Linux Architecture

By:-

Verule Amol R.

BOSS Team Member

CDAC-chennai

veruler@cdac.in

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 Linux Internal

Introduction
Kernel
Process Management
Memory Management
File System
Device Driver
Network Stack
Architecture-dependent code

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 Introduction
Operating System is a software designed to control the
hardware of a system in order to allow users and
application programs to make use of it.
Linux is a free operating system based on UNIX
standards.
LINUX® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Features of Linux.
Multiprogramming
Multi-user
Secure
Fast

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 Components of Linux System

Architecture of the GNU/Linux operating system

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 Components of a Linux System (Cont.)

When Linux is running in main memory,the it is divided in to

two parts 1) User space.
2) Kernel space.

User's applications are running in user space.

Kernel is running in kernel space.
The system libraries (e.g. glibc) define a standard set of
functions through which applications interact with the kernel,
and which implement much of the operating-system
functionality that does not need the full privileges of kernel
code.

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 The Linux Kernel
Kernel is a resource manager whether resource being
managed is a process,memory,hardware device.
Short history of Linux kernel development.

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 Linux Kernel

Types of Kernel

Monolithic Kernel.
(e.g. Linux kernel)

Micro kernel
(e.g. Windows NT kernel,Mach kernel etc.)

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Structure of monolithic and micro-kernel-
based operating systems
Monolithic kernel Micro Kernel

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 Linux Kernel 2.6.x

Characteristics that differ between the Linux kernel and other Unix
variants:

Dynamic loading of kernel module

Preemptive

Symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) support.

Linux does not differentiate between threads and normal processes.

Linux provides an object-oriented device model with device

classes,hotpluggable events and user-space device file
system(sysfs).

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 Linux Kernel

Kernel version naming convention:

Linux kernel currently consists of four numbers
A.B.C[.D]

The A number denotes the kernel version. It is changed least

frequently, and only when major changes in the code and the concept
of the kernel occur.

The B number denotes the major revision of the kernel.

If B is even then kernel is stable else it is unstable.

The C number indicates the minor revision of the kernel is only

changed when new drivers or features are introduced.

minor fixes are handled

Centre for by the D number.
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 Linux kernel

Block diagram of Linux Kernel.

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 Linux Kernel- System Call Interface
System call is the mechanism used by an application program to
request service from the operating system.

API is a function definition that specifies how to obtain a given

service(ex.calloc,malloc ,free etc.), while System call is an explicit

request to the kernel made via a software interrupt (ex.brk)

Invoking a system call by user mode process.

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 Linux Kernel-Process Management

Process is a program in execution.

Process is represented in OS by

Process Control Block.

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 Linux Kernel-Process Management
Linux kernel stores the list of process in a circular doubly linked list
called task_list.

Each element in task list is a process descriptor of the type

task_struct .

task_struct structure is allocated via slab/slub allocator.

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 Linux Kernel-Process Management
Thread is a unit of execution or objects of activity within process.
Thread is simply a new process that happens to share the same
address space as its parent
Process creation:
fork () creates a child process that is a copy of current
process. it differs in PID,PPID. exec() loads new executable in to
address space. clone() creates a new
process(LWP) with its own identity, but that is allowed to share the data
structures of its parent.
Process Termination:
when process calls system call exit().
Process can also terminate involuntarily by
signals or exceptions it can not handle or ignore.
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 Linux Kernel-Process Management

Process state is defined in part of current activity of that process

The kernel implements a O(1) scheduler algorithm that operates in

constant time, regardless of the number of threads vying for the CPU.
It supports SMP.

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 Linux Kernel-Memory Management

Computer memory layout:

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 Linux Kernel-Memory Management

Linux’s physical memory-management system deals with allocating

and freeing pages, groups of pages, and small blocks of memory.

It has additional mechanisms for handling virtual memory, memory

mapped into the address space of running processes.

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 Splitting of Memory in a Buddy Heap

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 Managing Physical Memory
The page allocator allocates and frees all physical pages; it
can allocate ranges of physically-contiguous pages on
request.
The allocator uses a buddy-heap algorithm to keep track of
available physical pages.
Each allocatable memory region is paired with an adjacent
partner.
Whenever two allocated partner regions are both freed up they
are combined to form a larger region.
If a small memory request cannot be satisfied by allocating an
existing small free region, then a larger free region will be
subdivided into two partners to satisfy the request.
Memory allocations in the Linux kernel occur either statically
(drivers reserve a contiguous area of memory during system
boot time) or dynamically (via the page allocator).

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 Virtual Memory

The VM system maintains the address space visible to

each process: It creates pages of virtual memory on
demand, and manages the loading of those pages from
disk or their swapping back out to disk as required.
The VM manager maintains two separate views of a
process’s address space:
A logical view describing instructions concerning the layout of
the address space.
The address space consists of a set of non overlapping regions,
each representing a continuous, page-aligned subset of the
address space.
A physical view of each address space which is stored in the
hardware page tables for the process.
mkswap /dev/sdax
swapon /dev/sdax
swapoff /dev/sdax
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 File System

A file system is the methods and data structures that an operating

system uses to keep track of files on a disk or partition; that is, the
way the files are organized on the disk.

A file is an ordered string of bytes

Files are organized in directory.

File information like size,owner,access permission etc. are stored in

a separate data structure called inode.

Superblock is a data structure containing information about file

system

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 Filesystem

The Virtual Filesystem (also known as Virtual Filesystem Switch or

VFS) is a kernel software layer that handles all system calls related to
a standard Unix filesystem. Its main strength is providing a common
interface to several kinds of filesystems.

ex. copy a file from MS-dos filesystem to Linux

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 Filesystem
file object stores information about the interaction between an open
file and a process. This information exists only in kernel memory
during the period when a process has the file open.

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 Filesystem maintenance

Filesystems checked at boot up

Maintaining consistency with fsck,e2fsck

lost+found

command line utility for Filesystem maintenance

tune2fs

dump2fs

debugfs
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 Device Driver

Device drivers take on a special role in the Linux kernel. They are
distinct “black boxes” that make a particular piece of hardware
respond to a well-defined internal programming interface; they hide
completely the details of how the device works.

Linux Device Driver are categorised in three types such as

Character Device Driver

Block Device Driver

Network Device Driver.

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 Network stack
The network stack, by design, follows a layered architecture modeled
after the protocols themselves. Recall that the Internet Protocol is the
core network layer protocol that sits below the transport protocol .
Above TCP is the sockets layer, which is invoked through the SCI.

The sockets layer is the standard API to the networking subsystem

and provides a user interface to a variety of networking protocols.

From raw frame access to IP protocol data units and up to TCP and

the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the sockets layer provides a

standardized way to manage connections and move data between

endpoints.
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 Architecture-dependent code

While much of Linux is independent of the architecture on which it

runs, there are elements that must consider the architecture for
normal operation and for efficiency. The ./linux/arch subdirectory
defines the architecture-dependent portion of the kernel source
contained in a number of subdirectories that are specific to the
architecture . For a typical desktop, the i386 directory is used. Each
architecture subdirectory contains a number of other subdirectories
that focus on a particular aspect of the kernel, such as boot, kernel,
memory management, and others.

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 Thank You

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