Unix and Shell Programming (@dcoder)

UNIX AND SHELL PROGRAMMING
UNIX AND SHELL

PROGRAMMING
By
ANOOP CHATURVEDI B.L. RAI

M C A , M .T ech (C S E ) (H on s) M C A , M .T ech (C S E )
A ssociate P rofessor H ead of T h e D epartm en t
D epartm en t of C om pu ter S cien ce, D epartm en t of C om pu ter S cien ce,
L .N .C .T ., B h opal J .N .C .T ., B h opal
UNIVERSITY SCIENCE PRESS

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U U S -9626-145-U N IX A N D S H E L L P R O G -C H A C —
Typeset at : K alyan i C om pu ter S ervices, N ew D elh i. 2355/010/10
D edicated to
Lord G anesha
(v)
CONTENTS
Preface (xi)
Acknowledgement (xii)
1. INTRODUCTION TO UNIX 1-·6

1.1 Development of Unix 1
1.2 Types of Shell 2
1.3 Features of UNIX 3
1.4 Hierarchical Structure of UNIX O.S. Or
Tree Structure of UNIX O.S . 5
2. OPERATING SYSTEM SERVICES 7-11

2.1 Assumption about H/W-Level of UNIX system 7
2.2 Processor Execution Level 9
2.3 Architecture of UNIX O.S. 9
3. FILE SYSTEM 12-22

3.1 File System Layout 12
3.2 Block Addressing Scheme 13
3.3 Process 15
3.4 P rocess State and Transitions 18
3.5 Sleep and Wakeup 20
3.6 Kernel Data Structure 21
3.7 System Administration 21
4. BUFFER CACHE 23-30

4.1 Buffer H eaders 23
4.2 Scenarios for Retrieval of a Buffer 25
(uii)
(viii)
5. READING AND WRITING DISK BLOCKS 31-41

5.1 Disk Controller 31
5.2 Algorithm: For Reading a Disk Block 32
5.3 Block Read Ahead 32
5.4 Advantage of Disk Block 34
5.5 Accessing Inodes 35
5.6 Algo: Releasing Inode (In-core) 36
5. 7 Structure of a Regular File 37
5.8 Directories 40
5.9 Conversion of a Pathname to an Inode Number 40
6. INODE ASSIGNMENT TO A NEW FILE 42-48

6.1 Remembered Inode 43
6.2 Allocation of Disk Block 46
6.3 Different Treatment of Disk Block and Inode 48
7. SYSTEM CALLS 49-69

7.1 Types of System Calls 49
7.2 Algorithm: Read 51
7.3 Adj usting the Position of File 110-LSeek 54
7.4 Close 55
7.5 File Creation 56
7.6 Creation of Special Files 56
7.7 Stat and Fstat 57
7.8 Pipes 58
7.9 Four Cases for Reading and Writing Pipes 59
7.10 Dup 60
7.11 Mounting and Unmounting File Systems 61
7.12 Mount (Special P athname, Directory Pathname, Options) 61
7.13 Mount File 61
7.14 Algorithm for Mounting a File System 62
7.15 Crossing Mount Points in File PathNames 63
7.16 Revised Algorithm for Accessing an Inode 63
7.17 Unmounting a File System --+Syntax 65
7.18 Link 66
7.19 Unlink 68
(ix)
8. STRUCTURE OF A PROCESS 70-82

8.1 Process States and Transitions 70
8.2 Kernel Data Structures 71
8.3 Layout of System Memory 72
8.4 The Context of a Process 76
8.5 Typical Context Layers of a Sleeping Process 78
8.6 Manipulation of the Process Address Space 79
9. PROCESS CONTROL 83-89

9.1 Process Creation 83
9.2 Awaiting Process Termination 85
9.3 The User-ID of a Process 86
9.4 Example Execution of Setuid Program 86
9.5 Changing the Size of a Process 87
10. INTER-PROCESS COMMUNICATION 90-96

10.1 Process Tracing 90
10.2 System V IPC 91
11. SOCKETS 97-102

11.1 Multiprocessor Systems 99
11.2 Problem with Multiprocessor System 100
11.3 Solution with Master Slave Processors 100
11.4 Solution with Semaphores 101
12. UNIX COMMAND 103-127

12.1 Introduction to Shell 103
12.2 Shell Programming 117
12.3 Sleep and Wait 120
13. AWK AND PERL PROGRAMMING 128-182

13.1 Introduction to awk 128
13.2 How to Run awk Programs? 129
13.3 Comments in awk Programs 129
13.4 The Printf Statement 129
13.5 Conditional Statements 130
(x )
13.6 Loops in awk 131

13.7 Startup and Cleanup Actions (BEGIN & END) 132
13.8 Buiilt-in Variables 134
13.9 Intr oduction to Getline 137
13.10 Built-in Functions 140
13.11 Intr oduction to P erl 148
13.12 Starting a Perl Script 149
13.13 PERL-Arithmetic Operators 152
13.14 PERL-Assignment Operators 153
13.15 PERL- Logical and Relational Operators 154
13.16 Perl-$_ and @_ 156
13.17 Arr ays-@ 157
13.18 @ARGVand %ENV 160
13.19 If/While Syntax 160
13.20 File Input 163
13.21 String Processing with Regular Expressions 165
13.22 Subroutines 169
13.23 Intr oduction to Sed 171
13.24 Brief History of Linux 177
Exercises 183 - 188

Index 189-191
P R E FA C E
T h e U N IX system w as first described in a 1974 paper in th e C om m u n ication of th e A C M

by K en T h om pson an d D en n is R itch ie. S in ce th at tim e, it h as becom e in creasin gly w idespread
an d popu lar th rou gh ou t th e com pu ter in du stry w h ere m ore an d m ore ven dors are offerin g
su pport for it on th eir m ach in es. It is especially popu lar in u n iversities w h ere its frequ en tly
u sed for operatin g system s research an d case stu dies.
T h is book describes th e in tern al algorith m an d stru ctu res th at form th e basis of th e
operatin g system an d th eir relation sh ip to th e program m er in terface. T h is book also cover
th e topic S h ell P rogram m in g, A W K , S E D an d P E R L . It is th u s applicable to several
en viron m en ts.
F irst it can be u sed as a text book for an operatin g system cou rse. S econ d, system
program m ers can u se th e book as a referen ce to gain better u n derstan din g of h ow th e
kern el w ork s an d to com pare algorith m s u sed in th e U N IX system to algorith m s u sed in
oth er operatin g system s. F in ally A pplication P rogram m er can u se th e book to im plem en t
S h ell S crip t, P rogram m in g w ith a w k , P rogram m in g w ith p erl an d P rogram m in g w ith
sed .
M an y exercise origin ally prepared for th e cou rse h ave been in clu ded at th e en d of th e
book , an d th ey are a key part of th e book. S om e exercises are straigh tforw ard, design ed to
illu strate con cepts brou gh t ou t in th e text.
T h e book n ot on ly covers th e en tire scope of th e su bject bu t explain th e ph ilosoph y of
th e su bject. T h is m ak es th e u n derstan din g of th is su bject m ore clear an d m akes it m ore
in terestin g. T h e book w ill be very u sefu l n ot on ly to th e stu den ts bu t also to th e su bject
teach ers. T h e stu den ts h ave to om it n oth in g an d possibly h ave to cover n oth in g m ore.
— A u th o rs
(xi)
ACK N O W LED G EM EN T
It is m y pleasu re to ackn ow ledge th e assistan ce of m an y frien ds an d colleagu es w h o

en cou raged m e w h ile I w rote th is book an d provided con stru ctive criticism of th e m an u script.
M y deepest appreciation goes to M r. A sh ok R ai (P rofessor in L N C T , B h opal) an d D r. P riyan ka
T ripath i (P rofessor in N IT R aipu r), w h o su ggested th at I w rite th is book, gave m e early
en cou ragem en t. A sh ok R ai tau gh t m e m an y trick s of th e trade, an d I w ill alw ays be in debted
to h im . M an ish K h em aria an d P rash an t B aredar also h ad a h an d in en cou ragin g m e from
th e very begin n in g, an d w e w ill alw ays appreciate h is k in dn ess an d th ou gh tfu ln ess. W e
w ou ld lik e to th an k m y m an agem en t for th eir con tin u ed su pport th rou gh ou t th is project an d
m y colleagu es, for providin g su ch a stim u latin g atm osph ere an d w on derfu l w ork en viron m en t
at L N C T L aboratories.
A n y su ggestion for th e im p rovem en t of th e book w ill be ack n ow ledged an d w ell
appreciated.
— A u th o rs
(xii)
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION TO UNIX
1.1 DEVELOPMENT OF UNIX
UNICS (Uniplexed Information and Computing System) 1970. And then UNIX—1973 in ‘C’.
1.1.1 “Bill Joy” (AT&T Bell Laboratory) is a Student Who Wrote Vi Editor
Microsoft was the first to run UNIX on a PC with 640 KB of memory. They called their
product XENIX that was bared on earlier edition of AT&T. But with some BSD borrowed utilities.
XENIX was later sold off to SCO (The Santa, cruz operation) who today markets the most popular
commercial brand of UNIX for the desktop—SCO UNIX. It now offers two major flavors—SCO
open server release 5 and SCO UNIX ware 7: the later is SVR 4—compliant,
1.1.2 Structure of UNIX System

User
Shell
Uni
x
Com
er man
Oth lication ds
App tem SW User
User Sys Kernel Shell
Shell
s
H/W
er
pil
Da
m
Pa ta ba
Co
cka se
ge
Internet
Tools
Shell
Shell
Us
Us er
er
Fig. 1.1
1
2 U NIX AND S HELL P ROGRAMMING
Kernel → This is the name of UNIX Operating System.

Shell → This is the command interpreter used in unix.
Application programs and utilities —Utilities are UNIX commands. Application programs
such as word processor, spreadsheets and Database Management Systems may be installed along
side the linux (or UNIX) commands. A user may run a utility or Application Programs through shell.
User
(i) Ordinary user → Work only their own working directory.
(ii) Super user → Super user have the command on entire system. They can add user.
Remove user etc.
1.2 TYPES OF SHELL

(i) Bourne Shell—It was created by Steve Bourne probably that’s why its bounded with
every UNIX system. Because it was bounded with every system it became popular.
Whatever the cause and the effect, the fact remains that this is the shell used by many
UNIX users.
(ii) C Shell—It was created by “Bill Joy” then pursuing his graduation at the University
of California at Berkeley. This shell is a hit with those who are seriously into UNIX
programming. It has two advantage over Bourne Shell.
(a) It allows aliaring of commands.
(b) C Shell has a command history feature.
(iii) Korn Shell—It was designed by “David Korn” of AT&T Bell Labs. The not so widely
used Korn shell is very powerful and is a superset of Bourne shell. It offers a lot more
capabilities and is decidedly more efficient than the other.
(iv) Available to Linux r-eh (Restricted Shell)—This restricts the area of memory the user
may access to his or her own directory, thus limiting access to all other users files. Its
not available on many machines.
There are other shells that have been developed since most generally for Linux—ash, tcsh,
and zsh.
However the most widely used, Linux based shell is the Bourne again shell (bash) based on
the original Bourne shell, it has similar extensions as the Korn shell, plus its own further
extension.
Linux also offers a windows based shell interfaces commonly known as X-windows or
simply as X.
Kernel is represented by the file Island/Unix or/Unix in SCO Unix, /vm linuz (Linux) and
the shell by/bin/sh (/bin/bash in linux).
Note: The command prompt is a $ if you are operating in “Bourne Shell” or a % if in “C Shell”.
1.2.1 The Reasons for Popularity and Success of the UNIX System
(i) The system is written in high level language, making it easy to read, understand
change and move to other machines.
I NTRODUCTION TO U NIX 3
(ii) It has a simple user interface that has the power to provide the services that users want.
(iii) It provides primitives that permits complex programs to be built from simpler
programs.
(iv) It user a hierarchical file system that allows easy maintenance and efficient
implementation.
(v) It uses consistent format for files, the byte stream, making application programs easier
to write.
(vi) It provides a simple, consistent interface to peripheral devices.
(vii) Its a multiuser, multiprocess system. Each user can execute several process
simultaneously.
(viii) It hides the m/c architecture from the user, making it easier to write programs that run
on different h/w implementations.
1.3 FEATURES OF UNIX

There are ten features of UNIX:
1. Multiuser system 6. Pattern matching
2. Multitasking capabilities 7. Programming facility
3. Communication 8. Windowing system
4. Security 9. Documentation
5. Portability 10. System calls and libraries.
1. Multiuser System
In a multiuser system, the same computer resources–hard disk, memory etc., are accessible
to many users. The users don’t flock together at the same computer but are given different terminal
to operate from. All terminals are connected to the main computer whose resources are available
by all users. The following figure shows a typical UNIX setup.
Terminal Terminal
Host M/c
Terminal Terminal
Fig. 1.2
Host M/C also known as server or a console. The number of terminal connected to the Host
M/C depends on the number of ports that are present in its controller card. There are several type
of terminal that can be attached to host M/C.
(i) Dumb Terminal—These terminal consist of a keyboard and a display unit with no
memory or disk of its own. These can never act as independent machine.
(ii) Terminal Emulation—A PC has its own microprocessor, memory and disk driver. By
attaching this to host M/C through a cable and running a S/W from this PC. We can
emulate it to work as if it is a dumb terminal. At such times the memory and disk are
not in use and the PC can’t carry out any processing its own. The S/W that makes the
PC work like a dumb terminal is called terminal emulation S/W. VTERM and XTALK
are two such popular S/W.
(iii) Dial-In-Terminal—These terminal used telephones lines to connect with host M/C. To
communicate over telephone lines we attach a modem.
Modem
Host M/c Modem

Terminal
Fig. 1.3
2. Multitasking Capabilities
Its capable of carrying out that a single user can run more than one job at the same time.
In UNIX this is done by running one job normally and other job in background. This is managed
by dividing the CPU time b/w all processes.
“The multitasking provide by MS-DOS is known as serial multitasking”.
3. Communication
The communication may be within the n/w of a single main computer or between two or
more such computer n/w. The users can easily exchange mail, data, programs through such
n/w. Distance poses no barrier to passing information or message to and from.
4. Security
UNIX has three inherent provision for protecting data.
(i) By assigning passwords and login names to individual users ensuring that not any-
body can come and have access to your work.
(ii) At the file level there are read, write, and execute permissions to each file decide who
can access a particular file.
(iii) File encryption.
I NTRODUCTION TO U NIX 5
5. Portability
It can be ported to almost any computer system with only the bare minimum of adaptations
to suit the given computer architecture.
1.4 HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF UNIX O.S.

OR
TREE STRUCTURE OF UNIX O.S.
(i) / - This is the rout directory of file system. The main memory of entire file system and
HOME directory for super user.
(ii) /sbin - This contains programs used in boating the system and in recovery.
(iii) /bin - This is used to hold useful utilities programs.
(iv) /dev - This contains special device files that includes terminals, printers and storage
device. There files contains device number that identify device to the O.S.
(v) /etc - This contains system administrators and configuration database.
(vi) /HOME - This contains home directory and files of all users, if your logname is
“Anoop” your default HOME directory is/home/Anoop.
(vii) /tmp - This contains all temporary files used by UNIX system.
(viii) /var - This contains the directory of all files that vary among system. Files in this
directory includes.
/var/adm — Contains system logging and accounting files.
/var/mail — Contains user mail files.
/var/news — Contains message of common interest.
/var/temp — Is a directory for temporary files.
/var/UUCP — Contains log and status files for UUCP system.
(ix) /mnt - Contains entries for removable (mountable) media such as CD-ROM, DLT taps.
(x) /proc - Contains process used in system.
(xi) /usr - This contains other accessible directory such as /usr/bin/usr/lib.
/usr/bin — Contains many executable program and unix system utilities.
/usr/sbin — Contain executable program for S.A.
/usr/games — Contains Binaries for games programmes and data for games.
/usr/lib — Libraries for programs and programming language.
bin der etc home mnt stand dmp user
date eat who ask rdsk passud Anoap Unix bin kumar sharma
loginsal prags safe
Fig. 1.4
In UNIX everything is treated as file. Its still necessary to divide there files into three
categories:
(i) Ordinary files—Contains only data. This includes all data, source programs, object
and executable code all UNIX commands as well as any files created by the user. The
most common type or ordinary file is the text file.
(ii) Directory files—A directory contains no external data but keeps some details of the
files and sub-directories that it contains. A directory file contains two field for each file.
The name of the file and its identification number.
(iii) Device files—Consider physical device as files. This definition includes printers, tapes,
floppy driver, CD-ROMs, hard disk and terminal.
( a)) Full Path Name

List each directory, starting from/, down to the file itself. Each directory and the file name
must be separated by a /.
( b)) Partial Path Name

If the file is in or in a sub, directory below the working directory, the names of higher
directories may be omitted.
( c ) Relative Path Name

If the file is in a directory near the working directory, a relative path may be used.
If the working directory is /home/Ion, the file al.c in that directory may be reffered by:
Full Path Name — /home/Ion/al.c
Partial Path Name — al.c
If the working directory is /home/Ion, the file temp under directory /home/nic may be
reffered by:
Full Path Name : /home/nic/temp
Relative Path Name : ../nic/temp
Chapter 2
OPERATING SYSTEM SERVICES
The Kernel performs various primitive operations on behalf of user process to support the
user interface. Among the services provided by the Kernel are:
(i) Controlling the execution of process by allowing their creation, termination or suspen-
sion and communication.
(ii) Scheduling process fairly for execution on the CPU. Processes share the CPU in a time
shared manner. The CPU executes a process, the Kernel suspend it when its time
quantum elapses and the Kernel schedules another process to execute. The Kernel later
reschedules the suspended process.
(iii) Allocating main memory for an executing process.
(iv) Allocating secondary memory for efficient storage and retrieval of user data. This
service constitutes the file system.
(v) Allowing processes controlled access to peripheral devices such as terminals, tape
driver, disk driver and N/W devices.
2.1 ASSUMPTION ABOUT H/W—LEVEL OF UNIX SYSTEM

The execution of user processes on UNIX systems is divided into two levels:
(i) User and (ii) Kernel level
When a process executes a system call the execution mode of the process changes from user
mode to Kernel mode. The O.S. executer and attempts to service. The user request, returning an
error code if it fails. Difference b/w, there modes are:
Kernel Mode K K
User Mode U U
2.1.1 Differences
(i) Process in user mode can access their own instructions and data but not Kernel
instructions and data. Process in Kernel mode however can access Kernel and user
addresses. For example, the virtual address space of a process may be divided b/w
7
8 UNIX AND S HELL P ROGRAMMING
addresses that are accessible only in Kernel mode and addresses that are accessible in
either mode.
(ii) Some m/c instructions are privileged and result in an error when executed in user
mode. For example a m/c may contain an instruction that manipulates the processor
status register. Process executed in user mode should not have this capabilities.
Although the system executes in one of two modes, the Kernel runs on behalf of a user
process. The Kernel is not a seperate set of processes that run in parallel to user-process but its
part of each user process.
2.1.2 Interrupts and Exceptions

The UNIX system allows devices such as I/O peripherals or the system clock to interrupt
the CPU asynchronously. On, receipt of interrupt, the Kernel saver its current context determines
the cause of the interrupt and services the interrupt. After the Kernel services the interrupt it
restore its interrupted context and proceeds as if nothing had happened. The h/w usually
prioritizes devices according to the order that interrupts should be handled. When the Kernel
services an interrupt, it blocks out lower priority interrupts but services higher priority interrupt.
Disk Drive
3 Interrupt Disk
CPU
controller Controller
4 2
1
Fig. 2.1
Steps in starting an I/O devices and getting interrupt.
In step 1. The driver tells the controller what to do by writing into its device Register. The
controller then starts the device. When the controller has finished reading or writing the number
of bytes it has been told to transfer, it signals the interrupt controller chip using certain bus lines
in step 2.
If the interrupt controller is prepare to accept the interrupt it assert a pin on CPU chip
informing it, in step 3.
In step 4. The interrupt controller puts the number of the device on the bus so the CPU can
read it and know which device has just finished.
Current Instruction
Interrupt processing involves taking
Next Instruction the interrupt, running, the interrupt
3 Return handler, and returning to the user
1 Interrupt program.
2 Dispatch
to handler
O PERATING S YSTEM S ERVICES 9
Exception
An exception condition refers to unexpected events caused by a process such as addressing
illegal memory, executing privileged instructions, dividing by zero and soon. OR “Exception are
run time error”.
Difference
Exception Interrupt
1. Internal to process 1. Externel to process

2. Occur within a program 2. Occur between two programs
3. System attempt to restart the instruction 3. The system continues with the next
after handling the exceptions. instruction after servicing the interrupt.
2.2 PROCESSOR EXECUTION LEVEL

The Kernel must sometimes prevent the occurence of interrupts during critical activity, which
could result in corrupt data if interrupts were allowed. For instance the Kernel may not want to
receive a disk interrupt while manipulating linked lists because handling the interrupt could
corrupt the pointers. Setting the processor execution level to certain values masks off interrupts
from that level and lower levels, allowing only higher level interrupts.
M/C Errors
Clock
Higher Priority
Disk
N/W Devices
Terminals Lower Priority
S/W Interrupts
Interrupt Level
Fig. 2.2
Memory Management
The Kernel permanently resides in main memory as does the currently executing process.
2.3 ARCHITECTURE OF UNIX O.S.
2.3.1 System Calls and Libraries

System calls and libraries represent the border between user program and the Kernel.
“Instruct the Kernel to do some specific task”.
System calls look like ordinary function calls in C programs and libraries map these function
calls to the primitives needed to enter the O.S. Assembly language programs may invoke system
called directly without a system call library. The libraries are linked with the programs at compile
time and are thus part of the user program for purpose of this discussion.
User Programs
Trap Libraries
User Level
Kernel Level
System call Interface
Inter-process
Process
Communication
Control
File Subsystem
Schedular
Subsystem
Memory
Management
Buffer Cache
Character Block
Device Drivers
Hardware Control
Kernel Level
H/W Level
Hardware
Fig. 2.3 Block diagram of system kernel
Trap
A trap (or exception) is a S.W. generated interrupt caused either by an error (for example,
division by zero or invalid memory access) or by a specific request from a user program that an
0.5 service be performed.
File Subsystem
The file subsystem manages files, allocating file space administering free space controlling
access to files and retrieving data for users. Process interact with the file subsystem via a specific
set of system calls such as open, read, write, shown, stat, chmod etc.
2.3.2 Buffer
The file subsystem accesses file data using a buffering mechanism that regulates data flow
b/w the Kernel and secondary storage devices. The buffering mechanism interacts with block
I/O device drivers to initiate data transfer to and from and Kernel Block I/O device are random
access storage device to the rest of the system. It also interacts directly with raw I/O devices
(character device that are not block device) without the intervention of buffering mechanism.
O PERATING S YSTEM S ERVICES 11
2.3.3 Device Drivers

Device drivers are the Kernel modules that control the operation of peripheral devices Block
I/O device drivers make them appear to be random access storage device to the rest of system.
A tape driver may allow the Kernel to treat a tape unit as a random access storage device.
2.3.4 Process Control Subsystem

The file subsystem and process control subsystem interact when loading a file into memory
for execution. Its responsible for:
(i) Memory Management—This module control the allocation of memory. If at any time
the system does not have enough physical memory for all process, the Kernel moves
them b/w main memory and secondary memory so that all process get a fair choice
to execute two policies for managing memory swapping and demand paging.
(ii) Schedular—This modules allocates the CPU to processes. It schedules them to run in
turn until they voluntarily relinquish the CPU while awaiting are source or until the
Kernel prompts them when their recent run time exceeds a time quantum.
(iii) Interprocess Communication—This mechanism allow arbitrary-processes to exchange
of data and synchronize execution. There are several form of TPC, pipes, signals,
messages semaphore.
2.3.5 H/W Control

This is responsible for handling interrupts and for communicating with m/c. Devices such
as disks or terminals may interrupt the CPU while a process is executing.
Chapter 3
FILE SYSTEM
After the disk has been partitioned its still not ready for use. A file system has to be created
in each partition. There usually are multiple file systems in one m/c each one having its own
directory tree headed by root.
Every file system is organized in a sequence of blocks of 512 bytes each. (1024 in Linux) and
will have there four components:
Boot Block Super Block Inode Blocks Data Block
3.1 FILE SYSTEM LAYOUT

1. Boot Block—This block contains a small boot strap program. This is the Master Boot
Record (MBR) that DOS users would like to call it. This is loaded into memory when
the system is booted. It may in turn load another program from the disk but eventually
it will load the Kernel (the file/stand/unix or/vm linuz) into memory.
2. Super Block—It describe the state of file system (balance sheet of every UNIX file
system). The Kernel first reads this area before allocating disk blocks and inodes for
new files. The super block contains global file information about disk usage and
availability of data blocks and inodes. It contains:
—The size of the file system.
—The length of a disk block.
—Last time of updation.
—The number of free data blocks available.
—A partial list of immediately allocable free data blocks.
—Number of free inodes available.
—A partial list of immediately usable inodes.
When a file is created it looks up the list available in the superblock. The Kernel reads
and writes the copy of the super block in memory when controlling allocation of inode
and data blocks.
12
F ILE S YSTEM 13
3. Inodes—Since the block of a file are scattered throughout the disk, its obvious that
the addresses of all its blocks have to be stored and not just the starting and ending
ones. These address are available in the term of link list in the inode a table main-
tained individually for each file. All inode are stored in inode blocks distinctly
separate from the data block and are arranged contiguously in a user in accessible
area of file system.
3.1.1 Contents of an Inode

Every file or directory has an inode, which contains all that you could possibly need to
know about a file except its name and contents. Each inode contain following attributes of a
file:
—File type (regular, directory etc)
—Number of links (the number of alias the file has)
—Owner (The user-id number of the owner)
—Group (The group-id number)
—File Mode (The traid of the three permission)
—Number of bytes in the file
—Date and time of last modification
—Date and time of last access
—Date and time of last change of inode
—An array of 13 pointers to the file.
UNIX system also maintain a inode-table in memory for a file which is being used by it.
4. Data Blocks—The data block start at the end of the inode list and contain file data and
administrative data. An allocated data can belong to one and only one file in the file
system.
3.1.2 Logical and Physical Blocks

(Hard disk, floppy and tapes handle data in chunka or blocks).
1024 * 10 + (256) * 1024 + (256 * 256) * 1024 + (256 * 256 + 256) * 1024
≈ 17 GB
So the size of a file in UNIX system is approximately equivalent to 17 GB.
3.2 BLOCK ADDRESSING SCHEME

There are 13 entries (or addresses) in the inode table containing the addresses of 13 disk
block.
The first 10 addresses are simple. They contain the disk addresses of the first 10 blocks of
file when files exceeds 10 blocks. We use single indirect (11th block) then double indirect (12th
block) and then tripple indirect (13th block). Thus the maximum size a UNIX file system can
support becomes 17 GB.
Inode Entry
Owner
Group 1024
File Type
Permission 7034
Access Time
Modification Time
Inode Modi. Time
Size
0 1024
1 7034
2 1392
3 2497
4 7877
5 6745
6 7045
7 8004
8 7056 8096
9 8096
10 7096
11 3045
12 4506
13
Fig. 3.1 Inode structure

The internal representation of a file is given by an inode which contains a description of the
disk layout.
User file descriptor table File Table Inode Table
Fig. 3.2 File descriptor, file table, inode table

F ILE S YSTEM 15
3.2.1 File Table

The file table is a global Kernel structure.
User File Descriptor Table

Its allocated per process and identifies all open file for a process.
When a process open or creates a file, the Kernel allocates an entry from each table, corre-
sponding to the file inode. Entries in these three structure maintain the state of the file and the
user access to it. The file table keeps track of the byte offset in the file where the users next read
or write will start and the access rights allowed to the opening process.
For example, if a process calls.
"open ("/dev/anoop/fl.C", 1);
The Kernel retrives the inode for “/devl/anoop/fl.C”. Then file table contains the entries for
this file. And user file descriptor table contains a number which is a integer type call file
descriptor.
The Kernel returns a file descriptor for open (), and create system call which is an index into
the user file descriptor table. And then this file descriptor is used by the system call such as read(),
write () etc.
3.3 PROCESS
A process is a program in execution and consists of a pattern of bytes that the CPU interprets
as m/c instruction (called “text”), “data” and “stack”. Many process appears to execute simul-
taneously as the Kernel schedules them for execution and several processes may be instance of
one program. A process executes by following strict sequence of instruction that is self contained
and does not jump to another process, it reads and writes its data and stack sections, but it can’t
read the stack and data sections of other process. Processes communicate with other processes
via system calls.
A process on UNIX system is the entity that is created by “fork” system calls. Every processes
except process O (sched) is created when other processes invokes the “fork” system call. The
process that invokes the “fork” system call is called parent process and newly created process
is called child process. The Kernel identifies each process by its process number called PID.
A user compile the source code of a program to create an executable file which consist of
several parts:
(i) A set of “headers” that describes the attributes of the file.
(ii) The program text.
(iii) A m/c language representation of data that has initial values when the program starts
execution and an indication of how much space the Karnel should allocate for
uninitialized data, called brs2 (the Kernel initilize it to O at run time).
(iv) Other section such as symbol table information. bss (block started by symbol) comes
from an assembly pseudo operator on IBM 7090 m/c.
The Kernel loads an executable file into memory during an exec. system call and the loaded
process consist of atleast three parts called regions; text, data and stack. The text and data regions
correspond to the text and data brs sections of the executable file but the stack region is automati-
cally created and its size is dynamically adjusted by the Kernel at run-time.
The stack consists of logical stack frames that are pushed when calling a function and
poped when returning; a special register called the stack pointer indicates the current stack depth.
We know that in UNIX system a process can execute either in (i) User or (ii) Kernel modes.
It uses a separate stack for each mode.
The user stack contains the arguments, local variables and other data for functions executing
in user mode.
The Kernel stack contains the stack frames for functions executing in Kernel mode. The
functions and data entries on the Kernel stack refer to functions and data in Kernel not the user
program but its construction is the same as that of user stack.
The Kernel stack of a process is null when the process execute in user mode.
User stack Kernel stack
LOCAL hat Direction of

vars shown stack growth
Addr of Frame 2
Ret addr after write call
new Frame (3)

buffer Frames 3
call write ( ) LOCAL vars
Parms to write count
LOCAL Count Addr of frames
vars
Return addr after tune 2 call
Addr of Frame 1
Parms to kernel tune 2
Ret addr after copy call
old Frame 2 Frame 2 Local
Parms to copy new call copy () call fun (4) Vars
Local fd-old
vars fd-new Addr of frame 0
Addr of Frame 0 Ret add after tune 1 call

Ret addr after main call
Parms to kernel tune 1
argc
Parms to main argv
Frame 1 call func 1 ()
Call main () frame 0
frame 0 system call interface
start
Fig. 3.3 User and kernel stack for copy program

F ILE S YSTEM 17
3.3.1 Process Data Structure
Per Process
Region Table Region Table
U Area
Main Memory
Process Table
Fig. 3.4
U-Area (User-area)
U-area contains information describing the process that needs to be accessible only when the
process is executing. The important fields are:
(i) A pointer to the process table stot of the currently executing process.
(ii) Parameters of the current system call return values and error codes.
(iii) File descriptors for all open files.
(iv) Current directory current root.
(v) Process and file size limit.
The Kernel can directly access fields of the u-area of executing process but not of the u-area
of other-processes.
Process Table
The process table is resident all the time and contains information needed for all processes
even those that not currently present in memory. The user structure is swapped or page-out when
its associated process is not in memory. The process table entry and u-area contain control and
status information about the process fields in the process tables are:
(i) A state field.
(ii) Identifiers indicating the user who owns the process (UID).
(iii) An event descriptor set when a process suspended.
(iv) Memory Image—Pointers to the text, data and stack segment or if paging is used to their
page tables.
Region Table
Region (called segment in some early version and Berkeley releases) is a contiguous area of
virtual address space that can be treated as a distinct object to be shared or protected. Region is
a data area which may be accessed in mutual exclusive manner. In the region page table actual
page descriptors are stored.
A process in UNIX terminology consist of three separate section, Text or Code, data and
stack. Each occupies a contiguous area of virtual memory separate section belonging to a single
task may be placed in non-contiguous areas of virtual memory. For example when a UNIX task
creates a child process via tork() system calls the two share a single copy of the text region but
the child obtains a fresh private copy of the parent's data regions.
The region table entries describes the attributes of the region, such as whether its contains
text or data, whether its shared or private and where the “data” of the region is located in memory.
When a process invokes the exec. system call the Kernel allocates region for its text, data and stack
after freeing the old regions the process had been using when a process invokes tork () system
call Kernel duplicate the address space of old process allowing process to share, regions when
possible and making a physical copy otherwise when a process invokes exit () system call the
Kernel trees the region th process had used.
Per Process Region Table

The entries of per process region table point to entries in a region table. In this way a shared
region may be described by a single copy of the second level page, tables but by separate per-task
first-level region pointers to it. For example a parent and a child process sharing a region need
only maintain private first-level pointers to a single shared copy of the second level page table
in which the page description are stored.
3.3.2 Context of a Process

The context of a process is its state as defined by its text, the values of its global user variables
and data structures, the values of m/c registers it user. The values stored in its process table slot
and u area and the contents of its user and Kernel stacks.
When executing a process, the system is said to be executing in the content of the process.
When the Kernel decides that it should execute another process it does a context switch, so that
the system executes in the context of the other process. The Kernel allows a context switch only
under specific conditions. When doing a context switch, the Kernel saves enough information so
that it can later switch back to the first process and resume its execution. Similarly when moving
from user to Kernel mode, the Kernel saves enough information so that it can later return to user
mode and continue execution from where it left off. Moving between user and Kernel mode is a
change in mode not a context switch.
A B C D
Kernel K K
User U U
In this figure, the Kernel does a context switch when it changes context from process A to
process B.
3.4 PROCESS STATE AND TRANSITIONS

Some States are:
(i) The process is currently executing in user mode.
(ii) Processer currently executing in Kernel mode.
F ILE S YSTEM 19
(iii) The process is not executing, but its ready to run as soon as the schedular chooses it.
Many processes may be in this state and the scheduling algorithm determine which one
will execute next.
(iv) The processes is sleeping. A process puts itself to sleep when it can no longer continue
executing such as when its waiting far I/O to complete.
User
1
running
sys call
or Interrupt Return
Interrupt
Kernel Running 2 Interrupt return
schedule
process
sleep
asleep 4 3 ready torun

Wakeup
Context switch permissible
The Kernel allows a context switch only when a process moves from the state “Kernel
running” to the state “asleep in memory”. Process running in Kernel mode cannot be preempted
by other process; therefore the Kernel is sometimes said to be non-preemptive, although the system
does preempt processes that are in user mode.
Consider the code:
Struct Queue { } * bP, * bP1
bP1 → torP = bP → tarp
bP1 → bakP = bP
bP → tarp = bP1
1 * context switch */
bP1 → torP → backP = bP*
bp1
bp
Placing bp1 on doubly link liet
bp bp1
Incorrect
To solve this problem, the system could prevent all interrupts while executing in Kernel
mode, but that would delay servicing of the interrupt. Instead the Kernel raises the processor
execution level to prevent interrupts when entering critical regions of code. A section of code is
critical if execution of arbitrary interrupts handlers could result in consistency problems.
The Kernel protects its consistency by allowing a content switch only when a process puts
itself to sleep and by preventing one process from changing the state of another process. It also
raises the processor execution level around critical regions of code to prevent interrupts that could
otherwise cause inconsistency.
3.5 SLEEP AND WAKEUP

