Pre-Course Study

Material
Operating Systems
Basic Principles of Operating Systems

An operating system is a collection of

software that coordinates the working of
the different components of the system
and gets the user’s job done. The
operating system provides the user with
all the basic things necessary to do his
job.

Is it enough to have microsoft word to

write letters?

No.
1. What if there is no interface to the key board?
2. What if there is nothing that will control the output to VGA
card?
3. What if there is no interface to the human user so that he
can switch on “MS Word “ ?
Yes the answers to all these questions is operating system.

Technical Definition: An OS is a collection of system

software that coordinates between the hardware,
provides a platform for softwares to run on and
provides the user with an interface for command
inputs.
EG. DOS, Linux, Unix, Windows, MAC, OS/2, Minix, and
many more.
The governmental systems like Postal system, Railway
System are analogous to Operating Systems.
 What does an
Operating System
do?
• An Operating System exploits the
hardware resources of one or more
processors to provide a set of
services to system users.

• An Operating System also manages

secondary memory and input/output
devices on behalf of its users.
 Structural Elements of a
Computer
• Processor: Controls the operation of the
computer and its
Data Processing functions.. A single processor
is often termed as
the Central Processing Unit.

• Main memory: Stores data and programs. This

memory is
typically volatile. Contents of this memory are
not retained even
when the computer is shut down.

• I/O modules: Moves data between the

computer and its external
environment, such as disks, data
 Schematic Diagram of a
Computer System
MEMORY

INPUT CONTROL UNIT OUTPUT

ALU

INPUT: Input devices (Keyboard, Mouse etc.) (RAW

MATERIALS)
OUTPUT: Output devices (VDU, Printers etc. ) (FINISHED
PRODUCTS)
MEMORY: Main memory (Volatile – commonly known as RAM)
(GODOWN / INVENTORY)
CONTROL UNIT: A device that generates Signals to command
other units that what to do and what not to. (TOP
MANAGEMENT)
 Memory Hierarchy

Registers

Cache
GROWING SPEED AND COST

Main Memory

Magnetic disk, CD-ROM, CD-RW

DVD-RW, DVD-RAM

Magnetic tape

DNA EZI S GNI WOR G

 Objectives of an OS
• It is a program that
 controls the execution of application programs
 acts as an interface between applications and
computer hardware
 manages the resources associated with a
computer

Objectives of an O.S.
 Convenience of use of the computer

 Efficient use of the computing resources

 Should be such that it can permit effective
Thus the basic functions of an OS are –

1. Process Management – Managing the programs that

are running.
2. Memory Management – Managing and rationing the
memory between processes and data.
3. Storage Management – Managing the permanent
Storage of data on disks or other media
4. I/O Management – Managing the input and output
5. Device / Resource Management – Managing devices
and resources and allowing the users to share the
resources
6. Security and Protection – Securing the system against
possible unauthorized access to data or any other entity.
Protecting the parts of the system against damage.
7. Booting the System and getting it ready to work.
8. Data communications – Providing interface to connect
to other computers or allowing others to connect
Operating System as an
Interface
Application Programs End user

Utilities

Programmer

Operating System

Computer Hardware OS System

Designer
 • Program Development – variety of services and
Operating
utilities such as System Services
Editors and debuggers. They are usually referred to as
application program
development tools.

• Program Execution – involves a number of steps,

such as loading
Instruction and data in the main memory, initialization of
I/O devices and files, and other resources to be allocated.
OS handles the scheduling.

•Access to I/O devices – Each I/O device has its own

set of
Instructions and control signals. O.S. hides these details
 Operating System
• Controlled Services
access to files- nature of I/O device (disk
drive, tape drive) and structure of the data stored in the
files in the storage medium. In the case of multiple users
accessing the processor concurrently, proper protection
mechanisms have to be used.

