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4
Operating Systems

Yao-Nan Lien 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 355

Department of Computer Science,
National Chengchi University,
Taipei, Taiwan
4.2 Operating System Concepts ................................................................... 356
4.2.1 Process . 4.2.2 Files . 4.2.3 System Calls . 4.2.4 Shell: Command-Based User Interface .
4.2.5 Graphical User Interface
4.3 Operating Systems History .................................................................... 358
4.4 A Model Operating System.................................................................... 360
4.4.1 Single-Machine Levels 1 through 7 . 4.4.2 Multi-Machine Levels 8 through 14
4.5 Case 1: UNIX...................................................................................... 361
4.5.1 Introduction to UNIX . 4.5.2 Using UNIX . 4.5.3 Linux: An Open Source UNIX
Clone for a Personal Computer
4.6 Case 2: MS-DOS.................................................................................. 364
4.6.1 Introduction to MS-DOS . 4.6.2 Using MS-DOS
References .......................................................................................... 366

4.1 Introduction hiding—confining the details of managing a class of ‘‘objects’’

The operating system of a computer is software, which con-
trols all the computer’s resources and provides the base upon
which the application programs can be written. Modern oper-
ating systems also provide numerous services, such as inter-
process communication, file and directory systems, data
transfer over networks, and a command language for invoking
and controlling programs.
A modern computer system consists of one or more proces-
sors, some main memory, clocks, terminals, disks, network
interfaces, and other input/output devices. Writing programs
that keep track of all these components and use them correctly
is an extremely difficult job. The operating system puts a layer
of software on top of the bare hardware, manages all parts of
the system, and presents the user with an interface or virtual
machine that is easier to understand and program. Thus, an
operating system can be defined as a set of software extensions
of primitive hardware, culminating in a virtual machine that
serves as a high-level programming environment and manages
the flow of work in a network of computers.
The virtual machine visible to the user is only the outermost
of a series of software layers refining the base hardware. The
principle behind the layered architecture is called information
in a module that has a friendly interface with its users. With
information hiding, designers can protect themselves from
extensive reprogramming if the hardware or some part of the
software changes: the change affects only the small portion of
the software interfacing directly with that system component.
By nesting these modules, a hierarchy of levels of abstraction is
created so that at any level, users can ignore the details at all
lower levels. At the highest level is system users who, ideally,
are insulated from everything except what they want to accom-
plish. Operating systems structured in this way can support
diverse environments: programming, game playing, real-time
processing, office automation, database, and so on. This situ-
ation is shown in Figure 4.1.
At the bottom of the hierarchy is the hardware that may be
composed of two or more layers. The lowest layer contains
physical devices, such as processors, memory, and disks.
On top of the physical devices, there is a layer of system
software that directly controls these devices and provides a
cleaner interface to the upper layers of software. These software
modules are best known as device drivers in the most popular
personal computer systems and are sometimes treated as parts
of the operating system. The interface to the device drivers is
usually in a primitive format, called machine language. The

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