Os lecture 6

OPERATING SYSTEM
4th Stage , College of Education , KUFA University
CHAPTER TWO – OPERATING-SYSTEM
STRUCTURES
provides new coverage of user interfaces for
mobile devices, including discussions of iOS and
Android, and expanded coverage of Mac OS X as
a type of hybrid system.
Prepared By:
Dr. Ahmed J. Obaid
Lecture :6

4th
stage, CS Dept. Operating System, CH2 Dr. Ahmed J. Obaid
Operating System Structure
2.1 An 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. These goals form the
basis for choices among various algorithms and strategies.
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. In this chapter, we
explore all three aspects of operating systems, showing the viewpoints of users, programmers,
and operating system designers. We consider what services an operating system provides,
how they are provided, how they are debugged, and what the various methodologies are for
designing such systems. Finally, describe how operating systems are created and how a
computer starts its operating system.
CHAPTER 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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2.2 Operating-System Services
An operating system provides an environment for the execution of programs. It provides
certain services to programs and to the users of those programs. The specific services
provided, of course, differ from one operating system to another, but we can identify common
classes. These operating system services are provided for the convenience of the programmer,
to make the programming task easier.
1- User interface:
Almost all operating systems have a user interface (UI). This interface can take several
forms. One is a command-line interface (CLI), which uses text commands and a
method for entering them (say, a keyboard for typing in commands in a specific format
with specific options). Another is a batch interface, in which commands and directives
to control those commands are entered into files, and those files are executed. Most
commonly, a graphical user interface (GUI) is used. Here, the interface is a 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 all three of these variations.

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2- Program execution
The system must be able to load a program into memory and to run that program. The
program must be able to end its execution, either normally or abnormally (indicating
error).
3- I/O operations
A running program may require I/O, which may involve a file or an I/O device. For
specific devices, special functions may be desired (such as recording to a CD or DVD
drive or blanking a display screen). For efficiency and protection, users usually cannot
control I/O devices directly. Therefore, the operating system must provide a means to
do I/O.
4- File-system manipulation
The file system is of particular interest. programs need to read and write files and
directories. They also need to create and delete them by name, search for a given file,
and list file information. Finally, some operating systems include permissions
management to allow or deny access to files or directories based on file ownership.
Many operating systems provide a variety of file systems, sometimes to allow personal
choice and sometimes to provide specific features or performance characteristics.
5- Communications
There are many circumstances in which one process needs to exchange information
with another process. Such communication may occur between processes that are
executing on the same computer or between processes that are executing on different
computer systems tied together by a computer network. Communications may be
implemented via shared memory, in which two or more processes read and write to a
shared section of memory, or message passing, in which packets of information in
predefined formats are moved between processes by the operating system.

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6- Error detection
The operating system needs to be detecting and correcting errors constantly. Errors
may occur in the CPU and memory hardware (such as a memory error or a power
failure), in I/O devices (such as a parity error on disk, a connection failure on a network,
or lack of paper in the printer), and in the user program (such as an arithmetic overflow,
an attempt to access an illegal memory location, or a too-great use of CPU time). For
each type of error, the operating system should take the appropriate action to ensure
correct and consistent computing. Sometimes, it has no choice but to halt the system.
At other times, it might terminate an error-causing process or return an error code to a
process for the process to detect and possibly correct.
Another set of operating system functions exists not for helping the user but rather
for ensuring the efficient operation of the system itself. Systems with multiple users
can gain efficiency by sharing the computer resources among the users.
7- Resource allocation
When there are multiple users or multiple jobs running at the same time, resources
must be allocated to each of them. The operating system manages many different types
of resources. Some (such as CPU cycles, main memory, and file storage) may have
special allocation code, whereas others (such as I/O devices) may have much more
general request and release code. For instance, in determining how best to use the CPU,
operating systems have CPU-scheduling routines that take into account the speed of
the CPU, the jobs that must be executed, the number of registers available, and other
factors. There may also be routines to allocate printers, USB storage drives, and other
peripheral devices.

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8- Accounting
We want to keep track of which users use how much and what kinds of computer
resources. This record keeping may be used for accounting (so that users can be
billed ‫فاتورة‬ / ‫)يفوتر‬ or simply for accumulating ‫تراكمي‬ usage statistics. Usage statistics
may be a valuable tool for researchers who wish to reconfigure the system to improve
computing services.
9- Protection and security
The owners of information stored in a multiuser or networked computer system may
want to control use of that information. When several separate processes execute
concurrently, it should not be possible for one process to interfere with the others or
with the operating system itself. Protection involves ensuring that all access to system
resources is controlled. Security of the system from outsiders is also important. Such
security starts with requiring each user to authenticate himself or herself to the system,
usually by means of a password, to gain access to system resources. It extends to
defending external I/O devices, including network adapters, from invalid access
attempts and to recording all such connections for detection of break-ins. If a system
is to be protected and secure, precautions must be instituted throughout it. A chain is
only as strong as its weakest link.
2.3 System Calls
Before we discuss how an operating system makes system calls available, let’s first use an
example to illustrate how system calls are used:
writing a simple program to read data from one file and copy them to another file.

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The first input that the program will need is the names of the two files: the input file and the
output file. These names can be specified in many ways, depending on the operating-system
design. One approach is for the program to ask the user for the names. In an interactive
system, this approach will require a sequence of system calls, first to write a prompting
message on the screen and then to read from the keyboard the characters that define the
two files. On mouse-based and icon-based systems, a menu of file names is usually displayed
in a window. The user can then use the mouse to select the source name, and a window
can be opened for the destination name to be specified. This sequence requires many I/O
system calls.
Once the two file names have been obtained, the program must open the input file and create
the output file. Each of these operations requires another system call. Possible error
conditions for each operation can require additional system calls. When the program tries to
open the input file, for example, it may find that there is no file of that name or that the file
is protected against access. In these cases, the program should print a message on the console
(another sequence of system calls) and then terminate abnormally (another system call). If
the input file exists, then we must create a new output file. We may find that there is already
an output file with the same name. This situation may cause the program to abort (a system
call), or we may delete the existing file (another system call) and create a new one (yet another
system call). Another option, in an interactive system, is to ask the user (via a sequence of
system calls to output the prompting message and to read the response from the terminal)
whether to replace the existing file or to abort the program. When both files are set up, we
enter a loop that reads from the input file (a system call) and writes to the output file (another
system call). Each read and write must return status information regarding various possible
error conditions. On input, the program may find that the end of the file has been reached or
that there was a hardware failure in the read (such as a parity error). The write operation may
encounter various errors, depending on the output device (for example, no more disk space).

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Finally, after the entire file is copied, the program may close both files (another system
call), write a message to the console or window (more system calls), and finally terminate
normally (the final system call).
2.4 Types of System Calls
System calls can be grouped roughly into six major categories:
 Process control
 file manipulation
 device manipulation
 information maintenance
 communications
 protection

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