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Unix and DEMOS Disk Allocation

OSTEP: Chapter 40

Storage Management: For a given file, how the does OS find the data blocks contained in that file? The data structure that decribes the contents of file is generically called a file descriptor. We will see several other names (like inode and MFTE), as we study about file systems.

The file descriptor information has to be stored on disk, so it will stay around even when the OS does not.

  • In Unix, all the descriptors are stored in a fixed size array on disk. The descriptors also contain protection and accounting information.

  • A special area of disk is used for this (disk contains two parts: the fixed-size descriptor array, and the remainder, which is allocated for data and indirect blocks).

  • The size of the descriptor array is determined when the disk is initialized, and cannot be changed. In Unix, the descriptor is called an i-node, and its index in the array is called its i-number. Internally, the OS uses the i-number to refer to the file.

  • When a file is open, its descriptor is kept in main memory. When the file is closed, the descriptor is stored back to disk.

UNIX inode layout

The Classic Unix Inode

  • File descriptors: 13 block pointers. The first 10 point to data blocks, the next three to indirect, doubly-indirect, and triply-indirect blocks (256 pointers in each indirect block). Maximum file length is fixed, but large. Descriptor space is not allocated until needed.

  • Examples: block 23, block 5 block 340

  • Free blocks: stored on a free list in no particular order.

  • Go through examples of allocation and freeing.

  • Advantages: simple, easy to implement, incremental expansion, easy access to small files.

  • Drawbacks:

  • Indirect mechanism does not provide very efficient access to large files: 3 descriptor ops for each real operation. A cache is used, but this takes up main memory space.

  • Block-by-block organization of free list means that that file data gets spread around the disk.

UNIX inode structure

The Demos File System

Demos was an operating system written especially for high performance systems, originally the Cray 1. Its design continues to influence systems today.

The Demos solution: allocates files contiguously, has more compact file descriptors, uses more CPU time. (refer to contiguous allocation picture in section 26).

Demos File Descriptor Structure

  • File descriptors: select sequences of physical blocks, called block groups, rather than single blocks. Block groups were called extents by IBM.

  • A block group has three fields:

  • Starting disk block: the starting address on disk of this block group,
  • Starting logical block: the starting block number within the file for the block group,
  • Count: the number of blocks in the group.

  • There are 10 block groups in file descriptor; if files become large, then these become pointers to groups of indirect blocks. The resulting structure is like a B-tree.

  • Free blocks: described with a bit map. Just an array of bits, one per block. 1 means block free, 0 means block allocated. For a 300 Mbyte drive there are about 300000 1kbyte blocks, so bit map takes up 40000 bytes. Keep only a small part of the bit map in memory at once. In allocation, scan bit map for adjacent free blocks.

  • Advantages:

  • It is easy to allocate block groups, since the bit map automatically merges adjacent free blocks.

  • File descriptors take up less space on disk, require fewer accesses in random access to large files.

  • Disadvantages:

  • Slightly more complex than Unix scheme: trades CPU time for disk access time (OK for CRAY-1).

  • When disk becomes full, this becomes VERY expensive, and does not get much in the way of adjacency.

Even if it is possible to allocate in groups, how do you know when to do it? Use past history: if file is already big, it will probably get bigger.

What Else is Stored in an inode (File Descriptor)?

So, far, we have described the primary task of an inode to locate the data blocks in a file. Some of the other basic information that is found in a file descriptor includes:

Permissions:Indicates who can read, write or execute the file.

Size:Size of the file in bytes (important because files are allocated on disk in terms of blocks.

Owner:The user ID and other information (like group ID on UNIX) about the creator of the file.

Time stamps:The time that the was created, last referenced and last modified.

If you want to learn more about how the UNIX file system next evolved, you can check out this paper we cover in the graduate operating systems class (CS736):

M.K McKusick, W. N. Joy, S. J. Leffler, R. S. Fabry, A Fast File System for UNIX, ACM Trans. on Computer Systems, 2 3, August 1984, pp. 181-197.

Copyright © 2012, 2018, 2020 Barton P. Miller

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