• System access- For shared or public systems, the

O.S. controls access to the system as a whole and to
specific system resources. Access system provides
protection of resources, and data from unauthorized
users, and resolves resource conflicts

• Error detection and response – Variety of errors

may occur in computer system. Responses may range
from program termination, retrial of the same operation,
or reporting error to the application.
What is the OS made of?
The architecture shown below is
applicable for Unix and its family –
Including Linux
Hardware

Shell

Kernel and
system software

Users

Other Applications
 What the hell are
these…..
• User – The system representation of the human
operator who requests for services.
• Application Software – Special software to help
the user do his task (E.g.. MS Word)
• Shell – The program that interprets the
commands or requests given by the user and gets
the job done by the kernel.
• Kernel – The core of the operating system. It uses
the hardware to do the jobs required by the user
or the system. It coordinates among the hardware
and interfaces it with the above layers.
• System Software – Software that can access the
hardware directly and generally provides various
system services. (E.g.. The kernel itself, device
drivers etc.).
• Hardware – The set of electronic devices that
work together to ultimately do the job required by
all the upper levels.
 Why Unix or Linux?
How the hell are they different from
others?

Types of Operating Systems –

Access based –
1. Single User – Only one user can access the OS at a
time. E.g. DOS, Windows 9x
2. Multi User – Multiple users can access the OS at the
same time. E.g. Unix, Windows NT, Linux
Processing Based
1. Single processing – Only one process (job) has control
of the whole system at a time. E.g. DOS
2. Multi Processing – Multiple processes (jobs) control
defined domain of their own. E.g. Windows (All
versions), Unix, Linux
Environment Based
1. Stand alone – Does not support connection from other
systems. E.g. DOS, Windows 9x, Workstation versions
of Windows NT
2. Networking – Supports connection from other systems.
E.g. Unix, Linux, Server versions of Windows NT
 My God…
One OS! One Machine!
Multiple jobs?

Techniques of Multiprocessing –
• Multiprogramming
• Timesharing
Note that Multiuser is maintained using multiprocessing techniques –
especially timesharing technique.
Multiprogramming: When one process waits to get
some job done which does not requires the CPU,
instead of sitting idle the CPU picks up another
process to work on.
Timesharing: The CPU time is equally divided
among the processes in small slots. Small equal
sized time slots are defined and allocated to the
processes.
 Closer look to the above
techniques
P1, P2, P3 are three different
Multiprogramming
processes
P1 Run Wait Run Wait

Wait Run Wait Run Wait

P2

P3 Wait Run Wait Run Wait

P1, P2, P3 Run Run Run Wait Run Run Run Wait

Any Advantage?
So what is timesharing?

P1

P2

P3

Normal Time interval P1 Completed

I/O Started by P1
 So which is better?
Multiprogramming or Timesharing

• Multiprogramming maximizes CPU utilization

• Time-sharing minimizes user response rime

What about the Throughput?

 Processes
A process is

• Normal: A program in state of execution

• Waste of words: An instance of a program

running on a computer

• Fundoo…: The entity that can be assigned to

and executed on a processor

• More fundoo?... A unit of activity

characterized by a single sequential thread of
 Parts of a Process
• Components of a process
 An executable program
 Associated data required by the program (variable,
work space, buffer, etc.)
 Execution context: internal data used by O.S. to
supervise a process = process state.

Process list Main memory

Program code

Program code
context

context
data

data
Process Control Block
A data structure by which the system
identifies a process.
It contains -
• Identifier: A unique integer associated with a
process
• State : A currently executing process is in
running state
• Priority : Priority level relative to other
processes
• Program counter : Address of the next
instruction of the
program to be executed.
• Memory pointers: pointers to the program
code and data
associated with the process, and any shared
 Other fundas…
Resource Management
Responsibilities of the OS in Resource
Management

Scheduling – The management of the queue of

processes so as to make the decisions of when to
execute which process.
O.S. manages the resources of a computer system
and rations them among the processes.
• Factors for scheduling policy:
 Fairness: processes competing for a resource should
be given fair chance of resource access
 Differential responsiveness: O.S. should make
allocation and scheduling decisions to meet total set of
requirements, and in a dynamic manner. E.g., if a
process is waiting for an I/O device, O.S. may schedule
that process as soon as the device is free.
Memory Management
The OS manages the computer’s memory and allocates
memory to processes and data.
Out of various memory management schemes the mot
used nowadays is Virtual Memory. The fundas for
Virtual Memory are given below…

1. A facility that allows programs to address memory from a logical

viewpoint
2. Disregards the amount of physical memory actually available
3. Meets the requirements of multiple user processes to reside
simultaneously in main memory without any interference
4. (Demand) Paging system and Page faults
5. Address of a word of a program = page number + offset within page
6. Pages vs. Blocks mapping
 …
Physical memory is not alone now… !!!

