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

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

Operating System Services

One set of operating-system services provides functions that are

helpful to the user:

User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user interface (UI)

Varies between Command-Line (CLI), Graphics User Interface (GUI), Batch

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. 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.

Operating System Services (Cont.)

One set of operating-system services provides functions that are

helpful to the user (Cont):

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) May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in user program

Error detection OS needs to be constantly aware of possible errors

For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to ensure correct and consistent computing
Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the users and programmers abilities to efficiently use the system

Operating System Services (Cont.)

Another set of OS functions exists for ensuring the efficient operation of the system itself via resource sharing

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,mainmemory, and file storage) may have special allocation code, others (such as I/O devices) may have general request and release code.

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 involves ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled Security of the system from outsiders requires user authentication, extends to defending external I/O devices from invalid access attempts 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.

User Operating System Interface - CLI

CLI allows direct command entry

Sometimes implemented in kernel, sometimes by systems program Sometimes multiple flavors implemented shells Primarily fetches a command from user and executes it

Sometimes commands built-in, sometimes just names of programs

If the latter, adding new features doesnt require shell modification

User Operating System Interface - GUI

User-friendly desktop metaphor interface

Usually mouse, keyboard, and monitor

Icons represent files, programs, actions, etc Various mouse buttons over objects in the interface cause various actions (provide information, options, execute function, open directory (known as a folder) Invented at Xerox PARC Microsoft Windows is GUI with CLI command shell Apple Mac OS X as Aqua GUI interface Solaris is CLI with optional GUI interfaces (Java Desktop, KDE)

Many systems now include both CLI and GUI interfaces

System Calls
Programming interface to the services provided by the OS

Typically written 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 (Portable Operating System Interface for UniX). 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)

Example of System Calls

System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another

file

Example of Standard API

Consider the ReadFile() function in the Win32 APIa function for reading from a file

A description of the parameters passed to ReadFile()

HANDLE filethe file to be read

LPVOID buffera buffer where the data will be read into and written from DWORD bytesToReadthe number of bytes to be read into the buffer LPDWORD bytesReadthe number of bytes read during the last read

LPOVERLAPPED ovlindicates if overlapped I/O is being used

System Call Implementation

Typically, a number associated with each system call

System-call interface maintains a table indexed according to these numbers

The system call interface invokes intended system call in OS kernel

and returns status of the system call and any return values
The caller need know nothing about how the system call is

implemented

Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a result call Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API

API System Call OS Relationship

Standard C Library Example

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

Types of System Calls

Process control

File management
Device management Information maintenance Communications

System Programs
System programs provide a convenient environment for program

development and execution. The can be divided into:

File manipulation Status information File modification Programming language support Program loading and execution Communications Application programs

Most users view of the operating system is defined by system

programs, not the actual system calls

System Programs

Provide a convenient environment for program development and execution

Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls; others are considerably more complex

File management - Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list, and generally manipulate files and directories Status information

Some ask the system for info - date, time, amount of available memory, disk space, number of users
Others provide detailed performance, logging, and debugging information Typically, these programs format and print the output to the terminal or other output devices Some systems implement a registry - used to store and retrieve configuration information

System Programs (contd)

File modification

Text editors to create and modify files Special commands to search contents of files or perform transformations of the text Programming-language support - Compilers, assemblers, debuggers and interpreters sometimes provided Program loading and execution- Absolute loaders, relocatable loaders, linkage editors, and overlay-loaders, debugging systems for higher-level and machine language Communications - Provide the mechanism for creating virtual connections among processes, users, and computer systems Allow users to send messages to one anothers screens, browse web pages, send electronic-mail messages, log in remotely, transfer files from one machine to another

Operating System Design and Implementation

Design and Implementation of OS not solvable, but some

approaches have proven successful

Internal structure of different Operating Systems can vary widely Start by defining goals and specifications Affected by choice of hardware, type of system

User goals and System goals

User goals operating system should be convenient to use, easy to learn, reliable, safe, and fast System goals operating system should be easy to design, implement, and maintain, as well as flexible, reliable, error-free, and efficient

OS Structure

Monolithic systems
Layered systems Virtual machines Client/server a.k.a. Microkernels

Monolithic Systems
Prominent in the early days

The structure consists of no-structure

The system is a collection of procedures Each procedure can call any other procedure No information hiding (as opposed to modules, packages, classes)

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Pros & Cons

Tightly integrated code in one address space

Unreliable, as a bug anywhere in the kernel can bring down the

whole system
Tight integration has high potential for efficient use of resources

and for efficient code

Early designs lacked potential for extension

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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

Generalization of previous scheme Organization into a hierarchy of layers Layer n+1 uses services (exclusively) supported by layer n Easier to extend

Layered Operating System

UNIX
UNIX limited by hardware functionality, the original UNIX operating

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

Systems programs
The kernel

Consists of everything below the system-call interface and above the physical hardware

Provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management, and other operating-system functions; a large number of functions for one level

UNIX System Structure

Microkernel System Structure

Moves as much from the kernel into user space

Communication takes place between user modules using message

passing
Benefits:

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

Detriments:

Performance overhead of user space to kernel space communication

Modules
Most modern operating systems implement kernel modules

Uses object-oriented approach

Each core component is separate Each talks to the others over known interfaces Each is loadable as needed within the kernel

Overall, similar to layers but with more flexible

Solaris Modular Approach

Virtual Machines
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
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

Virtual Machines (Cont.)

The resources of the physical computer are shared to create the

virtual machines

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

Virtual Machines (Cont.)

Non-virtual Machine

Virtual Machine

(a) Nonvirtual machine (b) virtual machine

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

VMware Architecture

System Boot
Booting starting a computer by loading the kernel

Bootstrap program code stored in ROM that is able to locate the

kernel, load it into memory, and start its execution

Operating system must be made available to hardware so

hardware can start it

Small piece of code bootstrap loader, locates the kernel, loads it into memory, and starts it Sometimes two-step process where boot block at fixed location loads bootstrap loader

When power initialized on system, execution starts at a fixed memory location

Firmware used to hold initial boot code