Processes go to sleep because they are awaiting the occurence of some event such as waiting
for I/O completion from a peripheral device waiting for a process to exit, waiting for system
resources to become available and soon. Processes are said to be sleep on an event meaning that
they are in the sleep state until the event occurs, at which time they wakeup and enter the state
ready to run. Many processes can simultaneously sleep on an event; when an event occurs, all
processes sleeping on the event wakeup because the even condition no longer true. When a
process wakeup, it follows the state transition from the “sleep” state to the “ready-to-run” state
where its eligible for later scheduling; it does not execute immediately. Sleeping process do not
consume CPU resources. The Kernel does not constantly check to see that a-process is still
sleeping but waits for the event to occur and awakens the process then.
Proc A Proc B Proc C
Buffer locked
sleeps
Buffer locked
sleeps
Buffer locked
sleeps
Buffer in Unlocked Wakeup all sleeping Process
Ready to Run Ready to Run Ready to Run
Runs
Buffer Unlocked
Lock Buffer
Sleep tar arbitray Reasons
Runs Runs
Buffer locked Buffer locked
sleep sleeps
Wakeup
unlocks Buffer
wakeup all sleeping proces
Context switch
Ready to Run Ready to Run
eventually
Runs
F ILE S YSTEM 21
For example, a process executing in Kernel mode must sometimes lock a data structure in
case it goes to sleep at a later stage, process attempting to manipulate the locked structure must
check the lock and sleep if another process owns the lock. The Kernel implement such lock in
following manner,
while (condition is true)
sleep (event: the condition becomes false); set condition true;
It unlocks the lock and awakens all processes sleep on the lock in following manner:
set condition true;
wakeup (event: The condition is false);
Multiple process Sleeping on a lock.
3.6 KERNEL DATA STRUCTURE

Most Kernel data structures occupy fixed sizes tables rather than dynamically allocated
space. The advantage of this approach is that the Kernel code is simple but it limits the number
of entries for a data structure to the number that was originally configured when generating the
system. If during operation of system the Kernel should run out of entries for a data structure, it
can not allocate space for new entries dynamically but must report an error to the requesting user.
If the Kernel is configured so that its unlikely to run out of table space, the extra table space may
be wasted because it can not be used for other purpose.
Example: Since there are many different version of UNIX so showing Kernel structure is slightly
tricky. But here we give the structure of 4.4 BSD.
System Calls Interrupts and Trap
Terminal Handling Sockets File Map- Page Signal Process creation
Naming ping fault Handling and termination
Raw Cooked tty N/W Fill Virtual
tty protocols systems memory
Line discipline Buffer Page Process Scheduling
Cache Cache
Character devices N/W Disk Process dispatching

device device
drivers drivers
Hardware
Structure of 4.4 BSD Kernel
3.7 SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION

Administrative process are those process that do various functions for the general welfare
of the user community. Such functions include disk formatting creation of new file systems, repair
of damaged file system. Kernel debugging and others. There is no difference between administrative
process and user processes. They use the same set of system calls available to the general
community. They are distinguish from general user process only in the rights and privileges they
allowed. The Kernel does not recognize a separate class of administrative process.
Following figure shows some of the common fields present in UNIX system.
Process Mge Memory Mge File Mgt
Register Pointer to text segment UMASK mark
Program counter Pointer to data segment Root directory
Program status word Pointer to bss (bare) segment Working directory
Stack pointer Exit status File descriptors
Process state Signal status Effective vid
Time when process started Process id Effective gid
CPU time used Parent process System call parameters
Children’s CPU time Process group Various flag bits
Time of next alarm Real vid
Message queue pointers Real gid
Pending signal bits Effective vid
Process id Effective gid
Various flage bits Bit map for signals
Various flag bits

Chapter 4
BUFFER CACHE
When a process want to access data from a file, the Kernel brings the data into main memory
where the process can examine it alter it and request that the data be saved in the file system
again. The super block of a file system describes the free space available on the file system. The
Kernel reads the super block into memory to access its data and writes it back to the file system
when it wishes to save its data. Similarly the inode describes the layout of file. The Kernel reads
an inode into memory when it want to update the file layout.
The Kernel could read and write directly to and from the disk for all file system access, but
system response time and throught put would be poor because of the slow disk transfer rate. The
Kernel therefore minimize the frequency of disk access by keeping a pool of internal data buffers,
called the buffer cache which contains the data inrecently used disk blocks.
The position of buffer cache module in Kernel architecture between the file subsystem and
(block) device drivers.
When reading data from disk. The Kernal attempts to read the data from buffer cache. If the
data is already in cache the Kernel does not have to read from disk. If the data is not in cache,
the Kernel reads the data from disk and caches it using an algorithm that tries to save as much
good data in the cache as possible. “Similar for write”.
4.1 BUFFER HEADERS

During system initialization, the Kernel allocates space for a number of buffers configurable
according to memory size and system performance constraints. A buffer consist of two parts.
(i) A Memory Array—It contains data from the disk.
(ii) Buffer Header—That identifies the buffer. The buffer header also contains a pointer to
a data array for the buffer whose size must be atleast as big as the size of a disk block
and a status field that summarizes the current status of the buffer.
The data in a buffer corrosponds to the data in a logical disk block on a file system and the
Kernel identifies the buffer contents by examining identifier fields in the buffer header.
The buffer is the in-memory copy of the disk-block; the contents of the disk block map into
the buffers but the mapping is temporary until the Kernel decides to map another disk block into
23
the buffer. A disk block can never map into more than one buffer at a time. If two buffers were
contain data for one disk block, the Kernel would not know which buffer contained the current

data and could write incorrect data back to disk. “A θ B” → current.
The buffer Header contains a:
(i) Device number—Specific file system. Its the logical file system number, not a physical
device (disk) unit number.
(ii) Block number—It specify the block number of the data on disk and uniquely identify the
buffer.
Device Number
Block number
Ptr to Previous buf
on hash Queue Ptr to data area
status
Ptr to next buf on

hash Queue
Ptr to next buf

on free list
Ptr to previous
buf on free list
Fig. 4.1. Buffer Header

The status of a buffer is a combination of the following conditions:
(i) The buffer is currently locked.
(ii) The buffer contains valid data.
(iii) The Kernel must write the buffer contents to disk before reassigning the buffer. (delay
write).
(iv) The Kernel is currently reading or writing the contents of the buffer to disk.
(v) A process is currently waiting for the buffer to become tree.
4.1.1 Structure of Buffer Pool
forward ptrs
Free list
buf 1 buf 2 buf n
head
back ptrs
before
after
FP
Free list
buf 2 buf n
head
BP
Fig. 4.2 Free list of buffers

Buffer Cache 25
The Kernel caches data in the buffer pool according to a LRU algorithm: after it allocates a
buffer to a disk blocks, it cannot use the buffer for another block until all other buffers have been
used more recently. The Kernel maintains a free list of buffers that preserves the least recently used
order. The free list is a doubly linked circular list of buffers with a dummy buffer header that
marks its begining and end when the Kernel returns a buffer to the buffer pool it usually attaches
the buffer to the tail of the free list, occasionally to the head of the free list (for error case), but
never to the middle.
When the Kernel access a disk block, it searches for a buffer with the appropriate device-block
number combination. Rather than search the entire buffer pool, it organizes the buffers into
separate queues hashed as a function of the device and block number the Kernel links the buffers
on ahash queue into a circular, doubly linked list. The number of buffers on a hash queue varies
during the lifetime of the system. The Kernel must use a hashing function that distributes the
buffers uniformally accross the set of hash queues. Yet the hash function must be simple so that
performance does not suffer. System administrators configure the number of hash queues when
generating the O.S.
Hash Queue headers
Block no 0 mod 4 28 4 64
1 mod 4 17 5 97
2 mod 4
98 50 10
3 mod 4
3 35 99
Fig. 4.3 Buffers on the hash queue

Each buffer always exists on a hash queue. But there is no significance to its position on the
queue. No two buffers may simultaneously contain the contents of the same disk block therefore
every disk block in the buffer pool exists on one and only one hash queue and only once in that
queue. However, a buffer may be on the free list as well if its status is free. The Kernel has two
ways to find a buffer on a hash queue. It searcher the hash queue, if its looking for a particular
buffer and it remover a buffer from the free list if its looking for any free buffer.
4.2 SCENARIOS FOR RETRIEVAL OF A BUFFER

High level Kernel algorithms in the file subsystem invoke the algorithms for managing the
buffer cache. The high level algorithm determine the logical device number and block number that
they wish to access when they attempt to retrieve a block. The algorithms for reading and writing
disk blocks use “getblk” algorithm to allocate buffers from the pool.
There are five scenarios the Kernel may follow in getblk to allocate a buffer for a disk block.
1. The Kernel finds the block on its hash queue and its buffer is free.
Hash Queue headers
Blk no 0 mod 4 28 4 5
1 mod 4 10 9 6
2 mod 4
2 11 13
3 mod 4
8 3 99
Freelist header
Fig. 4.4 Search for block 4 on first hash qu eu e
0 mod 4 28 4 5
1 mod 4 10 9 6
2 mod 4
2 11 13
3 mod 4
8 3 99
Freelist header
Fig. 4.5 R em ove block 4 from free list
T he K ernel m ay read d ata from the d isk to the bu ffer and m anipu late it and w rite d ata to the
buffer and p ossibly to d isk. T he K ernel leaves the bu ffer m arked busy. W hen the K ernel finishes
u sing the bu ffer it release the bu ffer accord ing to algorithm “brelese”. It w akeup p rocesses that
had fallen asleep becau se the bu ffer w as busy and p rocess that had fallen asleep becau se no
buffers rem ained on free list. T he K ernel places the buffer at the end of the free list, u nless an
I/O error occu red or unless it m arked the bu ffer “old ”. T his is now free for another process to
claim it.
4.2.1 A lgorithm for R eleasing a B uffer

algorithm brelse:
input: locked buffer
output : none
{wakeup all process: event, waiting for any buffer to become free;
wakeup all proc: event, waiting for this buffer to become free; raise
processor execution level to block interrupts;
it (buffer contents valid and buffer not old)
enqueue buffer at end of free list lower processor execution level
to allow interrupts;
unlock (buffer);}
Buffer Cache 27
Algorithm for buffer allocation

algorithm getblk
input : file system number
output : locked buffer that can now be used for block
{while (buffer not found)
{ if (block in hash queue)
{
{if (buffer busy) / * 5 */
}
{sleep (event: buffer becomes free):
continue;
}
mark buffer busy; / * 1 * /
remove buffer from free list;
return buffer;
}
else / * block not in hash queue * /
} if (there are no buffer on free list) / * 4 * /
{ sleep(event; any buffer becomes free);
continue;
}
remove buffer from free list:
if (buffer marked for delay write) / * 3 * /
} asynchronous write buffer to disk;
continue;}
/ * 2 * /
remove buffer from old hash queue;
put buffer onto new hash queue;
return buffer;
}
}
}
2. Kernel cannot find the block on the hash. Queue, so it allocates a buffer from the free list.
H.Q.H.
blk no 0 mod 4 28 4 5
1 mod 4 10 9 6
2 mod 4
2 11 13
3 mod 4
8 3 99
Freelist header
Fig. 4.6 Search for block 20–not in cache

0 28 4 5
1 10 9 6
2
2 11 13
3
3 99
Freelist header
Fig. 4.7 Remove first block from free list assign to 20
3. The Kernel cannot find the block on the hash queue and in attempting to allocate a buffer
from free list, finds a buffer on the free list that has been marked “delayed write”. The
Kernel must write the “delayed write” buffer to disk and allocate another buffer.
H.Q.H.
blk no 0 mod 4 28 4 5
1 mod 4 10 9 6
2 mod 4
2 11 13
3 mod 4 delay
8 3 99
delay
Freelist header
Fig. 4.8. Search for Block 20. Delayed write blocks on free list.
H.Q.H.
blk no 0 mod 4 4 5
1 mod 4 10 9 6
2 mod 4
2 11 13
3 mod 4 writing
8 3 99
writing
Freelist header
Fig. 4.9 Writing blocks 3, 5, Reassign 28 to 20

Buffer Cache 29
4. The Kernel cannot find the block on the hash queue and the free list of buffers is empty.
blk no 0 mod 4 28 4 5
1 mod 4 10 9 6
2 mod 4
2 11 13
3 mod 4
8 3 99
Freelist header
Fig. 4.10 Search for block 20 freelist empty

Process A Process B
Cannot find block b,

on hash Queue
No buffers on freelist
sleep
Cannot find block b, on

hash Queue
No buffers on freelist
sleep
Somebody free a buffer
Takes buffer from freelist

Assign to block b
Time
Fig. 4.11 Race for free buffer

5. Kernel finds the block on the hash queue but its buffer is currently busy.
H.Q.H.
blk no 0 mod 4 28 4 5
1 mod 4 10 9 6
2 mod 4
2 11 13
3 mod 4
8 3 99
Busy
Freelist header
Fig. 4.12 Search for block 99. Block busy.

Allocate buffer to
block b lock
buffer initiate I/O
sleep until I/O done
Find block ‘b’ on
hash Queue, Buffer
locked sleep
Sleep waiting for
any free buffer
I/O done, wakeup
blkrelease wakeup others

Get buffer previously assigned
to block ‘b’ reassign
buffer to block ‘b’
Buffers does not

contain block ‘b’
start search Again
Time
Fig. 4.13 Race for a locked buffer

READING AND W RITING DISK B LOCKS 31
Chapter 5
READING AND WRITING
DISK BLOCKS
To read a disk block a process uses an algorithm to get a Block search for it in the buffer
cache. If its in the cache, the Kernel can return it immediately without physically reading the block
from disk. If its not in cache, the Kernel calls the disk driver to schedule a request and goes to
sleep awaiting the event that the I/O completes. The disk drivers notifies the disk controller h/w
that it want to read data and the disk controller later transmits the data to buffer. Finally the disk
controller interrupts the processor when the I/O is complete and the disk interrupt handler
awakens the sleeping process: the contents of the disk block now in the buffer.
5.1 DISK CONTROLLER

Several physical disk units are managed by a single disk controller device. The controller in
turn is connected to an I/O channel that transmits information from disk unit to the central
computer one channel might support several disk. Controller each of which might, in turn,
support several disk drives.
Central Computer
Channels
Controller Controller
Disk Disk Disk Disk
31
In this scheme I/O channels are not connected directly to the disk unit they service. This fact
cause the designer to investigate a bottleneck, further deciding to incorporate disk scheduling.
If a controller becomes saturated the designer may wish to reducing the number of disk on
that controller. Thus h/w reconfiguration needed to eliminate certain bottlenecks.
5.2 ALGORITHM: FOR READING A DISK BLOCK

algorithm : bread
input : File system block number
output : buffer containing data
{
get buffer for block (by using some technique)
if (buffer data valid)
return buffer:
initiate disk read;
sleep (event : disk read complete):
return buffer:
}
5.3 BLOCK READ AHEAD

Sometimes higher-level Kernel modules (such as file subsystem) may anticipate the need for
a second disk block when a process reads a file sequentially. The modules request the second
I/O asynchronously in the hope that the data will be in memory when needed improving
performance. To do this the Kernel executes the block read-ahead algorithm. The Kernel checks
if the first block is in the cache and it its not there invokes the disk driver to read that block. If
the second blocks is not in the buffer cache, the Kernel instruct the disk driver to read it asyn-
chronously. Then the process goes to sleep awaiting the event that the I/O is complete on the first
block. When it awakens it returns the buffer for the first block and does not care when the I/O
for the second block completes. When the I/O for second block does completes the disk controller
interrupts the systems the interrupt handler recognizes that the I/O was asynchronous and
release the buffer.
Algorithm : breada / * block read and read ahead * /
input :
(1) File system block number for immediate read.
(2) File system block number for asynchronous read;
output; Buffer containing data for immediate read;
{ if (first block not in cache)
{ get buffer for first block / * by some technique * / if (buffer
data not valid)
initiate disk read;
}
if (second block not in cache)

{ get buffer for second block;
if (buffer data valid)
release buffer // by some technique
else
initiate disk read;
}
if (first block was originally in cache)
{ read first block by some technique
return buffer;
}
sleep (event: first buffer contains valid data);
return buffer;
}
Writing the contents of a buffer to a disk block is similar.
The Kernel informs the disk driver that it has a buffer whose contents should be output and
the disk driver schedules the block for I/O. If the write is synchronous, the calling process goes
to sleep awaiting I/O completion and releases the buffer when it awakens. If the write is asyn-
chronous, the Kernel starts the disk write but does not wait for the write to complete. The Kernel
will release the buffer when the I/O completes.
When the Kernel does not write data immediately to disk. If it does a “delayed write”, it
marks the buffer accordingly release the buffer and continues without scheduling I/O. The Kernel
writes the block to disk before another process can reallocate the buffer to another block.
A “delayed write” is different from asynchronous write:
(i) When doing an asynchronous write the Kernel starts the disk operation immediately
but does not wait for its completion.
(ii) For a “delayed-write” the Kernel puts off the physical write to disk as long as
possible, then write the buffer ‘old’ and write back to disk asynchronously.
algorithm : bwrite / * Block write * /
input : buffer
output : none
{
initiate disk write :
if (I/O synchronous)
{
sleep (event : I/O complete);
release buffer
}
else if (buffer marked for delayed write);
mark buffer to put head of free list;
}
5.4 ADVANTAGE OF DISK BLOCK

1. System design is simpler. The use of buffers allows uniform disk access because the
Kernel does not need to know the reason for the I/O. Instead it copies data to and
from buffers regardless of whether the data is part of a file, an inode or a super block.
The buffering of disk I/O makes the code more modular, since the parts of the Kernel
that do the I/O with the disk have one interface for all purposes.
2. The system places no data alignment restrictions on user processes doing I/O, because
the Kernel aligns data internally. H/W implementations frequently require a particular
alignment of data for disk I/O such as aligning the data on a two byte boundry or
on a four-byte boundary in memory. Without a buffer mechanism, programmers
would have to make sure that their data buffers were correctly aligned.
Many programmers error would result and programs would not be portable to UNIX
systems running on machines with stricter address alignment properties. By copying
data from user to system (or vice versa) buffers, the Kernel eliminates the need for
special alignment of user buffers, making user program simpler and more portable.
3. Use of buffer cache can reduce the amount of disk traffic, thereby increasing overall system
through put and decreasing response time.
Process reading from the file system may find data blocks in the cache and avoid the
need for disk I/O. The Kernel frequently user “delayed write” to avoid unncessary
disk writes, leaving the block in the buffer cache and hoping for a cache hit on the
block.
4. The buffer algorithms help insure file system integrity because they maintain a common
single image of disk blocks contained in the cache.
If two processes simultaneously attempt to manipulate one disk block, the buffer
algorithm serialize their access preventing data corruption.
5.4.1 Disadvantage of Buffer Cache

1. Since the Kernel does not immediately write data to the disk for a “delayed write” the
system is vulnerable to crashes that leave disk data in an incorrect manner.
Although recent system implementations have reduced the damage caused by
catastrophic events, the basic problem remains. A user issuing a write system call is
never sure when the data finally makes its way to disk.
2. Use of buffer cache requires an extra copy when reading and writing to and from user
processes.
When transmitting large amounts of data the extra copy shows down-performance.
3. Obviously, the chances of cache hit are greater for systems with many buffers. However,
the number of buffers a system can profitably configure is constrained by the amount
of memory that should be kept available for executing processes; if too much memory
is used for buffers the system may slow down because of excessive process swaping
or paging.
5.4.2 Internal Representation of Files

Two types of Inodes:
(i) Disk Inodes:
Owner: Changing the contents
group: of a file automatically
type: implies a change to
Perms: the inode, but changing
accessed: the inode does not
modified: imply that the contents
inode: of the file change.
size:
disk address:
(1.3 Block)
(ii) Incore Copy of inode: The active copy of a disk inode.
The incore copy of the inode contains following field:

(i) The status of incore inode; indicating whether
– The inode is locked.
– A process is waiting for the inode to become unlocked.
– The incore representation of inode differs from the disk copy as a result of a change
to the data in the inode.
– The incore representation of the file differs from disk copy as a result of a change
to the file data.
– The file is a mount point.
(ii) The logical device number of the file system that contains the file.
(iii) The inode number. Since inodes are stored in a linear array on disk, the Kernel
identifies the number of a disk inode by its position in the array. The disk inode does
not need this field.
(iv) Pointers to other in-core inodes. The Kernel links inodes on hash queues and on a free
list. A hash queue is identified according to the inodes logical device number and
inode number. The Kernel can contain atmost one in-core copy of a disk inode, but
inodes can be simultaneously on a hash queue and on the free list.
(v) A reference count, indicating the number of instances of the file that are active.
5.5 ACCESSING INODES

The Kernel identifies particular inodes by their file system and inode number and allocates
in-core inodes at the request of higher-level algorithms. The Kernel maps the device number and
inode number into a hash queue and searches the queue for inode. If it cannot find the inode,
it allocates one from the free list and locks it. The Kernel then prepares to read the disk copy of
the newly accessed inode into the incore copy. We can compute:
block num = ((inode number – 1)/no. of inodes per block) + start block of inode list
Ex. start block = 2, inode no = 8, no. of inodes per block = 8
block num = ((8 – 1) / 8 ) + 2 = (7/8) + 2 = 0 + 2 = 2
When the Kernel knows the device and disk block number it reads the block then uses the
following formula to compute the byte offset of the inode in the block.
= (inode no. – 1) modulo (no. of inodes per block) * size of diskinode.
If each disk inode occupies 64 bytes (size of disk inode) and there are 8 inodes to disk block,
then inode no 8 starts at byte offset 448 in disk block.
= ((8 – 1) % 8) * 64 = (7 % 8) * 64 = 7 * 64 = 448
The Kernel removes the in-core inodes from free list, places it on the correct hash queue and
sets its in-core reference count to 1. It copies the file type, owner fields permission settings, link
count file size, and the table of contents from the disk inode to the in-core inode and returns a
locked inode.
The Kernel manipulates the inode lock and reference count independently. The lock is set
during execution of a system call to prevent other processes from accessing the inode while its
in use. The Kernel release the lock at the conclusion of the system call an inode is never locked
across system calls. The Kernel increment the reference count for every active reference to a file.
It decrements the reference count only when the reference becomes inactive. The reference count
thus remains set across multiple system calls. The lock is free between system calls to allow
processes to share simultaneous access to a file; the reference count remains set between system
calls to prevent the Kernel from real locating an active in-core inode. Thus the Kernel can lock
and unlock an allocated inode independent of the value of reference count.
Processes have control over the allocation of inodes at user level via execution of open () and
close () system calls and consequently the Kernel cannot guarantee when an inode become
available. Therefore a process that goes to sleep waiting for a free inode to become available may
never wakeup. Rather than leave such a process “hanging” the Kernel fails the system call.
5.5.1 Buffer
However process do not have such control over buffers. Because a process cannot keep a
buffer locked across system calls, the Kernel can guarantee that a buffer will become free soon and
a process therefore sleeps until one is available.
If the inode is in the cache, the process (A) would find it on its hash queue and check if the
inode was currently locked by another process (B). Process (A) sleeps setting a flag in the in-core
inode to indicate that its waiting for the inode to become free. When process (B) unlocks the inode,
it awakens all processes waiting for the inode to become free when process a finally able to use
the inodes it locks the inode so that other process cannot allocate it.
5.6 ALGO: RELEASING INODE (IN-CORE)

algorithm input
input : pointer to incore inode
output : none
{ lock inode if not already locked;
decrement inode reference count;
if (reference count = = 0)
{ if (inode link count = = 0)
{ free disk block for file;
set file type to 0;
free inode;
}
if (tile accessed or inode changed or file changed)
update disk inode;
put inode on free list;
} release inode lock;
}
5.7 STRUCTURE OF A REGULAR FILE

We know that the inode contains the table of contents to locate a files data on disk. Since
each block on a disk is addressable by number, the table of contents consists of a set of disk block
numbers. If the data in a file were stored in a contiguous section of the disk then storing the start
block address and the file size in the inode would suffice to access all the data in the file.
File A File B File C
40 50 60 70
Block Address
File A Free File C File B
40 50 60 70 81
Fig. 5.1 Allocation of contiguous files and fragmentation of free space

Example: Suppose a user creates three files A, B, C each consisting of 10 disk blocks of
storage and suppose the system allocated storage for the three files contiguous- of data to the
middle file, B. The Kernel would have to copy file B to a place in the file system that had room
for 15 blocks of storage. Aside from the expense of such an operation, the disk blocks previously
occupied by file B’s data would be unusable except for files smaller than 10 blocks. The Kernel
could minimize fragmentation of storage space by periodically running garbage collection proce-
dures to compact available storage, but that would place an added drain on processing power.
The Kernel allocates file space one block at a time and allows the data in a file to be spread
throughout the file system. The table of contents could consist of a list of block numbers such that
the block contain the data belonging to the file, but simple calculation show that a linear list of
file blocks in the inode is difficult to manage. If a logical block contain 1K bytes. Then a file
consisting of 10K bytes would require an index of 10 block numbers. Either the size of inode
would vary according to the size of the file, or a relatively low limit would have to be placed on
the size of a file.
5.7.1 To Keep Inode Structure Small (Direct and Indirect block)

Assume that a logical block on the file system holds 1K byttes and that a block number is
addressable by a 32 bit (4 byte). Then a block can hold upto 256 block numbers.
0 4096
1 228
2 45423
3 0
4 111 367
Data Block
5 0
6 126
7 354
8 367
9 485
75 3333
10 925 331
331 333
11 0 0 Single Indirect Data Block
9156
12 285
Double Indirect
Fig. 5.2 Block layout of a simple file and its inode
Process access data in a file by byte offset. They work in terms of byte counts and view a
file as a stream of bytes starting at byte address O and going up to the size of the file. The Kernel
converts the user view of bytes into a view of blocks. The file starts at logical block O and
continues to a logical block number corresponding to the file size. The Kernel access the inode
and converts the logical file block into the appropriate disk block.
Consider the block layout in following figure and assume that a disk block contains 1024
bytes. If a process wants to access byte offset 9000. The Kernel find that the byte is in direct block
8 in the file (counting from 0).
Since in 8th block (trom 1) total bytes can be 8192 and in 9th block (9216) so the 9000 byte
will be locate in 9th block (block number 8).
1024 = 216 = 808
It then access block number 367. The 808th byte in that block is byte 9000 in the file.
If a process wants to access byte offset 3,50,000 in a file. It must access a double indirect block.
Since
256K + 10K = 272,384
So
(256K + 256K) + 1024 * 10 = 534528
⇒ 534,528 – 350,000 = 184528
⇒ 256K – 184528 = 262144 – 184528
= 77616
So byte number 77,616 of a single indirect block is in the 75th direct block in the single
indirect block, block number 3333.
Since for single 256K + 10K = 272384 < 350,000
So Double 256K + 256K + 10K = 534528
534528 – 350,000 = 184528
So in single 256K – 184528 = 77616
So the bytes is in the 77616/1024 = 75.7 blocks
which is in the 76th block and block number 75 counted from O.
1024 * 76 – 77616 = 208
So the byte number 1024 – 208 = 816
Several block entries in the inode are a meaning that the logical block entries contain no data.
This happens if no process ever wrote data into the file at any byte offsetes corresponding to those
blocks and hence the block number remains at their initial value O. No disk space is wasted for
such disk blocks.
/ * Block map of logical file byte offset to file system block * /
algorithm : b map
input : (1) node
(2) byte offset
Output : (1) Block number in file system
(2) byte offset into block
(3) byte of I/O in block
(4) Read ahead block number
{
Calculate logical block number in file/from byte offset;
Calculate start byte in block for I/O;
Calculate number of bytes to copy to user;
Check if read-ahead applicable, mark inode;
determine level of indirection:
while (not at necessary level of indirection)
{calculate index into inode or indirect
block-from logical block number in file;
get disk block number from inode or indirect block:
release buffer from previous disk read, if any;
if (no more level of indirection)

return (block number):
read indirect disk block;
adjust logical block number in file
according to level of indirection;
}
}
5.8 DIRECTORIES
Directories are the files that give the file system its hierarchical structure; they play an
important role in conversion of a file name to an inode number. A directory is a file whose data is a
sequence of entries each consisting of an inode number and the name of a file contained in the directory.
A path name is a null terminated character string divided into separate components by the
“/” character. Each component except the last must be the name of a directory but the last
component may be a non directory file. UNIX system V restricts component names to maximum
of 14 characters; with a two byte entry for the inode number, the size of a directory entry is
16 bytes.
byte offset Inode number File names

in directory (2 bytes)
0 83 .
16 2 ..
32 1798 init
48 1276 trik
224 0 crash
208 1432 getty
240 95 mkts
→ directory entry may be empty
The Kernel stores data for a directory just as it stores data for an ordinary file using the inode
structure and level of direct and indirect block.
5.9 CONVERSION OF A PATHNAME TO AN INODE NUMBER

algorithm : namei
input : path name
output : locked inode
{ if (pathname starts from root)
working inode = rootinode; // get inode
else
working inode = current directory inode ; // get inode
while (there is more path name)
{ read next path name component from input;

verify that working inode is of directory, access permissions OK;
if (working inode is of root and component is “..”)
continue;
read directory (working inode) by using blockmap,
block read and block release for reading the content if (component
matches an entry in directory (working inode))
{
get inode number for matched component;
release working inode;
working inode = inode of matched component;
}
else
return (no inode);
}
return (working inode);
}
The Kernel does a linear search of the directory file associated with the working inode, trying
to match the pathname component to a directory entry name. Starting at byte offset O, it converts
the byte offset in the directory to the appropriate disk block and reads the block. It searches the
block for the pathname component, treating the contents of the block as a sequence of directory
entry release the block and the old working inode and allocates the inode of the matched
component. The new inode becomes the working inode. If the Kernel does not match the pathname
with any names in the block, it release the block, adjust the byte offset by the number of bytes in
a block, converts the new offset to a disk block number and reads the next block. The Kernel
repeats the procedure until it matches the pathname component with a directory entry name or
until it reaches the end of the directory.
Chapter 6
INODE A SSIGNMENT TO A NEW F ILE
The file system contains a linear list of inodes. An inode is free if its type field is zero. When
a process needs a new inode, the Kernel could theoretically search the inode list for a free node.
However, such a search would be expensive, requiring atleast one read operation for every inode.
To improve performance, the file system super block contains an array to cache the numbers of
free inodes in the file system.
For assigning new inodes. The Kernel first verifies that no other processes have locked access
to the super block free inode list. If the list of inode numbers in the super block is not empty the
Kernel assigns the next inode number, allocates a free incore inode for the newly assigned disk
inode copies the disk inode to the incore copy initilizes the fields in the inode and returns the
locked inode. It updates the disk inode to indicate that the inode is now in use. A non zero file
type field indicates that the disk inode is assigned.
Allocate inode (Assigning New Inodes)
algorithm ialloc
input : File system
{
while (not done)
{
if (super block locked)
{ sleep (event : super block becomes free):
continue;
}
if (inode list in super block is empty)
{ lock super block:
get remembered inode for free inode search
search disk for free inodes until super block or no more free
inodes;
42
I NODE A SSIGNMENT TO A N EW F ILE 43
unlock super block;

wakeup (event: super block becomes free)
if (no free inodes found on disk)
return (no inode);
set remembered inode for next free inode
}
get inode number from super block inode get inode;
if (inode not free after all) {write inode release inode;
continue;
}
initialize inode;
write inode to disk:
decrement till system free inode count;
return (inode);
}
}
6.1 REMEMBERED INODE

If the super block list of free inodes is empty, the Kernel searches the disk and places as
many free inode number as possible into the super block. The Kernel reads the inode-list on disk
block-by-block and fills the super block list of inode numbers to capacity, remembering the high
numbered inode that it finds call that inode remembered inode its the one saved in super block.
The next time the Kernel searches the disk for free inode it user the remembered inode as its
starting point, thereby assuring that it was no time reading disk blocks where no free inode should
exist.
Whenever the Kernel assigns a disk inode, it decrements the free inode count recorded in the
super block.
Super Block free Inode list

Free inodes empty
83 48
18 19 20
index
Free inodes empty

83
18 19 20
index
Fig. 6.1 Super block free inode list

(a) Assigning Free Inode-from Middle of List

470 empty
18 19 20
index (remembered Inode)
535 Free inodes 475 471
Fig. 6.2 Super block free inode list
(b) Assignment free Inode-Super Block list empty

If the list of free inodes in the super block available when the Kernel assigns a inode, it
decrements the index for next value inode number (in Figure 6.2) and takes inode number.
If the list of free inodes in the super block not available, it will notice that the O is empty
and search the disk for free inode starting from 470, the remembered inode. When the Kernel fills
the super block free list to capacity it remembers the last inode as the start point for the next search
of the disk. The Kernel assigns an inode, it just took from the disk (number 471 in figure) and
continues whatever it was doing.
Freeing An Inode
Algorithm : ifree
input : file system inode number
output : none
{
increment file system free inode count;
if (super block locked)
return;
if (inode list full)
{
if (inode number less than remembered inode for search)
set remembered inode for search = input inode number;
}
else
store inode number in inode list;
return;
}
For freeing an inode increment the total number of available inodes in the file system, the
Kernel checks the lock on the super block. If locked it avoids race condition by returning imme-
diately. The inode number is not put into the super block, but it can be found on disk and is
available for reassignment. If the list is not locked the Kernel checks if it has room for more inode
numbers and if it does places the inode number in the list and returns. If the list is full the Kernel
may not save the newly freed inode there. It compares the number of the freed inode with that
of the remembered inode. If the freed inode number is less than the remembered inode number,
it “remembers” the newly freed inode number, discarding the old remembered inode number from
the super block. The inode is not last because the Kernel can find it by searching the inode list
on disk. The Kernel maintains the super block list such that the last inode it dispenses from the
list is the remembered inode. There should never be free inodes whose inode number is less than
the remembered inode number, but exceptions are possible.
Process A Process B Process C
Assigns inode I : :
from super block : :
Sleeps while : :
reading inode (a) : :
: Tries to assign inode :
: from super block :
: super block empty (b) :
: Search for free inode :
: on disk, puts inode I :
: in super block (c) :
Inode I incore : :
does usual activity : :
: completes search, :
: assign another mode (d) :
: : Assign inode I from
: : super block
: : I is in use
: : Assign Another inode (e)
Fig. 6.3 Race condition in assigning inodes
(a) I
empty
(b)
free inodes J I K
(c)
free inodes J I
(d)
free inodes L
(e)
Fig. 6.4 Placing free inode number into the super block
535 free inodes 476 475 471
remembered inode index

(a) Original super block list of free inodes
449 free inodes 475 471
R.I. index
(b) Free Inodes 499
R.I. index
(c) Free Inodes 601
Another list
535 free inodes 476
(a1) Original (Super block has room)
(b1) Free Inodes 376
6.2 ALLOCATION OF DISK BLOCK

