15CI12 - UNIX INTERNALS

L T P C
3 0 0 3
ASSESSMENT: THEORY
COURSE OBJECTIVE
To gain knowledge on the features of UNIX OS and its internal architecture.
COURSE OUTCOMES
CO1: Knowledge in the concept of process management, scheduling, IPC and file management
in UNIX.
CO2: Ability to analyze the features of UNIX and Linux..

INTRODUCTION TO KERNEL
Architecture of UNIX operating system - Introduction to system concepts - Kernel data
structures. The Buffer Cache: Buffer headers - Structure of Buffer pool - Scenarios for retrieval
of a buffer - Reading and writing disk blocks - Advantages and disadvantages of Buffer Cache.
(9)

INTERNAL REPRESENTATION OF FILES

Inodes - Structure of regular file - Directories - Conversion of pathname to an inode - Super
block - Inode assignment to a new file - Allocation of disk blocks – Overview of System Calls
for the file system. (9)

STRUCTURE OF PROCESSES
Process States and Transitions - Layout of System Memory - The Context of a Process - Saving
the Context of a Process - Manipulation of the Process Address Space - Sleep - Process Control.
(9)

PROCESS SCHEDULING AND MEMORY MANAGEMENT POLICIES

Process Scheduling: Algorithm - Scheduling parameters - examples of Process Scheduling -
Controlling Process priorities - Fair Share Scheduler. Memory Management Policies: Swapping -
Demand Paging - A Hybrid system with Swapping and Demand Paging. (9)

I/O SUB SYSTEM AND INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION

Driver Interfaces - Disk Drivers - Terminal Drivers - Streams. Inter Process Communication:
Process tracing - System V IPC - Network communication - Sockets. Case Study: Comparison of
UNIX and LINUX. (9)

TOTAL: 45
TEXT BOOK
1. Maurice J Bach, “The Design of Unix Operating System “, Pearson Education, First
Edition, 2015.

REFERENCE BOOKS
1. Uresh Vahalia, “Unix Internals: The New frontiers”, Pearson Education, Second Edition,
2010.
2. Robert Love, “Linux Kernel Development – Developer’s Library”, 3rd Edition, Pearson
Education, 2010.
3. John Strang, Jerry Peek, Grace Todino, “Learning the UNIX OS”, O’Reily, Fifth Edition,
2002.
4. Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel, “The Linux Kernel Book”, Wiley India, 2013.

Outcome Mapping

Course Programme Outcomes

Outcome
PO PO PO PO PO PO PO PO PO PO1 PSO PSO
s
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
CO1 X X
CO2 X