File -System Internals

As we saw in Chapter 13, the file system provides the mechanism for on-line storage and access to file contents, including data and programs. This chapter is primarily concernedwith the internal structures and operations of file systems. We explore in detail ways to structure file use, to allocate storage space, to recover freed space, to track the locations of data, and to interface other parts of the operating system to secondary storage.

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

• Delve into the details of file systems and their implementation.

• Explore booting and file sharing.

• Describe remote file systems, using NFS as an example.