When a process writes data to a file, the Kernel must allocate disk blocks from the file system
for direct data blocks and sometimes for indirect data blocks. The file system super block contains
an array that is used to cache the numbers of free disk blocks in the file system. The utility
program mkfs organizes the data blocks of a file system in a linked list, such that each link of the
list is a disk block that contains an array of free disk block numbers and one array entry is the
number of the next block of the linked list.
When the Kernel wants to allocate a block from a file system, it allocates the next available
block in the super block list. Once allocated, the block cannot be reallocate until it becomes free.
If the allocated block is the last available block in the super block cache, the Kernel treats it as
a pointer to a block that contains a list of free blocks. It reads the block, populate the super block
array with the new list of block numbers and then proceeds to use the original block number.
It allocates a buffer for the block and clears the buffers data zero. The disk block has now been
assigned and the Kernel has a buffer to work with. If the file system contains no free blocks the
calling process receives an error.
If a process writes a lot of data to a file, it repeatedly asks, the system for blocks to store the
data, but the Kernel assigns only one block at a time. The program mkfs tries to organize the
original linked list of free block numbers so that block numbers dispensed to a file are near each
other. This helps performance because it reduces disk seek time and latency when a process reads
a file sequentially as given in Figure 6.5.
Super block list
109 106 103 100
109
211 208 205 112
211
310 307 304 214
310
409 406 403 313
Fig. 6.5 Linked list of free disk block number

Unfortunately, the order of block numbers on the free block linked list break down with heavy
use as process write files and remove them, because block numbers enter and leave the free list
at random. The Kernel makes no attempt to sort block numbers on the free list.
6.2.1 Freeing a Block

If the super block list is not full the block number of the newly freed block is placed
on the super block list. If the super block list is full, the newly freed block becomes a link block,
the Kernel writes the super block list into the block and writes the block to disk. It then
places the block number of the newly freed block in the super block list. That block is the only
member of the list.
File System Block Allocation
algorithm : alloc
input : file system number
output : buffer for new block
{ while (super block locked)
sleep (event : super block not locked)
remove block from super block free list;
if (removed last block from free list)
{ lock super block;
read block just taken from free list;
copy block numbers in block into super block;
release block buffer;
unlock super block;
wake up process (event: super block not locked);
}
get buffer for block removed from super block list;
zero buffer contents;

decrement total count of free blocks;
mark super block modified;
return buffer;
}
6.3 DIFFERENT TREATMENT OF DISK BLOCK AND INODE

Block Inode
1. It cannot determine whether a block is free 1. The Kernel can determine whether an inode
just by looking at it. It could not distinguish is free if the type field is clear.
between a bit pattern that indicates the
block is and data that happened to have
that bit pattern.
2. Disk blocks lend themselves to the use of 2. Inodes have no convenient place for bulk
linked list: A disk blocks hold large lists of storage of large lists of free inode numbers.
free block numbers.
3. Users tend to consume disk block resources 3. Users tend to consume inode is less quickly
more quickly, so searching free disk block so searching inode is very critical.
is not critical.
Super block list
109
109
211 208 205 112
(a) Original Configuration

Super block list
109 949
109
211 208 205 112
(b) After freeing block number (949)

Super block list
109
109
211 208 205 112
(c) After assigning block number (949)

Chapter 7
SYSTEM C ALLS
System calls are standard function which instruct the kernel to do some specific task.
7.1 TYPES OF SYSTEM CALLS
7.1.1 Open
This system call is the first step a process must take to access the data in a file. The syntax
for this system call is:
fd = open (Pathname, flags, modes)
Pathname—is a file name. It may be absolute or relative.
Flags—Indicate the type of open such as for reading or writing.
Mode—Modes gives the file permission if the file is being created.
File descriptor—The open system calls return an integer called user file descriptor.
7.1.2 Algorithm Open

inputs : file name
type of open
file permission (for creation type of open)
output : File descriptor
{ convert file name to inode: // Pathname
if file does not exist or not permitted access
return (error):
allocate file table entry for inode, initilize count, offset;
allocate user file descriptor entry, set pointer to file table entry;
if (type of open specifies truncate file)
free all file blocks;
49
unlock (inode);
return (user file descriptor);
}
The Kernel searches the file system for the file name parameter. It checks permission for
opening the file after it finds the incore inode and allocates an entry in the file table for the open
file. The file table entry contains a pointer to the inode of the open file and a field that indicates
the byte offset in the file where the Kernel expects the next read or write to begin. The Kernel
initializes the offset to O during the open call, meaning that the initial read or write starts at the
begining of a file by default. The entry in the user file table points to the entry in the global file
table.
User file Inode table

Descriptor table File table
0
1
2 Count
3 2 (etc/passed)
4 count Read
5
6
7
Count Count
Rd-wrt 1 (local)
1
count 1 write
Fig. 7.1 Data structures after open

fd1 = Open (“/etc/passwd”, O – RDONLY);
fd2 = Open (“local”, O – RDWR);
fd3 = Open (“/etc/passwd”, O – WRONLY);
The first three user file description (0, 1, 2) are called the standard i/p standard o/p and
standard error file descriptors.
7.1.3 Read
The syntax of read system call is number = read (fd, buffer, count)
fd—fd is the file descriptor returned by the open system call.
buffer—buffer is the address of a data structure in the user process that will contain the read
data on successful completion of the call.
count—count is the number of bytes the user wants to read.
number—is the number of bytes actually read.
S YSTEM C ALLS 51
User file
Descriptor table
(Proc A) File table Inode table
0
1
2
3 Count
4 count 3 (etc/passwd)
5 1 Read
Count
RD-wrt
1
(Proc B) Count
1 (local)
0 count
1 1 Read
2
3
4
count Count
1 write 1 (private)
count
1 Read
Fig. 7.2 Data structures after two process open files
7.2 ALGORITHM : READ

input : user file descriptor
: address of buffer in user process
: number of bytes to read
Output: count of bytes copied into user space.
{
get file table entry from user file descriptor;
check file accessibility;
set parameters in u-area for user address,
byte count, I/O to user;
get inode from file table;
lock inode;
set byte offset in u-area from file table offset;
while (count not satisfied)
{ convert file offset to disk block;
calculate offset into block, number of bytes to read;
if (number of bytes to read is O)

break;
read block;
copy data from system buffer to user address;
update u-area fields for file byte offset,
read count, address to write into user space;
release buffer;
}
unlock inode;
update file table offset for next read;
return (total number of bytes read);
}
I/O Parameters Saved in u-Area
mode : Indicates read or write
count : count of bytes to read or write
offset : byte offset in file
address : target address to copy data, in user or Kernel memory
flag : indicates if address is in user or Kernel memory.
After reading the block into buffer, it copies the data from the block to the target address in
the user process. It updates the I/O parameters in the u-area according to the number of bytes it
read, incrementing the file where the next data should be delivered and decrementing the count
of bytes it needs to read to satisfy the user read request. If the user request is not satisfied, the
Kernel repeats the entire cycle converting the file byte offset to a block number, reading the block
from disk to a system buffer, copying data from the buffer to the user process releasing the buffer
and updating I/O parameters in the u-area. The cycle completes either when the Kernel completely
satisfies the user request, when the file contains no more data, or if the Kernel encounters an error
in reading the data from disk or in copying the data to user space. The Kernel updates the offset
in the file table according to the number of bytes it actually read.
Example: For Reading a File
main ( )
{ int fdi char lilbuf [20], bigbuf [1024];
fd = open (“/etc/passwd,” O_RDONLY);
read (fd, lilbuf, 20);
read (fd, bigbuf, 1024);
read (fd, lilbuf, 20);
}
In this example open ( ) return the file descriptor (fd), the Kernel verifies that the file
descriptor parameter is legal and that the process had previously opened the file for reading. It
stores the values lilbuf 20 and O in the u-area corresponding to the address of the user buffer, the
S YSTEM C ALLS 53
byte count and the starting byte offset in the file. It calculates that the byte offset O is in Oth block
of the file and retrieves the entry for the Oth block in the inode. Assuming such a block exists the
Kernel reads the entire block of 1024 bytes into a buffer but copies only 20 bytes to the user address
lilbuf. It increments the u-area byte offset to 20 and decrement the count of data to read to O. Since
the read has been satisfied, the Kernel resets the file table offset to 20, so that subsequent reads
on the file descriptor will begin at byte 20 in the file and the system call returns the number of
bytes actually read 20.
For second read call determine that ‘fd’ is legal. It stares in the u-area the user address bigbuf;
the number of bytes the process wants to read, 1024 and the starting offset in the file 20, taken
from the file table. It converts the file offset to the correct disk block as above and reads the block.
The Kernel cannot satisfy the read request entirely from the buffer, because only 1004 out of the
1024 bytes for this request are in the buffer. So it copies the last 1004 bytes from the buffer into the user
data structure bigbuf and updates the parameters in the u-area to indicate that the next iteration of
the read loop starts at byte 1024 in the file, that the data should be copied to byte position 1004
in bigbuf and that the number of bytes to satisfy the read request is 20.
Then Kernel looks up the second direct block number in the inode and find the correct disk
block to read. It copies 20 bytes from the buffer to the correct address in the user process. Before
leaving the system call, the Kernel sets the offset field in the file table entry to 1044, the byte offset
that should be accessed next. For last system call start the reading at byte 1044 in file.
A Reader and A Writer Process
/ * Process A * /
main ()
{ int fd ; charbuf [512];
fd = open (“/etc/-passwd”, O-RDONLY);
read (fd, buf, size of (buf)); / * read 1 * /
read (fd, buf, size of (buf)); /* read 2 * /
}
/ * process B * /
main ()
{ int fd, i
char buf [512];
for (i = 0; i < size of (buf); i + t)
buf (i) = ‘a’;
fd = open (“/etc/passwd”, O_WRONLY);
write (fd, buf, size of (buf)); / * write 1 * /
write (fd, buf, size of (buf)); / * write 2 * /
}
When a process invokes the read system call the Kernel locks the inode for the duration of
call. Afterwards, it could go to sleep reading a buffer associated with data or with indirect blocks
of the inode. If another process were allowed to change file while the first process was sleeping,
read could return inconsistent data. Hence the inode is left locked for the duration of the read call,
affording the process a consistent view of the file as it existed at the start of the call.
The Kernel can preempt a reading process between system calls in user mode and schedule
other process to run. Since the inode is unlocked at the end of a system call, nothing prevents other
processes from accessing the file and changing its contents. It would be unfair for the system to
keep an inode locked from the time a process opened the file until it closed the file because one
process could keep a file open and thus prevent other processes from ever accessing it. To avoid
such problem the Kernel unlocks the inode at the end of each system call that user it. If another
process changes the file between the two read system calls by the first process, the first process
may read unexpected data, but the Kernel data structures are consistent.
Write → Syntax
Number = Write (fd, buffer, count)
For writing a regular file. If the file does not contain a block that corresponds to the byte offset
to be written, the Kernel allocates a new block and assigns the blocks number to the correct
position in the inode table of contents. If the byte offset is that of an indirect block, the Kernel may
have to allocate several blocks for use as indirect blocks and data blocks. The inode is locked for
duration of write, because the Kernel may change the inode when allocating new blocks allowing
other processes access to the file corrupted the inode if several process allocates block simulta-
neously for the same byte offset. When the write is complete, the Kernel updates the file size entry
in the inode if the file has grown larger.
7.3 ADJUSTING THE POSITION OF FILE I/O—LSEEK

lseek() system calls is use to position the I/O and allow random access to a file. The syntax
position = lseek (fd, offset, reference)
fd → file descriptor
offset → is a byte offset
reference → Indicates whether offset should be considered from the beginning of the file, from
the current position of read/write offset, or from the end-of-file.
position → is the byte offset where the next read or write will start.
Program with lseek call
main (int argc, char * argv[])
{ int fd, skval; Char C;
if (argc 1 = 2)
exit ();
Fd = open (argv[1], O_RDONLY);
if (fd = = -1)
exit (1);
while ((skval = read (fd, 8C, 1)) = = 1)
{ print f ("Char % C ", C);
o for beginning of file
S YSTEM C ALLS 55
1 for 1024th by of file

2 for beyond the eof
skval = lseek (fd, 1023L, 1);
print f ("new seekval%d\ n", skval); }
7.4 CLOSE
A process closes an open file when it no longer wants to access it. Syntax.
close (Fd);
Tables after closing a file
Proc A
User file
Descriptor table File table Inode table
0
1
2
3 Count
4 2 (1 etc/passwd)
Count 1
5
6
7
8
Count 1
Proc B Count
1 (local)
0
1 Count 0
2
3 NULL
4 NULL
5 Count 1
6
7
8
Count
Count 0
0 (private)
Fig. 7.3
The Kernel does the close operation by manipulating the file descriptor and the correspond-
ing file table and inode table entries. If the reference count of file table entries is greater than I
because of dup or tork calls then other user file descriptors reference the file table entry, the Kernel
decrements the count and the close completes. If the file table reference count is 1, the Kernel frees
the entry and releases the in-core inode.
If other processes still reference the inode, the Kernel decrements the inode reference count but
leaves it allocated, otherwise the inode is free for reallocation because its reference count is 0.
7.5 FILE CREATION

The open system call gives a process access to an existing file, but the create system call
creates a new file in system. Syntax
Fd = create (pathname, modes);
If no such file existed previously, the Kernel creates a new file with the specified name and
permission modes; if the file already existed the Kernel truncates the file subject to suitable file
access permission.
algorithm : creat
input : file name
: permission settings (mode)
output : file descriptor
{ get inode for file name;
if (file already exist)
{ if (not permitted access)
{ release inode;
return error;
}
}
else
{ assign free inode from file system;
create new directory entry in parent directory;
include new file name and newly assigned inode number;
}
allocate file table entry for inode, initilize count;
if (file did exist at time of create)
free all file blocks;
unlock (inode);
return (user file descriptor);
}
7.6 CREATION OF SPECIAL FILES

The system call mknod() creates special files in the system including named pipes, device
files and directories. Syntax
mknod (pathname, type and permissions, dev)
pathname → is the name of the node to be created.
Type and permissions → Give the node type (for example Directory)
and access permissions for the new file to be created.
S YSTEM C ALLS 57
dev → dev specifies the major and minor device number for block and character special files.
algorithm : make new node
inputs : node (file name)
file type
permissions
major, minor device number
output : none
{ if (new node not named pipe and user not super user)
return (error);
get inode of parent of new node;
if (new node already exists)
{ release parent inode;
return (error); }
assign free inode from file system for new node;
create new directory entry in parent directory;
include new node name and newly assigned inode number;
release parent directory inode;
if (new node is block or character special files)
write major, minor numbers into inode structure;
release new node inode;
}
Change Directory → Chdir (pathname);
Change Root → Chroot (pathname);
Change Owner → Chown (pathname, owner, group);
Change Mode → Chmod (pathname, mode)
7.7 STAT AND FSTAT

There system call allow processes to query the status of files, returning information such as
the file type, file owner, access permission file size, number of links, inode number and file access
times. Syntax.
stat (pathname, statbuffer);
fstat (Fd, statbuffer);
pathname → file name
fd → file descriptor
Statbuffer → is the address of a data structure in the user process that will contain the status
information of the file on completion of the call. The system calls simply write the fields of the
inode into statbuffer.
7.8 PIPES
Pipes allow transfer of data between processes in FIFO manner and they also allow synchro-
nization of process execution. Their implementation allows processes to communicate even though
they do not know what processes are on the other end of pipe. The traditional implementation
of pipes uses the file system for data storage. There are two kinds of pipes.
(i) Named pipe → Process use open system call for this pipe.
(ii) Unnamed pipe → Pipe() system call to create an unnamed pipe.
Only related processes, descendants of a process that issued the pipe call can share access
to unnamed pipe.
Proc A Can’t share pipe
Calls pipe
Proc B Proc C
Proc D Proc E
Fig. 7.4 Share pipe
7.8.1 Process Tree and Sharing Pipes

However all process can access a named pipe regardless of their relationship, subject to the
usual file permissions.
(i) The pipe system call → Syntax
pipe (fdptr);
fdptr → The pointer to an integer array that will contain the two file descriptors for
reading and writing the pipe. Because the Kernel implements pipes in the file system
and because a pipe does not exist before its use, the Kernel must assign an inode for
it on creation. It use the file table so that the interface for the read, write and other
system calls is consistent with the interface for regular files. Processes do not have to
know whether they are reading or writing a regular file or a pipe.
algorithm : pipe (unnamed pipe)
input : none
output : read file descriptor
: write file descriptor
{ assign new inode from pipe device;
allocate file table entry for reading other for writing;
initialize file table entry to point to new node;
allocate user FD for reading another for writing;
initialize to point to respective file table entries;
set inode reference count to 2;
initialize count of inode readers, writers to 1;
}
S YSTEM C ALLS 59
(ii) Opening a named pipe → A named pipe is a file whose semantics are the same as
those of an unnamed pipe, except that it has a directory entry and is accessed by a
pathname. Processes open named pipes in the same way that they open regular files
and hence processes that are not closely related to communicate. Named pipes perma-
nently exist in the file system hierarchy but unnamed pipes are transient. When all
process finish using the pipe, the Kernel reclaims its inode.
A process that opens the named pipe for reading will sleep until another process opens
the named pipe for writing and vice versa.
(iii) Reading and writing pipes → A pipe should be viewed as if processes write into one
end of the pipe and read from other end. The number of processes reading from a pipe
do not necessarily equal the number of processes writing the pipe, if the number of
readers or writers is greater than 1. They must coordinate use of the pipe with other
mechanisms.
The difference between storage allocation for a pipe and a regular file is that a pipe
uses only the direct blocks of the inode for greater efficiency although this places a
limit on how much data a pipe can hold at a time. The Kernel manipulates the direct
blocks of the inode as a circular queue.
Read Pointer Write Pointer
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
7.9 FOUR CASES FOR READING AND WRITING PIPES

(a) Writing a pipe that has room for the data being written.
(b) Reading from a pipe that contains enough data to satisfy the read.
(c) Reading from a pipe that does not contain enough data to satisfy the read.
(d) Writing a pipe that does not have room for the data being written.
Closing pipes → The Kernel decrements the number of pipe readers or writers, according to
the type of the file descriptor. If the count of writer processes drops to O and there are processes
asleep waiting to read data from the pipe the Kernel awakens them and they return from their
read calls without reading any data. If the count of reader process drops to O and there are
processes asleep waiting to write data to the pipe, the Kernel awakens them and send them a
signal to indicate an error condition.
In both cases, it makes no sense to allow the processes to continue sleeping when there is
no hope that the state of the pipe will ever change.
Char.string = "Hello";
main ()
{ Char buf [1024]; * CP1, * CP2;
int fds (2) → writing and reading a pipe

CP1 = string;
CP2 = buf;
while (*CP1)
*CP2 + + = * CP1 ++;
pipe (fds);
for (;;) {write (fds(1), buf, 6}; read (fds (0), buf, 6)} }
7.9.1 Reading and Writing a Named Pipe

Char string [] = "Hello"
main (int argc, Char * argv[])
{int Fd ; Char buf [256];
/ * create Named Pipe with read/write permission/or all users * /
mknod ("Fifo", 777, 0);
if (argc = = 2)
Fd = open ("Fifo"O_WONLY);
else
Fd = open ("Fito", O. RDONLY);
For (;;)
if argc = = 2
write (Fd, string 6);
else
read (Fd, buf, 6);
}
7.10 DUP
The dup() system calls copies a file descriptor into the first free slot of the user file descriptor
table, returning the new file descriptor to user. It works for all file types. Syntax.
newfd = dup (fd)
main ()
{ int i, j; Char buf [512], buf 2 [512];
i = open ("/etc/password," O_RDONLY);
j = dup (i);
read (i, buf1, size of (buf1));
read (), buf2, size of (buf2));
close (i);
read (i, buf2, size of (buf2));
}
S YSTEM C ALLS 61
UFDT Inode table

F.T.
0
1
2
3 Count 2 /d/H/
4 Count 2
5
6
7
8
Count 1 Count 1 f1
Count 1
Fig. 7.5 Data structure after dup
7.11 MOUNTING AND UNMOUNTING FILE SYSTEMS

A physical disk unit consists of several logical sections, partitioned by the disk driver and
each section has a device file name. Processes can access data in a section by opening the
appropriate device file name and then reading and writing the file, treating it as a sequence of
disk blocks. A section of a disk may contain a logical file system, consisting of a boat block super
block, inode list and data blocks. The mount system call connects the file system in a specified
section of a disk to the existing file system hierarchy and the unmount system call disconnects
a file system from the hierarchy. The mount system call thus allows users to access data in a disk
section as a file system instead of a sequence of disk blocks. Syntax.
7.12 MOUNT (SPECIAL PATHNAME, DIRECTORY PATHNAME, OPTIONS)

1. Special pathname → is the name of the device special file of the disk section containing
the file system to be mounted.
2. Directory pathname → is the directory in the existing hierarchy where the file system
will be mounted (mount point)
3. Options → indicate whether the file system should be mounted “read-only”.
7.13 MOUNT FILE

The Kernel has a mount table with entries for every mounted file system. Each mount table
entry contains:
(i) A device number that identifies the mounted file system.
(ii) A pointer to a buffer containing the file system super block.
(iii) A pointer to root inode of mounted file system.
(iv) A pointer to the inode of the directory that is the mount-point.
Association of the mount point inode and the root inode of the mounted file system set up
during the mount system call, allows the Kernel to traverse the file system hierarchy gracefully
without special user knowledge.
7.14 ALGORITHM FOR MOUNTING A FILE SYSTEM

inputs : file name of block special file
: directory name of mount point
: options (read only)
output : none
{ if (not super user)
return (error);
get inode for block special file;
make legality check;
get inode for "mounted on" directory name
if (not directory or reference count > 1)
{
release (inode);
return (error);
}
find empty slot in mount table;
invoke block device driver open routine;
get free buffer from buffer cache;
read super block into free buffer;
initialize super block fields;
get root inode of mounted device, save in mount table;
mark inode of "mounted on" directory as mount point;
release special file inode;
unlock inode of mount point directory;
}
The Kernel finds the inode of the special file that represents the file system to be mounted,
extracts the major and minor numbers that identify the appropriate disk section and finds the
inode of directory on which the file system will be mounted. The reference count of the directory
inode must not be greater than 1 because of potentially dangerous side effects. The Kernel then
allocates a free slot in the mount table marks the slot in use and assigns the device number field
in the mount table.
S YSTEM C ALLS 63
Inode Table Mount Table
Mounted on inode
marked as mount
point reference
count 1 Buffer
Super block
mounted on inode
Device inode not
root inode
in use reference
into
Root inode of
mounts File
system reference
count 1
Fig. 7.6 Data structures after mount
7.15 CROSSING MOUNT POINTS IN FILE PATHNAMES

The two cases for crossing a mount point are:
(i) Crossing from the mounted on file system to the mounted file system (in the direction
from the global system root towards a leaf node).
(ii) Crossing from the mounted file system to the mounted-on file system.
Example: mount / dev / dskl / usr
(i) Case Cd / usr/ src/ uts
(ii) Case Cd ../ .. / ..
7.16 REVISED ALGORITHM FOR ACCESSING AN INODE

input : file system inode number
{ while (not done)
{ if (inode in inode cache)
{ if (inode locked)
{ sleep (event inode becomes unlocked);
continue;
}
if (inode a mount point)
{ find mount table entry for mount point;
get new file system number from mount table;
use root inode number in search;
continue; }
if (inode on inode free list)

remove from free list;
increment inode reference count;
return (inode);
}
remove new inode from free list;
reset inode number and file system;
remove inode from old hash queue, place on new one;
read inode from disk;
initialize inode;
return inode;
}
}
Revised Algorithm for parsing a file name
algo : namei
input : pathname
output: locked inode
{ if (pathname start from root)
working inode = root inode;
else
working inode = current directory inode;
while (there is more pathname)
{ read next pathname component from input;
verify that inode is of directory, permissions;
if (inode is of changed root and component is ",,")
continue;
Component Search;
read inode (directory);
if (component matches a directory entry)
{ get inode number for matched component;
if (found inode of root and working inode is root and component
name is ",,")
{
get mount table entry for working inode;
working inode = mounted on inode
lock mounted on inode;
increment reference count of working inode;
get O component search (for “,,”);
S YSTEM C ALLS 65
}
working inode = inode for new inode number;
}
else
return (no inode);
} return (working inode);
}
7.17 UNMOUNTING A FILE SYSTEM → SYNTAX

umount (special file name);
algorithm : umount
input : special file name of file system to be unmounted
output : none
{ if (not super user)
return (error);
get inode of special file
extract major, minor number of device being unmounted;
get mount table entry, based on major, minor number
for unmounting file system;
release inode of special file;
remove shared text entries from region table
for files belonging to file system;
update super block inodes, flush buffers;
if (files from file system still in use)
return (error);
get root inode of mounted file system from mount table;
lock inode;
release inode;
invoke close routine for special device;
invalidate buffers in pool from unmounted file system;
get inode of mount point - point from mount table;
lock inode;
clear flag marking it was mount point;
release inode;
free buffer used for super block;
free mount table slot;
}
7.18 LINK
Link system call links a file to a new name in the file system directory structure, creating a
new directory entry for an existing inode. Syntax.
link (source file name, target file name);
Source file name → is the name of an existing file
Target file name → is the new (additional) name the file will have after completion of link call.
usr
src include
sys real fill

uts
sys
inode.h test.h
Fig. 7.7 Linked files in file system tree

algorithm : link
input : existing file name
: new file name
output : none
{ get inode for existing file name;
if (too many links on file of linking directory without super user
permission)
{ release (inode);
return (error);
}
increment link count on inode;
update disk copy of inode;
unlock inode;
get parent inode for directory to contain
new file name;
if (new file name already exist or existing file, news file on
different file systems)
{ undo update done above;
return (error);
}
create new directory entry in parent directory of new file name :
include new file name,
inode number of existing file name;
S YSTEM C ALLS 67
release parent directory inode;

release inode of existing file;
}
7.18.1 Deadlock in Link Call

Two deadlock possibilities both concerning the reason the process unlocks the source file
inode after incrementing its link count. If the Kernel did not unlock the inode two process could
deadlock by executing the following system calls simultaneously.
Process A : link (“a/b/c/d”, “e/f/g”);
Process B : link (“e/f”, “a/b/c/d/ee”);
Process A Process B
: Try to get inode for e

: SLEEP - inode e locked
Get inode for a
Release inode a
Get inode for b
Release b
Get inode for c
Release c
Get inode d
Try to get inode e
SLEEP - inode e locked
wake-up .. inode e unlocked
: Get inode e
: Release e
: Get inode f
: Get inode a
: Release a
: :
: :
: Try to get inode d
: SLEEP - process A locked inode
Get inode e
Release e
Try to get inode f
SLEEP process B locked inode
Time Deadlock
In this example process A would be holding a locked inode that process B wants and
process B would be holding a locked inode that process A wants. The Kernel avoids this deadlock
condition by releasing the source file inode after incrementing its link count. Since the first
resource (inode) is free when accessing the next resource, no deadlock can occur.
This example showed how two process could deadlock each other if the inode lock were not
released. A single process could also deadlock itself. If it executed.
link (“a/b/c”, “a/b/c/d”):

Deadlock if c not Released by jet.
If two process or even one process, could not continue executing because of deadlock. So since
inodes are finitely allocatable resources, receipt of a signal cannot awaken the process from its sleep.
Hence, the system could not break the deadlock without rebooting. If no other processes accessed
the files over which the processes deadlock, no other process in the system would be effected.
7.19 UNLINK
The unlink() system call removes a directory entry for a file. Syntax.
unlink (pathname);
If the file being unlinked is the last link of the file the Kernel eventually free its data blocks
algorithm : unlink
input : file name
output : none
{ get parent inode of file to be unlinked:
if (last component of file name is “.”);
else
get inode of file to be unlinked :
if (file is directory but user is not super user)
{ release inodes;
return (error);
}
if (shared text file and link count currently 1)
remove from reqion table;
write parent directory : zero inode number of unlinked file;
release inode parent directory;
decrement file link count;
release file inode;
}
S YSTEM C ALLS 69
I File System Consistency

The Kernel orders its writes to disk to minimize file system corruption in event of system
failure. For instance when it removes a file name from its parent directory,
(i) It writes the directory synchronously to the disk before it destroys the contents of the
file and frees the inode.
If the system were to crash before the file contents were removed, damage to the file
system would be minimal. There would be an inode that would have a link count ‘1
greater than the number of directory entries that access it, but all other paths to the file
would still be legal.
(ii) If the directory write were not synchronous it would be possible for the directory entry
on disk to point to a free (or reallocated) inode after a system crash. Thus there would
be more directory entries in the file system that refer to the inode than the inode would
have link counts.
II Race Condition
Race conditions abound in the unlink system call, particularly when unlinking directories.
: Unlink file ‘C’ :
: Find inode for ‘C’ locked :
: Sleeps :
: : :
Search directory ‘b’ for ‘c’ : :
Get inode no. for ‘c’ : :
Find inode for ‘c’ locked : :
Sleeps : :
: : :
: Wakes up and ‘c’ tree :
: unlink ‘c’, :
: old inode tree if :
: link count O :
: : :
: : Assign inode to new file ‘n’
: : Happen to assign
: : old inode for ‘c’
: : Eventually release
: : inode ‘n’ lock
Wakes up and old ‘c’ inode :
tree (now n) :
Get inode for ‘n’ :
Search ‘n’ for name ‘d’ :
Time Unlink Race Condition

Chapter 8
STRUCTURE OF A P ROCESS
The Kernel contains a process table with an entry that describes the state of every active
process in the system. The u-area contains additional information that controls the operation of
a process. The process table entry and the u-area are part of the context of a process. The aspect
of the process context that most visibly distinguishes it from the context of another process is of
course, the contents of its address space.
8.1 PROCESS STATES AND TRANSITIONS

The following list contains the complete set of process states.
(i) The process is executing in user mode.
(ii) The process is executing in Kernel mode.
(iii) The process is not executing but is ready to run as soon as the Kernel schedules it.
(iv) The process is sleeping and resides in main memory.
(v) The process is ready to run, but the swapper (schedule process O) must swap the
process into main memory before the Kernel can schedule it to execute.
(vi) The process is sleeping and the swapper has swapped the process to secondary storage
to make room for other processes in main memory.
(vii) The process is returning from the Kernel to user mode, but the Kernel preempts it and
does a context switch to schedule another process.
(viii) The process is newly created and is in a transition state; the process exists but its not
ready to run, nor is it sleeping. This state is the start state for all processes except
process O.
(ix) The process executed the exit system call and is in the zombie state. The process no
longer exists, but it leaves a record containing an exit code and some timing statistics
for its parent process to collect. The zombie state is the final state of a process.
The process enters the state model in the “created” state when the parent process executes
the fork () system calls. The process schedular will eventually pick the process to execute and the
process enters the state “Kernel running” where it completes its part of the fork() system call.
70
S TRUCTURE OF A P ROCESS 71
When the process completes the system call it may move to the state “user running” where
it executes in user mode. After a period of time, the system clock may interrupt the processor and
the process enters state “preempted” and the other process executes.
User Running
rn ll 1
tu ca upt
pt re s Retur
ru t sy ter
r n
t er rrup to use
r
in te in
rn
tu
in
re
Kernel Running
exit 2 7
Preempt
9 le Preempted
du
che
res cess
p
Zombie p ro
e
sle
run
Ready to
ry
4 3 in memo
wakeup
mem
Asleep in enough
memory created
swap swap
out 8
in Fork
swap
out not enough mem
(swapping system only)
6 wakeup 5
sleep swapped Ready to run,
swapped
Fig. 8.1 Process state transition diagram
When a process executes a system call; it leaves the state “user running” and enters the state
“Kernel running”. Suppose the system call requires I/O from the disk and the process must wait
for the I/O to complete. It enters the state “asleep in memory” putting itself to sleep until its noti-
fied that the I/O has completed. When the I/O later completes, the H/W interrupts the CPU, and
the interrupt handler awakens the process causing it to enter the state “ready to run in memory”.
When a process completes, it invokes the exit system call, thus entering the states “Kernel
running” and finally the “zombie” state.
8.2 KERNEL DATA STRUCTURES

There are two Kernel data structures that describes the state of a process:
8.2.1 Process Table

The process table contains the filed that must always be accessible to the Kernel. The fields
in process table are:
(i) The state field identifies process state.
(ii) The process table entry contains fields that allow the Kernel to locate the process and
its u-area in main memory or secondary storage. The process table entry also contains
a field that gives the process size, so that the Kernel knows how much space to allocate
for the process.
(iii) User identifiers (UID) determine various process privileges.
(iv) Process identifiers (PID) specifies the relationship of processes to each other.
(v) The process table entry contains an event descriptor when the process is in the “sleep”
state.
(vi) Scheduling parameters allow the Kernel to determine the order in which processes
move to the states “Kernel running” and “User Running”.
(vii) A signal field enumerates the signals sent to a process but not yet handled.
(viii) Various timers gives process execution time and Kernel resource utilization, used for
process accounting and for the calculation of process scheduling priority. One field is
a user-set timer used to send an alarm signal to a process.
8.2.2 u-Area
The u-area contains fields that need to be accessible only to the running process. Therefore,
the Kernel allocates space for u-area only when creating a process. It does not need u-areas for
process table entries that do not have process. The fields in u-area are:
(i) A pointer to the process table identifies the entry that corresponds to u-area.
(ii) The real and effective user—ID determine various privileges allowed the process such
as file access rights.
(iii) Timer fields record the time the process spent executing in user mode and in Kernel
mode.
(iv) An array indicates how the process wishes to react to signals.
(v) The control terminal field identifies the “login terminal” associated with process if
exists.
(vi) An error field records error encountered during a system call.
(vii) A return value field contains result of system calls.
(viii) I/O parameters describe the amount of data to transfer, the address of the source (or
target) data array in user space, file offset for I/O and so on.
(ix) The current directory and current root describe file system environment of the process.
(x) The user-file-descriptor table record the file the process has open.
(xi) Limit field restrict the size of a process and the size of a file it can write.
(xii) A permission mode field masks mode setting on files the process creates.
8.3 LAYOUT OF SYSTEM MEMORY

A process on UNIX System consist of three logical sections: text, data and stack.
The text section contains the set of instructions the machines executes for the process; address
in the text section includes text address (for branch instructions or subroutine calls), data addresses
(for access to global data variables), or stack address (for access to data structures local to a subroutine).
If the m/c were to treat the generated addresses as address locations in physical memory it
would be impossible for two processes to execute concurrently. If their set of generated address
overlapped. The compiler could generate addresses that did not overlap between programs, but
such a procedure impractical for general purpose computers because the amount of memory on
a m/c is finite and the set of all programs that could be compiled is finite.
The compiler therefore generates addresses for virtual address space with a given address
range, and the machines memory management unit translates the virtual address generated by
the compiler into address locations in physical memory. The compiler does not know where in
memory the Kernel will later load the program for execution. In fact several copies of a program
can coexist in memory: All executes using the same virtual addresses but reference different
physical addresses.
(i) Region: The Kernel divides the virtual address space of a process into logical regions.
A region is a contiguous area of the virtual address space of a process that can be
treated as a distinct object to be shared or protected. Thus text, data and stack usually
forms seperate regions of a process. Several process can share a region.
Per proregion tables

(Virtual address)
Text 8K b
Proc A Data 16K

c
Stack 32K
Text 4K
e
Proc B Data 8K
Stack 32K d
Fig. 8.2 Processes and regions

(ii) Pages and Pages tables: In a memory management architecture based on pages, the memory
management h/w divides physical memory into a set of equal-sized blocks called pages.
Typical page sizes range from 512 bytes to 4K bytes and are defined by the h/w. Every
addressable location in memory is contained in a page and consequently every memory
location can be addressed by a (page number, byte offset in page) pair.
Addressing Physical Memory as Pages
Hexadecimal Address 5 8 432
Binary 0101 10000100 01100010
Page Number, Page Offset 01 0110 0001 000011 0010
In Hexadecimal 161 32
In this example a m/c has 220
bytes of physical memory and a page size of 1K bytes it has
210 pages of physical memory; every 320 bit address can be treated as a pair of consisting of a
10 bit page number and 10 bit offset into the page.
If address is 232 bytes of physical memory with page size 1K bytes then
22-bit for page number. And
K-bit for affect into pages.
Mapping of logical to physical page number.
Logical Page Number Physical Page Number

