing, and directory
structures
• To explore file-system protection 3
 File System Interface
File Concept

• Contiguous logical address space

• Types:
Data
Numeric
Character
Binary
Program
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 File System Interface
File Attributes

• Name – only information kept in human-readable form

• Identifier – unique tag (number) identifies file within file

system
• Type – needed for systems that support different types

• Location – pointer to file location on device

• Size – current file size 5

 File System Interface
File Attributes

• 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 6

 File System Interface
File Operations

•Create •Open(Fi) – search the

•Write directory structure on disk for
•Read entry Fi, and move the
•Reposition within file content of entry to memory
•Delete
•Truncate •Close (Fi) – move the
• Append content of entry Fi in memory
to directory structure on disk
• Rename 7
File System Interface
File Types – Name, Extension

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 File System Interface
Logical and Physical View of Files
BLOCKING
File A
Record 1

Record 2
Block 1
Record 3

Record 4

Record 5
Block 2
Record 6

Secondary Storage 9
 File System Interface
File Organization and Access
1. Pile File Organization
- Simplest form
- Unstructured
2. Sequential File Organization
- oldest form
- records are written and accessed consecutively
3. Multikey / Indexed File Organization
- making use of key fields
4. Random / Direct file Organization
- directly go t the known address
5. Indexed Sequential File Organization
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- combines sequence order based on a key field
 File System Interface
Directory Structure

• A collection of nodes containing information about all files

Directory

• Both the directory

structure and the
files reside on disk
Files F4
F1 F2
F3
Fn
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File System Interface
A Typical File System Organization

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 File System Interface
Operations Performed on Directory

• Search for a file

• Create a file
• Delete a file
• List a directory
• Rename a file
• Traverse the file system
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 File System Interface
Organize the Directory (Logically)
to Obtain

• Efficiency – locating a file quickly

• Naming – convenient to users
– Two users can have same name for different files
– The same file can have several different names
• Grouping – logical grouping of files by properties, (e.g.,
all Java programs, all games, …)

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 File System Interface
Single-Level Directory

• A single directory for all users

Naming problem
Grouping problem 15
 File System Interface
Two-Level Directory

• Separate directory for each user

 Path name  Efficient searching

 Can have the same file name  No grouping capability
for different user
File System Interface
Tree Structured Directory
 File System Interface
Tree Structured Directory

• Efficient searching

• Grouping Capability

• Current directory (working directory)

– cd /spell/mail/prog
– type list
 File System Interface
Acyclic-Graph Directories

• Have shared subdirectories and files

 File System Interface
Acyclic-Graph Directories

• Two different names (aliasing)

• If dict deletes list  dangling pointer
Solutions:
– Backpointers, so we can delete all pointers
Variable size records a problem
– Backpointers using a daisy chain organization
– Entry-hold-count solution
• New directory entry type
– Link – another name (pointer) to an existing file
– Resolve the link – follow pointer to locate the file
File System Interface
General Graph Directories
 File System Interface
File System Mounting

• A file system must be mounted

before it can be accessed
• A unmounted file system (i.e.
Fig. 11-11(b)) is mounted at a
mount point
File System Interface
File System Mounting

(a) Existing. (b) Unmounted Partition

File System Interface
File System Mounting
Mount Point
 File System Interface
File Sharing

• Sharing of files on multi-user systems is desirable

• Sharing may be done through a protection scheme

• On distributed systems, files may be shared across a

network

• Network File System (NFS) is a common distributed

file-sharing method
 File System Interface
File Sharing – Multiple Users

• User IDs identify users, allowing permissions and

protections to be per-user

• Group IDs allow users to be in groups, permitting

group access rights
 File System Interface
File Sharing – Remote File System

• Uses networking to allow file system access between systems

– Manually via programs like FTP
– Automatically, seamlessly using distributed file systems
– Semi automatically via the world wide web
• Client-server model allows clients to mount remote file systems from
servers
– Server can serve multiple clients
– Client and user-on-client identification is insecure or complicated
– NFS is standard UNIX client-server file sharing protocol
– CIFS is standard Windows protocol
– Standard operating system file calls are translated into remote calls
 File System Interface
Protection

• File owner/creator should be able to control:

– what can be done
– by whom

• Types of access
– Read – Append
– Write – Delete
– Execute – List
 File System Interface
Access Lists and Groups

• Mode of access: read, write, execute

• Three classes of users
RWX
a) owner access 7  111
RWX
b) group access 6  110
RWX
c) public access 1  001
• Ask manager to create a group (unique name), say G, and add
some users to the group.
• For a particular file (say game) or subdirectory, define an
appropriate access.
File System Interface
A Sample UNIX Directory Listing
File System Interface

End of Report