Subject: Operating System

Class: TYCM I & II

UNIT-2
Services & Components of OS
 Topic – System Calls
 Objectives:
 To understand the use of System Calls.
 To use System Calls

Presentation By:
Mrs. M. P. Bhosale
Lecturer, Computer Dept.
K. K. Wagh Polytechnic, Nashik
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System Calls
 System calls provide the interface between a
running program and the operating system.
 i.e. 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
 E.g. for Microsoft Windows Platform APIs are
Win32 API

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Example of System Call
 System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to
another file

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System Calls Cont…
 Threegeneral methods used to pass parameters to
the OS
 Simplest: passthe parameters in registers
 In some cases, may be more parameters than registers
 Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and
address of block passed as a parameter in a register
 This approach taken by Linux and Solaris
 Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the
program and popped off the stack by the operating
system
 Block and stack methods do not limit the number or
length of parameters being passed

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API –System Call –OS Relationship

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Passing of Parameters as A Table

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Types of System Calls
 Systemcalls can be grouped into five
major categories:
 Process Control
 File Management
 Device Management
 Information Maintenance
 Communications

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Process Control
 end, abort
 load, execute
 create process, terminate process
 get process attributes, set process attributes
 wait for time
 wait event, signal event
 allocate and free memory

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File Management
 create file, delete file
 open, close file
 read, write, reposition
 get and set file attributes

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Device management
 request device, release device
 read, write, reposition
 get device attributes, set device attributes
 logically attach or detach devices

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Information maintenance
 get time or date, set time or date
 get system data, set system data
 get and set process, file, or device attributes

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Communications
 create, delete communication connection
 send, receive messages if message passing
model to host name or process name
 From client to server
 Shared-memory model create and gain
access to memory regions
 transfer status information
 attach and detach remote devices

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Examples of
Windows and Unix System Calls

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Standard C Library Example

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

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Continued…..

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