0 177
1 54
2 209
3 17
Since a region is a contiguous range of virtual addresses in a program, the logical page
number is the index into an array of physical page numbers. The region table entry contains a
pointer to a table of physical page numbers called a page table. Page table entries may also contain
m/c—dependent information such as permission bits to allow reading or writing of the page. The
Kernel stores-page tables in memory and access them like all other Kernel data structures.
Per proc region table Page tables (Virtual address)

empty 0
Text 8K
137K 1
Data 32K 2
87K 0 852K
Stack 64K 1 764K 3
552K
541K 0
Virtual address 727K 2
783K 1
986K 2
897K 3
Fig. 8.3 Mapping virtual addresses to physical addresses
Assume page size is 1K bytes and process want to access V.M.A. (Virtual Memory Address)
68432. The P region entries shows that the address is in stack region starting from virtual address
64K (65,536).
68432 – 6536 = 2896
Since each page is 1K so the address is contained at byte offset 848 in page 2 of region located
at physical address 986K.
We use following memory model in discussing memory management. The system contains
a set of memory management register triples.
(i) First Register in triples contains the address of a page table in physical memory.
(ii) Second Register contains the first virtual address mapped via the triple.
(iii) Third Register contains control information such as the number of pages in the page
table and page access permissions (read, write, execute).
(iv) Layout of the Kernel → The virtual memory mapping associated with the Kernel is
independent of all processes. The code and data for the Kernel resides in the system
permanently, and all processes share it. In many machines the virtual address space
of a process is divided into several classes, including system and user and each class
has its own page tables. When executing in Kernel mode the system permits access to
Kernel addresses but it prohibits such access when executing in user mode.
STRUCTURE OF A P ROCESS 75
Address of Virtual No. of page
page Table addr in page table
Kernel Reg Tn·pre 1 0
""'
""'""''"~
2 -.....__ 1M
3 ~M
1
User Reg Tn'pie
I l \ '
I \ \
""' ""'
2 ~
~
3I \ \
~~
856K
I \ \ ~ 747K 556K OK
~ 128K 256K
917K 950K 997K 4K 97K 292K
564K 333K 458K 3K 135K 304K

444K 632K 17K 139K 279K
' ' ' ' '
Fig. 8.4 Changing mode from user to kernel

(iii) The u-Area: Every process has a private u-area, yet the Kernel access it as if there were
only one u-area in the system that of the running process. The Kernel changes its, the
value of the u-area virtual address is known to other parts of the Kernel. in particular
the module that does the context switch. The Kernel knows where in its memory
management tables, the virtual address translation for u-area is done and it can dy-
namically change the address mapping of the u-area to another physical address.
A process can access its u-area when it executes in Kernel mode but not when it executes
in user mode. Because the Kernel can access only one u-area at a time by its virtual address, the
u-area partially defines the context of the process that is running on the system.
Address of V irtual addr No. of pages

page Table in process in page table
Reg Triple 1
Reg Triple 2
(UArea)Reg Triple 3
-- 2M 4
Page tables for U-ar~

114K 843K 1879K 184K
708K 794K 290K 176K
143K 361K 450K 209K

565K 847K 770K 477K
ProcA B c
Fig. 8.5 Memory rnap of u-area in the kernel
8.4 THE CONTEXT OF A PROCESS

The context of a process consist of the contents of h/w Registers the contents of its (user)
address space and Kernel data structures that relate to the process. We can say context of a
process is the union of its Register context, user level context and system, level context.
(a) User level context → It consist of the process, text, data, user stack, and shared memory
that occupy the virtual address space of the process.
Parts of the virtual address space of a process that periodically do not reside in main
memory because of swapping or paging still constitute a part of the user level context.
(b) Register Context → It consist of:
(i) The Program counter specifies the address of the next instruction the CPU will
execute.
(ii) The Process or Status Register (PS) specifies the h/w status of the machine as it
Relates to process.
(iii) The stack pointer contains the current address of the next entry in the Kernel or
user stack, determined by the mode of execution.
(iv) The general purpose register contain data generated by the process during its
execution.
(c) System level context → The system level context of a process has a “static part” and a
“dynamic part”. A process has one static part of the system level context throughout
its lifetime, but it can have a variable number of dynamic parts. The dynamic part of
a system level context should be viewed as a stack of context layers that the Kernel
pushes and paps on occurrence of various events. It consist of following components:
(i) The process table entry of a process defines the state of a process and contains
control information that is always accessible to the Kernel.
(ii) The u-area of a process contains process control information that need be accessed
only in the context of the process.
(iii) P region entry, region tables and page tables, define the mapping from virtual to
physical addresses and therefore define the text, data, stack and other regions of
a process. If several process share common regions, the regions are considered part
of the context of each process, because each process manipulates the regions
independently.
(iv) The Kernel stack contains the stack frames of Kernel procedures as a process
executes in Kernel mode. Although all processes executes the identical Kernel code,
they have a private copy of the Kernel stack that specifies their particular invo-
cation of the Kernel functions. The Kernel stack is empty when the process executes
in user mode.
(v) The dynamic part of the system, level context of a process consists of a set of layers,
visualized as a last-in-first-out stack. Each system level context layer contains the
necessary information to recover the previous layer including the register context
of the previous level.
Dynamic Portion of Context
Static Portion of Context
User level context

Layer 3 Kernel stack for layer 3
saved register context
Process Text for layer 2
Data Logical pointer
stack to current context
Shared Data layer Layer 2 Kernel stack for layer 2
for layer 1
Static part of
System level context Kernel stack for layer 1
Layer 1
Process table entry for layer 0
U-area
per process region Kernel
table context
Layer 0 (User Level)
Fig. 8.6 Components of context of a process

The Kernel pushes a context layer when an interrupt occurs, when a process makes a system
call or when a process does a context switch. It pops context layer when the Kernel returns from
handling an interrupt, when a process returns to user mode after the Kernel completes execution
of a system call, or when a process does a context switch. The Kernel pushes the context layer
of the old process and pops the context layer of new process. The process table entry stores the
necessary information to recover the current context layer.
A process runs within its context layer. The number of context layers is bounded by the
number of interrupt levels the m/c supports.
8.4.1 Sleep
When a process goes to sleep, it typically does so during execution of a system call. The
process enters the Kernel (context layer 1) when it executes on operating system trap and goes
to sleep awaiting a resource. When the process goes to sleep, it does a context switch, pushing
its current context layer and executing in Kernel context layer 2. Process also goes to sleep they
incur page faults as a result of accessing virtual addresses that are not physically loaded; they
sleep while the Kernel reads, the contents of the pages.
Kernel context layer 2

execute code for context
switch save register context
of sys call
Invoke
Sleep
Algorithm
Kernel context layer 1
execute sys call save
register context user level
Make
System call
Executing user mode

Fig. 8.7
8.5 TYPICAL CONTEXT LAYERS OF A SLEEPING PROCESS

(i) Sleep Events and Address: Processes are said to sleep on an event if they are in the sleep
state until the event occurs at which time they wakeup and enter a “ready-to-run” state
(in memory or swapped out). Although the system uses the abstraction of sleeping on
an event, the implementation maps the set of events into a set of (Kernel) virtual
address. The abstraction of the event does not distinguish how many processes are
waiting the event nor does the implementation. As a result two anomalies arise:
(a) When an event occurs and a wakeup call is issued for processes that are sleeping
on an event; they all wakeup and move from a sleep state to a ready to run state.
(b) Several events may map into one address:
proc a awaiting I/O completion
proc b addr A
proc c Waiting for buffer
proc d
proc e
proc f Waiting for inode addr B
proc g
Waiting for terminal I/P addr C
proc h
Fig. 8.8 Processes sleeping on events and events mapping into address
algorithm : sleep
input : (1) Sleep address (2) priority.
output : 1 if process awakened as a result of a signal that
process catches, jump algorithm if process awakened as a result of a
signal that it does not catch, 0 otherwise;
{ raise processor execution level to block all interrupt;
set process state to sleep;
put process on sleep hash queue, based on sleep address;
save sleep address in process table slot;
set process priority level to input priority;
if (process sleep is NOT interruptible)
{ do context switch;
reset processor priority level to allow interrupts
as when process went to sleep;
return (0); }
if (no signal pending against process)
{ do context switch;
if (no signal pending against process)
{ reset processor priority level to what it was
when process went to sleep;

return (0); } }
remove process from sleep hash queue, if still there;
reset processor priority level to what it was
when process went to sleep;
if (process sleep priority set to catch signals)
return (1)
do longjmp. algorithm; }
Algorithm for Sleep and Wakeup → To wakeup sleeping process, the Kernel executes
(ii)
the wakeup algorithm either during the usual system call algorithm or when handling
an interrupt. The Kernel raises the processor execution level in wakeup to block out
interrupts. Then for every process sleeping on the input sleep address, it marks the
process state field “ready to run”, removes the process from the linked list of sleeping
processes, places it on a linked list of processes eligible for scheduling, and clears the
field in the process table that marked its sleep addresss.
algorithm : wakeup
input : sleep address
output : none
{ raise processor execution level to block all interrupts;
find sleep hash queue for sleep address;
for (every process asleep on sleep address)
{ remove process from hash queue;
mark process state "ready to run”;
put process on schedular list of processes
ready to run;
clear field in process table entry for sleep address;
if (process not loaded in memory)
wakeup swapper process (0);
else if (awakened process is more eligible to run than currently
running process) set schedular flag;
}
restore processor execution level to original level;
}
8.6 MANIPULATION OF THE PROCESS ADDRESS SPACE

However, various system calls manipulate the virtual address space of a process doing so
according to well defined operations on regions.
The region table entry contains the information necessary to describe a region. It contains:
(i) A pointer to the inode of the file whose contents were originally loaded into the region.
(ii) The region type (text, shared Memory, Private data or stack)
(iii) The size of the region.
80 UNIX AND SHELL PROGRAMMING
(iv) The location of the region in physical memory.

(v) The status of a region, which may be a combination of
- locked, - in demand.
- in the process of being loaded into memory.
- valid, loaded into memroy.
(vi) The reference count, giving the number of processes that reference the region.
The operations that manipulate regions are:
I. Locking and Unlocking a Region: The Kernel has operations to lock and unlock a region,
independent of the operations to allocate and free region. Thus the Kernel can lock and
allocate a region and later unlock it without having to free the region.
II. Allocating a Region: The Kernel allocates a new region during fork, exec, and shmgt
(shared memory) system calls. The Kernel contains a region table whose entries appear
either on a free linked list or on an active linked list. When it allocates a region table
entry, the Kernel removes the first available entry from the free list, places it on the
active list, locks the region, and marks its type (shared or private).
algorithm : allocreg
input ( i) inode pointer ( ii) region type
output locked region
remove regions from linked list of free regions;
assign region type;
assign region inode pointer;
if (inode pointer not null)
place region on linked list of active regions;
return (locked region);
Per Process Region Table
III. Attaching a region to a process: The Kernel attach Page Proc Size
a region during the Fork, exec, and shmat Table
addr
virt
addr
and
protect
system calls to connect it to the address space
"
of a process. The region may be a newly 0 9
allocated region or an existing region that the Entry "\..
process will share with other processes. The for
Kernel allocates a free p region entry, sets its text empty
type field to text, data, shared memory, or empty

stack, and records the virtual address where
846 K
the region will exist in the process address
space. The process must not exceed the system- 752 K
imposed limit for the highest virtual address 341 K
and the virtual addresses of the new region 484 K
must not overlap the addresses of existing 976 K
regions. 342 K
779 K
Fig. 8.9 Example of attaching to an

existing text region
STRUCTURE OF A PROCESS 81
IV. Changing the size of a region: A process may expand or contract its virtual address space
with the sbrk system call. Similarly the stack of a process automatically expands accord-
ing to the depth of nested procedure calls. Internally, the Kernel invokes the algorithm
growreg to change the size of a region. When a region expands, the Kernel makes sure
that the virtual addresses of the expanded region do not overlap those of another region
and that the growth of the region does not cause the process size to become greater than
the maximum allowed virtual memory space. The Kernel never invokes growreg to
increase the size of a shared region that is already to several processes, therefore, it does
not have to worry about increasing the size of a region for one process and causing
another process to grow beyond the system limit for process size.
Per Process Region Table Per Process Region Table

Page Proc Size Page Proc Size
Table virt and Table virt and
addr addr protect addr addr protect
128 K Entry 128 K 7K

6K
' for '
~ stack
c¥- 342 K 342 K
779 K 779 K
846K 846 K
752 K 752 K
341 K 341 K
--+ 484 K 484 K
NewP age--+ 976 K
Before stack growth After stack growth
Fig. 8.10 Growing the stack region by lK bytes

V. Loading a region:
Per Process Region Table Page Proc Size

Page Proc Size Table virt and
Table virt and addr addr protect
addr addr protect
0 8
Text
- 0
~
~
(a) Original size empty
779 K
Page Proc Size After first growreg 846 K
Table virt and page table with o ne
addr addr protect entry for gap. 752 K
341 K
0 1
' ~
484 K
(b) IemptyJ 976 K
794 K
(c) After 2nd growreg
Fig. 8.11
VI. Freeing a region: When a region is no longer attached to any processes, the Kernel can
free the region and return it to the list of free regions. The Kernel release physical
resources associated with the region, such as page tables and memory pages.
VII. Detaching a region from a process: The Kernel detaches regions in the exec, exit and shmdt
(detach shared memory) system calls. It updates the pregion entry and revers the
connection to physical memory by invalidating the associated memory management
register triple. The Kernel decrements the region reference count and the size field in
the process table entry according to the size of the region.
P ROCESS C ONTROL 83
Chapter 9
PROCESS CONTROL
The fork system call creates a new process, the exit call terminates process, execution and
the wait call allows a parent process to synchronize its execution with the exit of a child process.
Signals inform processes of a synchronous events. Because the Kernel synchronizes execution of
exit and wait via signals.
9.1 PROCESS CREATION

To create a new process in the UNIX operating system is to invoke the fork system call. The
process that invokes fork is called the parent process, and the newly created process is called the
child process. The syntax for the fork system call is:
pid = fork ();
On return from the fork system call the two processes have identical copies of their user level
context except for the return value pid. In the parent process pid is the child process ID; in the
child process, pid is O. Process O created internally by the Kernel when the system is boated, is
the only process not created via fork.
The Kernel does the following sequence of operations for fork:
(i) It allocate a slot in the process table for the new process.
(ii) It assigns a unique ID number to child process.
(iii) It makes a logical copy of the context of the parent process.
(iv) It increments file and inode table counters for files associated with the process.
(v) It returns the ID number of the child to the parent process, and a value to the child
process.
algorithm : fork
input : none
output : to parent process, child PID no. to child process, O.
{ check for available Kernel Resources;
83
get free proc table slot, unique PID number;

check that user not running too many processes;
mark child stat “being created;”
copy data from parent proc table slot to new child slot;
increment counts on current directory inode
and changed root (if applicable);
increment open file counts in file table;
make copy of parent context (u-area, text, data, stack) in memory;
push dummy system level context layer onto
child system level context;
dummy context contains data allowing child process to recognize
itself and start running from here when scheduled;
if (executing process is parent process)
{ change child state to “ready to run”
return (child ID);
}
else
{ initialize u-area timing fields;
return (0);
}
}
The system imposes a (configurable) limit on the number of processes a user can simulta-
neously execute so that no user can steal many process table slots, thereby preventing other users
from creating new users.
After the state of process is “being created”. The Kernel adjusts reference counts for files with
which the child process is automatically associated.
(i) The child process resides in the current directory of the parent process. The number of
processes that currently access the directory increase by 1 and accordingly, the Kernel
increments its inode reference count.
(ii) If the parent process or one of its ancestors had ever executed the chroot system call
to change its root, the child process inherits the changed root and increments its inode
reference count.
(iii) The Kernel searches the parent’s user file descriptor table for open files known to the
process and increments the global file table reference count associated with each open
file.
Parent Process
File Table
U Area
Per process
Region Table
Parent
Data
Parent
user
Stack
Kernel stack
Shared
text
Inode Table
U Area
Per process
Region Table
Kernel stack
Child Process
Fig. 9.1 Fork creating a new process context
9.2 AWAITING PROCESS TERMINATION

A process can synchronize its execution with the termination of a child process by executing
the wait system call. Syntax.
pid = wait (stat – addr)
pid: is the process ID of the zombie child.
stat addr: is the address in user space of an integer that will contain the exit status of
the child.
algorithm : wait
input : address of variable to store status of existing process
output : child ID, child exit code
{
if (waiting process has no child processes)
return (error);
for (;;)
{ if (waiting process has zombie child)
{ pick arbitrary zombie child;
add child CPU usage to parent;
free child process table entry;
return (child ID, child exit code);

}
if (process has no children)
return (error);
sleep at interruptible priority (event child process exists);
}
}
The Kernel searches for a zombie child of the process and if there are no children, returns
an error. If it find a zombie child it extracts the PID number and the parameter supplied to the
child exit call and returns those value from the system call. An exiting process can thus specify
various return codes to give the reason it exited. The Kernel adds the accumulated time the child
process executed in user and in Kernel mode to the appropriate fields in the parent process
u-area and finally release the process table slot formerly occupied by the zombie process. The slot
is now available for a new process.
If the process executing wait has child processes but none are zombie, it sleeps at an
interruptible priority until the arrival of a signal. If the signal is “death of child” the process may
respond differently.
9.3 THE USER-ID OF A PROCESS

The Kernel associates two user-IDs with a process, independent of the process ID:
(i) Real user-ID: It identifies the user who is responsible for the running process.
(ii) Effective user-ID: Its used to assign ownership of newly created files to check file access
permissions and to check permission to send signals to process via the kill system call.
The Kernel allows a process to change its effective user-ID when it excess a setuid program
or when it invoke setuid system call explicitly. A setuid program is an executable file that has
the setuid bit set in its permission mode field. When a process excess a setuid program, the Kernel
sets the effective user-ID fields in the process table and u-area to the owner ID of the file. Syntax.
setuid (uid);
uid → uid is the new user-ID and its result depends on the current value of the effective user-
ID. If the effective user-ID of the calling process is not super user the Kernel reset the effective user-
ID in the u-area to uid if uid has the value of the real user-ID or if it has the value of the saved
user-ID. If the effective user-ID of a process is super user the Kernel resets the real and effective
user-ID fields in the process table and u-area to uid. Otherwise the system call return error.
Generally a process inherits its real and effective user id from its parent during the fork
system call and maintains their values across exec system calls.
9.4 EXAMPLE EXECUTION OF SETUID PROGRAM

main ()
{
int, uid, euid, fdmJb, fdmJb1;
uid = getuid () ;
euid = geteuid () ;
Print f ("uid % d euid % d", uid, euid);
fdmjb = open ("mjb", O_RDONLY);
fdmjb1 = open ("mjb1", O_RDONLY);
print f ("fdmjb = % d, fdmjb1 = % d", fdmjb, fdmbj1);
setujd (uid);
print f ("After setuid(%d): uid % d euid % d", uid, getuid(),
geteuid());
fdmjb = open ("mjb", O_RDONLY);
fdmjb1 = open ("mjb1", O_RDONLY);
print f ("fdmjb % d fdmjb1 % d", fdmjb, fdmjb1);
setuid (euid);
print f ("after setuid (%d): uid% d euid % d", euid, getuid(),
geteuid()
}
Suppose the executable file produced by compiling the program has owner “mjb1” (ID-8319)
its setuid bit on, and all users have permission to execute it. Assumes that user “mjb” (ID-5088)
and “mjb1” own the files of their respective names and that both files have read-only permission
for their owners. User “mjb” sees following output when executing the program:
uid 5088 euid 8319
fdmjb – 1 fdmjb1 3
after setuid (5088) : uid 5088 euid 5088
fdmjb 4 fdmjbl – 1
user “mjb1” sees the following output:
uid 8319 euid 8319
9.5 CHANGING THE SIZE OF A PROCESS

A process may increase or decrease the size of its data region by using the brk system call.
Syntax.
brk (endds);
endds: endds be comes the value of the highest virtual address of the data region of the
process (called its break value). A user can call;
oldendds = sbrk (increment);
increment: increment changes the current break value by the specified number of bytes.
oddendds: is the break value before the call.
Sbrk is a C library routine that calls brk.
algorithm : brk
input : new break value;
output : old break value;
{ lock process data region;
if (region size increasing)
if (new region size is illegal)
{ unlock data region;
return (error);
}
change region size;
zero out addresses in new data space;
unlock process data region;
}
9.5.1 The Shell

The shell reads a command line from its standard input and interprets it according to a fixed
set of rules. The standard input and standard output file descriptors for the login shell usually
the terminal on which user logged in. If the shell recognizes the input string as a built in
command, it executes the command internally without creating new processes; otherwise it
assumes the command is the name of executable file.
who
grep include * C
ls – l
etc
Shell wait
exit
WC
read
ls – l write
Fig. 9.2 Relationship of processes for ls – l/wc

9.5.2 Process Termination

Processes on a UNIX system terminate by executing the exit system call. An exiting process
enters the zombie state relinquishes its resources and dismantles its context except for its slot in
the process table. Syntax.
exit (status) :
Status: Status is returned to the parent process for its examination. Process may call exit
explicitly or implicitly at the end of a program. The startup routine linked with all C programs
calls exit when the program returns from the main function the entry point of all programs.
Alternatively the Kernel may invoke exit internally for a process on receipt of uncaught signals.
If so the value of status is signal number.
algorithm : exit
input : return code for parent process
output : none
{ ignore all signals;
if (process group loader with associated control terminal)
{
send hangup signal to all members of process group;
reset process group for all members too.
}
Close all open files;
release current directory;
release current (changed) root, if exist;
free regions, memory associated with process;
write accounting record;
make process state zombie;
assign parent process ID of all child processes to be init process (1);
if any children were zombie, send death
of child signal to init;
send death of child signal to parent process;
context switch;
}
The system imposes no time limit on the execution of a process and processes frequently exist
for long time. For instance, process 0 (swapper) and 1 (init) exist throughout the life time of a
system. And getty processes which monitor a terminal line, waiting for a user to log in and special
purpose administrative processes.
Chapter 10
INTER -PROCESS COMMUNICATION
IPC mechanism allow arbitrary process to exchange data and synchronize execution.
We have already considered several forms of interprocess communication, such as pipes,
named pipes and signals. Pipes suffer from the drawback that they are known only to processes
which are descendants of the process that invoke the pipe system call: unrelated process cannot
communicate via pipes. Although named pipe allow unrelated process to communicate, they
cannot generally be used across a network nor do they readily lend themselves to setting up
multiple communications paths for different sets of communicating process: its impossible to
multiplex a named pipe to provide private channels for pairs of communicating process. Arbitrary
process can also communicate by sending signals via the kill system call, but the message consist
only of the signal number.
10.1 PROCESS TRACING

One process traces and controls the execution of another process. Tracing processes, useful
for debugging. A debugger process such as sdb, spawns a process to be traced and controls its
execution with the ptrace system call, setting and clearing break points, and reading and writing
data in its virtual address space.
Thus process tracing consist of synchronization of the debugger process and the traced
process and controlling the execution of traced process. Syntax for ptrace.
ptrace (cmd, pid, addr, data);
cmd → Specifies various commands such as reading data, writing data, resuming execution
and so on.
pid → is the process-ID of traced process.
addr → is the virtual address to be read or written in the child process.
data → is an integer value to be written.
When executing the ptrace system call, the Kernel verifies that the debugger has a child
whose ID is pid and that the child is in the traced state and then uses a global trace data structure
to transfer data between the two processes. It locks the trace data structure to prevent other tracing
processes from overwriting it, copies cmd, addr and data into the data structure, wakes up the
90
I NTER -P R O C E SS C OMMUNICATION 91
child process and puts it into the “ready-to-run” state then sleeps until the child responds. When
the child resumes execution (in Kernel mode), it does the appropriate trace command, writes it
reply into the trace data structure, then awakens the debugger. Depending on the command type,
the child may reenter the trace state and wait for a new command or return from handling signals
and resume execution. When the debugger resumes execution, the Kernel saves the “return value”
supplied by the traced process, unlocks the traced data structure, and returns to the user.
If the debugger process is not sleeping in the wait system call when the child enters the trace
state, it will not discover its traced child until it calls wait.
10.1.1 Drawback of ptrace

(i) The Kernel must do context switches to transfer a word of data between a debugger and
a traced process. The Kernel switches context in the debugger in ptrace call until the
traced process replies to a query, switches context to and from the traced process, and
switches context back to the debugger process with the answer to the ptrace call.
(ii) A debugger process can trace several child processes simultaneously.
(iii) A debugger cannot trace a process that is already executing if the debugged process
had not called ptrace to let the Kernel know that it consents to be traced.
(iv) Its impossible to trace setuid programs, because users could violate security by writing
their address space via ptrace and doing illegal operations.
10.2 SYSTEM V IPC

This package consist of three mechanism:
(i) Message (ii) Shared Memory (iii) Semaphores
They share common property:
I. Each mechanism contains a table whose entries describe all instances of the
mechanism.
II. Each entry contains a numeric key, which is its user chosen name.
III. Each mechanism contains a “get” system call to create a new entry or to retrieve an
existing one, and the parameters to the calls include a key and flag. The Kernel searches
the proper table for an entry named by the key.
Process can call the “get” system calls with the key IPC PRIVATE.
They can set the IPC_CREAT bit in the flag field to create a new entry if one by given
key does not already exist, and they can force an error notification by setting the
IPC_EXCL and IPC_CREAT flags if an entry already exists for the key.
IV. For each IPC mechanism, the Kernel uses the following formula to find the index into
the table of data structures from descriptor;
index = descriptor modulo (no. of entries in table)
For example if the table of message structures contains 100 entries, the descriptors for
entry 1 are 1, 101, 201 and so on. When a process removes an entry the Kernel
increment the descriptor associated with it by the number of entries in the table.
V. Each IPC entry has a permissions structure that includes the user-ID and group-ID of
the process that created an entry.
VI. Each entry contains other status information such as the process-ID of the process to
update the entry and the time of last access or update.
VII. Each mechanism contains a “control” system call to query status of an entry to set
status information, or to remove the entry from the system.
10.2.1 Messages
Messages allow processes to send formatted data streams to arbitrary process. There are four
system calls for messages:
(a) msgget—It returns a message descriptor that designates a message queue for use in
other system calls. Syntax.
msgqid = msgget (Key, flag);
msgquid—is the descriptor returned by the call.
key—Its a numeric key, which is its user, chosen name. The Kernel searches the proper
table for an entry named by the key.
flag—It specifies the action the Kernel should take.
msgqid as an index into an array of message queue headers. The queue structure
contains the following fields.
—Pointers to the first and last messages on a linked list.
—The number of messages and the total number of data bytes on the linked list.
—The maximum number of bytes of data that can be on the linked list.
—The process IDs of the last processes to send and receive messages.
—Time stamps of the last msgind, msgrcvs and msgctl operations.
When a user calls msgget to create a new descriptor, the Kernel searches the array of message
queues to see if one exists with the given key. If there is no entry for the specified key, the Kernel
allocates a new queue structure, initialize it, and returns an identifier to user. Otherwise it checks
permissions and returns.
msgsnd (msgquid, msg, count, flag);
msgquid—is the descriptor of message queue returned by a msgget call.
msg—is a pointer to a structure consisting of a user-chosen integer type and a character array.
count—count gives the size of data array.
flag—flag specifies the action the Kernel should take if it runs out of internal buffer space.
The Kernel checks that the sending process has write permission for the message descriptor,
that the message length does not exceed the system limit that the message queue does not contain too
many bytes, and that the message type is +ve integer. If all tests succeed, the Kernel allocates space for
the message from a message map and copies the data from user space. The Kernel allocates a message
header and puts it on the end of linked list of message headers for the message queue.
Queue
Headers Message Headers Data Area
Fig. 10.1 Data structure for messages

A process calls msgget to get a descriptor for MSGKEY. It sets up a message of length
256 bytes, although it uses only the first integer, copies its process ID into the message text,
assigns the message type value 1 then call msgsnd to send the message. A process receives
messages by:
count = msgrcv (id, mrg, max count, type, flag);
id—Message descriptor
msg—is the address of a user structure to contain the received message.
maxcount—is the size of the data array in mrg
type—specifies the message type the user wants to read
flag—specifies what the Kernel should do if no messages are an queue
count—is the number of bytes returned to the user.
A message can query the status of a message descriptor, set its status and remove a message
descriptor with the mrgctl system call. Syntax is:
mrgctl (id, cmd, metatbuf)
id— ...
cmd—type of command
metatbuf—is the address of a user data structure that will contain control parameters or the
result of a query.
10.2.2 Shared Memory

Processes can communicate directly with each other by sharing parts of their virtual address
space and then reading and writing the data stored in the shared memory. There are various
system calls for manipulating shared memory.
(a) shmgt—This system call creates a new region of shared memory or returns an existing
one. Syntax.
shmid = shmget (key, size, flag);
size—is the number of bytes in the region. The Kernel searches the shared memory table
for the given key; if it finds an entry and the permissions modes are acceptable, it
returns the descriptor for the entry. If it does not find an entry and the user had set
the IPC_CREAT flag to create a new region, the Kernel verifies that the size is between
system-wide minimum and maximum values and then allocates a region data
structure. The Kernel saves the permission modes, size and a pointer to the region table
entry in the shared memory table and sets a flag there to indicate that no memory is
associated with the region. It allocates memory for the region only when a process
attaches the region to its address space.
Shared Process Table

Memory Region per process
Table Table region table
(after
shmat)
Fig. 10.2 Data structures for shared memory

(b) shmat—A process attaches a shared memory region to its virtual address space with
this system call. Syntax.
vitaddr = shmat (id, addr, flags);
id—Returned by a previous shmget system call, identifies the shared memory region.
addr—is the virtual address where the user wants to attach the shared memory.
flags—specify whether the region is read only and whether the Kernel should round
off the user specified address.
virtaddr—is the virtual address where the Kernel attached the region, not necessarily
the value requested by the process.
(c) shmdt—A process detaches a shared memory region from its virtual address space by;
shmdt (addr)
addr—is the virtual address returned by a prior shmat call.
The Kernel searches for the process region attached at the indicated virtual address and
detaches it from the process address space. Because the region tables have no back
pointers to the shared memory table, the Kernel searches the shared memory table for
the entry that points to the region and adjusts the field for the time the region was last
detached.
(d) shmctl—A process uses this system call to query status and set parameters for the
shared memory region:
shmctl (id, cmd, shmetatbuf);
id—identifies shared memory table entry.
cmd—specifies type of operation.
shmetatbuf—is the address of a user-level data structure that contains the status infor-
mation of the shared memory table entry when quering or setting its status.
10.2.3 Semaphores
The semaphore system calls allow processes to synchronize execution by doing a set of
operations automatically on a set of semaphores. Before the implementation of semaphores, a
process would create a lock file with the creat system call if it wanted to lock a resource. The create
fails if the file already exists, and the process would assume that another process had the resource
locked.
Disadvantages—The process does not know when to try again and lock files may inadvert-
ently be left behind when the system crashes or is reboated.
P : if (S > 0)
S––;
V: if (S < 0)
S++:
S is a semaphore variable.
A semaphore in UNIX system V consists of the following elements.
(i) The value of semaphore.
(ii) The process ID of the last process to manipulate the semaphore.
(iii) The number of processes waiting for the semaphore value to increase.
(iv) The number of processes waiting for the semaphore value to equal 0.
Semaphore
Table Semaphore Arrays
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2
0 1 2
Fig. 10.3 Data structures for semaphores
semget—semget to create and gain access to a set of semaphores. It creates an array of semaphores.
Syntax.
id = semget (Key, count, flag);
The Kernel allocates an entry that points to an array of semaphore structures with count
elements. The entry also specifies the number of semaphores in the array, the time of last semap
call and the time of last semctl call.
semop—Process manipulate semaphores with the semop system call.

oldval = semop (id, oplist, count);
id—Descriptor returned by semget.
oplist—is a pointer to an array of semaphore operations.
count—is the size of the array.
oldval—is the value of the last semaphore operated on in the set before the operation was
done. The format of each element of oplist is:
(i) The semaphore number identifying the semaphore array being operated on.
(ii) The operation
(iii) Flags
semctl—It contains a myriad of control operations for semaphores:
semctl (id, number, arg):
SOCKETS 97
Chapter 11
SOCKETS
Furthermore, the methods may not allow processes to communicate with other processes on
the same m/c because they assume existence of a server process that sleeps in a driver open or
read system call. To provide common methods for IPC and to allow use of sophisticated n/w
protocols, the BSD system provides a mechanism known as sockets.
Client Process Server Process
Socket layer Socket layer
Protocol TCP Protocol TCP

layer layer
IP IP
Device Ethernet Device Ethernet

layer Driver layer Driver
N/W
Fig. 11.1 Sockets model

The Kernel structure consists of three parts:
(i) Socket Layer—Provide the interface b/w the system calls and the lower layers.
(ii) Protocol Layer—Contains the protocol modules used for communication (e.g., TCP/IP).
(iii) Device Layer—Contains the device driver that control the n/w devices.
Layer combinations of protocols and drivers are specified when configuring the system.
Process communicate using the client server model; a server process listens to a socket one end
point of a two way communication path, and client process communicate to the server process
cover another socket, the other end point of communications path which may be on another
m/c. The Kernel maintains internal connections and routes data from client to server.
97
Socket that share common communication property such as maming convention and proto-
col address format are grouped into domains. The 4.2.B.S.D system supports the “UNIX system
Domain” for process communicating on one m/c. And “Internet Domain” for process communi-
cating across a n/w using the DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Project Agency).
Each socket has a type:
(i) Virtual circuit—V.C. Allows sequenced reliable delivery of data. They are expensive.
(ii) Datagram—Datagrams do not guarantee sequenced, reliable or unduplicated delivery
but they are less expensive because they do not require expensive setup operations.
The socket mechanism contains several system calls:
(i) Socket system calls establishes the end point of communication link. Syntax.
sd = Socket (format, type, protocol)
sd = Socket Descriptor
format = Specifies the communication domain.
type—Indicates type of communication over socket.
protocol—Indicates a particular protocols to control the communication
/ * close system call closes the socket * /
(ii) bind System calls associate a name with socket descriptor. Syntax
bind (sd, address, length)
address—e.g., file name in UNIX system domain point to a structure that specifies an
identifier specific to the communication domain and protocol specified in the socket
system call.
Length—Length is the length of the address structure, without this parameter the Kernel
would not know how long the address is because it can vary across domains and
protocols.
Server processes bind addresses to sockets and “advertise” their names to identify
themselves to client process.
(iii) Connect—It request that the Kernel make a connection to an existing socket connect (sd,
address, length)
address—Address of the target socket that will form the other end of the communica-
tions line.
Client Process
Server Process
listen Addr accept Addr
Fig. 11.2 A server accepting a call

When a server process arranges to accept connections over a virtual circuit, the Kernel
must queue incoming request until it can service them.
SOCKETS 99
(iv) The listen system call specify the maximum queue length.
listen (sd, q length)
q length—is the maximum number of outstanding request.
(v) Accept—It receives incoming request for a connection to a server process:
nsd = accept (sd, address, addrlen)
address—Points to a user data array that the Kernel fills with the return address of the
connecting client.
addrlen—Indicates the size of user array.
(vi) Send—
Count = send (sd, msg, length, flags)
Count — Number of bytes actually sent
msg—Pointer to the data being sent
length—Length of message
flag—This parameter may be set to the value SOF_OOB to send data “out-of-band”,
meaning that data being set is not considered part of the regular sequence of data
exchange b/w the communicating processes.
(vii) recv—
Count = recv (sd, buf, length, flags)
buf—buf is the data array for incoming data.
Flags—Flags can be set to peek at an incoming message and examine its contents
without removing it from the queue or to receive “out of band” data.
(viii) Shutdown—It close a socket connection shutdown (sd, mode)
mode—Indicates whether the sending side, the receiving side or both sides allow no
longer data transmission.
11.1 MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEMS

A multiprocessor architecture contains two or more CPU that share common memory and
peripherals potentially providing greater system throughput, because process can run concur-
rently on different processors. Each CPU executes independently but all of them execute one copy
of the Kernel. Some multiprocessor systems are called attached processor systems, because the
peripherals may not be accessible to all processors.
Processor Processor Processor

1 2 n
Memory Peripherals
Fig. 11.3 Multiprocessor configuration

11.2 PROBLEM WITH MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM

struct queue {
} * bp, * bp1 ;
bp1 — torp = bp — torp
bp1 — backp = bp ;
bp — torp = bp1;
/ * consider a context switch here * /
bp1 — torp — balkp = bp1:
The Kernel cannot preempt a process and switch context to another process while executing
in Kernel mode, and it masks out interrupts when executing a critical region of code if an interrupt
handler could corrupt Kernel data structures. On a multiprocessor, however, if two or more
process executes simultaneously in the Kernel on separate processor, the Kernel could become
corrupt in spite of the protective measures that suffice for uniprocessor systems.
The Kernel must make sure that such corruption can never occur.
There are three methods for preventing such corruption:
I. Execute all critical activity on one processor, relying on standard uniprocessor methods
for preventing corruption.
II. Serialize access to critical regions of code with locking primitives.
III. Redesign algorithms to avoid contention for data structures.
11.3 SOLUTION WITH MASTER SLAVE PROCESSORS

Master processor can execute in Kernel mode and slave executes only in user mode. The
master processor is responsible for handling all system calls and interrupt. Slave processors
execute processes in user mode and inform the master processor when a process makes a system
call. /* System with one master and several slave */.
The schedular algorithm decides which processor should execute a process. When a process
on a slave processor executes a system call, the slave Kernel sets the PID field in the process table,
indicating that the process should run only on the master processor, and does a context switch
to schedule other processes. The master Kernel schedule, the process of highest priority that must
run on the master processor and executes it. When it finish the system call, it sets the processor
ID field of the process to slave, allowing the process to run on slave processors again.
If processes must run on the master processor it is preferable that the master processor run
them right away and not keep them waiting. If the master processor were executing a process in
user mode when a slave processor requested service for a system call, the master process would
continue executing until the next context switch. The master processor respond more quickly if
the slave processor set a global flag that the master processor checked in the clock interrupt
handler, the master processor would do a context switch in at most one clock tick. Alternatively
the slave processor could interrupt the master processor and force it to do a context switch
immediately but this assumes special h/w capability.
The clock interrupt handler on a slave processor makes sure that processes are periodically
rescheduled so that no one process monopolizes the processor. A side from that the clock handler
S O C K E T S 101
“wakes up” a slave processor from an idle state once a second. The slave processor schedules
the highest periority process that need not run one the master processor.
The only chance for corruption of Kernel data structures comes in the schedular algorithm,
because it does not protect against having a process selected for execution on two processors.
For instance, if a configuration consists of a master processor and two slaves, it is possible
that the two slave processor find one process in user mode ready for execution. If both processors
were to schedule the process simultaneously, they would read, write and corrupt its address
space.
The system can avoid this problem:
(i) The master can specify the slave processor on which the process should execute,
permitting more than one process to be assigned to a processor. One processor may
have lots of processes assigned to it whereas others are idle. The master Kernel would
have to distribute the process load b/w the processors.
(ii) The Kernel can allow only one processor to execute the scheduling loop at a time.
11.4 SOLUTION WITH SEMAPHORES

Using this method for supporting UNIX systems on multiprocessor configuration is to par-
tition the kernel into critical regions such that at most one processor can execute code in a critical
regions at a time. There are two issues:
(i) How to implement Semaphores?
(ii) Where to define critical Region?
There are various algorithms in uniprocessor UNIX systems use a sleep lock to keep other
processes out of a critical region in case the first process later goes to sleep inside the critical
region. The mechanism for setting the lock is:
while (lock is set) /* Test Operation */
sleep (condition until lock is free);
set lock:
and the mechanism for unlocking the lock is free lock;
wake up (all process sleeping on condition lock set);
sleep-lock delineate some critical region
But they do not work on multiprocessor systems.
Process A/Processor A Process B/Processor B
Lock Not Set
Check if lock set

Check if lock set Check if lock set
(no) (no)
t
Set lock Set lock
Use Resource Use Resource
Danger of Corruption
Time
Fig. 11.4 Race condition in sleep-locks on multiprocessor
As illustrated in above figure. Suppose a lock is free and two processes on two processors
simultaneously attempt to test and set it. They find that the lock is free at time t, set it, enter the
critical region, and may corrupt kernel data structures. To prevent this situation the locking
primitives must be atomic. i.e. The actions of testing the status of the lock and setting the lock must
be done as a single, indivisible operation, such tha only one process can manipulate that lock at
a time.
11.4.1 Definition of Semaphores

A semaphore is an integer valued object manipulated by the kernel that has the following
atomic operations defined for it:
(i) Initialization of the semaphore to a nonnegative value.
(ii) A P operation that decrement the value of the semaphore. If the value of the semaphore
is less than 0 after decrementing its value the process that did the P goes to sleep.
(iii) A V operation that increment the value of the semaphore. If the value of the semaphore
becomes greater than or equal to 0 as a result, one process that had been sleeping as the result
of a P operation wakes up.
(iv) A conditional P operation, abbreviated CP, that decrements the value of the semaphore
and return an indication of true if its value is greater than 0. If the value of the semaphore is less
than or equal to the value of the semaphore is unchanged and the return value is false.
As illustrated in Figure 11.4. Suppose a lock is free and two processes on two processors
simultaneously attempt to test and set it. They find that the lock is free at time t, set it, enter the
critical region and may corrupt kernel data structures. To prevent this situation the locking
primitives must be atomic i.e., the actions of testing the status of the lock and setting the lock must
be done as a single, indivisible operation, such that only one process can manipulate the lock at
a time.
U NIX C OMMAND 103
Chapter 12
UNIX COMMAND
12.1 INTRODUCTION TO SHELL
The Shell is a program that provides an interpreter and interface between the user and the
UNIX Operating System. It executes commands that are read either from a terminal or from a file.
Files containing commands may be created, allowing users to build their own commands. In this
manner, users may tailor UNIX to their individual requirements and style.
There are a number of different Shells. Each provides a slightly different interface between
the user and the UNIX Operating System. There are three important types of shell in UNIX these
are:
(i) Bourne Shell
(ii) C-Shell
(iii) Korn Shell
There are other shells that are less widely used and not available on many machines. A
command issued by a user may be run in the present shell, or the shell itself may start up another
copy of itself in which to run that command. In this way, a user may run several commands at
the same time. A secondary shell is called a sub-shell.
When a user logs onto the system, a shell is automatically started. This will monitor the
user’s terminal, waiting for the issue of any commands. The type of shell used is stored in a file
called passwd in the subdirectory etc. Any other shell may be run as a sub-shell by issuing it as
a command. For example, /usr/bin/ksh will run a Korn shell. The original shell will still be
running—in background mode—until the Korn shell is terminated.
There are three prompt in UNIX/Linux:
(i) # It is used by super user or System Administrator.
(ii) $ Its used by ordinary user.
(iii) % Its used by ordinary user. But when work with c-shell
Some super user related command.
1. Add a new user
103
Syntax:
useradd [OPTIONS] [USERNAME]
2. Change or assign password for a user
#passwd <username>
3. ADD a group
#groupadd <groupname>
4. DELETE
(i) USER #userdel <username>
(ii) #groupdel <groupname>
5. MODIFIED
(i) GROUP #groupmod <groupname>
(ii) USER #usermod <username>
OPTIONS with Useradd Command

-c Comment → The new user password comment field
-f Inactive days → The number of days password expire until the account is permanently
disabled. A value 0 is disabled the account as soon as password has expire, and a value of –1
disabled the features. The default value is –1.
-m → The user HOME directory will be created if it does not exist. The files contained in
skeleton_dir will be copied to the home directory if the –k option is used. Otherwise the files
contained in /etc/skell will be used instead. Any directory contained in skeleton_dir or /etc/skell
will be created in the users home directory.
-u uid → The numerical value of user-ID. This value must be unique unless the –o option
is used. The value must be non negative. The default is to use smallest ID value greater then 99
and greater then other user-ID. Values between 0 and 99 are reserved for system accounts.
-M → The user HOME directory will not be created.
Example: # useradd –u 120 –g g1 –c “SQL” –d /home/anoop –s /bin/bash –m anoop
Password Administration
The following example sets the minimum and maximum number of weeks for change of
password for user Anoop.
#passwd –n 12 ANOOP /* Minimum 12 weeks*/
#passwd –x 12 ANOOP /* Maximum 12 weeks */
Allowing User to Shutdown Only

First create a ordinary user account with useradd.
$ useradd –u 123 –g MCA –d /home/Anoop –m Anoop
Now you have to confer root status on this user by changing the UID in /etc/passwd from
123 to 0 the one used by root. The shutdown command must placed in the user .profile so that
he/she can’t do anything else.
U NIX C OMMAND 105
Internal and External C om m and

C om m and or file having an ind ep end ent existence in the / bin (or / u sr/ binj) d irectories an
external com m and . O therw ise its an internal com m and . T o know com m and typ e.
$typ e ls / *ls is / bin/ ls*/
C om m and
ls – It w ill list d irectory and file. Syntax:
ls [op tions] filenam e.
O ptions
-l  L ong listing file and d irectories. W ith this op tion the com m and w ill d isp lay follow ing
typ es of inform ation.
File-type,Perm ission,N u m ber-of-L ink,O w ner,G roup-O w ner,File-size,File-m od ification tim e,
File-nam e.
-a  Show all files (Inclu d ing hid d en files) -i  D isp lay inod e nu m ber.
-A  A ll files bu t not . and ..
$ ls ab* / *Start w ith ab*/
$ls ?ab / *Start w ith a single character*/
$ ls[abc]* / *First letter m u st any one of the letter given in []*/
$ ls[abc]* / *N ot start w ith abc*/
$ls [a-d ][c-m ][2-9]?? / *L ist all files w hose first letter a to d second letter c to m and third
2 to 9 and any tw o other character */
$ls .txt /*L ist all files w ith extension txt/
File T yp e M ean in g
- O rd inary File
d D irectory File
b B lock Sp ecial File
c C haracter Sp ecial File
p N am ed P ip e
l Sym bolic L ink
s Sem ap hore
m Shared M em ory File

File permission: → These are three types of file permission
Permission Weight
Read (r) 4
Write (w) 2
Execute (x) 1
A file consist of rwxrwxrwx in which first rwx for owner second for group owner and last
three for other owner.
Change permission of a file → File permission can be change either by owner of the file or
super user not by the other user.
Chmod (Change mode of a file) By this command we can change permission of a file.
Syntax→
$ chmod [WHO] [+/–/=] [Permission] <File name>
WHO means u → For user, g → For group user, and o → for other user + → add permission,
— → Remove permission , = → Instruct chmod to add the specified permission and take away
all others, if present.
$ chmod 777<File name> /*It will change all the permission of a file*/
Create Directory → A directory created by mkdir command. SYNTAX: $ Mkdir <Directory
name>
Option → -m → Set permission mode.
-v → Print a message for each created directory.
-p → Make parent directory as needed.
cat command → Create/display/append a file
$ cat >f1 /* Create the file f1 if f1 is an existing file then overwrite the contents of f1*/
$ cat >>f1 /* Append content in f1 if f1 does not exist then create it*/
$ cat f1 /* Open f1 if f1 not exist then report error*/
$cat f1>f2 /* Copy f1 to f2 if f2 exist then overwrite the contents*/
$ cat f1>>f2 /* Appends the content of f1 into f2 if f2 not exist then create it */
$ cat >a* /* Error (Try to create a file a*)*/
$cat >a\* /* The file a* will be created*/
Remove file and directory

Ordinary file →
$rm <file name> /*Remove a ordinary file */
$rm a* /*Remove all file start with name a */
$rm a\* /*Remove file name a* */
U NIX C OMMAND 107
Directory File →
$rm –r <directory name> /*Remove a non-empty directory also*/
$rmdir <directory name> /*Remove only if directory is empty */
Date Command → date command print current date and time and date in a variety of
formats. Its also used by system administrator to set system time.
$ date
Day_of_week Month Date Time IST Year /*By default printed */
Options →
Name Description Name Description
%a Local Abbreviated weekly name %l Month (01,…………….23)

name(Sun,Mon,……)
%A Full Weekly name(Sunday….) %m Month (01……………..12)
%b Abbreviated month name(Jan,...) %M Minute (00…………….59)
%B Full month name %n A new line
%c Local date and time %N Nanosecond
%C Century(Year divided by 100) %p AM or PM indicator
%d Day of month %P Am or pm indicator
%D Date (DD/MM/YY) %r Time 12 hour(hh:mm:ss[AP]M)
%e Day of month blank padded(1,..31) %R Time 24 hour (hh:mm)
%F Same as %Y-%m-%d %t A horizontal tab
%g Two digit year corresponding %U Week number of year with
to %v week number Sunday as first day (00……..53)
%G Four digit year corresponding %u Day of week (1……7)
to %v week number
%W Week number of year with Monday %V Week number of year with
as first day of week(00,…53) Monday as first day.
%H Hour (00,……23) %T Time 24 hour(hh:mm:ss)
%I Hour (01,…12) %w Day of week (0…..6) 0 is sunday
%j Day of year(001,….366) %h Abbreviated month name (Jan,..)
%k Hour (0,…23) %x Local date (mm/dd/yy)
%X Local time(%H%M%S) %y Last two digit of year
%Y Year (2002)
cal → Display a calendar

$cal /*Display calendar for current month of current year*/
Options: →
-l → Display single month
-3 → Display Prev/Current/Next month of current year
-s → Display Sunday as first day
-m → Display Monday as first day
-j → Display Julian date
-y → Display calendar for current year
Clear Command → Clear the terminal screen. It looks in the environment for the terminal
type and then in the terminfo database to figure out to clear the screen.
Terminfo → /usr/share/terminfo/*/*
Terminfo is a database describing the terminal, used by the screen oriented programs. It
describe terminals by giving a set of capabilities which they have, by specifying how to perform
screen operations.
tput → tput initialize a terminal or a query terminfo database. The tput utility use the
terminfo database to make the values of terminal dependent-capabilities and information avail-
able to shell.
$ tput 10 20 /*Send cursor at 10th row and 20th column */
$ tput clear /*Echo the clear screen sequence for the current terminal*/
$ tput cols /*Print number of column for the current terminal */
$ tput –T 450 cols /*Print number of column for 450 terminal */
$ tput smso /*Bold Character */
$ tput rmso /*Off bold character */
$tput logname /*Print logname from terminfo */
Tput process several capabilities. For example
$ tput –S <<!
>clear
>cup 10 20
>smso
>!
more → To see page wise output on screen
$ more –n /*Where n is a integer number and it’s the screen size*/
–d → /*More will prompt the user with message (Press space to continue, q to quit)*/
+num → Start at line number (num)
–p → Clear hole screen and display text
wc → Print the number of bytes, word and line in a file.
Wc [options] [filename]
U NIX C OMMAND 109
Options →
–c → Print the byte count, –m → Print the character count
–l → Print new line count –L → Print the length of longest line
–w → Print word count
banner → Print large banner on printer (Not use in Linux)
pwd → Print name of current working directory
who → Show who is logged on
$who [OPTIONS] [FILE | ARG1 ARG2 ]
Options →
–H → Print line of column headings
–i,–u → Add user idle time as HOUR: MINUTE :… or old
–m → Only hostname and user associated with stdin
–q → Count all login names and number of users log on.
finger → It will display following type of information about all users who is currently log on.
Login-name tty idle login-time office office-phone
echo → Display a line of text
Options →
–n → Do not output the trailing new line
–E → Disable interpretation of those sequence in string’s.
–e → Enable those sequence of the backslash escaped character listed below:
\NNN → The character whose ASCII code is NNN (Octal)
\\ → Backlash, \v → Vertical tab, \r → carriage return \a → Alert
\b → Backspace, \n → New line, \t → Horizontal tab
cp → Copy source to destination.
cp [OPTIONS]source-pathname destination-pathname
Options →
–i → Interactive copy, –l → Link instead of copy, –v → Verbose
–R → Copy directory recursively, –H → Follow command line symbolic link
–d → Never follow symbolic link, –r → Copy recursively non directory as files
–u → Update copy only when source file is newer then destination file or destination file
missing.
mv → Move (Rename) fil. Syntax is same as in cp command
Options →
–f → Never prompt before overwriting, –i → Interactive
file → Knowing file type. Syntax:
file [OPTIONS] [Name-of-file]
$ file * /*Display all file type in current directory*/
O p tion s: –b  D o not p rep end file nam e to ou tp u t lines,

–z  Try to look com p ressed files
–v  p rint version of p rogram and exit
b c  bc is a langu age that su p p orts arbitrary p recision w ith interactive execu tion of state-
m ents.bc starts by p rocessing cod e from all the file listed on the com m and line in the ord er listed .
A fter all files have been p rocessed , bc read s from stand ard inp u t.
S yn tax: bc [O P T IO N ] files –h  P rint u sage and exit, –i  Force interactive m od e, –l 
D efine stand ard m ath library, –w  give w arning for extensions to P O SIX bc, –s  P rocess
exactly the P O SIX bc langu age, –q (qu iet)  D o not p rint the norm al be w elcom e, –v  p rint
version nu m ber and cop yright and qu iet.
V ariab le 
ibase  Set inp u t base d efau lt is 10,
obase  Set ou tp u t base d efau lt is 10,
scale  N u m ber after p oint,
last  (an extension) is a variable that has the valu e of last p rinted nu m ber.
/ *bc com m ents */ # Single line com m ents
A sim p le variable is ju st a “nam e”. A n array variable is sp ecified by nam e[exp r].
–exp r  resu lt is negation of exp ression, + + var  V ariable is increm ented by one,– – var,
var+ + , var– – , exp r+ exp r  Su m of exp ression (*,/ ,^ ,-,% ), var = exp r,
R elation exp ression  < , > , , , = , = = , != , !.
B oolean exp ression  & & , | | .
P reced en ce 
| |  O p erator left associates & &  O p erator left associates .
R elation op erator  L eft associates, A ssignm ent op erator  R ight associates,
+ ,–  O p erator left associates, *,/ ,%  O p erator left associates,
^  O p erator right associates, U nary  O p erator non associates,
+ + ,—  O p erator non associates,
Standard function 
length(exp ression)  R etu rn length,
read ()  read a nu m ber from stand ard inp u t,
scale(exp ression)  T he valu e of this fu nction is the nu m ber of d igits after d ecim al p oint in
the exp ression.
sqrt(exp ression)  T he squ are root of exp ression,
p rint (list) P rovid e another m ethod of ou tp u t
p rint “\ n A N O O P C H A T U R V E D I”
{Statem ent list}  It allow s m u ltip le statem ents to be grou p ed together for execu tion.
if (exp ression ) stat1 [else stat2]
w hile(exp ression) statem ent,
U NIX C OMMAND 111
for(exp 1;exp 2;exp 3) {statem ent},break … … .,continu e … … … ..

halt  T his is an execu ted statem ent that cau se the bc p rocessor to qu iet only w hen its
execu ted .
retu rn(exp ression)
Fu n ction  A fu nction is d efined as follow s:
d efine nam e(p aram eter) {new line, au to_list, statem ent_list}
call  nam e(p aram eters)
d efine d (n){retu rn(2*n);}
A rray  A rray are sp ecified in p aram eter d efinition “nam e[]”
tty  K now you r term inal typ e.
$tty / / It p rint / d ev/ tty01,
–s  P rint nothing only retu rn on exit statu s.
u n am e  P rint System inform ation

$u nam e / * P rint nam e of kernel*/
–a  P rint all inform ation,
–s  P rint kernel nam e,
–v  P rint kernel version,
–n  P rint netw ork nod e hostnam e,
–r  P rint kernel release
lock  L ock you r term inal (N ot im p lem ented in L inu x 2.0 kernel)
$lock / * R em ain locked for 30 m inu tes*/
p assw ord … … … … . R eenter p assw ord … … … …
$lock –50/ * L ock for 50 m inu tes(L ock not exceed ing 60 m inu tes)*/
scrip t  R ecord you r login session in a file “typ escrip t’
To exit from this session execu te the follow ing com m and
$exit / *Scrip t is d one file is typ escrip t*/
$scrip t –a / *A p p end activities to existing file typ escrip t*/
$scrip t anoop / *A ctivities to file anoop */
sp ell an d isp ell  C heck you r sp elling
$sp ell < filenam e> / *W hat is w rong */
$isp ell < filenam e> / *W here is w rong correct it*/
factor  Factors a nu m ber(P rint p rim e factor of each nu m ber)
$factor 30 / *2 3 5*/
P attern S earch in g(in vi ed itor) 
/ u nix / *u se / for search u nix backw ard */
?u nix / *u se ? for search u nix in forw ard */
sp lit: S p littin g a file in to m u ltip le files  B y d efau lt sp lit 1000 lines.
$split –5 f1 /*Split each file into 5 lines, it creates a group of files xaa xab .. then xba ..*/
cmp: Comparing two files →
$cmp f1 f2/*f1, f2 differ byte 15 line 2.*/
–l →(list) Gives detail list of byte number and differing byte in octal for each character that
differ in both files.
comm → Finding what is common.
–1 → Suppress lines unique to left file,
–2 → Suppress lines unique to right file
–3 → Suppress lines that appear in both files.
diff → Find difference between two files.
–a → Treat all files as text and compare them line by line even if they do not seen to be text,
–B → Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines,
–b → Ignore changes in amount of white space.
$diff f1 f2
0a1 /*Append after line 0 of first, */ >abc // File this line
2c3,4 /*Change line two in first file */ <cde //Replace this line with
>cde
>dfg // These two lines
4d5 //Delete line 4 of first file, <ceo // Containing this line
Pattern Matching →
* → Zero or more character ? → A single character
When wild –card lose there meaning
‘*’ , ‘?’ → Inside the class [*a*], ‘!’ and – → Outside the class ![x-z]x-[y-z]
Redirection →
1. Standard input: The command consider its own input as a stream. This stream can
come from
(i) The keyword. This is the default source,
(ii) A file (Using feature called redirection)
(iii) Another program (Using pipeline concept).
2. Standard output: It also has three similar destination.
(i) It can directed to the terminal,
(ii) It can directed to a file.
(iii) It can serve as input to other program.
3. Standard Error: It includes all error message written to the terminal. This output may
be generated either by the command or by the shell, but in either case the default case
is terminal like standard output it can also assigned to a file. 2 is used for standard
error if a file ‘aa’ does not exist then
U NIX C OMMAND 113
$ cat aa >f1 //Error $cat 2>f1 //Send error to file f1

$ cat aa 2>/dev/null //Store result in a file with size NULL.
$ cat aa 2>/dev/tty // Send error message to a particular terminal type.
< and 0< is used for standard input, > and 1> is used for standard output
2> is used for standard error.
Pipes → ’|’ 0< and 1> can be manipulated by shell. If that be so can’t the shell connect these
stream together, so that one command takes input from other. The pipes takes input form its left
hand side command and gives output to its right hand side command.
Tees → ‘tee’ uses standard input and standard output which means that it can be placed
anywhere in a pipeline. The additional feature it posses is that it breaks up the input into two
components is saved in a file and the other is the connected to the standard output.
The Environment Variable →
1. System Variable →
(i) The set display a complete list of these variable.
(ii) PATH → PATH is variable that instruct the shell about the route it should follow to
locate any executable commands.
(iii) HOME → When you login UNIX place you in a directory called home or login
directory.
(iv) IFS → Ifs contains a string of characters that are used as word separators in the
command line.
(v) MAIL → MAIL determine where all incoming mail addressed to this user to be stored.
(vi) PS1 & PS2 → The shell has two prompt in PS1 and PS2. The primary prompt string
in PS1 as you see ($) and in PS2 (>) how a milt line command makes the shell respond
with a >.
If $PS1=”ANOOP”, // So now prompt ANOOP in place of $sign.
(vii) SHELL → SHELL determine the type of shell that a user sees on logging in.
(viii) TERM → Indicate terminal type being used.
(ix) LOGNAME → Show your log name.
(x) .profile → The script executed during login time.
(xi) sty → Setting terminal characteristics. (–a → Display all current setting),
$sty –echo //Off $sty echo //On
(xii) intr → Changing the interrupt key, $ stty \^c
(xiii) eof → Changing End-of-file key $ stty eof \â
Aliases → Aliases are listed when alias is used without argument.
$ alias l=’ls –l’ and $unalias
Vi Editor → vi editor is an text editor. Modes of vi editor:
Command mode
i,I,a,A,o,O,r,R,s,S <Enter>
<Esc> :
Input mode Ex mode
(i) Input mode → Where any key depressed is entered as text. Input mode to command
mode press <ESC> key. The default mode is command mode.
i → Insert text to left of cursor, I → Insert text to beginning of line.
a → Append text right of cursor, A → Append text at end of line.
o → Open line below, O → Open line above,
S → Replace entire line, r ‘ch’ → Replace single character under cursor,
R → Replace text from cursor to right.
s → Replace single character under cursor with any number of character
(ii) Command mode → Where keys are used as commands to act on text. Command to ex
mode press (:). The meaning of different keys work in command mode:
x → Delete a single character, dd → Delete a single line,
h → Moves cursor left(←), l → Right(→),
k → Up(↑), j → Down(↓),
b → Moves back to beginning of word,
e → Forward to end of word, w → Forward to beginning of word,
G → Moves cursor to a particular line number,
J → joining lines, . → Repeat last command.
(iii) Ex mode → Where ex mode command can be entered in the last line of screen to act
on text. In this mode the operation is:
W Saves file and remain in x Save file and quit editing mode
editing mode
Wn2w.p Like save as in Microsoft .w Write current line to file f1
Windows f1
q! Quits editing mode but q Quits editing mode where no
after abandoning changes made to file
n1,n2wf1 Writes file n1 to n2 to file f1 $w f1 Write last line to file f1
sh Escape to the UNIX shell wq Save files and quit editing mode
U NIX C OMMAND 115
: set show mode → Show the particular mode in which you are working.
Search and replaces → :1,$s /anoop/ANOOP/g // All lines g(global search)
1→ For first, $→ For last
copying and moving text →
yw → Yank a word, y$ → Yank to end of line, y) → Yank to end of sentence,
y} → Yank to end of paragraph, y]] → Yank to end of section,
yy or Y → Yank to current line Y} → Yank line to the end of paragraphs.
Paste → p→ Puts the yank text to right of cursor,
P→ Puts the yank text to left of cursor,
Simple Filters → Some commands each of which accept some data as input performs some
manipulation on it, and produce some output. Since they perform some filtering action on it, and
produce some output. Since they performs some filtering action on the data they are appropriately
called filter.
pr → Paginating output : → The pr command prepare a file for printing by adding suitable
headers, footers and formatted text.
$ pr <filename>
july 31 10:30 2007 <filename> page1
Its often used as a preprocessor before printing with the lp command.
$pr f1 | lp //lpr in Linux
request id 112
By default page size with pr is 66 lines which can be changed with –1 option.
$ pr –1 50 f1 //Page set to 50 lines, $pr +20 f1 //Start printing from page 20.
–k(integer) → Output in more than one column,
–d → Double space the output,
–D → Use format for header date,
–n → Number lines (Counting)
–h → Use a centered header instead of filename in page header,
–h “”→ Print a blank line.
–N number → Start counting with numberat 1st line of 1st page printed,
–o Margin → Offset each line with margin(zero) spaces,
–t → Omit page header and trailer,
–r → Omit warning when a file can not be opened.
–w → Set page width to page_width(72) character for multiple text column o/p page only.
head → Display the beginning of a file. Syntax:
$ head [OPTION] <filename>
$ head f1 //Print first 10 lines of file f1.
–c SIZE → Print first SIZE bytes, –n → Print 1st n lines instead of 10,
–v → Always print header giving filename, –q → Never print header giving filename.
tail → Display end of file(By default 10 lines from end). Syntax:

$tail [OPTION] <filename>
–cN → O/P last N bytes, –n → O/P last n lines, –v → O/P header,
–q → Never O/P header, +n → O/P from n line to end of file,
–f → O/P appended data as files grows ($ prompt does not return).
cut → Slitting a file vertically.
Syntax: $cut [OPTION] <filename>
$cut –c (Represent column) –4,5,7,15- f1 //Cut column 1–4, 5, 7 and 15 to end of file.
$cut-d \| (or”|”(delimiter)) –f (field) 1,3- f1
–b → O/P only these bytes, –c O/P only these character, N– → From Nth byte,\
–n → with –b : Do not split multi byte character, –N → From 1 to Nth,
–s → Do not print line not containing delimiter, N–M → From N to M.
paste → Pasting files(Merge lines of files). Syntax : $paste [OPTION]<filename>.
–d(delimiter) → Reuse character, –s(Serial) → Paste one file at at6ime,
– → Reverse order
$paste –d \| f1 f2 //Paste delimiter between f1 and f2
sort → Ordering of file
–b → Ignore leading blank,–f(ignore case) → Fold lower case to upper case character,
–d(dictionary order) → Consider only blanks and alphanumeric character.
–r → Reverse the result of comparison, –c → Check whether i/p is sorted, do not sort,
–t → Field separator, write result to file instead of standard o/p,
–m → Merge already sorted files do not sort, +2 → Sort on 3rd field,
–3 → Stoppage of sorting after 3rd field (+4.5 –4.8 → Sorting 6th column of 5th field and
terminate after 8th column of 5th field),–z → End lines with 0 bytes, not new line,
–u(unique) with –c → Check for strict ordering, Otherwise o/p only the 1st of an equal run.
Regular Expression and Grep Family

grep → Searching a pattern in a file grep [OPTIONS] pattern file
$ grep Anoop f1$grep “ANOOP CHATURVEDI” f1
$ grep ANOOP CHATURVEDI //Error
–v Count non-matching lines(Invert) –A N Print N lines of trailing context after

matching lines(---)
–n Display line number –R, –r Read all files under each directory
recursively.
–I Ignore case –C N Print N lines of o/p context
–f Obtain pattern from file one –x Select only those lies containing
per line match whole lines
U NIX C OMMAND 117
–H Print file name for each match –B N Print N lines of leading context before
matching lines(---)
–l Display file name only –q Quiet: Do not write anything to

standard output.
–e Match more than one pattern only –s No message(File not exist)
–L Files without match –o Show only part of a matching line that

match pattern
A R.E. may be followed by one of several repletion operators

? The preceding item is optional and match at most once.
The preceding item is optional and match 0 or more times.
[pqr], [c1-c2],[^pqr]
^pat → Match pattern pat at beginning of line, And $ pat → At end of line.
$grep –e “ANOOP” –e “AMIT” –e “KUMAR” f1
$grep “[aA]gg*[ar][ar]wal” f1
Select those lines where salary lies between 7000 and 7999 $grep “7…$” f1
egrep → Extending grep(More than one pattern for search)
ch+ → Matches one or more occurrence of ch
ch? → Matches zero or more occurrence of ch
EXP1|EXP2 Matches expression EXP1 or EXP2
(x1|x2)x3 → Match x1x3 or x2x3
fgrep → Multiple string searching (Do not accept regular expression)
$ fgrep –f f1 f2
12.2 SHELL PROGRAMMING

The shell has a whole set of internal commands that can be stringed together as a language,
with its own variables, conditionals and loops. External command can also be used as a control
command for any of the shell constructs. Shell program run in interpretive mode i.e., one statement
at a time.
Shell Script: When a group of commands has to be executed regularly they are stored in a
file. All such files are called script, or shell program. Or shell procedures.
Execution of shell script: Type the shell script on text (vi) editor. Then we can directly execute
the shell script from line editor by the command “sh a1.sh” where a1.sh is the name of your shell
script or direct type a1.sh in the ed (or line) editor but first change the mode of your shell script
to execution mode.
1. Write a shell script to display the prev/current/next year calendar.
$ cat a1.sh
echo “The Calendar is”; cal-3
2. Write a shell script for search a pattern Anoop in afile f1

$ cat a3.sh
echo –e”\n Enter The pattern”; read pname
echo –e “\n Enter The filename”; read flname
grep “$pname” $flname
echo –e “\n The selected pattern is given above”
Parameter used by shell script in command line:
Parameter Significance Parameter Significance
$1, $2 etc Positional Parameter $* Complete set of Positional parameter as

a single string.
$# No. of arguments $0 Name of executed command
$? Exit status of last $! PID of last background job

command
$@ - Same as $* except when enclosed in “” double quotes.

The logical operator- && (and )  (or)
Exit – Script termination. Used with argument 0 for true and other for false
Exit status of a command - $ grep “ANOOP” a1.txt >/dev/null; echo $?
If 0 – Pattern ANOOP found in a1.txt
If 1 – Pattern ANOOP does not exist
If 2 – File does not exist or permission denied
Variable in UNIX
(i) UNIX defined or system variable – These are standard variable which are always
accessible. EX-PSI, PS2, TERM………
(ii) User defined variable – These are defined by us and used most extensively in shell
programming.
IF Statement
If (condition); then; statement; else; statement if.
We can also use if…. elif
Numeric comparison with test:
–eq Equal to –ne Not Equal –gt Greater than
–ge Greater or equal –lt Less than –le Less or equal
3. Write a shell script for search a pattern in file by using command line argument $cat
a1.sh
If [$# –ne 3 ]; then ; echo –e “\n Not three argument ”; exit2
elif grep “$1” “$2”>$3 2>/dev/null; then ; echo “Pattern found”;
Else ; echo “Pattern not found ” ; rm $3;fi
U NIX C OMMAND 119
Test Exit Status Test Exit Status
–n stg True if stg is not null –z stg or !–n
S1= s2 True if string s1=s2 Stg True If stg not null
S1!=s1 True if string s1 not equal s2 –a (AND) –o (Same as OR)
Test with File:
–e True if file exist –f True if file exist and regular
–r Readable –w Write able
–x Executable –d Directory
–s Size>0 –b Block
–c Character –g Exist and set group-ID
–h Symbolic link –1 stg Evaluate the length of string stg
–p And is named pipe –O And is owned by effective
–k And Sticky bit is set –L Symbolic link (Same as –h)
Case: Evaluate one of several scripts, depending on a given value.

