Operating Systems

CMPSCI 377
Lecture 3: OS Structures
Lecture 4: Processes

Emery Berger
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science

 Last Time:
OS & Computer Architecture
 Modern OS Functionality (brief
review)
 Architecture Basics
 Hardware Support for OS Features

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 2

 This Time:
OS Structures & Processes
 Components
 OS Organizations (kernels)
 Processes

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 3

 Components
 Process
 Synchronization
 Memory management
 File system
 Secondary storage
 I/O systems
 Distributed systems

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 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

Key Component: The Process

 OS manages variety of activities:
 User programs, batch jobs, command

scripts
 Daemons: spoolers, name servers, file

servers, etc.
 Each activity encapsulated in process:
 Context (PC, registers, address space,

etc.) required for activity to run

 Process != program


One program may comprise many processes 5
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science
 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

Processes
 OS manages & schedules
processes
 Creation, deletion
 Resource allocation (e.g., CPU,
memory)
 Suspension & resumption

 OS supports processes
 Inter-process communication
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 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary

Process Synchronization storage

I/O systems
Distributed sys.

Example
 Banking transactions
 Cooperating processes operate on
single account
 ATM transactions
 Balance computation
 Monthly interest calculation &
addition

 All may access same account

simultaneously
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 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

Memory Management
 Main memory:
 Direct access storage for CPU
 Processes: must be in main memory
to execute
 OS must:
 Maintain page tables
(virtual/physical memory)
 Allocate & deallocate memory
 Decide how much memory each
process gets
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 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

File System
 Secondary storage devices (e.g.,
disks)
 Block-level: read, write to point on
disk
 Too crude to use directly for long-
term storage
 File system provides logical
objects (files) & operations on
these objects
UNIVERSITY
 OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 9
 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

File System Organization

 Supports hierarchical organization
of files
 Files grouped in directories
 Maintains metadata about files:
 Date created
 Last modified date
 Controls access to files
 Who owns & can alter files
 Read-only, executable, etc.
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 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

File System Management

 Standard interface to:
 Create & delete files, directories
 Manipulate files & directories
 Read, write, extend, rename, copy,
protect
 Map files into memory
 May provide other general
services:
 Backups
UNIVERSITY
 OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 11
 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary

Secondary Storage (Disks, storage

I/O systems
Distributed sys.

etc.)
 Persistent memory
 Endures system failures

 Low-level OS routines handle disk

functions:
 Scheduling disk operations
 Head movement
 Error handling
 May keep track of free space
 Sometimes these routines are in
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 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

I/O Systems
 Support communication with
external devices:
 Terminal, keyboard, printer, mouse
 Support buffering & spooling of
I/O
 Provide general device driver
interface
 Hides differences between devices
 Often mimics file system interface
 Provide implementations of device
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 Process
Memory mgmt.
File system
Secondary
storage
I/O systems
Distributed sys.

Distributed Systems
 Distributed system = collection of
processors that do not share memory or
clock
 Processes must communicate over network
 OS must deal with failures & deadlock
 Problems specific to distributed systems

 OS can support distributed file

system
 Manages multiple independent storage
devices
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 OS Structures & Processes
 Components
 OS Organizations (kernels)
 Processes

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 Monolithic Kernel
 Classic
UNIX
approach
, Linux
 Everythi
ng in
kernel
+Fast
- Risky

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 16

 Layered OS Design
 “THE” operating system
 Dijkstra
+Modular, simple,
portable, easy to
design/debug
- Communication
overhead,
copying,
bookkeeping
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 The Microkernel Approach

 Goal:
Minimize
contents of
kernel
 Why?

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 Microkernel: Motivation
 Minimize contents of kernel:
 Reduces risk of crashing OS
 Put functionality in user-level
processes
 Simplifies extension & customization
 First μ-kernel: Hydra (CMU)
 Current systems: Mach (also CMU),
by Rick Rashid et al. (now head of
Microsoft Research)
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 μ-kernels vs. Monolithic
Kernels
 Past conventional wisdom: (1990’s)
 Mach – beautiful research idea but “failed”
in practice

Too slow!
 Linux – ugly, monolithic, but fast

 Today: much faster computers

 Mach: fast enough (Mac OS X)

 Reliability, simplicity, robustness

now more important than performance
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 OS Structures & Processes
 Components
 OS Organizations (kernels)
 Processes

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 Processes
 Process Concept
 Process States
 Process Scheduling
 Process Management
 Interprocess Communication

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 Process Concept
 OS executes variety of programs:
 Batch system – jobs
 Time-shared systems – user programs or
tasks
 Process – program in execution
 process execution sequential (kind of)
 Process includes:
 program counter
 stack
 data section
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 Process States
 New
 Process being created

 Running
 Instructions being executed

 Waiting
 Process waiting for some event to occur

 Ready
 Process waiting to be assigned to a

processor
 Terminated
 (duh)
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 Process State Diagram
 Transitions:
 Program
actions
(system
calls)
 OS actions
(schedulin
g)
 External
events
(interrupts)

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 25

 Process Execution Example
1. New
void main() { 2. Ready
printf (“Hello world\n”); 3. Running
} 4. Waiting for I/O
5. Ready
6. Running
7. Terminated

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 Process Data Structures
 Process Control Block:
 Tracks state

 OS allocates, places on

queue
 OS deallocates on

termination

 Lots of info:
 Process state

 Program counter

 CPU registers

 CPU scheduling

information
 Memory-management

information
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 Process Scheduling Queues
 Job queue
 Set of all processes in system
 Ready queue
 Set of processes residing in main memory
ready & waiting to execute
 Device queues
 Set of processes waiting for I/O device
 One per device

 Process migration between the various

queues.
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 Process Queues Example

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 CPU Scheduling

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 Process Scheduling

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 PCBs and Hardware State
 Switching processes: context
switch
 Relatively expensive
 Time between switches (quantum)
must be long enough to amortize
this cost
 Start:
 OS picks ready process
 Loads register values from PCB
 Stop:
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 Process Creation
 One process can create other processes
 Creator = parent, new processes =
children
 Parent can wait for child to complete,
or continue in parallel

 UNIX: fork() used to create child

processes
 Copies variables & registers from parent to
child
 Memory lazily copied (copy-on-write)
 Only difference between parent & child:
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 33
 Process Creation Example
 Logging into UNIX creates shell process
 Every command typed into shell:
 Child of shell process (spawned by fork)
 Executes command via exec
 Example:
 Type “emacs”
 OS forks new process
 exec executes emacs
 If followed by “&”, runs in parallel;
otherwise, waits until done
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 Example UNIX Program: Fork

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 Process Termination
 On termination, OS reclaims all
resources assigned to process
 UNIX processes:
 Can terminate self via exit system
call
 Can terminate child via kill system
call

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 Example: Process
Termination

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 Cooperating Processes
 Cooperating processes work
together to accomplish a task
 Advantages:
 Can improve performance by
overlapping activities or performing
work in parallel
 Can enable simpler program design
 Simplifies distribution
 Processes can live on different
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ASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 38
 Interprocess Communication
Processes communicate in one of
two ways:
 Message passing:
 Send and receive information
 Numerous means: sockets, pipes,
etc.
 Shared memory:
 Establish mapping to named
memory object
UNIVERSITY
 OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST • Department of Computer Science 39
 Process Summary
 Process = unit of execution
 Represented by Process Control
Blocks
 Contain process state, scheduling info, etc.
 Process state:
 New, Ready, Waiting, Running, or
Terminated
 One running process at a time (on a
uniprocessor)
 Context switch when changing process
executing on CPU
 Communicate by message passing or
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 The End

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