It uses a fast disk (Backing store) to keep the parts of

the processes not in use at the moment of time.
The process's memory (also called logical memory) is
divided into pages of equal size and kept in the backing
store. The pages are brought in t the physical memory
as and when required.
The pages are kept in blocks created in the physical
memory called frames. The sizes of frames and pages
are equal. The allocation of block to a page depends
upon the allocation policy used by the system.
 Then how does it manage
the disk?
Storage Management…
Auxiliary Memory (Secondary Memory/Non-Volatile Memory – Mainly
Disks) are used to store data permanently.
The unit of data storage on the Disk is called a File.
A File is a logical structure that stores a chunk of data in the
memory (specially auxiliary memory).
A Directory is a logical group of files which is used to manage the
manage the files on the disk.
File Management –
The way the OS stores the files on the disk and keeps track
of each of the files is called File Management.
File System – The logical arrangement of files and metadata (Data
about data) on a disk is known as the file system
File System – By File System we also mean the tree of directories
and files that is logically created in the memory.
 How does the tree look?
Shown below is typically a part of the Unix/Linux file
system
/

root bin home dev etc usr

donkey monkey yankee bin sbin

america schedule

washington texas california

I am a
I am a file
directory

The above diagram is only a part of the file system. The tree can be
bigger and any number of nodes can exist under another.
 Typical example of a
DOS/Windows file system.
The names of common directories have been left to
the reader to fill up.

C: D:
/ /
 Directory Structure of
Linux File System
Director Content
y
/bin Common programs, shared by the system, the
system administrator and the users.
/boot The startup files and the kernel, vmlinuz. In recent
distributions also grub data. Grub is the GRand
Unified Boot loader and is an attempt to get rid of the
many different boot-loaders we know today.
/dev Contains references to all the CPU peripheral
hardware, which are represented as files with special
properties.
/etc Most important system configuration files are in /etc,
this directory contains data similar to those in the
Control Panel in Windows
/home Home directories of the common users.
Directory Content
…
/ Every partition has a lost+found in its upper directory. Files
lost+foun that were saved during failures are here.
d
/misc For miscellaneous purposes.
/mnt Standard mount point for external file systems, e.g. a CD-ROM
or a digital camera.
/net Standard mount point for entire remote file systems
/opt Typically contains extra and third party software.
/proc A virtual file system containing information about system
resources. More information about the meaning of the files in
proc is obtained by entering the command man proc in a
terminal window.
/root The administrative user's home directory. Mind the difference
between /, the root directory and /root, the home directory of
the root user.
/sbin Programs for use by the system and the system administrator.

/tmp Temporary space for use by the system.

/usr Programs, libraries, documentation etc. for all user-related
programs.
Some important concepts
Data Communication
Data Communication is an important function of the Operating
System.
Communication always takes place between two processes.
This is because processes are the only active entity inside a
computer system. The punch word in Data Communication
is IPC (Inter Process Communication). IPC is the
communication of data between two processes.
Different Techniques of IPC are
1. Message Passing – Data is sent from one process to
another via the kernel and other subsystems.
2. Shared Memory – A location of the memory is shared
between two processes – one process writes data to the
location and another process reads the data.
 Some technologies to
implement the IPC concepts
Pipes – A virtual data flow is established between two processes.
The shared memory concept is implemented using pipes.
Sockets – A logical connection point is opened for a process. The
kernel an network subsystems take responsibility to efficiently
manage the sending and receiving of data. The message passing
concept is implemented in this way.
Memory Mapped Files – A portion of the memory is mapped to a
file. Whatever is written to the file gets written to the memory an
vice versa. The shared memory concept is implemented in this way.
 Security and Protection
The system may be vulnerable to
attacks
More the functionalities in the system
more the loop holes and more vulnerable
to external or internal attacks

Are they the same things?