Case expression in; pat1) statement1; statement2;; pat2)-----;; esac
EX- case “$choice” in
[yY][eE]* ;;
[nN][oO] exit 1;;
*) echo “Invalid option”;;
esac
While: Execute script repeatedly as long as condition meet.
while test condition; do; statement; done
Until: Compliment of while
For: Looping with a list
For variable in list; do; Execute statement; done
For file in *.c; do cc –o $ file {x} $file; done
$@- This is same as $* but if you use multiple argument in command line so $* read as a
single argument and $@ read as multiple argument.
Expr – Evaluate expression. Expression may be
ARG1 | ARG2 – ARG1 if its neither null or 0 otherwise ARG2.
ARG1 and ARG2 –ARG1 if neither argument is null or 0 otherwise 0
ARG1 < ARG2, ARG1 > ARG2, ARG1 = ARG2, ARG1 ! ARG2, ARG1 + ARG2, - , * , / , %
Substr – substr STRING pos Length - Sub string of STRING, pos counted from 1.
Index – index STG Char - Index in STG Where any CHARS is found or 0.
Length – length STG - Length of STG.
12.3 SLEEP AND WAIT

$sleep 10; echo “10 second have elapsed” # Message will be print after 10 second
$wait – Wait for completion of all background process
# wait 224 – Wait for completion of PID 224
basename: Changing file name extension
mv*.txt*.doc # Last argument must be a directory when moving multiple files when basename
is used with second argument it strips off the string from first argument.
$basename a1.txt txt -a1. # txt stripped off
for file in*.txt; do
1= basename $file txt ; mv $file ${1}doc; done
chown: Change owner of a file, $chown user file – The owner for file has been changed
chgrp: Change group of a file
Listing by modification and access time:
ls – lt # The time of last modification 1s – lut # The time of last access
touch – changing time status and also create a empty file. (When used without option it
change both time) -m → Modification -a → Access Time
# touch 03171430 file (Change time) $ touch file → Create a empty file
Major and minor number in device:
#1s – 1 /dev
brwxrwxrwx 1 root root 2, 0 jul 1 23:14 fd0
The 5th column does not show the file size in bytes but rather pair of two numbers separated
by a comma. The numbers are called major and minor number. The minor number indicates the
special characteristics of device.
Directory
(i) Read permission: For a directory means that the list of file names stored in directory
is accessible. If a directory has read permission you can use is to list out its contents.
(ii) Write permission: The presence of write permission for a directory implies that you
are permitted to create or remove files in it.
(iii) Execute permission: Execution privilege of a directory means that a user can “Pass
through ” the directory in searching for sub_directory. For Ex- Cat/usr/anoop/
chaturvedi/d1/a1.sh #You need to have execute permission for each of directories
involved in the complete path name.
U NIX C OMMAND 121
Example
1. Write a shell script to print all the prime number from X1 to X2.
cat >prime.sh
echo “Enter lower Limit”
read x1
echo “Enter Higher Limit”
read x2
while [ $x1 -le $x2 ]
do
i=2
while [ $i -le $x1 ]
do
if [ ‘expr $x1 % $i' -eq 0 ]
then
break
else
i=‘expr $i + 1'
fi
done
if [ $i -eq $x1 ]
then
echo $x1
fi
2. Write a shell script which receives any year through keyboard and determine whether the year
is leap or not. If no argument supply the current year should be assumed.
cat >leap.sh
year=0
echo "Enter Year:"
read year
if [ year -eq 0 ]
then
da=‘date "+%Y"'
year=$da
fi
if [ ‘expr $year%400' "eq 0 ] -o [ ‘expr $year%4' -eq 0 -a
‘expr $year%100' -ne 0 ]
then
echo "The Year $year is Leap Year"
else
echo "The Year $year is Not Leap Year"
fi
3. Write a shell script which receives two filename as arguments. It should check whether the two
files contents are same or not. If they are same then second file should be deleted.
cat >checkfile.sh
echo "Enter First File Name:"
read f1
echo "Enter Second File Name:"
read f2
if cmp $f1 $f2
then
echo "The Files are Same"
rm $f2
else
echo "The Files Content are not Same"
fi
4. Write a shell script to print all the Armstrong number from X1 to X2.
cat >arm.sh
echo "Enter Lower Limit:"
read x1
echo "Enter Higher Limit:"
read x2
old=$x1
while [ $x1 -le $x2 ]
do
sum=0
while [ $x1 -gt 0 ]
do
r=‘expr $x1 % 10'
sum=‘expr $sum + $r \* $r \* $r'
x1=‘expr $x1 / 10'
done
if [ $old -eq $sum ]
U NIX C OMMAND 123
then
echo $sum
fi
old=‘expr $old + 1'
5. Write a shell script to print sum of digit of a number. Number entered through
keyboard.
cat >sumofdigit.sh
echo "Enter Number:"
read n
no=$n
sum=0
while [ $n -gt 0 ]
do
r=‘expr $n % 10'
sum=‘expr $sum + $r'
n=‘expr $n / 10'
done
echo "Sum of Digit $no is: $sum"
6. Write a shell script to print all number from 1 to 10 in same row.
cat >printno.sh
i=1
while [ $i -le 10 ]
do
echo -n "$i"
i=‘expr $i + 1'
done
7. Write a shell script calculate the factorial of a number.
cat >fact.sh
echo "Enter Number:"
read n
no=$n
f=1
while [ $n -ge 1 ]
do
f=‘expr $n \* $f'
n=‘expr $n - 1'
done
echo "The Factorial of $no is:” $f
8. Ramesh basic salary is input through the keyboard. His dearness allowance is 40% of basic
salary, and house rent allowance is 20% of basic salary. Write a shell script to calculate his
gross salary.
cat >grosspay.sh
echo "Calculation of Gross Salary of Ramesh"
echo "Salary of Ramesh is:"
read bs
d=‘expr $bs \* 40'
h=‘expr $bs \* 20'
da=‘expr $d / 100'
hra=‘expr $h / 100'
gs=‘expr $bs + $da + $hra'
echo "Gross Salary of Ramesh Is:" $gs
9. Write a shell script which will receive either the filename with its full path during execution.
This script should obtain information about this file as given by is – l and display it in proper
format.
cat >fileinfo.sh
echo "Enter File Name:"
read file
if test -e $file
then
echo "The Information of File $file is:"
ls -l $file
else
echo "File $file Is Not Exist"
fi
10. Write a shell script to print all the even and odd number from 1 to 100.
cat >evenodd.sh
i=1
j=1
echo "Even Number"
while [ $i -le 100 ]
do
if [ ‘expr $i % 2' -eq 0 ]
then
echo $i
U NIX C OMMAND 125
i=‘expr $i + 1'
else
i=‘expr $i + 1'
fi
done
echo "Odd Number"
while [ $j -le 100 ]
do
if [ ‘expr $j % 2' -eq 0 ]
then
j=‘expr $j + 1'
else
echo $j
j=‘expr $j + 1'
fi
done
11. Write a shell script which gets executed the moment the user logs in. It should display the
message “Good Morning” / “Good Afternoon” / “Good Evening” depending upon the time at
which the user logs in.
cat >loginfo.sh
tim=‘date "+%H"'
if [ $tim -lt 12 ]
then
echo "Good Morning"
elif [ $tim -lt 17 ]
then
echo "Good Afternoon"
else
echo "Good Evening"
fi
12. Write a menu driven program which has following option:
(i) Contents of / etc/ passwd
(ii) List of users who have currently logged in
(iii) Present working directory
(iv) Exit
Make use of case statement. The menu should be placed approximately in the center of the screen
and should be displayed in bold.
cat >menu.sh
echo "\t\t\t\t Menu\n\n
\t 1)\t Contents of /etc/passwd\n
\t 2)\t List of Users Who have Currently Logged in\n
\t 3)\t Present Working Directory\n
\t 4)\t Exit\n\n\t\t Enter Your Option: \c"
read ch
case "$ch" in
1) ls /etc /passwd ;;
2) who ;;
3) pwd ;;
4) exit ;;
*) echo "Invalid Option"
esac
13. Write a shell script to count the number of lines and words supplied at standard input.
cat >count.sh
echo "Enter a File Name:"
read fname
if test -e $fname
then
echo "File Name IS: "$fname
nol=‘cat $fname | wc -l'
now=‘cat $fname | wc -w'
echo "$fname file have $nol number of Lines"
echo "$fname file have $now number of Words"
else
echo "The File $fname is Not Exist"
fi
14. Write a shell script which displays a list of all files in the current directory to which you have
read, write and execute permissions.
cat >filedisplay.sh
flag=1
for file in *.*
do
if test -r $file
then
U NIX C OMMAND 127
if test -w $file
then
if test -x $file
then
echo $file
fi
fi
fi
done
15. Write a shell script which will receive any number of filename as arguments. The shell script
should check whether every argument supplied is a file or directory. If it’s a directory it should
be appropriately reported. If it’s a filename then name of the file as well as the number of lines
present in it should be reported.
cat >filecheck.sh
for file in *
do
if test -d $file
then
echo "$file is a Directory"
elif test -f $file
then
echo "$file"
nol='cat $file | wc -l'
echo "The Number of Line is:$nol"
fi
done
Chapter 13
AWK AND P ERL P ROGRAMMING
13.1 INTRODUCTION TO A
INTRODUCTION WK
AWK
awk is a simple and elegant pattern scanning and processing language. I would call it the
first and last simple scripting language.
awk is a little programming language, with a syntax close to C in many aspects. It is an
interpreted language and the awk interpreter processes the instructions.
About the syntax of the awk command interpreter itself:
awk is also the most portable scripting language in existence. It was created in late 70th of
the last century almost simultaneously with Borne shell. The name was composed from the initial
letters of three original authors Alfred V. Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, and Peter J. Weinberger.
It is commonly used as a command-line filter in pipes to reformat the output of other commands.
It’s the precursor and the main inspiration of Perl. Although originated in Unix it is available and
widely used in Windows environment too.
awk takes two inputs: data file and command file. The command file can be absent and
necessary commands can be passed as augments. As Ronald P. Loui aptly noted awk is very
underappreciated language.
Most people are surprised when I tell them what language we use in our undergraduate AI
programming class. That’s understandable. We use GAWK. GAWK, Gnu’s version of Aho,
Weinberger, and Kernighan’s old pattern scanning language isn’t even viewed as a programming
language by most people. Like PERL and TCL, most prefer to view it as a “scripting language”.
There are three variations of awk:
AWK—the original from AT&T
NAWK—A newer, improved version from AT&T
GAWK—The Free Software foundation’s version.
The main advantage of awk is that unlike Perl and other “scripting monsters” that it is very
slim without feature creep so characteristic of Perl and thus it can be very efficiently used with
pipes. Also it has rather simple, clean syntax and like much heavier TCL can be used with C for
“dual-language” implementations.
128
AWK AND PE R L PR O G R A M M I N G 129
In awk you can became productive in several hours. For instance, to print only the second
and sixth fields of the date command—the month and year—with a space separating them, use:
date | awk ‘{print $2 " " $6}’
Syntactically, a rule consists of a pattern followed by an action. The action is enclosed in
curly braces to separate it from the pattern. Newlines usually separate rules. Therefore, an awk
program looks like this:
pattern {action }
When you run awk, you specify an awk program that tells awk what to do. The program
consists of a series of rules. (It may also contain function definitions, an advanced feature that we
will ignore for now. Each rule specifies one pattern to search for and one action to perform upon
finding the pattern.
13.2 HOW TO RUN AWK PROGRAMS?

There are several ways to run an awk program. If the program is short, it is easiest to include
it in the command that runs awk, like this:
awk ‘program’ input-file1 input-file 2 ...
When the program is long, it is usually more convenient to put it in a file and run it with
a command like this:
awk -f program-file input-file1 input-file 2 ...
13.3 COMMENTS IN AWK PROGRAMS

A comment is some text that is included in a program for the sake of human readers; it is not
really an executable part of the program. Comments can explain what the program does and how
it works. Nearly all programming languages have provisions for comments, as programs are
typically hard to understand without them.
In the awk language, a comment starts with the sharp sign character (‘#’) and continues to
the end of the line. The ‘#’ does not have to be the first character on the line. The awk language
ignores the rest of a line following a sharp sign.
13.4 THE PRINTF STATEMENT

awk’s printf statement is essentially the same as that in C except that the * format specifier
is not supported. The printf statement has the general form
printf format, expr[1], expr[2], . . ., expr[n]
Where format is a string that contains both information to be printed and specifications on
what conversions are to be performed on the expressions in the argument list, as in “awk printf
conversion characters”. Each specification begins with a %, ends with a letter that determines the
conversion, and may include:
Left-justify expression in its field.
13.4.1 width
Pad field to this width as needed; fields that begin with a leading 0 are padded with zeros.
13.4.2 .prec
Specify maximum string width or digits to right of decimal point.
“awk printf conversion characters” lists the printf conversion characters.
13.4.3 awk Printf Conversion Characters
Character Prints expression as
c single character
d decimal number
e [-]d.ddddddE[+ –]dd
f [-]ddd.dddddd
g e or f conversion, whichever is shorter, with
nonsignificant zeros suppressed
o unsigned octal number
s string
x unsigned hexadecimal number
% print a %; no argument is converted
13.5 CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS

awk also offers very nice C-like if statements. If you’d like, you could rewrite the previous
script using an if statement:
{
if ( $5 ~ /root/ ) {
print $3
}
}
Using if statements, we can also transform this code:

{
if ( $0 !~ /matchme/ ) {
print $1 $3 $4
}
}
AWK AND PERL P ROGRAMMING 131
Both scripts will output only those lines that don’t contain a matchme character sequence.
Again, you can choose the method that works best for your code. They both do the same thing.
awk also allows the use of boolean operators “||” (for “logical or”) and “&&”(for “logical
and”) to allow the creation of more complex boolean expressions:
( $1 == “foo” ) && ( $2 == “bar” ) { print }
13.6 LOOPS IN AWK

For loop and while loop are used for looping purpose in awk.
Syntax of for loop
Syntax:
for (expr1; condition; expr2)
{
Statement 1
Statement 2
Statement N
}
Statement(s) are executed repeatedly UNTIL the condition is true. BEFORE the first iteration,
expr1 is evaluated. This is usually used to initialize variables for the loop. AFTER each iteration
of the loop, expr2 is evaluated. This is usually used to increment a loop counter.
$ cat > a1.awk
BEGIN{
printf "Press ENTER to continue with for loop example from LSST
v1.05r3\n"
}
{
sum = 0
i = 1
for (i=1; i<=10; i++)
{
sum += i; # sum = sum + i
}
printf "Sum for 1 to 10 numbers = %d \nGoodbuy!\n\n", sum
exit 1
}
Run it as follows:
$ awk -f while01.awk
Press ENTER to continue with for loop example from LSST v1.05r3
Sum for 1 to 10 numbers = 55

Goodbuy
Above for loops prints the sum of all numbers between 1 to 10, it does use very simple for
loop to achieve this. It take number from 1 to 10 using i variable and add it to sum variable as
sum = previous sum + current number (i.e., i).
Consider the one more example of for loop:
$ cat > for_loop
BEGIN {
printf "To test for loop\n"
printf "Press CTRL + C to stop\n"
}
{
for(i=0;i<NF;i++)
{
printf "Welcome %s, %d times.\n" ,ENVIRON["USER"], i
}
}
Run it as (and give input as Welcome to Linux!)
$ awk -f for_loop
To test for loop
Press CTRL + C to Stop
Welcome to Linux!
Welcome Anoop, 0 times.
13.7 STARTUP AND CLEANUP ACTIONS (BEGIN & END )

A BEGIN rule is executed once only, before the first input record is read. Likewise, an END
rule is executed once only, after all the input is read. For example:
$ awk ‘
> BEGIN { print "Analysis of \"foo\"" }
> /foo/ { ++n }
> END { print "\"foo\" appears", n, "times." }' BBS-list
-| Analysis of "foo"
-| "foo" appears 4 times.
This program finds the number of records in the input file BBS-list that contain the string
‘foo’. The BEGIN rule prints a title for the report. There is no need to use the BEGIN rule to
initialize the counter n to zero, since awk does this automatically (see Variables). The second rule
increments the variable n every time a record containing the pattern ‘foo’ is read. The END rule
prints the value of n at the end of the run.
The special patterns BEGIN and END cannot be used in ranges or with Boolean operators
(indeed, they cannot be used with any operators). An awk program may have multiple BEGIN
and/or END rules. They are executed in the order in which they appear: all the BEGIN rules at
startup and all the END rules at termination. BEGIN and END rules may be intermixed with other
rules. This feature was added in the 1987 version of awk and is included in the POSIX standard.
You can use while loop as follows:
Syntax:
while (condition)
{
statement1
statement2
statementN
Continue as long as given condition is TRUE
}
While loop will continue as long as given condition is TRUE. To understand the while loop
lets write one more awk script:
Example:
$ cat > while_loop
{
no = $1
remn = 0
while ( no > 1 )
{
remn = no % 10
no /= 10
printf "%d" ,remn
}
printf "\nNext number please (CTRL+D to stop):";
}
Run it as
$awk -f while_loop
654
456
Next number please(CTRL+D to stop):587
785
Next number please(CTRL+D to stop):

Here user enters the number 654 which is printed in reverse order i.e., 456. Above program
can be explained as follows:
awk support array and for loops. Let say I have IP logs that access to my servers time to time,
and I wanna calculate various IP connecting to my servers, I can write a simple awk script uses
array and for loops to do that.
The IP logs may looks as below:
190607 084849 202.178.23.4 ...
190607 084859 164.78.22.64 ...
190607 084909 202.188.3.2 ...
...
Column 1 is date, column 2 is time and column 3 is IP. Let say my query is at 19 June 2007,
prints me all the IP access to my servers, and how many times they accessing my servers.
The awk scrips will look something as below:
$1=="190607"{IP[$3]++;}
END {
for (a in IP)
print a "access" IP[a] "times.";
}
If column 1 is equal to 190607, make column 3 (which is IP Address) as an item of the array
(IP[]), and increase the value of array IP[] by one. After finish accessing all logs, awk will get into
END state, and printout results using for loops. Make ‘a’ as index of array IP, and printout ‘a’
and its array’s value. It may seems complicated at first, try to understand it by reading few times,
or just try it out. Please take note that, the curly open brace must be place just after the keyword
END.
Make the scripts as access.awk, and run the scripts with awk -f. Assume all logs with
headings iplogs and with extension .txt
13.8 BUILT-IN VARIABLES

Most awk variables are available for you to use for your own purposes; they never change
except when your program assigns values to them, and never affect anything except when your
program examines them. However, a few variables in awk have special built-in meanings. Some
of them awk examines automatically, so that they enable you to that they carry information from
the internal workings of awk to your program. There atell awk how to do certain things. Others
are set automatically by awk, so re following types of built-in variable :
• User-modified: Built-in variables that you change to control awk.
• Auto-set: Built-in variables where awk gives you information.
• ARGC and ARGV: Ways to use ARGC and ARGV.
13.8.1 Built-in Variables that Control awk

This is an alphabetical list of the variables which you can change to control how awk does
certain things.
CONVFMT
This string controls conversion of numbers to strings. It works by being passed, in
effect, as the first argument to the sprintf function. Its default value is "%.6g".
FS
FS is the input field separator. The value is a single-character string or a multi-
character regular expression that matches the separations between fields in an input
record. If the value is the null string ('' "), then each character in the record becomes
a separate field. The default value is '' '', a string consisting of a single space. You can
set the value of FS on the command line using the '–F' option:
awk -F, ‘program’ input-files
OFMT
This string controls conversion of numbers to strings for printing with the print
statement. It works by being passed, in effect, as the first argument to the sprintf
function. Its default value is "%.6g".
OFS
This is the output field separator. It is output between the fields output by a print
statement. Its default value is "", a string consisting of a single space.
ORS
This is the output record separator. It is output at the end of every print statement.
Its default value is "\n".
RS
This is awk's input record separator. Its default value is a string containing a single
newline character, which means that an input record consists of a single line of text.
It can also be the null string, in which case records are separated by runs of blank lines,
or a regexp, in which case records are separated by matches of the regexp in the input
text.
SUBSEP
SUBSEP is the subscript separator. It has the default value of "\034", and is used to
separate the parts of the indices of a multi-dimensional array. Thus, the expression
foo["A", "B"] really accesses foo["A\034B"].
13.8.2 Built-in Variables that Convey Information

This is an alphabetical list of the variables that are set automatically by awk on certain
occasions in order to provide information to your program.
ARGC
ARGV
The command-line arguments available to awk programs are stored in an array called ARGV.
ARGC is the number of command-line arguments present. Unlike most awk arrays, ARGV is
indexed from zero to ARGC-1. For example:
$ awk ‘BEGIN {
> for (i = 0; i < ARGC; i++)
> print ARGV[i]
>}’ inventory-shipped BBS-list
-| awk
-| inventory-shipped
-| BBS-list
In this example, ARGV[0] contains "awk", ARGV[1] contains "inventory-shipped",
and ARGV[2] contains "BBS-list". The value of ARGC is three, one more than the index of the
last element in ARGV, since the elements are numbered from zero.
The following fragment processes ARGV in order to examine, and then remove, command line
options.
BEGIN {
for (i = 1; i < ARGC; i++) {
if (ARGV[i] == “-v”)
verbose = 1
else if (ARGV[i] == “-d”)
debug = 1
else if (ARGV[i] ~ /^-?/) {
e = sprintf(“%s: unrecognized option — %c”,
ARGV[0], substr(ARGV[i], 1, ,1))
print e > “/dev/stderr”
} else
break
delete ARGV[i]
}
}
ENVIRON
An associative array that contains the values of the environment. The array indices are
the environment variable names; the values are the values of the particular environ-
ment variables. For example, ENVIRON["HOME"] might be `/home/arnold’.
FILENAME
This is the name of the file that awk is currently reading. When no data files are listed
on the command line, awk reads from the standard input, and FILENAME is set to "-".
FILENAME is changed each time a new file is read.
FNR
FNR is the current record number in the current file. FNR is incremented each time a
new record is read. It is reinitialized to zero each time a new input file is started.
NF
NF is the number of fields in the current input record. NF is set each time a new record
is read, when a new field is created, or when $0 changes.
NR
This is the number of input records awk has processed since the beginning of the
program’s execution. NR is set each time a new record is read.
RLENGTH
RLENGTH is the length of the substring matched by the match function. RLENGTH is
set by invoking the match function. Its value is the length of the matched string, or
–1 if no match was found.
RSTART
RSTART is the start-index in characters of the substring matched by the match function.
RSTART is set by invoking the match function. Its value is the position of the string
where the matched substring starts, or zero if no match was found.
A side note about NR and FNR. awk simply increments both of these variables each time it
reads a record, instead of setting them to the absolute value of the number of records read. This
means that your program can change these variables, and their new values will be incremented
for each record. For example:
$ echo ‘1
> 2
> 3
> 4' | awk ‘NR == 2 { NR = 17 }
> { print NR }’
-| 1
-| 17
-| 18
-| 19
13.9 INTRODUCTION TO GETLINE

This command is used in several different ways, and should not be used by beginners. It is
covered here because this is the chapter on input. The examples that follow the explanation of
the getline command include material that has not been covered yet. Therefore, come back and
study the getline command after you have reviewed the rest of this book and have a good
knowledge of how awk works.
getline returns one if it finds a record, and zero if the end of the file is encountered. If there
is some error in getting a record, such as a file that cannot be opened, then getline returns
–1.
13.9.1 Using getline with No Arguments

The getline command can be used without arguments to read input from the current input
file. All it does in this case is read the next input record and split it up into fields. This is useful
if you’ve finished processing the current record, but you want to do some special processing right
now on the next record. Here’s an example:
awk ‘{
if ((t = index($0, "/*")) != 0) {
# value will be "" if t is 1
tmp = substr($0, 1, t - 1)
u = index(substr($0, t + 2), "*/")
while (u == 0) {
if (getline <= 0) {
m = "unexpected EOF or error"
m = (m ": " ERRNO)
print m > "/dev/stderr"
exit
}
t = -1
u = index($0, "*/")
}
# substr expression will be "" if */
# occurred at end of line
$0 = tmp substr($0, t + u + 3)
}
print $0
}’
This awk program deletes all C-style comments, ‘/* ... */‘, from the input. By replacing the
‘print $0’ with other statements, you could perform more complicated processing on the
decommented input, like searching for matches of a regular expression. This program has a subtle
problem—it does not work if one comment ends and another begins on the same line.
13.9.2 Using getline Into a Variable

You can use ‘getline var’ to read the next record from awk’s input into the variable var.
No other processing is done.
For example, suppose the next line is a comment, or a special string, and you want to read
it, without triggering any rules. This form of getline allows you to read that line and store it
in a variable so that the main read-a-line-and-check-each-rule loop of awk never sees it.
Here’s the program:

awk ‘{
if ((getline tmp) > 0) {
print tmp
print $0
} else
print $0
}’
The getline command used in this way sets only the variables NR and FNR (and of course,
var). The record is not split into fields, so the values of the fields (including $0) and the value
of NF do not change.
13.9.3 Using getline from a File

Use ‘getline < file’ to read the next record from the file file. Here file is a string-valued
expression that specifies the file name. ‘< file’ is called a redirection since it directs input to come
from a different place.
For example, the following program reads its input record from the file ‘secondary.input’
when it encounters a first field with a value equal to 10 in the current input file.
awk ‘{
if ($1 == 10) {
getline < "secondary.input"
print
} else
print
}’
Since the main input stream is not used, the values of NR and FNR are not changed.
13.9.4 Using getline into a Variable from a File

Use ‘getline var < file’ to read input the file file and put it in the variable var. As above,
file is a string-valued expression that specifies the file from which to read.
In this version of getline, none of the built-in variables are changed, and the record is not
split into fields. The only variable changed is var.
For example, the following program copies all the input files to the output, except for records
that say ‘@include filename’. Such a record is replaced by the contents of the file filename.
awk ‘{
if (NF == 2 && $1 == "@include") {
while ((getline line < $2) > 0)
print line
close($2)
} else
print
}’
Note here how the name of the extra input file is not built into the program; it is taken directly
from the data, from the second field on the ‘@include’ line.
The close function is called to ensure that if two identical ‘@include’ lines appear in
the input, the entire specified file is included twice.
13.9.5 Using getline from a Pipe

You can pipe the output of a command into getline, using ‘command | getline’. In
this case, the string command is run as a shell command and its output is piped into awk to be
used as input. This form of getline reads one record at a time from the pipe.
For example, the following program copies its input to its output, except for lines that begin
with ‘@execute’, which are replaced by the output produced by running the rest of the line as
a shell command:
awk ‘{
if ($1 == "@execute") {
tmp = substr($0, 10)
while ((tmp | getline) > 0)
print
close(tmp)
} else
print
}’
The close function is called to ensure that if two identical ‘@execute’ lines appear in
the input, the command is run for each one.
13.10 BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS

Built-in functions are functions that are always available for your awk program to call. This
chapter defines all the built-in functions in awk.
• Calling Built-in: How to call built-in functions.
• Numeric Functions: Functions that work with numbers, including int, sin and rand.
• String Functions: Functions for string manipulation, such as split, match, and sprintf.
• I/O Functions: Functions for files and shell commands.
• Time Functions: Functions for dealing with time stamps.
13.10.1 Calling Built-in Functions

To call a built-in function, write the name of the function followed by arguments in paren-
theses. For example, ‘atan2(y + z, 1)’ is a call to the function atan2, with two arguments.
Each built-in function accepts a certain number of arguments. In some cases, arguments can
be omitted. The defaults for omitted arguments vary from function to function and are described
under the individual functions. In some awk implementations, extra arguments given to built-in
functions are ignored.
When a function is called, expressions that create the function’s actual parameters are
evaluated completely before the function call is performed. For example, in the code fragment:
i = 4
j = sqrt(i++)
The variable i is set to five before sqrt is called with a value of four for its actual parameter.
The order of evaluation of the expressions used for the function’s parameters is undefined.
Thus, you should not write programs that assume that parameters are evaluated from left to right
or from right to left. For example,
i = 5
j = atan2(i++, i *= 2)
If the order of evaluation is left to right, then i first becomes six, and then 12, and atan2 is
called with the two arguments six and 12. But if the order of evaluation is right to left, i first
becomes 10, and then 11, and atan2 is called with the two arguments 11 and 10.
13.10.2 Numeric Built-in Functions

Here is a full list of built-in functions that work with numbers. Optional parameters are
enclosed in square brackets (“[“ and “]”).
int(x)
This produces the nearest integer to x, located between x and zero, truncated toward
zero. For example, int(3) is three, int(–3.9) is three, int(–3.9) is –3, and int(–3) is –3 as
well.
sqrt(x)
This gives you the positive square root of x. It reports an error if x is negative.
exp(x)
This gives you the exponential of x (e ^ x), or reports an error if x is out of range.
log(x)
This gives you the natural logarithm of x, if x is positive; otherwise.
sin(x)
This gives you the sine of x, with x in radians.
cos(x)
This gives you the cosine of x, with x in radians.
atan2(y, x)
This gives you the arctangent of y/x in radians.
rand()
This gives you a random number. The values of rand are uniformly-distributed between
zero and one. The value is never zero and never one. Often you want random integers
instead. Here is a user-defined function you can use to obtain a random non-negative
integer less than n:
function randint(n) {
return int(n * rand())
}
The multiplication produces a random real number greater than zero and less than n.
We then make it an integer (using int) between zero and n – 1, inclusive.
srand([x])
The function srand sets the starting point, or seed, for generating random numbers to
the value x. If you omit the argument x, as in srand(), then the current date and time
of day are used for a seed. This is the way to get random numbers that are truly
unpredictable. The return value of srand is the previous seed.
13.10.3 Built-in Functions for String Manipulation

The functions in this section look at or change the text of one or more strings. Optional
parameters are enclosed in square brackets (“[“ and “]”).
index(in, find)
This searches the string in for the first occurrence of the string find, and returns the
position in characters where that occurrence begins in the string in. For example:
$ awk ‘BEGIN { print index("peanut", "an") }’
-| 3
If find is not found, index returns zero.
length([string])
This gives you the number of characters in string. If string is a number, the length of
the digit string representing that number is returned. For example, length(“abcde”) is
five. By contrast, length(15 * 35) works out to three. How? Well, 15 * 35 = 525, and 525
is then converted to the string “525”, which has three characters. If no argument is
supplied, length returns the length of $0.
match(string, regexp)
The match function searches the string, string, for the longest, leftmost substring matched
by the regular expression, regexp. It returns the character position, or index, of where
that substring begins (one, if it starts at the beginning of string). If no match is found,
it returns zero. For example:
awk ‘{
if ($1 == "FIND")
regex = $2
else {
where = match($0, regex)

if (where != 0)
print "Match of", regex, "found at", \
where, "in", $0
}
}’
This program looks for lines that match the regular expression stored in the variable
regex.
split(string, array [, fieldsep])
This divides string into pieces separated by fieldsep, and stores the pieces in array. The
first piece is stored in array[1], the second piece in array[2], and so forth. If the fieldsep
is omitted, the value of FS is used. split returns the number of elements created. For
example:
split("cul-de-sac", a, "-")
splits the string ‘cul-de-sac’ into three fields using ‘-’ as the separator. It sets the
contents of the array a as follows:
a[1] = "cul"
a[2] = "de"
a[3] = "sac"
The value returned by this call to split is three.
sprintf(format, expression1,...)
This returns (without printing) the string that printf would have printed out with the
same arguments. For example:
sprintf("pi = %.2f (approx.)", 22/7)
returns the string "pi = 3.14 (approx.)".
sub(regexp, replacement [, target])
The sub function alters the value of target. It searches this value, which is treated as
a string, for the leftmost longest substring matched by the regular expression, regexp,
extending this match as far as possible. For example:
str = "water, water, everywhere"
sub(/at/, "ith", str)
sets str to “wither, water, everywhere”, by replacing the leftmost, longest occurrence of
‘at’ with ‘ith’. The sub function returns the number of substitutions made . For example:
awk ‘{ sub(/candidate/, “& and his wife”); print }’
changes the first occurrence of ‘candidate’ to ‘candidate and his wife’ on each input
line. Here is another example:
awk ‘BEGIN {
str = "daabaaa"
sub(/a*/, "c&c", str)
print str
}’
-| dcaacbaaa,
gsub(regexp, replacement [, target])
This is similar to the sub function, except gsub replaces all of the longest, leftmost, non-
overlapping matching substrings it can find. The ‘g’ in gsub stands for “global,” which
means replace everywhere. For example:
awk ‘{ gsub(/Britain/, “United Kingdom”); print }’
replaces all occurrences of the string ‘Britain’ with ‘United Kingdom’ for all input
records. The gsub function returns the number of substitutions made.
substr(string, start [, length])
This returns a length-character-long substring of string, starting at character number
start. The first character of a string is character number one. For example,
substr(“washington”, 5, 3) returns “ing”. If length is not present, this function returns
the whole suffix of string that begins at character number start. For example,
substr(“washington”, 5) returns “ington”. The whole suffix is also returned if length is
greater than the number of characters remaining in the string,
tolower(string)
This returns a copy of string, with each upper-case character in the string replaced with
its corresponding lower-case character. For example, tolower(“MiXeD cAsE 123”)
returns “mixed case 123”.
toupper(string)
This returns a copy of string, with each lower-case character in the string replaced with
its corresponding upper-case character. For example, toupper(“MiXeD cAsE 123”)
returns “MIXED CASE 123”.
13.10.4 Built-in Functions for Input/Output

The following functions are related to Input/Output (I/O). Optional parameters are enclosed
in square brackets (“[“ and “]”).
close(filename)
Close the file filename, for input or output. The argument may alternatively be a shell
command that was used for redirecting to or from a pipe; then the pipe is closed.
fflush([filename])
Flush any buffered output associated filename, which is either a file opened for writing,
or a shell command for redirecting output to a pipe. Many utility programs will buffer
their output; they save information to be written to a disk file or terminal in memory,
until there is enough for it to be worthwhile to send the data to the ouput device.
system(command)
The system function allows the user to execute operating system commands and then
return to the awk program. The system function executes the command given by the
string command. It returns, as its value, the status returned by the command that was
executed. For example:

END {
system("date | mail -s ‘awk run done’ root")
}
In the above program the system administrator will be sent mail when the awk program
finishes processing input and begins its end-of-input processing.
Controlling Output Buffering with System

The flush function provides explicit control over output buffering for individual files and
pipes. However, its use is not portable to many other awk implementations. An alternative method
to flush output buffers is by calling system with a null string as its argument:
system("") # flush output
13.10.5 User-defined Functions

Complicated awk programs can often be simplified by defining your own functions. User-
defined functions can be called just like built-in ones (see section Function Calls), but it is up to
you to define them—to tell awk what they should do.
• Definition Syntax: How to write definitions and what they mean.
• Function Example: An example function definition and what it does.
• Function Caveats: Things to watch out for.
• Return Statement: Specifying the value a function returns.
Function Definition Syntax

Definitions of functions can appear anywhere between the rules of an awk program. Thus,
the general form of an awk program is extended to include sequences of rules and user-defined
function definitions. There is no need in awk to put the definition of a function before all uses
of the function. This is because awk reads the entire program before starting to execute any of it.
The definition of a function named name looks like this:
function name(parameter-list)
{
body-of-function
}
name is the name of the function to be defined. A valid function name is like a valid variable
name: a sequence of letters, digits and underscores, not starting with a digit.
parameter-list is a list of the function’s arguments and local variable names, separated by
commas. The local variables are initialized to the empty string.
The body-of-function consists of awk statements. It is the most important part of the definition,
because it says what the function should actually do.
During execution of the function body, the arguments and local variable values hide or
shadow any variables of the same names used in the rest of the program. The shadowed variables
are not accessible in the function definition. The function body can contain expressions which
call functions. They can even call this function, either directly or by way of another function.
When this happens, we say the function is recursive.
In many awk implementations, including gawk, the keyword function may be abbreviated
func. To ensure that your awk programs are portable, always use the keyword function when
defining a function.
Function Definition Examples

