The UNIX File System

Prof. Brian D. Davison

Computer Science & Engineering, Lehigh University

Announcements

• No quiz today
• Preview of project 6
• Today's schedule
  • Collect homework #6
  • Hard drive organization
  • UNIX file systems

Hard drive organization

• What does it mean to store a file?
• What is a hard drive?

Hard drive organization

• A hard drive is a stack of magnetic platters (show-and-tell).
• Each platter is organized into concentric circles called tracks.
• Each track is broken into sectors, each with some fixed number of bytes.
• The time it takes for the magnetic head to find a track is usually called the access time.
• The faster the platter spins, the faster data can be read/written.
• We can treat the set of sectors as an array of blocks.

Hard drive organization

• We can divide the blocks into one or more partitions. Each partition is treated like a separate disk (from the OS perspective).
• On each partition (or more simply, each disk), we divide the blocks into three groups
  • The superblock -- contains info about how the file system is organized, such as the number of inode
  • The inode table -- struct containing size, owner, last mod time of a file (one inode per file)
  • The data area -- actual file contents are stored here, possibly across many blocks
• Might want to draw array

Creating a file

• What happens when we create a file?
  • E.g., when we type who > userlist

Creating a file

• The kernel stores the file contents in the data area, in one or more blocks
• Some properties of the file are stored in the inode for the file
• Others (such as the name) are stored in the directory in which the file is placed

Creating a file

• In more detail:
  • The kernel finds a free inode in which to record file properties (e.g., 47)
  • Data blocks are allocated from a list of free blocks (e.g., 627, 200, and 992) and file contents are stored in them
  • The kernel records those blocks (in that order) into the inode
  • The kernel records the entry (47, userlist) to the directory file.
  • Show inodes (using ls -ia) for root directory

Reading a file

• In more detail:
  • The directory is searched for the filename of interest, which has a particular inode entry
  • The inode is read, telling the list of data blocks
  • Read the data blocks in order
• What happens with large files?

Large files

• We know that large files require many disk blocks, that the inode stores the list of disk blocks used, and that the inode is a fixed-size structure.
• With large files, we use most, but not all of the block entries to refer to file blocks.
• When we run out of regular data block entries, we use an indirect entry -- a pointer to a block that contains entries for more data blocks
• When this indirect block fills, we use the next entry to store a double indirect block entry (points to a block with entries that point to blocks with entries pointing to data)
• When the double indirect block fills, a triple indirect block is used
• When the triple indirect block fills, the filesystem has been exhausted
• Access to large files can be expensive (multiple levels of indirection)

Files in Directories

• So, is a file really in a directory?
• What happens when you rename a file? (e.g., with mv)
• A single inode (refering to a particular file) can be listed in multiple directories (and even multiple times in the same directory). What does this mean? Does a file really have a name?

Relevant system calls

• mkdir() - creates inode for directory file, writes . and .. entries in block allocated to file, and adds an antry in the parent node with the name
• rmdir() - does reverse, and if directory is not in use, inode and data blocks are freed
• unlink() - used by rm(1); removes an entry from a directory and decrements the link count
• link() - used by ln(1); makes a new link with a specified name to an inode (but not to directories)
• rename() - used by mv; typically uses link() and unlink()
• chdir() - used by cd; changes the current directory of a process (i.e., the inode number)

pwd

• How would you write pwd?

Multiple File Systems

• Move UNIX file systems are made up of multiple disks (and often multiple partitions per disk).
• Yet all appear within a single, unified, logical tree.
• Each partition has its own file and directory tree (and thus its own inodes, etc.)
• We can attach one partition to another by 'mounting' one to another
  • A mount takes the place of an existing directory
  • link() and rename() will fail when attempting to link across filesystems
  • Modern versions of mv will resort to copying and unlinking
  • Symbolic links (generated by ln -s can span filesystems and can point to anything (including directories)