No.
Security is protecting a system against
unauthorized attacks (Mostly external).
Protection is protecting the components of the
system from damage, blocking and
unavailability of resource.
Who is going to attack?
There are various types of intruders
Naïve Users – These are kind of people who have a long
nose and have nothing to do. They know less but keep on
checking out places for other people’s data (Mails etc.).
Skilled Users – These are people like inquisitive students
who are more or less skilled and try out ways to access
things they are not meant to just for fun or to learn.
Purposeful Intruders – These people do nasty jobs on
purpose – e.g. Hacking the Military Data of enemy nation,
Hacking confidential data of the rival company, etc.
Some well known security
threats
Viruses – These are malicious codes that believe in infecting some data
and spread. They generally come from infected removable storage
media (floppies, CD’s) or recently they are also coming with mails on
the internet. The viral code is generally executed by the user
unknowingly. They reside as a part of some important program, file or
metadata (Partition Table, Boot Sector etc.) and are activated whenever
the innocent infected data is read or executed. When active it tries to
search for other such files or data where it can copy itself.
Trojans – These are sent to a person by an intruder on purpose. The
program is sent with some innocent looking program or file and the user
runs it unknowingly. The program when active acts as a server. The
intruder can connect to it from the remote machine and command it to
do malicious jobs in the recipient's computer.
Worms – These consist of two parts one is called the loader and the
other is the worm itself. The loader is rather innocent program which is
sent to somebody on the network. This loader later on loads the worm
onto this computer. Whenever the worm finds that the network is on it
sends the loader to the connected machines and thus it spreads.
 Continued
Spoofing – This is a method to access a system one is
not meant to access. The intruder takes form of a valid
user or process and enters the system.
Phising – This is a hacking method very much in use
nowadays. The intruder creates a login screen similar
to some well known site or system (Yahoo/ Google/
Unix or Linux login screen) and puts in online. Some
way the fake login screen is run when the user needs
to login. The user delivers the username and password
without the knowledge of what is actually happening
and this data is stored to a database accessible by the
intruder.
Some ways to tackle intruders
Passwords –
Good passwords – Mixture of numbers, letters of different
case is a good security measure. Passwords ideally should
not carry any personal information. These steps make it
difficult to guess passwords.
Periodically changing passwords – Some systems allow us
to specify passwords and specify some period within which
the password will have to be changed.
Recursive Passwords – This is a technology in which each
time a password is used, it is re-encrypted or changed
automatically. The user is given a list of passwords for a
period of time. If that list is secured, the user’s data is
secured.
 Continued
Encryption – However good a password is, it is of no
use without a good encryption algorithm protecting it.
Encryption is a technique of generating a new text by
applying some functions on the original text. The new
text is called Cipher text. Some encryption algorithms
allow the Cipher text to be Decrypted to the original
text and some don’t.
Encryption Key Decryption Key

Plaintext Encryption Ciphertext C Decryption Plaintext

P Algorithm Algorithm P

A B
 Continued
Antiviruses – These are programs which catch Viruses
(Nowadays they detect all malicious programs – Trojans,
Worms etc.) either when they are resident on the disk in
some form or when trying to enter the system from some
source.
Firewalls – Firewall blocks access of the system by any
means from some specified external machines. So we
create a firewall against some machine if we distrust it.
However inspite of all these security measures,
100% security can never be ensured as any
functionality in the system adds to the loopholes.
 Protection
The components in a system can also be vulnerable to internal
malfunctioning. Just consider the situation that normal users are
allowed to add new users. So any body can be bribed or made to
create a new user which makes intrusion so easy. Let’s take
another situation. Just suppose that a normal user can modify the
configuration file that contains information for the network
configuration. As he does not have the knowledge of the full
network, his modifications may lead to a situation that the next day
the network doesn’t work. Securing the components of the system
against these kinds of problems is known as Protection.
 Ways to ensure protection
The most widely used technique for ensuring
protection is maintaining an access matrix. The
components of the system are called entities. A
matrix is maintained with the “entities to protect” on
one axis and “entities to protect from” on the other.
The cell corresponding to these two contain the
access rights (Who can access what).

file1 CD Writer

user1 Write Read

Read
execute
user2 read Read
Write
That ends our discussion on
Operating Systems
Books suggested –
Process Management , Memory Management, Storage
Management – Fundamentals of Operating Systems,
Silbershatz, Galvin

Security, Encryption – Modern Operating Systems, Tanenbaum

Happy Studying!!!!