Here is an example of a user-defined function, called myprint, that takes a number and
prints it in a specific format.
function myprint(num)
{ printf %6.3g\n", num }
To illustrate, here is an awk rule which uses our myprint function:
$3 > 0 { myprint($3) }
This program prints, in our special format, all the third fields that contain a positive number
in our input. Therefore, when given:
1.2 3.4 5.6 7.8
9.10 11.12 –13.14 15.16
17.18 19.20 21.22 23.24
This program, using our function to format the results, prints:
5.6
21.2
This function deletes all the elements in an array.
function delarray(a, i)
{
for (i in a)
delete a[i]
}
When working with arrays, it is often necessary to delete all the elements in an array and
start over with a new list of elements. Instead of having to repeat this loop everywhere in your
program that you need to clear out an array, your program can just call delarray.
Here is an example of a recursive function. It takes a string as an input parameter, and
returns the string in backwards order.
function rev(str, start)
{
if (start == 0)
return ""
return (substr(str, start, 1) rev(str, start - 1))
}
If this function is in a file named ‘rev.awk’, we can test it this way:

$ echo "Don’t Panic!" |
> awk —source ‘{ print rev($0, length($0)) }’ -f rev.awk
-| !cinaP t’noD
Calling User-defined Functions

Calling a function means causing the function to run and do its job. A function call is an
expression, and its value is the value returned by the function.
A function call consists of the function name followed by the arguments in parentheses.
What you write in the call for the arguments are awk expressions; each time the call is executed,
these expressions are evaluated, and the values are the actual arguments. For example, here is a
call to foo with three arguments (the first being a string concatenation):
foo(x y, "lose", 4 * z)
When a function is called, it is given a copy of the values of its arguments. This is known
as call by value. The caller may use a variable as the expression for the argument, but the called
function does not know this.
However, when arrays are the parameters to functions, they are not copied. Instead, the array
itself is made available for direct manipulation by the function. This is usually called call by
reference. Changes made to an array parameter inside the body of a function are visible outside
that function. For example:
function changeit(array, ind, nvalue)
{
array[ind] = nvalue
}
BEGIN {
a[1] = 1; a[2] = 2; a[3] = 3
changeit(a, 2, "two")
printf "a[1] = %s, a[2] = %s, a[3] = %s\n",
a[1], a[2], a[3]
}
This program prints ‘a[1] = 1, a[2] = two, a[3] = 3’, because changeit stores
“two” in the second element of a.
The return Statement

The body of a user-defined function can contain a return statement. This statement returns
control to the rest of the awk program. It can also be used to return a value for use in the rest of
the awk program. It looks like this:
return [expression]
The expression part is optional. If it is omitted, then the returned value is undefined and,
therefore, unpredictable. A return statement with no value expression is assumed at the end of
every function definition. So if control reaches the end of the function body, then the function
returns an unpredictable value. awk will not warn you if you use the return value of such a
function.
Here is an example of a user-defined function that returns a value for the largest number
among the elements of an array:
function maxelt(vec, i, ret)
{
for (i in vec) {
if (ret == “” || vec[i] > ret)
ret = vec[i]
}
return ret
}
You call maxelt with one argument, which is an array name. The local variables i and ret
are not intended to be arguments.
13.11 INTRODUCTION TO PERL

Perl is an interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting infor-
mation from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It’s also a good
language for many system management tasks. The language is intended to be practical (easy to
use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). It combines some of the best
features of C, sed, awk, and sh, so people familiar with those languages should have little difficulty
with it. Expression syntax corresponds quite closely to C expression syntax. Unlike most Unix
utilities, perl does not arbitrarily limit the size of your data—if you’ve got the memory, perl can
slurp in your whole file as a single string. Recursion is of unlimited depth. And the hash tables
used by associative arrays grow as necessary to prevent degraded performance. Perl uses sophis-
ticated pattern matching techniques to scan large amounts of data very quickly. Although opti-
mized for scanning text, perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm files look like
associative arrays (where dbm is available). Setuid perl scripts are safer than C programs through
a dataflow tracing mechanism which prevents many stupid security holes.
13.11.1 Running Perl

A Perl program is just a text file. You edit the text of your Perl program, and the Perl
interpreter reads that text file directly to “run” it. This structure makes your edit-run-debug cycle
nice and fast. On Unix, the Perl interpreter is called “perl” and you run a Perl program by
running the Perl interpreter and telling it which file contains your Perl program ...
> perl myprog.pl
The interpreter makes one pass of the file to analyze it and if there are no syntax or other
obvious errors, the interpreter runs the Perl code. There is no “main” function—the interpreter just
executes the statements in the file starting at the top.
Following the Unix convention, the very first line in a Perl file usually looks like this...
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
This special line is a hint to Unix to use the Perl interpreter to execute the code in this file.
The “-w” switch turns on warnings which is generally a good idea. In unix, use “chmod” to set
the execute bit on a Perl file so it can be run right from the prompt...
> chmod u+x foo.pl ## set the "execute" bit for the file once
>
> foo.pl ## automatically uses the perl interpreter to "run" this
file
The second line in a Perl file is usually a “require” declaration that specifies what version
of Perl the program expects ...
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
require 5.004;
Perl is available for every operating system imaginable, including of course Windows and
MacOS, and it’s part of the default install in Mac OSX.
13.11.2 Syntax and Variables

The simplest Perl variables are “scalar” variables which hold a single string or number.
Scalar variable names begin with a dollar sign ($) such as $sum or $greeting. Scalar and other
variables do not need to be pre-declared—using a variable automatically declares it as a global
variable. Variable names and other identifiers are composed of letters, digits, and underscores (_)
and are case sensitive. Comments begin with a "#" and extend to the end of the line.
$x = 2; ## scalar var $x set to the number 2
$greeting = "hello"; ## scalar var $greeting set to the string "hello"
A variable that has not been given a value has the special value “undef” which can be
detected using the “defined” operator. Undef looks like 0 when used as a number, or the empty
string “” when used as a string, although a well written program probably should not depend
on undef in that way. When Perl is run with “warnings” enabled (the -w flag), using an undef
variable prints a warning.
if(!defined($binky)){
print"the variable ‘binky’ has not been given a value!\n";
}
13.12 STARTING A PERL SCRIPT

Upon startup, perl looks for your script in one of the following places:
1. Specified line by line via -e switches on the command line.
2. Contained in the file specified by the first filename on the command line.
3. Passed in implicitly via standard input. This only works if there are no filename
arguments—to pass arguments to a stdin script you must explicitly specify a-for the
script name.
After locating your script, perl compiles it to an internal form. If the script is syntactically
correct, it is executed.
13.12.1 Strings
Strings constants are enclosed within double quotes (“) or in single quotes (‘). Strings in
double quotes are treated specially—special directives like \n (newline) and \x20 (hex 20) are
expanded. More importantly, a variable, such as $x, inside a double quoted string is evaluated
at run-time and the result is pasted into the string. This evaluation of variables into strings is
called “interpolation” and it’s a great Perl feature. Single quoted (‘) strings suppress all the special
evaluation—they do not evaluate \n or $x, and they may contain newlines.
$fname = "binky.txt";
$a = "Could not open the file $fname."; ## $fname evaluated and pasted
in -- neato!
$b = ‘Could not open the file $fname.’; ## single quotes (‘) do no spe-
cial evaluation
## $a is now "Could not open the file binky.txt."
## $b is now "Could not open the file $fname."
The characters ‘$’ and ‘@’ are used to trigger interpolation into strings, so those characters
need to be escaped with a backslash (\) if you want them in a string. For example:
"nick\@stanford.edu found \$1".
The dot operator (.) concatenates two strings. If Perl has a number or other type when it wants
a string, it just silently converts the value to a string and continues. It works the other way
too—a string such as “42” will evaluate to the integer 42 in an integer context.
$num = 42;
$string = "The " . $num . " ultimate" . " answer";
## $string is now "The 42 ultimate answer"
13.12.2 Using the Perl chop() function

Sometimes you will find you want to unconditionally remove the last character from a string.
While you can easily do this with regular expressions, chop is more efficient.
The chop() function will remove the last character of a string (or group of strings) regardless
of what that character is.
Example 1. Chopping a string
The chop() function removes and returns the last character from the given string:
#!/usr/bin/perl
Use strict;
Use warnings;
my $string= ‘Anoop’;
my $chr =chop($string);
print “String : $ string\n”;
print “Char : $chr\n”;
This program gives you:
String: Anoo
Char : p
If the string is empty, chop() will return an empty string. If the string is undefined, chop()
will return undefined.
Example 2. Chopping strings in an array
If you pass the chop() function an array, it will remove the last character from every element
in the array.
Note that this will only work for a one-dimensional array. In other words, it is not valid to
pass in an array reference, or an array that contains an array (or hash).
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my @array = (‘fred’, ‘bob’, ‘jill’, ‘joan’);
my $chr = chop(@array);
foreach my $str (@array) {
print “$str\n”;}
print “Char: $chr\n”;
This produces the output:
fre
bo
jil
joa
Char: n
Example 3. Chopping strings in a hash
If you pass a hash into chop(), it will remove the last character from the values (not the
keys) in the hash. For example:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my %hash = (
first => ‘one’,
second => ‘two’,

third => ‘three’,
);
my $chr = chop(%hash);
foreach my $k (keys %hash) {
print “$k: $hash{$k}\n”;
}
print “Char: $chr\n”;
This program outputs:
first: on
second: tw
third: thre
Char: e
Note that as with arrays, chop is not designed to process hash reference or hashes containing
other hashes (or arrays).
13.13 PERL— ARITHMETIC OPERATORS

Arithmetic operators are symbols used to execute general arithmetic procedures including:
addition (+), subtraction (–), multiplication (*), and division (/).
Arithmetic Operators:
Operator Example Result Definition
+ 7+7 = 14 Addition
-- 7 – 7 =0 Subtraction
* 7* 7 = 49 Multiplication
/ 7/7 =1 Division
** 7 ** 7 = 823543 Exponents
% 7%7 =0 Modulus
With these operators we can take a number and perform some simple math operations.
13.13.1 PERL Arithmetic

#!/usr/bin/perl
print “content-type: text/html \n\n”; #HTTP Header
#PICK A NUMBER
$x = 81;
$add = $x + 9;
$sub = $x - 9;
$mul = $x * 10;
$div = $x / 9;
$exp = $x ** 5;
$mod = $x % 79;
print "$x plus 9 is $add ";
print "$x minus 9 is $sub ";
print "$x times 10 is $mul ";
print "$x divided by 9 is $div ";
print "$x to the 5th is $exp ";
print "$x modulus 79 is $mod ";
Your browser should read:
arithmetic.pl:
81 plus 9 is 90
81 minus 9 is 72
81 times 10 is 810
81 divided by 9 is 9
81 to the 5th is 3486784401
81 modulus 79 is 2
13.14 PERL—ASSIGNMENT OPERATORS

Assignment operators perform an arithmetic operation and then assign the value to the
existing variable. Using assignment operators we will replace that value with a new number after
performing some type of mathematical operation.
Assignment Operators:
Operator Definition Example
+= Addition ($x + = 10)
– = Subtraction ($x – = 10)
*= Multiplication ($x * = 10)
/= Division ($x / = 10)
%= Modulus ($x % = 10)
** = Exponent ($x ** = 10)
13.14.1 PERL Assignment

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "content-type: text/html \n\n"; #HTTP HEADER
#START WITH A NUMBER
$x = 5;
print ‘$x plus 10 is ‘.($x += 10);
print " x is now ".$x; #ADD 10
print ‘ $x minus 3 is ‘.($x -= 3);
print " x is now ".$x; #SUBTRACT 3
print ‘ $x times 10 is ‘.($x *= 10);
print " x is now ".$x. #MULTIPLY BY 10
print ‘ $x divided by 10 is ‘.($x /= 10);
print " x is now ".$x; #DIVIDE BY 10
print ‘ Modulus of $x mod 10 is ‘.($x %= 10);
print " x is now ".$x; #MODULUS
print ‘ $x to the tenth power is ‘.($x **= 10);
print " x is now ".$x; #2 to the 10th
Display:
$x plus 10 is 15
x is now 15
$x minus 3 is 12
x is now 12
$x times 10 is 120
$x divided by 10 is 12
x is now 1201
x is now 12
Modulus of $x mod 10 is 2
x is now 2
$x to the tenth power is 1024
x is now 1024
Each time an operation is performed our variable ($x) is permanently changed to a new value
of $x.
13.15 PERL—LOGICAL AND RELATIONAL OPERATORS

Relationship operators compare one variable to another. (5 < 12) They are used to compare
equality or inequality of two or more variables, be it a string or numeric data.
Logical operators state and/or relationships. Meaning, you can take two variables and test an
either or conditional. Logical operators are used later on in conditionals and loops. For now, just
be able to recognize them in the upcoming examples.
Logical/Relational Operators:
Relational
Operator Example Defined Result

==,eq 5 == 5 Test: Is 5 True
5 eq 5 equal to 5?
!=,ne 7 != 2 Test: Is 7 not True
7 ne 2 equal to 2?
<,lt 7<4 Test: Is 7 less False

7 lt 4 than 4?
>,gt 7>4 Test: Is 7 greater True
7 gt 4 than 4?
<=,le 7 <= 11 Test: Is 7 less than True
7 le 11 or equal to 11?
>=,ge 7 >= 11 Test: Is 7 greater than False

7 ge 11 or equal to 11?
13.15.1 Logical
Operator Defined Example
&&,and Associates two variables if (($x && $y) == 5)...

using AND
||,or Associates two variables if (($x || $y) == 5)...
using OR
13.15.2 PERL—Variables + Operators

Variables can be used with mathematical formulas using PERL Operators discussed in a
previous lesson. Also, note that variables are case sensitive. “$myvariable,” “$MYvariable,” and
“$Myvariable” can all be assigned different values due to case sensitivity. Numbers of course can
be added, subtracted, or multiplied using operators. Strings as shown in the example below can
also be used with operators.
PERL Code:
#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html \n\n"; #HTTP HEADER
#TWO STRINGS TO BE ADDED
$myvariable = "Hello,";
$Myvariable = " World";

#ADD TWO STRINGS TOGETHER
$string3 = “$myvariable $Myvariable”;
print $string3;
13.16 PERL—$_ AND @_

Perl’s a great language for special variables—variables that are set up without the programmer
having to intervene and providing information ranging from the number of lines read from the
current input file ($.) through the current process ID ($$) and the operating system ($Ô). Other
special variables effect how certain operations are performed ($| controlling output buffering/
flushing, for example), or are fundamental in the operation of certain facilities—no more so
than $_ and @_.
Lets clear a misconception. $_ and @_ are different variables. In Perl, you can have a list and
a scalar of the same name, and they refer to unrelated pieces of memory.
$_ is known as the “default input and pattern matching space”. In other words, if you read
in from a file handle at the top of a while loop, or run a foreach loop and don’t name a loop
variable, $_ is set up for you. Then any regular expression matches, chops (and lcs and many
more) without a parameter, and even prints assume you want to work on $_.
Thus:
while ($line = <FH>) {
if ($line =~ /Perl/) {
print FHO $line;
}
print uc $line;
}
Shortens to:
while (<FH>) {
/Perl/ and
print FHO ;
print uc;
}
13.16.1 @_ Is the List of Incoming Parameters to a Sub

So if you write a sub, you refer to the first parameter in it as $_[0], the second parameter as
$_[1] and so on. And you can refer to $#_ as the index number of the last parameter:
sub demo {
print "Called with ",$#_+1," params\n";
print "First param was $_[0]\n";
Note that the English module adds in the ability to refer to the special variables by other
longer, but easier to remember, names such as @ARG for @_ and $PID for $$. But use English;
can have a detrimental performance effect if you’re matching regular expressions against long
incoming strings.
13.17 ARRAYS— @
List arrays (also known simply as “arrays” for short) take the concept of scalar variables to
the next level. Whereas scalar variables associate one value with one variable name, list arrays
associate one array name with a “list” of values.
Array constants are specified using parenthesis ( ) and the elements are separated with
commas. Perl arrays are like lists or collections in other languages since they can grow and shrink,
but in Perl they are just called “arrays”. Array variable names begin with the at-sign (@). Unlike
C, the assignment operator (=) works for arrays—an independent copy of the array and its
elements is made. Arrays may not contain other arrays as elements. Perl has sort of a “1-deep”
mentality. Actually, it’s possible to get around the 1-deep constraint using “references”, but it’s
no fun. Arrays work best if they just contain scalars (strings and numbers). The elements in an
array do not all need to be the same type. A list array is defined with the following syntax:
@array_name = ("element_1", "element_2"..."element_n");
For example, consider the following list array definition:
@available_colors = ("red", "green", "blue","brown");
@array = (1, 2, "hello"); ## a 3 element array
@empty = (); ## the array with 0 elements
$x = 1;
$y = 2;
@nums = ($x + $y, $x - $y);
## @nums is now (3, -1)
Just as in C, square brackets [ ] are used to refer to elements, so $a[6] is the element at index
6 in the array @a. As in C, array indexes start at 0. Notice that the syntax to access an element
begins with ‘$’ not ‘@’—use ‘@’ only when referring to the whole array (remember: all scalar
expressions begin with $).
@array = (1, 2, "hello", "there");
$array[0] = $array[0] + $array[1]; ## $array[0] is now 3
Perl arrays are not bounds checked. If code attempts to read an element outside the array size,
undef is returned. If code writes outside the array size, the array grows automatically to be big
enough. Well written code probably should not rely on either of those features.
$sum = $array[0] + $array[27]; ## $sum is now 1, since $array[27]
returned undef
$array[99] = "the end"; ## array grows to be size 100
When used in a scalar context, an array evaluates to its length. The “scalar” operator will
force the evaluation of something in a scalar context, so you can use scalar() to get the length of
an array. As an alternative to using scalar, the expression $#array is the index of the last element
of the array which is always one less than the length.
$len = @array; ## $len is now 4 (the length of @array)
$len = scalar(@array) ## same as above, since $len represented
a scalar
## context anyway, but this is more
explicit
@letters = ("a", "b", "c");
$i = $#letters; ## $i is now 2
That scalar(@array) is the way to refer to the length of an array is not a great moment
in the history of readable code. At least I haven’t showed you the even more vulgar forms such
as (0 + @a).
The sort operator (sort @a) returns a copy of the array sorted in ascending alphabetic
order. Note that sort does not change the original array. Here are some common ways to sort...
(sort @array) ## sort alphabetically, with
uppercase first
(sort {$a <=> $b} @array) ## sort numerically
(sort {$b cmp $a} @array) ## sort reverse alphabetically
(sort {lc($a) cmp lc($b)} @array) ## sort alphabetically, ignoring
case (somewhat inefficient)
The sort expression above pass a comparator function {...} to the sort operator, where the
special variables $a and $b are the two elements to compare –cmp is the built-in string compare,
and <=> is the built-in numeric compare.
There’s a variant of array assignment that is used sometimes to assign several variables at
once. If an array on the left hand side of an assignment operation contains the names of variables,
the variables are assigned the corresponding values from the right hand side.
($x, $y, $z) = (1, 2, "hello", 4);
## assigns $x=1, $y=2, $z="hello", and the 4 is discarded
This type of assignment only works with scalars. If one of the values is an array, the wrong
thing happens (see “flattening” below).
13.17.1 Array Add/Remove/Splice Functions

These handy operators will add or remove an element from an array. These operators change
the array they operate on ...
• Operating at the “front” ($array[0]) end of the array...

q shift(array)—returns the frontmost element and removes it from the array. Can
be used in a loop to gradually remove and examine all the elements in an array
left to right. The foreach operator, below, is another way to examine all the
elements.
q unshift(array, elem)—inserts an element at the front of the array. Opposite
of shift.
• Operating at the “back” ($array[$len-1]) end of the array...
q pop(array)—returns the endmost element (right hand side) and removes it from
the array.
q push(array, elem)—adds a single element to the end of the array. Opposite
of pop.
• splice(array, index, length, array2)—removes the section of the array
defined by index and length, and replaces that section with the elements from array2.
If array2 is omitted, splice() simply deletes. For example, to delete the element at index
$i from an array, use splice(@array, $i, 1).
13.17.2 Hash Arrays —%

Hash arrays, also known as “associative” arrays, are a built-in key/value data structure.
Hash arrays are optimized to find the value for a key very quickly. Hash array variables begin
with a percent sign (%) and use curly braces { } to access the value for a particular key. If there
is no such key in the array, the value returned is undef. The keys are case sensitive, so you may
want to consistently uppercase or lowercase strings before using them as a key (use lc and uc).
$dict{"bart"} = "I didn’t do it";
$dict{"homer"} = "D’Oh";
$dict{"lisa"} = "";
## %dict now contains the key/value pairs (("bart" => "I didn’t do it"),
## ("homer" => "D’oh"), ("lisa" => ""))
$string = $dict{"bart"}; ## Lookup the key "bart" to get
## the value "I didn’t do it"
$string = $dict{"marge"}; ## Returns undef -- there is no entry for
"marge"
$dict{"homer"} = "Mmmm, scalars"; ## change the value for the key
## "homer" to "Mmmm, scalars"
A hash array may be converted back and forth to an array where each key is immediately
followed by its value. Each key is adjacent to its value, but the order of the key/value pairs
depends on the hashing of the keys and so appears random. The “keys” operator returns an array
of the keys from an associative array. The “values” operator returns an array of all the values,
in an order consistent with the keys operator.
@array = %dict;
## @array will look something like
## ("homer", "D’oh", "lisa", "", "bart", "I didn’t do it");
##
## (keys %dict) looks like ("homer", "lisa, "bart")
## or use (sort (keys %dict))
You can use => instead of comma and so write a hash array value this cute way...
%dict = (
"bart" ⇒ "I didn’t do it",
"homer" ⇒ "D’Oh",
"lisa" ⇒ "",
);
In Java or C you might create an object or struct to gather a few items together. In Perl you
might just throw those things together in a hash array.
13.18 @ARGV AND %ENV

The built-in array @ARGV contains the command line arguments for a Perl program. The
following run of the Perl program critic.pl will have the ARGV array (“-poetry”, “poem.txt”).
unix% perl critic.pl -poetry poem.txt
%ENV contains the environment variables of the context that launched the Perl program.
@ARGV and %ENV make the most sense in a Unix environment.
13.19 IF/WHILE SYNTAX

Perl’s control syntax looks like C’s control syntax. Blocks of statements are surrounded by
curly braces { }. Statements are terminated with semicolons (;). The parenthesis and curly braces
are required in if/while/for forms. There is not a distinct “boolean” type, and there are no “true”
or “false” keywords in the language. Instead, the empty string, the empty array, the number 0 and
undef all evaluate to false, and everything else is true. The logical operators &&, ||, ! work as
in C. There are also keyword equivalents (and, or, not) which are almost the same, but have lower
precedence.
13.19.1 IF
if (expr) { ## basic if - - ( ) and { } required
stmt;
stmt;
}
if (expr) { ## if + elsif + else

stmt;
stmt;
}
elsif (expr) { ## note the strange spelling of "elsif"
stmt;
stmt;
}
else {
stmt;
stmt;
}
unless (expr) { ## if variant which negates the boolean test
stmt;
stmt;
}
13.19.2 If Variants
As an alternative to the classic if() { } structure, you may use if, while, and unless as
modifiers that come after the single statement they control ...
$x = 3 if $x > 3; ## equivalent to: if ($x > 3) {$x = 3;}

$x = 3 unless $x <= 3;
For these constructs, the parentheses are not required around the boolean expression. This
may be another case where Perl is using a structure from human languages. I never use this syntax
because I just cannot get used to seeing the condition after the statement it modifies. If you were
defusing a bomb, would you like instructions like this: “Locate the red wire coming out of the
control block and cut it. Unless it’s a weekday—in that case cut the black wire.”
13.19.3 Loops
These work just as in C...
while (expr) {
stmt;
stmt;
}
for (init_expr; test_expr; increment_expr) {
stmt;
stmt;
}
## typical for loop to count 0..99

for ($i=0; $i<100; $i++) {
stmt;
stmt;
}
The "next" operator forces the loop to the next iteration. The "last" operator breaks out
of the loop like break in C. This is one case where Perl (last) does not use the same keyword name
as C (break).
13.19.4 Array Iteration —foreach

The “foreach” construct is a handy way to iterate a variable over all the elements in an array.
Because of foreach, you rarely need to write a traditional for or while loop to index into an array.
Foreach is also likely to be implemented efficiently. (It’s a shame Java does not include a compact
iteration syntax in the language. It would make Java a better language at the cost of some design
elegance.)
foreach $var (@array) {
stmt; ## use $var in here
stmt;
}
Any array expression may be used in the foreach. The array expression is evaluated once
before the loop starts. The iterating variable, such as $var, is actually a pointer to each element
in the array, so assigning to $var will actually change the elements in the array.
Example, assuming array lengths are passed before arrays:
sub aeq { # compare two array values
local(@a) = splice(@_,0,shift);
local(@b) = splice(@_,0,shift);
return 0 unless @a == @b; # same len?
while (@a) {
return 0 if pop(@a) ne pop(@b);
}
return 1;
}
13.20 FILE INPUT

Variables which represent files are called “file handles”, and they are handled differently
from other variables. They do not begin with any special character—they are just plain words.
By convention, file handle variables are written in all upper case, like FILE_OUT or SOCK. The
file handles are all in a global namespace, so you cannot allocate them locally like other variables.
File handles can be passed from one routine to another like strings (detailed below).
The standard file handles STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR are automatically opened before
the program runs. Surrounding a file handle with <> is an expression that returns one line from
the file including the “\n” character, so <STDIN> returns one line from standard input. The <>
operator returns undef when there is no more input. The “chop” operator removes the last
character from a string, so it can be used just after an input operation to remove the trailing “\n”.
The “chomp” operator is similar, but only removes the character if it is the end-of-line character.
$line = <STDIN>; ## read one line from the STDIN file handle
chomp($line); ## remove the trailing “\n” if present
$line2 = <FILE2>; ## read one line from the FILE2 file handle
## which must be have been opened previously
Since the input operator returns undef at the end of the file, the standard pattern to read all
the lines in a file is ...
## read every line of a file
while ($line = <STDIN>) {
## do something with $line
}
13.20.1 Open and Close

The “open” and “close” operators operate as in C to connect a file handle to a filename in
the file system.
open(F1, "filename"); ## open "filename" for reading as file handle F1
open(F2, ">filename"); ## open "filename" for writing as file handle F2
open(F3, ">>appendtome") ## open "appendtome" for appending
close(F1); ## close a file handle
Open can also be used to establish a reading or writing connection to a separate process
launched by the OS. This works best on Unix.
open(F4, "ls -l |"); ## open a pipe to read from an ls process
open(F5, "| mail $addr"); ## open a pipe to write to a mail process
Passing commands to the shell to launch an OS process in this way can be very convenient,
but it’s also a famous source of security problems in CGI programs. When writing a CGI, do not
pass a string from the client side as a filename in a call to open().
Open returns undef on failure, so the following phrase is often to exit if a file can’t be opened.
The die operator prints an error message and terminates the program.
open(FILE, $fname) || die "Could not open $fname\n";
In this example, the logical-or operator || essentially builds an if statement, since it only
evaluates the second expression if the first if false. This construct is a little strange, but it is a
common code pattern for Perl error handling.
13.20.2 Input Variants

In a scalar context the input operator reads one line at a time. In an array context, the input
operator reads the entire file into memory as an array of its lines ...
@a = <FILE>; ## read the whole file in as an array of lines
This syntax can be dangerous. The following statement looks like it reads just a single line,
but actually the left hand side is an array context, so it reads the whole file and then discards
all but the first line ...
my($line) = <FILE>;
The behaviour of <FILE> also depends on the special global variable $/ which is the current
the end-of-line marker (usually “\n”). Setting $/ to undef causes <FILE> to read the whole file
into a single string.
$/ = undef;
$all = <FILE>; ## read the whole file into one string
You can remember that $/ is the end-of-line marker because “/” is used to designate
separate lines of poetry. I thought this mnemonic was silly when I first saw it, but sure enough,
I now remember that $/ is the end-of-line marker.
13.20.3 Print Output

Print takes a series of things to print separated by commas. By default, print writes to the
STDOUT file handle.
print "Woo Hoo\n"; ## print a string to STDOUT
$num = 42;
$str = " Hoo";
print "Woo", $a, " bbb $num", "\n"; ## print several things
An optional first argument to print can specify the destination file handle. There is no comma
after the file handle.
print FILE "Here", " there", " everywhere!", "\n"; ## no comma after FILE
File Processing Example1

As an example, here’s some code that opens each of the files listed in the @ARGV array, and
reads in and prints out their contents to standard output ...
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
require 5.004;
## Open each command line file and print its contents to standard out
foreach $fname (@ARGV) {
open(FILE, $fname) || die(“Could not open $fname\n”);
while($line = <FILE>) {
print $line;
}
close(FILE);
}
The above uses “die” to abort the program if one of the files cannot be opened. We could
use a more flexible strategy where we print an error message for that file but continue to try to
process the other files. Alternately we could use the function call exit(-1) to exit the program
with an error code. Also, the following shift pattern is a common alternative way to iterate through
an array ...
while($fname = shift(@ARGV)) {...
Example 2
Here is the basic perl program which does the same as the UNIX cat command on a certain
file.
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
#
# Program to open the password file, read it in,
# print it, and close it again.
$file = ‘/etc/passwd’; # Name the file

open(INFO, $file); # Open the file
@lines = <INFO>; # Read it into an array
close(INFO); # Close the file
print @lines; # Print the array
13.21 STRING PROCESSING WITH REGULAR EXPRESSIONS

Perl’s most famous strength is in string manipulation with regular expressions. Perl has a
million string processing features—we’ll just cover the main ones here. The simple syntax to
search for a pattern in a string is ...
($string =~ /pattern/) ## true if the pattern is found somewhere in the

string
("binky" =~ /ink/) ==> TRUE
("binky" =~ /onk/) ==> FALSE
In the simplest case, the exact characters in the regular expression pattern must occur in the
string somewhere. All of the characters in the pattern must be matched, but the pattern does not
need to be right at the start or end of the string, and the pattern does not need to use all the
characters in the string.
13.21.1 Character Codes

The power of regular expressions is that they can specify patterns, not just fixed characters.
First, there are special matching characters ...
• a, X, 9—ordinary characters just match that character exactly
• . (a period)—matches any single character except “\n”
• \w—(lowercase w) matches a “word” character: a letter or digit [a-zA-Z0-9]
• \W—(uppercase W) any non word character
• \s—(lowercase s) matches a single whitespace character — space, newline, return, tab,
form [ \n\r\t\f]
• \S—(uppercase S) any non whitespace character
• \t, \n, \r -- tab, newline, return
• \d—decimal digit [0-9]
• \ —inhibit the “specialness” of a character. So, for example, use \. to match a period
or \\ to match a slash. If you are unsure if a character has special meaning, such as
‘@’, you can always put a slash in front of it \@ to make sure it is treated just as a
character.
"piiig" =~ /p...g/ ==> TRUE . = any char (except \n)
"piiig" =~ /.../ ==> TRUE need not use up the whole string
"piiig" =~ /p....g/ ==> FALSE must use up the whole pattern (the
g is not matched)
"piiig" =~ /p\w\w\wg/ ==> TRUE \w = any letter or digit
"p123g" =~ /p\d\d\dg/ ==> TRUE \d = 0..9 digit
The modifier “i” after the last / means the match should be case insensitive...
"PiIIg" =~ /pIiig/ ==> FALSE
"PiIIg" =~ /pIiig/i ==> TRUE
String interpolation works in regular expression patterns. The variable values are pasted into
the expression once before it is evaluated. Characters like * and + continue to have their special
meanings in the pattern after interpolation, unless the pattern is bracketed with a \Q..\E. The
following examples test if the pattern in $target occurs within brackets < > in $string ...
$string =~ /<$target>/ ## Look for <$target>, '.' '*' keep their

special meanings in $target
$string =~ /<\Q$target\E>/ ## The \Q..\E puts a backslash in front of
every char,
## so '.' '*' etc. in $target will not have
their special meanings
Similar to the \Q..\E form, the quotemeta() function returns a string with every character \
escaped. There is an optional “m” (for “match”) that comes before the first /. If the “m” is used,
then any character can be used for the delimiter instead of / — so you could use “ or # to delimit
the pattern. This is handy if what you are trying to match has a lot of /’s in it. If the delimiter
is the single quote (‘) then interpolation is suppressed. The following expressions are all
equivalent ...
"piiig" =~ m/piiig/
"piiig" =~ m"piiig"
"piiig" =~ m#piiig#
13.21.2 Control Codes

Things get really interesting when you add in control codes to the regular expression
pattern ...
• ? —match 0 or 1 occurrences of the pattern to its left
• * —0 or more occurrences of the pattern to its left
• + —1 or more occurrences of the pattern to its left
• | —(vertical bar) logical or—matches the pattern either on its left or right
• parenthesis ( )— group sequences of patterns
• ^ —matches the start of the string
• $ —matches the end of the string
13.21.3 Leftmost and Largest

First, Perl tries to find the leftmost match for the pattern, and second it tries to use up as much
of the string as possible — i.e., let + and * use up as many characters as possible.
13.21.4 Regular Expression Examples

The following series gradually demonstrate each of the above control codes. Study them
carefully—small details in regular expressions make a big difference. That’s what makes them
powerful, but it makes them tricky as well.
Old joke: What do you call a pig with three eyes? Piiig!
#### Search for the pattern ‘iiig’ in the string ‘piiig’
“piiig” =~ m/iiig/ ==> TRUE
#### The pattern may be anywhere inside the string
“piiig” =~ m/iii/ ==> TRUE

#### All of the pattern must match
“piiig” =~ m/iiii/ ==> FALSE
#### . = any char but \n
“piiig” =~ m/...ig/ ==> TRUE
“piiig” =~ m/p.i../ ==> TRUE
#### The last . in the pattern is not matched
“piiig” =~ m/p.i.../ ==> FALSE
#### \d = digit [0-9]
“p123g” =~ m/p\d\d\dg/ ==> TRUE
“p123g” =~ m/p\d\d\d\d/ ==> FALSE
#### \w = letter or digit
“p123g” =~ m/\w\w\w\w\w/ ==> TRUE
#### i+ = one or more i’s
“piiig” =~ m/pi+g/ ==> TRUE
#### matches iii
“piiig” =~ m/i+/ ==> TRUE
“piiig” =~ m/p+i+g+/ ==> TRUE
“piiig” =~ m/p+g+/ ==> FALSE
#### i* = zero or more i’s
“piiig” =~ m/pi*g/ ==> TRUE
“piiig” =~ m/p*i*g*/ ==> TRUE
#### X* can match zero X’s
“piiig” =~ m/pi*X*g/ ==> TRUE
#### ^ = start, $ = end
“piiig” =~ m/^pi+g$/ ==> TRUE
#### i is not at the start
“piiig” =~ m/î+g$/ ==> FALSE
#### i is not at the end
“piiig” =~ m/^pi+$/ ==> FALSE
“piiig” =~ m/^p.+g$/ ==> TRUE
“piiig” =~ m/^p.+$/ ==> TRUE
“piiig” =~ m/^.+$/ ==> TRUE
#### g is not at the start
“piiig” =~ m/^g.+$/ ==> FALSE
#### Needs at least one char after the g
“piiig” =~ m/g.+/ ==> FALSE

