File Systems

Kedar Ramachandra

Aug 28 , 2019

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Everything is a File

Regular Files
Directories
File Listing of Set of Files
Symbolic Links
Files referring to name of another file
Devices and Peripherals

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File Name

File Name Features since the beginning of Unix

Case Sensitive
No Obvious Length Limit
Can contain any character (exceptions)
examples
README
.bashrc
index.html.old

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Linux FileSystem Structure

/ : Root
/bin/ : Basic Essential System Commands
/boot/ :Kernel Images
/dev/ : Files Representing Devices
/etc/ :System Config Files
/home/ : User Directories
/lib/ : Basic System Shared Libraries

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Linux FileSystem Structure

/ lost+found : Corrupt Files

/media : Mount Points for Removable Media
/proc/ :Access to system information
/root/ : Root User Home Directory
/sys/ :System and Device Controls
/tmp/ : Temporary Files

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File Paths

Relative Path
Relative to Current Directory
Absolute Path

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Command Line Interpreters

Shells : Tools to execute user commands.

They hide the underlying OS
Commands are input in a text terminal , either in a window in a GUI
or textonly console
Results are also displayed on the terminal .
Shells can be scripted.

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Well Known Shells

sh The Bourne Shell (Obsolete)

csh The C Shell (Obsolete) : C Like Syntax
tcsh : The TC Shell (popular)
BASH: Bourne Again Shell (most popular)

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Special Directories

./
Current Directory
equivalence examples
../
Parent Directory
Typical Usage cd ..

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Other Directories

∼/
Shells substitute it with the home directory of the current user.
Cannot be used so often
∼ user2/
Substitutes home directory of user 2

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Unix Architecture

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Overview of File Subsystem

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File System

inode
Contains the description of the disk layout of the file data.
Contains information about the owner, last accessed, access
permissions
Basically means Index Node
inodes are stored in the file system.

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File System

File Table
Global Kernel Structure
Keeps track of byte offset in the file where the users next write or
read will start
Keeps track of access rights permitted to opening process
User File Descriptor Table
Allotted per process
identifies all open files for a process.

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File System

File System
1 Boot Block
2 Super Block
3 Inode List
4 Data Blocks

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