UNIX File Systems and I/O Concepts

This assignment delves into the intricacies of UNIX file systems, covering topics such as hard and soft links, their behavior in different scenarios, and how they differ. It examines various input/output concepts like buffering, spooling, caching, and interrupt-driven I/O, providing examples for each concept with specific devices (tape drive, disk drive, mouse, graphics card). Finally, the assignment discusses the challenges of implementing a centralized file access control system and proposes an alternative approach using separate file tables for each process.

Question 1:
a) 3 Frames
LRU Replacement
1 2 3 4 2 1 5 6 2 1 2 3 7 6 3 2 1 2 3 6
1 1 1 4 4 4 5 5 5 1 1 1 7 7 7 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 6 6 6 6 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 6 6 6 1 1 1 6
FIFO Replacement
1 2 3 4 2 1 5 6 2 1 2 3 7 6 3 2 1 2 3 6
1 1 1 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 6 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 6
2 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 7 7 7 7 1 1 1 1
3 3 3 3 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 6 6 6 6 6 3 3
Optimal Replacement
1 2 3 4 2 1 5 6 2 1 2 3 7 6 3 2 1 2 3 6
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 7 7 7 2 2 2 2 2
3 4 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 1 1 1 6
4 Frames:
LRU Replacement
1 2 3 4 2 1 5 6 2 1 2 3 7 6 3 2 1 2 3 6
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 1 1 1 1

FIFO Replacement
1 2 3 4 2 1 5 6 2 1 2 3 7 6 3 2 1 2 3 6
1 1 1 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
4 4 4 4 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2
Optimal Replacement
1 2 3 4 2 1 5 6 2 1 2 3 7 6 3 2 1 2 3 6
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 7 7 7 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
b)
i) When the required page is not available in the free-frame pool then one of the least recently
used page from the pool is removed and then the required page is moved from disk to free-
frame pool and then to the resident set.
ii) When the required page is in free frame pool then the required page is moved from free
frame pool to resident pages and one of the resident page based on FIFO replacement is
moved from resident page to the free frame pool
iii) When the number of resident pages is set to 1 then system’s paging algorithm used will be
free-frame pool paging algorithm. As the free frame pool paging algorithm is LRU the
system’s paging algorithm reduces to LRU
iv) When the free-frame pool size is zero, the system’s paging algorithm is resident pages
algorithm. As the resident pages paging algorithm is FIFO. The system’s paging algorithm
reduces to FIFO
Question 2:

a) In UNIX, all the files maintain a data structure called i-node. I-node stores the details
about the file. The filenames are used to refer to the data structure whereas the link
refers to the contents of a file. Generally two types of links are used:
i) Hard link:
Hard link is used to just point to i-node of the file. For example consider a file
a.txt that contains the text “This is sample test”. A hard link is constructed in
UNIX with the ln command. A hard link to a.txt is created as follows:
ln a.txt b.txt
Now both a.txt and b.txt refer to the same i-node.
Modification done through one of the file name will be reflected in other file
too as both a.txt and b.txt points to the same file.
ii) Soft link:
Soft link or symbolic link is a file that holds the name of another file. The
contents of the file can be accessed with the help of the symbolic link name
too. The soft link can be created in UNIX as
ln –s a.txt symB.txt
Now the symB.txt contains the filename a.txt. The file can be accessed by
both a.txt and symB.txt. Modification done through one file will be reflected
in other too.
This looks similar to hard link but when the file a.txt is remove using rm
command the file becomes no longer accessible through the soft link symB.txt
whereas the file is still accessible via b.txt the hard link of a.txt as b.txt
directly points to the file content
b) When copying the file to USB, the UNIX sometimes follows the delayed writing.
Sometime UNIX not always writes data to disk at the time it is requested to do so. It
just copies the data and store in memory. When we unmounts the disk the operating
system makes sure whether all data are properly written to the disk and makes the
pending write operation.
In UNIX file metadata is copied synchronously but the contents of the file are
copied asynchronously because the metadata stores the file details and is of very less

in storage. So the synchronous write of metadata completes soon and then the process
can move to the next task. But as the file contents are large and the CPU is busy in
other operation, OS just copies the data to kernel buffer and return the asynchronous
write process. When CPU turns free or when forced to do so through unmounts it
copies the data from kernel buffer to USB.
Question 3:
a)
i) Buffering is required to record the movement of the mouse when the operation of
high priority is running. For mouse the spooling and caching are not required.
Interrupt driven I/O is more appropriate as the mouse is the input device.
ii) For a tape drive all the mechanism buffering, spooling, and caching are required.
Buffering is required to manage the throughput difference between the tape drive
and the source or tape drive and the destination. Cache grasps the copy of the data
in the tape and used for the faster access of data. Spooling is used in multi user
environment when multiple users read or write data on the same time. For tape
drive interrupt-driven I/Os performance is best.
iii) For a disk drive, Buffer holds the data while transferring data from disk to user
space and vice versa. The cache holds the data in the disk for faster access. As the
disk drive allows shared access spooling is not necessary. As the disk drive
transfer rate is slow the interrupt driven I/O shows best performance.
iv) For graphic card buffering is required to store the next screen image when the
current one displays. As the graphics card is the fast and shared access device
caching and spooling is not required. For memory mapped device neither polling
nor interrupt driven IO is required.
b) If one table contains the reference of all the files currently accessed by all the process, if a
file is accessed by more than one process and if one process deletes the file it is required
that the file should not be removed until all the process accessing the particular file closes
the file. This mechanism can be implemented only if a centralized accounting system is
implemented that tracks the number of process using the file. As it is tough it is better to

implement separate file table for each process that maintains the part of the file that is
accessed by the process.
Question 4:
To create a new file of 4000 bytes of data in ext2 containing block size of 1024 bytes requires at-
least 4 blocks (4000/1024). The steps to create new file is shown below:
1) Determine the root inode
2) Determine the filename
3) Identify the inode’s block group
4) Write a 1024 data
5) Increment the inode block number storage location
6) Determine the next the block to write the data from inode
7) Write the data
8) Continue this process until all 4 block of data is written with data