#### Needs at least zero chars after the g
“piiig” =~ m/g.*/ ==> TRUE
#### | = left or right expression
“cat” =~ m/^(cat|hat)$/ ==> TRUE
“hat” =~ m/^(cat|hat)$/ ==> TRUE
“cathatcatcat” =~ m/^(cat|hat)+$/ ==> TRUE
“cathatcatcat” =~ m/^(c|a|t|h)+$/ ==> TRUE
“cathatcatcat” =~ m/^(c|a|t)+$/ ==> FALSE
#### Matches and stops at first ‘cat’; does not get to ‘catcat’ on the right
“cathatcatcat” =~ m/(c|a|t)+/ ==> TRUE
#### ? = optional
“12121x2121x2” =~ m/^(1x?2)+$/ ==> TRUE
“aaaxbbbabaxbb” =~ m/^(a+x?b+)+$/ ==> TRUE
“aaaxxbbb” =~ m/^(a+x?b+)+$/ ==> FALSE
#### Three words separated by spaces
“Easy does it” =~ m/^\w+\s+\w+\s+\w+$/ ==> TRUE
#### Just matches “gates@microsoft” — \w does not match the “.”
“[email protected]” =~ m/\w+@\w+/ ==> TRUE
#### Add the .’s to get the whole thing
“[email protected]” =~ m/^(\w|\.)+@(\w|\.)+$/ ==> TRUE
#### words separated by commas and possibly spaces
“Klaatu, barada,nikto” =~ m/^\w+(,\s*\w+)*$/ ==> TRUE
13.22 SUBROUTINES
Perl subroutines encapsulate blocks of code in the usual way. You do not need to define
subroutines before they are used, so Perl programs generally have their “main” code first, and
their subroutines laid out toward the bottom of the file. A subroutine can return a scalar or an
array.
$x = Three(); ## call to Three() returns 3
exit(0); ## exit the program normally
sub Three {
return (1 + 2);
}
13.22.1 Local Variables and Parameters

Historically, many Perl programs leave all of their variables global. It’s especially convenient
since the variables do not need to be declared. This “quick ‘n dirty” style does not scale well when
trying to write larger programs. With Perl 5, the “my” construct allows one or more variables to
be declared. (Older versions of perl had a “local” construct which should be avoided.)
my $a; ## declare $a
my $b = "hello" ## declare $b, and assign it "hello"
my @array = (1, 2, 3); ## declare @array and assign it
(1, 2, 3)
my ($x, $y); ## declare $x and $y
my ($a, $b) = (1, "hello"); ## declare $a and $b, and assign
$a=1, $b="hello"
The “my” construct is most often used to declare local varaiables in a subroutine...
sub Three {
my ($x, $y); # declare vars $x and $y
$x = 1;
$y = 2;
return ($x + $y);
}
# Variant of Three() which inits $x and $y with the array trick

sub Three2 {
my ($x, $y) = (1, 2);
return ($x + $y);
}
13.22.2 @_ Parameters
Perl subroutines do not have formal named parameters like other languages. Instead, all the
parameters are passed in a single array called “@_”. The elements in @_ actually point to the
original caller-side parameters, so the called function is responsible for making any copies.
Usually the subroutine will pull the values out of @_ and copy them to local variables. A Sum()
function which takes two numbers and adds them looks like...
sub Sum1 {
my ($x, $y) = @_; # the first lines of many functions look like
this
# to retrieve and name their params
return($x + $y);
}
# Variant where you pull the values out of @_ directly

# This avoids copying the parameters
sub Sum2 {
return($_[0] + $_[1]);
}
# How Sum() would really be written in Perl -- it takes an array

# of numbers of arbitrary length, and adds all of them...
sub Sum3 {
my ($sum, $elem); # declare local vars
$sum = 0;
foreach $elem (@_) {
$sum += $elem;
}
return($sum);
}
## Variant of above using shift instead of foreach

sub sum4 {
my ($sum, $elem);
$sum = 0;
while(defined($elem = shift(@_))) {
$sum += $elem;
}
return($sum);
}
13.23 INTRODUCTION TO SED

How to use sed, a special editor for modifying files automatically? If you want to write a
program to make changes in a file, sed is the tool to use. Sed is the ultimate stream editor.
Anyhow, sed is a marvelous utility. Unfortunately, most people never learn its real power.
The language is very simple, but the documentation is terrible. The Solaris on-line manual pages
for sed are five pages long, and two of those pages describe the 34 different errors you can get.
A program that spends as much space documenting the errors than it does documenting the
language has a serious learning curve.
13.23.1 The Essential Command: s for Substitution

Sed has several commands, but most people only learn the substitute command: s. The
substitute command changes all occurrences of the regular expression into a new value. A simple
example is changing “day” in the “old” file to “night” in the “new” file:
sed s/day/night/ <old >new
Or another way
sed s/day/night/ old >new
and for those who want to test this:
echo day | sed s/day/night/
This will output “night”.
“Using the strong (single quote) character, that would be:
sed 's/day/night/' <old >new
I must emphasize the the sed editor changes exactly what you tell it to. So if you executed
echo Sunday | sed 's/day/night/' <old >new
This would output the word “Sunnight” bacause sed found the string “day” in the input.
There are four parts to this substitute command:
s Substitute command
/../../ Delimiter
day Regular Expression Pattern Search Pattern
night Replacement string
The search pattern is on the left hand side and the replacement string is on the right hand
side.
13.23.2 The Slash as a Delimiter

The character after the s is the delimiter. It is conventionally a slash, because this is what
ed, more, and vi use. It can be anything you want, however. If you want to change a pathname
that contains a slash—say /usr/local/bin to /common/bin—you could use the backslash to
quote the slash:
sed ‘s/\/usr\/local\/bin/\/common\/bin/’ <old >new
13.23.3 Using & as the Matched String

Sometimes you want to search for a pattern and add some characters, like parenthesis,
around or near the pattern you found. It is easy to do this if you are looking for a particular string:
sed ‘s/abc/(abc)/’ <old >new
This won’t work if you don’t know exactly what you will find. How can you put the string
you found in the replacement string if you don’t know what it is?
The solution requires the special character “&.” It corresponds to the pattern found.
sed ‘s/[a-z]*/(&)/’ <old >new
You can have any number of “&” in the replacement string. You could also double a pattern,
e.g., the first number of a line:
% echo "123 abc" | sed ‘s/[0-9]*/& &/’
123 123 abc
Let me slightly amend this example. Sed will match the first string, and make it as greedy
as possible. The first match for ‘[0–9]*’ is the first character on the line, as this matches zero of
more numbers. So if the input was “abc 123” the output would be unchanged. A better way to
duplicate the number is to make sure it matches a number:
% echo "123 abc" | sed ‘s/[0-9][0-9]*/& &/’
123 123 abc
The string “abc” is unchanged, because it was not matched by the regular expression.
echo abcd123 | sed ‘s/$[a-z]*$.*/\1/’
This will output “abcd” and delete the numbers.
If you want to switch two words around, you can remember two patterns and change the
order around:
sed ‘s/$[a-z]*$ $[a-z]*$/\2 \1/’
Note the space between the two remembered patterns. This is used to make sure two words
are found.
The “\1” doesn’t have to be in the replacement string (in the right hand side). It can be in
the pattern you are searching for (in the left hand side). If you want to eliminate duplicated words,
you can try:
sed ‘s/$[a-z]*$ \1/\1/’
You can have up to nine values: “\1” thru “\9.”
13.23.4 /g-Global Replacement

Most Unix utilties work on files, reading a line at a time. Sed, by default, is the same way.
If you tell it to change a word, it will only change the first occurrence of the word on a line. You
may want to make the change on every word on the line instead of the first. For an example, let’s
place parentheses around words on a line. Instead of using a pattern like “[A-Za-z]*” which won’t
match words like “won’t,” we will use a pattern, “[^ ]*,” that matches everything except a space.
Well, this will also match anything because “*” means zero or more. The following will put
parenthesis around the first word:
sed ‘s/[^ ]*/(&)/’ <old >new
If you want it to make changes for every word, add a “g” after the last delimiter and use the
work-around:
sed ‘s/[^ ][^ ]*/(&)/g’ <old >new
13.23.5 /p-Print
By default, sed prints every line. If it makes a substitution, the new text is printed instead of
the old one. If you use an optional argument to sed, “sed -n,” it will not, by default, print any
new lines. I’ll cover this and other options later. When the “-n” option is used, the “p” flag will
cause the modified line to be printed. Here is one way to duplicate the function of grep with sed:
sed -n 's/pattern/&/p' <file
13.23.6 Write to a File with /w Filename

There is one more flag that can follow the third delimiter. With it, you can specify a file that
will receive the modified data. An example is the following, which will write all lines that start
with an even number to the file even:
sed -n ‘s/^[0-9]*[02468] /&/w even’ <file
In this example, the output file isn’t needed, as the input was not modified. You must have
exactly one space between the w and the filename. You can also have ten files open with one
instance of sed. This allows you to split up a stream of data into separate files. Using the previous
example combined with multiple substitution commands described later, you could split a file into
ten pieces depending on the last digit of the first number. You could also use this method to log
error or debugging information to a special file.
13.23.7 Multiple Commands with -e Command

One method of combining multiple commands is to use a -e before each command:
sed -e ‘s/a/A/’ -e ‘s/b/B/’ <old >new
A “-e” isn’t needed in the earlier examples because sed knows that there must always be one
command. If you give sed one argument, it must be a command, and sed will edit the data read
from standard input.
13.23.8 Filenames on the Command Line

You can specify files on the command line if you wish. If there is more than one argument
to sed that does not start with an option, it must be a filename. This next example will count the
number of lines in three files that don’t begin with a “#:”
sed ‘s/^#.*//’ f1 f2 f3 | grep -v '^$' | wc -l
The sed substitute command changes every line that starts with a “#” into a blank line. Grep
was used to filter out empty lines. Wc counts the number of lines left. Sed has more commands
that make grep unnecessary. But I will cover that later.
Of course you could write the last example using the “-e” option:
sed -e ‘s/^#.*//’ f1 f2 f3 | grep -v ‘^$’ | wc -l
13.23.9 sed -n: no Printing

The “-n” option will not print anything unless an explicit request to print is found.
I mentioned the “/p” flag to the substitute command as one way to turn printing back on. Let
me clarify this. The command
sed ‘s/PATTERN/&/p’ file
acts like the cat program if PATTERN is not in the file: e.g., nothing is changed. If PATTERN is
in the file, then each line that has this is printed twice. Add the “-n” option and the example acts
like grep:
sed -n ‘s/PATTERN/&/p’ file
Nothing is printed, except those lines with PATTERN included.
13.23.10 sed -f Scriptname

If you have a large number of sed commands, you can put them into a file and use
sed -f sedscript <old >new
where sedscript could look like this:
# sed comment—This script changes lower case vowels to upper case
s/a/A/g
s/e/E/g
s/i/I/g
s/o/O/g
s/u/U/g
When there are several commands in one file, each command must be on a separate line.
13.23.11 sed in Shell Script

If you have many commands and they won’t fit neatly on one line, you can break up the line
using a backslash:
sed -e ‘s/a/A/g’ \
-e ‘s/e/E/g’ \
-e ‘s/i/I/g’ \
-e ‘s/o/O/g’ \
-e ‘s/u/U/g’ <old >new
13.23.12 Using sed in a Shell here-is Document

You can use sed to prompt the user for some parameters and then create a file with those
parameters filled in. You could create a file with dummy values placed inside it, and use sed to
change those dummy values. A simpler way is to use the “here is” document, which uses part
of the shell script as if it were standard input:
#!/bin/sh
echo -n ‘what is the value?’
read value
sed ‘s/XXX/’$value’/’ <<EOF
The value is XXX
EOF
When executed, the script says:

what is the value?
If you type in “123,” the next line will be:
The value is 123
I admit this is a contrived example. “Here is” documents can have values evaluated without
the use of sed. This example does the same thing:
#!/bin/sh
echo -n ‘what is the value? ‘
read value
cat <<EOF
The value is $value
EOF
13.23.13 Delete with d

Using ranges can be confusing, so you should expect to do some experimentation when you
are trying out a new script. A useful command deletes every line that matches the restriction: “d.”
If you want to look at the first 10 lines of a file, you can use:
sed ’11,$ d’ <file
which is similar in function to the head command. If you want to chop off the header of a mail
message, which is everything up to the first blank line, use:
sed ‘1,/^$/ d’ <file
You can duplicate the function of the tail command, assuming you know the length of a file.
Wc can count the lines, and expr can subtract 10 from the number of lines. A Bourne shell script
to look at the last 10 lines of a file might look like this:
#!/bin/sh
#print last 10 lines of file
# First argument is the filename
lines=‘wc -l $1 | awk ‘{print $1}’ ‘
start=‘expr $lines - 10‘
sed “1,$start d” $1
13.23.14 Print Line Number with =

The “=” command prints the current line number to standard output. One way to find out
the line numbers that contain a pattern is to use:
# add line numbers first,
# then use grep,
# then just print the number
cat -n file | grep ‘PATTERN’ | awk ‘{print $1}’
The sed solution is:

sed -n ‘/PATTERN/ =’ file
Earlier I used the following to find the number of lines in a file
#!/bin/sh
lines=‘wc -l file | awk ‘{print $1}’ ‘
Using the “=” command can simplify this:
#!/bin/sh
lines=‘sed -n ‘$=’ file ‘
The “=” command only accepts one address, so if you want to print the number for a range
of lines, you must use the curly braces:
#!/bin/sh
# Just print the line numbers
sed -n ‘/begin/,/end/ {
=
d
}’ file
Since the “=” command only prints to standard output, you cannot print the line number
on the same line as the pattern. You need to edit multi-line patterns to do this.
13.24 BRIEF HISTORY OF LINUX

Linux is an operating system, a software program that controls your computer. Most vendors
load an operating system onto the hard drive of a PC before delivering the PC, so, unless the hard
drive of your PC has failed, you may not understand the function of an operating system.
In 1991 Linus Torvalds began developing an operating system kernel, which he named
“Linux” [Torvalds 1999]. This kernel could be combined with the FSF material and other com-
ponents (in particular some of the BSD components and MIT’s X-windows software) to produce
a freely-modifiable and very useful operating system. This book will term the kernel itself the
“Linux kernel” and an entire combination as “Linux”. Note that many use the term “GNU/
Linux” instead for this combination.
Like other server operating systems, Linux provides advanced disk management (RAID),
which makes it possible to automatically duplicate stored data on several hard drives. This greatly
improves the reliability of data storage; if one hard drive fails, the data can be read from another.
Competing desktop operating systems such as Microsoft Windows 95/98 do not support this
capability (though several third parties sell drivers that let you add this capability to your desktop
operating system).
Moreover, many Linux users run Linux not as a desktop computer but as a server, which
is powered up and on-online 24 hours per day, connected to the Internet, and ready to provide
services to requesting clients. For example, many Linux users run web servers, hosting web sites
browsed by users worldwide. But, the number of desktop Linux users — those who power on their
computer to use it and power it off when they’re done — is rising.
13.24.1 The Origins of Linux

Linux traces its ancestry back to a mainframe operating system known as Multics
(Multiplexed Information and Computing Service). Begun in 1965, Multics was one of the first
multi-user computer systems and remains in use today. Bell Telephone Labs participated in the
development of Multics, along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and General
Electric.
Two Bell Labs software engineers, Ken Thompson and Dennis Richie, worked on Multics
until Bell Labs withdrew from the project in 1969. One of their favorite pastimes during the project
had been playing a multi-user game called Space Travel. Now, without access to a Multics
computer, they found themselves unable to indulge their fantasies of flying around the galaxy.
Resolved to remedy this, they decided to port the Space Travel game to run on an otherwise
unused PDP-7 computer. Eventually, they implemented a rudimentary operating system they
named Unics, as a pun on Multics. Somehow, the spelling of the name became Unix.
13.24.2 The X Window System

Another important component of Linux is its graphical user interface, the X Window System.
Unix was originally a mouseless, text-based system that used noisy teletype machines rather than
modern CRT monitors. The Unix command interface is very sophisticated and, even today, some
power users prefer it to a point-and-click graphical environment, using their CRT monitor as
though it were a noiseless teletype. Consequently, some remain unaware that Unix long ago
outgrew its text-based childhood, and now provides users a choice of graphical or command
interfaces.
The X Window System (or simply X) was developed as part of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology’s (MIT) Project Athena, which it began in 1984. By 1988, MIT released X to the
public. MIT has since turned development of X over to the X Consortium, which released version
6 in September 1995.
X is a unique graphical user interface in two major respects. First, X integrates with a
computer network, letting users access local and remote applications. For example, X lets you
open a window that represents an application running on a remote server: the remote server does
the heavy-duty computing; all your computer need do is pass the server your input and display
the server’s output.
Second, X lets you configure its look and feel to an amazing degree. To do so, you run a
special application—called a window manager—on top of X. A variety of window managers is
available, including some that closely mimic the look and feel of Microsoft Windows.
13.24.3 Linux Distributions (Various Flavours of Linux.)

Because Linux can be freely redistributed, you can obtain it in a variety of ways. In the Linux
community, different organizations have combined the available components differently. Each
combination is called a “distribution”, and the organizations that develop distributions are called
“distributors”. Various individuals and organizations package Linux, often combining it with free
or proprietary applications. The flavor’s of Linux are:
(i) Caldera OpenLinux
(ii) Red Hat Linux
(iii) Slackware Linux

(iv) Debian Linux
(v) SuSE. Linux
(vi) GNU/Linux
(vii) Mandriva(former MandrakeSoft)
(viii) Ubuntu
(ix) Knoppix: an operating system that runs from your CD-ROM, you don’t need to
install anything.
Caldera, Red Hat, Slackware, and SuSE are packaged by commercial companies, which seek
to profit by selling Linux-related products and services. Debian GNU/Linux is the product of
volunteer effort conducted under the auspices of Software In The Public Interest, Inc., a non-profit
corporation. The Linux kernel is not part of the GNU project but uses the same license as GNU
software.
Most Linux distributions offer a set of programs for generic PCs with special packages
containing optimized kernels for the x86 Intel based CPUs. These distributions are well-tested and
maintained on a regular basis, focusing on reliant server implementation and easy installation
and update procedures. Examples are Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE and Mandriva, which are
by far the most popular Linux systems and generally considered easy to handle for the beginning
user, while not blocking professionals from getting the most out of their Linux machines. Linux
also runs decently on laptops and middle-range servers. Drivers for new hardware are included
only after extensive testing, which adds to the stability of a system.
13.24.4 Advantage of Linux

1. Low Cost: You do not need to spend time and money to obtain License. Since Linux
and much of it is software come with GNU general public license. These are large
repository from which you can freely download high quality software.
2. Stability: Linux does not need to be rebooted periodically to maintain performance
levels. It does not freeze up or slow down over time due to memory leaks.
3. Performance: Linux provides persistent high performance on workstation and on
networks. It can handle unusual large number of user simultaneously.
4. Network Friendliness: Linux was developed by a group of performers over the internet
and has therefore strong support for network functionality. It can perform task’s such
as network backup faster and more reality than alternative system.
5. Flexibility: Linux can be used for high performance server application, desktop appli-
cation and embedded system.
6. Compatibility: Linux run on all common Unix software packages and can process all
common file format.
7. Choice: The large number of Linux distribution gives you a choice you can pick the one
you like the best; the core functionality are the same more software run on most of the
distribution.
8. Fast and Easy Installation: Most Linux distribution come with user friendly installa-
tion and setup programs popular Linux distribution come with tools that make instal-
lation of additional software very user friendly as well.
9. Full use of Hard Disk: Linux continues to work well even when the hard disk is almost
full.
10. Multitasking: Linux is designed to do many thing at the same time. For example a large
printing job in the background would not slow down your other work.
11. Security: Linux is one of the most secure Operating System. Linux user have option to
select and safely download software, free of charge from online repository containing
thousand of high quality packages. No purchase transactions requiring credit card
number and other sensitive personal information.
12. Open Source: If You develop software that require knowledge or modification of the
operating system code, Linux source code at your fingertips. Linux application open
source as well.
13.24.5 Difference between Linux and Unix
S.No. Linux Unix

1 Linux is free Unix is not free
2 Linux run on many hardware Unix is proprietary hardware bounded
platform
3 Linux is inexpensive Linux is expensive
4 Linux feels very much like Unix feel like a mainframe from the 60’s/
DOS/WINDOWS in the late 70’s
80’s/90’s
5 Linux is more of average who Unix may considered more mature in
wants to run his own server or certain areas like security, engineering
engineering workstation. application, better support for cutting edge
hardware.
6 Linux lacks in this regard because Commercial version of Unix have
of difficulty of large application historically large amount of support for
to be certified. enterprise level application such as oracle
or SAP.
7 Linux can change kindly not only Unix do not change very much from realest
between different distribution but to release.
sometimes between release of
same distribution which makes it
difficult to understand the exact
environment in which there tool
will be use.
8 The Linux code base is Unix code base do not change there fore it
constantly changing. work for longer.
13.24.6 Structure of Linux Operating System

The Linux Operating System is divided into three major components—the Kernel, the Shell
and Utilities and Application Programs.
• The-Kernel
This is the heart of the Linux Operating System. It performs the tasks that create and
maintain the Linux environment. It keeps track of the disks, tapes, printers, terminals,
communication lines and any other devices attached to the computer. It also interfaces
between the computer’s hardware and the users.
• The-Shell
This is a program that interfaces between the user and the Linux Operating System. It
listens to the user’s terminal and translates the actions requested by the user. There are
a number of different Shells that may be used. See section on The Shell.
• Utilities and Application Programs
Utilities are the Linux Commands. Application Programs, such as Word Processors,
Spreadsheets and Database Management Systems, may be installed alongside the Linux
Commands. A user may run a utility or application through the shell.
The-Shell
The-Shell is a program that provides an interpreter and interface between the user and the
Linux Operating System. It executes commands that are read either from a terminal or from a file.
Files containing commands may be created, allowing users to build their own commands. In this
manner, users may tailor Linux to their individual requirements and style.
There are a number of different Shells. Each provides a slightly different interface between
the user and the Linux Operating System. The most important shells that originated from the Unix
operating system are:
There are other shells that are less widely used and not available on many machines. For
example, there is the Restricted Shell-rsh. This restricts the area of memory the user may access
to his or her own directory, thus limiting access to all other users’ files.
All of these shell interfaces are available to Linux. However, there are other shells that have
been developed since, most generally for Linux: ash, tcsh and zsh are available on most versions
of Linux. However, the most widely used, originally Linux-based shell is the Bourne-Again shell
(bash). Based on the original Bourne shell, it has similar extensions as the Korn shell, plus its own
further extensions.
Linux also offers a windows-based shell interface, commonly known as X-Windows or
simply as X. More akin to the Mackintosh windows than Microsoft windows, it is another method
of interfacing with the Linux kernel. However, X-Windows interfaces are not considered on this
course.
A command issued by a user may be run in the present shell, or the shell itself may start
up another copy of itself in which to run that command. In this way, a user may run several
commands at the same time. A secondary shell is called a sub-shell.
When a user logs onto the System, a shell is automatically started. This will monitor the
user’s terminal, waiting for the issue of any commands. The type of shell used is stored in a file
called passwd in the subdirectory etc. (see Section 3.2). Any other shell may be run as a sub-shell
by issuing it as a command. For example, /usr/bin/ksh will run a Korn shell. The original shell
will still be running—in background mode—until the Korn shell is terminated.
Users
Linux is a multi-user operating system. Each user will require to create and access his or her
own files. These files must be secure from other users on the system. Because of this, each user
has a unique identification on a Linux system, with the option of a password to enhance security.
There are two types of user on a Linux system:
• Ordinary Users
An ordinary user has a Home Directory under which files and sub-directories are nor-
mally stored. After logging onto the system, a user is normally taken directly to that
directory.
An ordinary user is a member of a Group of users. For security reasons, files (and
directories) owned by a user may be accessed and used by the user, other members of the
user’s group and all other users at different levels of permission. For example, a file may
be read and altered by the user that owns it, may only be read by other members of the
same group and may not be accessed at all by any other user.
• Super-User
A super-user is a privileged user who has full access to all files, regardless to whoever
owns them or what their access permissions are:—
The super-user has a position of responsibility: to administer and maintain the system.
The super-user is normally known as root. root’s Home directory is the primary directory
of the system, under which all other directories and all files are stored.
E X E RC IS E S 183
E X E R C ISE S
1. E xp lain the system stru ctu re of U N IX op erating system .

2. D escribe the file and d irectory stru ctu re of U N IX .
3. D efine op erating system services.
4. H ow m any level u sed by a p rocess w hen p rocess is ru nning on U N IX system ? D escribe
in d etail.
5. D raw the block d iagram of the system kernel. A nd exp lain its w orking.
6. W hat is the p rocess and context of a p rocess? D efine p rocess states and transition.
7. W hat shou ld hap p en? If the kernel attem p ts to aw aken all p rocess sleep ing on an
event, bu t no p rocess are asleep on the event at the tim e of the w akeu p .
8. W hat is the bu ffer head er and d u ring system initialization w hy kernel allocates sp ace
for a nu m ber of bu ffers. Su p p ose the kernel d oes a d elayed w rite of a block. W hat
hap p ens w hen another p rocess takes that block from its hash qu eu e? From the free list?
9. In the algorithm getblk (A lgorithm for buffer allocation),if the kernel rem oves the bu ffer
from the free list,it m u st raise the p rocessor p riority level to block ou t interru p ts before
checking the free list. W hy?
10. Su p p ose the kernel d oes a d elayed w rite of a block. W hat hap p ens w hen another
p rocess takes that block from its hash qu eu e?
11. Find the p hysical location of byte offset 265100 in U N IX file system w hen the block size
is 2048 and rest of the architectu re rem ains u nchanged .
12. Find the largest p ossible file size in U N IX O S w hen it contains 10 d irect ad d ress,
1 single ind irect ad d ress,1 d ou ble ind irect ad d ress and no trip le ind irect.E ach ind irect
ad d ress (single and d ou ble ind irect) p oints to 1 block of 2K (2048 bytes) each. B lock
nu m bers are ad d ressable by 32 bits.
13. D escribe an algorithm that ask for and receives any free bu ffer from the bu ffer p ool.
14. W hat d o you u nd erstand by forw ard and backw ard search?
15. D efine system resp onse tim e as the average tim e it takes to com p lete a system cell.
D escribe how the bu ffer cache can help resp onse tim e. D oes it necessary help system
throu ghp u t?
183
16. W rite an algorithm getblk for bu ffer allocation.

17. D escribe how the bu ffer cache can help resp onse tim e. D oes it necessarily help system
throughp u t.
18. T he C langu age convention cou nt array from 0. W hy d o Inod e nu m bers start from 1
and not 0?
19. If a p rocess sleep in algorithm iget w hen it find s the Inod e locked in the cache, w hy
m u st it start the loop again from the beginning after w aking u p ?
20. E xp lain the three m od es of vi ed itor.
21. D escribe an algorith m th at takes an in -core In od e as in p u t an d u p d ates th e
corresp ond ing d isk Inod e.
22. D iscu ss a system im p lem entation that keep tracks of a free d isk block w ith a bit m ap
instead of a linked list of block. W hat are the ad vantage and d isad vantage of this
schem e.
23. W rite d ow n the algorithm for d isk block allocation.
24. H ow the Inod e assign to a new created file?
25. D efine the follow ing term s:
(i) File-subsystem
(ii) Z om bic state of a p rocess
(iii) U ser file d escrip tor
26. W rite the short notes on follow ing op erator:
(i) d-delete
(ii) c-change
(iii) y-yank
(iv) !-filter
27. W rite the short notes on:
(i) B oot B lock
(ii) Su p er B lock
(iii) Inod e B lock
(iv) D ata B lock
28. D esign a d irectory stru ctu re that im p rove the efficiency of searching for p ath nam e by
avoid ing the linear search.
29. D escribe the stru ctu re of a regu lar file.
30. D iscu ss the salient featu res of M em ory M anagem ent in U N IX .
31. W hat d o you m ean by System call? W rite any 10 system calls.
32. W hat d o you u nd erstand by p arent and child ren p rocess? A lso exp lain the statu s of
a p rocess.
33. D escribe the Fork() system call. W hy d oesn’t Fork retu rn the P rocess ID of the p arent
to child and retu rn zero to p arent?
EXERCISES 185
34. Discuss Unlink system call. How do you unlink an opened file?
35. Suppose a directory has read permission for a user but not execute permission. What
happens when the directory is used as a parameter to is with the "-i" option? What
about the -l option?
36. What strange things could happen if the kernel would allow two process to mount the
same file system simultaneously at two mount points?
37. When executing the command ls - ld on a directory, note that the number of link to the
directory is never 1. Why?
38. Explain in detail premature termination of a process.
39. How is /etc/passwd updated by any user, while changing his password, even though
the file does not the write permission?
40. Design an algorithm that translate virtual address to physical address, given the
virtual address and the address of the pregion entry.
41. Design an algorithm for allocating and freeing memory pages and page tables. What
data structure would allow best performance or simplest implementation?
42. Its possible to implement the system such that the kernel stack grows on top of the user
stack. Discuss the advantage and disadvantage of such an implementation.
43. Suppose a process goes to sleep and the system contains no process ready to run. What
happens when the sleeping process does its context switch?
44. What happens if the kernel issue a makeup call for all process asleep on address A,
but no process are asleep on that address at time?
45. Explain the following UNIX command for communication:
{i) news
(ii) mail
{iil) wall
(iv) write
(v) mesg
(v1) crontab
46. How the Fork 0 system call create a new process. Write an algorithm for Fork system
call.
47. Draw the process state diagram and algorithm for checking and handling signals.
48. Write shell script that prints the current date, user name and the name of your login
shell.
49. When executing the command ls -ld on a directory, the number of links of the directory
is never 1. Why?
50. When the shell creates a new process to execute a command, how does it know that
the file is executable? If it is executable, how does it distinguish between a shell script
and a file produced by a compilation? What is the correct sequence for checking the
above cases?
186 UNIX AND SHELL PROGRAMMING
51. Write a menu driven program which has the following options:
(1) Contents of I etc/ passwd
(ii) Present working Directory
(iii) Lists of users who have currently logged in
(iv) Exit
52. Illustrate the development of open general public licence in case of Linux OS. Give the
history of development of Linux Operating System.
53. The algos iget and iput do not require the processor execution level to be raised to block
out interrupt what this imply.
54. Describe the implementation of the kill system call.
55. A process check for signal when it enters or leave the sleep state and when it returns
to user mode from the kernel after completion of a system call or after handling a
interrupt. Why does the process not have to check for signals when entering the system
for execution of a system call?
56. Explain the security problem that exist if a setuid program is not write-protected.
57. If Anoop uses su command to become a super user, he can't execute any of the shell
script in his directory. Explain with reason.
58. Explain the use of following shell variables: $#, $*, $@ and $.
59. Write a shell script that reports in descending order of their size, name and size of all
files whose size exceeds 40 bytes in a specific directory (Supplied as an argument).
Total number of search files is also displayed.
60. Mention different grep family of commands and explain each one of them very briefly.
Is it possible to use multiple search pattern with all the grep family of commands.
61. Write a shell script that would pickup all 'C' program files from the current directory
and add the extension ·.CPP' at the end of each such file.
62. Write sed command to count the number of students born in the year 1977 from the
database.
63. Discuss how one can input insert text before the contents of input file using sed.
64. When the shell create a new process to execute a command. How does it know that
the file is executable? If its executable how does it distinguish between a shell script
and a file produce by a compilation? What is the correct sequence for checking the
above case?
65. What is the function of following UNIX commands? Explain with example by writing
proper syntax of these command:
(1) tr.
(ii) awk
(iii) grep, egrep, fgrep
(iv) finger
(v) batch
E X E RC IS E S 187
(vi) bc
(vii) sort
(viii) cu t
(ix) copy
(x) um ask
66. W hat d o you u nd erstand by m ou nting and u nm ou nting a file system in U N IX ? H ow
is this achieved ?
67. W hat are the basic fu nction of shell? D iscu ss d ifferent typ es of shell u sed in U N IX O S.
68. W hat is shell p rogram m ing? W rite a shell scrip t for tacking the backu p in U N IX .
69. W hat is the m eaning of p assw ord file and grou p file? W rite the d ifferent entries existing
in these files.
70. E xp lain the case statem ent in U N IX .
71. W rite the algorithm for p rocess sched u ling. W rite the sched u ling p aram eter.
72. W rite the algorithm for client p rocess and receiving m essage.
73. H ow the shared m em ory attach once or tw ice to a p rocess?
74. D escribe the sockets m od el in d etail.
75. W hat is the p roblem of a m u ltip rocessor system ? H ow it can be solved w ith m aster and
slave p rocessor and w ith sem ap hore?
76. D escribe the L inu x stru ctu re and also d efine the featu re of L inu x.
77. W hat are the sp ecials bu ilt in p attern in aw k? D escribe these p atterns.
78. W hat are the ad vantage of d elayed w rite m echanism ?
79. W rite an algorithm for allocation of a bu ffer for a block. Trace you r algorithm for all
the p ossible variation in inp u t d ata.
80. W hat are the contents of a incore inod e and w hat ad d itional inform ation is to be stored
in in-core inod e and w hy?
81. G ive the layou t of the U N IX system m em ory. D escribe each section.
82. W rite d ow n the secu rity featu res of U N IX .
83. W hat are aw k p atterns? D escribe B E G IN and E N D p atterns.
84. D escribe in brief any one techniqu e of p rocess synchronization u sed in U N IX .
85. W hat are p ip es? D ifferentiate betw een nam ed and u nnam ed p ip es.
86. D escribe how w rite system calls w ork. W hat are its inp u t p aram eters and retu rns
inform ation. D escribe w ith the help of algorithm .
87. D iscu ss the stru ctu re of a regu lar file. H ow byte offset can be converted into a block
nu m ber give algorithm ?
88. W rite short notes on:
(i) Featu res of linu x
(ii) D evice D eliver
(iii) M ou nting of a file system
(iv) L im itation/ p roblem s of m u ltip rocessor system .

(v) Flavors of L inu x
89. H ow w ill you rep lace the string “L inu x” by “R ed H at L inu x”?
90. E xp lain L ists, A rrays and L ashe’s in p erl. H ow can you obtain the follow ing:
(i) O nly keys in associative arrays
(ii) O nly valu es in associative arrays
(iii) D elete an elem ent from associative arrays
(iv) Insert an elem ent from associative arrays
91. W rite a sed sequ ence to find ou t the nu m ber of occu rrences of a p attern in a file.
92. D iscu ss the stru ctu re of aw k scrip t. E xp lain the op erational m echanism of aw k.
M ention d ifferent aw k p rint fu nction and list the d ifferences in their behaviou r, if any
betw een them .
93. W hat are associative arrays? A file books list hold s the nu m ber of books sold in
d ifferent engineering d iscip line p er m onth.W rite aw k scrip t that find s total nu m ber of
books sold in each of the d iscip lines as w ell as total nu m ber of books sold .
94. H ow w ill you rem ove all trailing sp aces from a file?
95. U se sed to insert tw o sp aces at the beginning of each line.
96. P rint the string “A noop ” 15 tim es w ithou t u sing the loop .
97. W hat is p erl p rogram m ing? W rite a p erl scrip t to convert binary nu m ber (su p p lied as
argu m ent) to d ecim al.
98. Find ou t the occu rrences of tw o consecu tives and id entical w ord character (like aa or
b b ) u sing (i) grep (ii) sed (iii) p erl.
99. W rite a p erl scrip t to p rint lines in reverse ord er.
100. E xp lain L inu x secu rity featu res.
INDEX
A Comments in awk Programs. 129

®ARGV and %ENV. 160 Control Codes, 167
Allocation of Disk Block, 46 Crossing Mount Points, 63
Array Iteration. 162 C-Shell, 103
Arrays -®, 157
Awa iting Process Termination, 85 D
awk, 128 Data Blocks, 13
Datagram, 98
B Date Command, 107
Block Addressing Scheme, 13 Direct and Indirect block, 38
Block read ahead, 32 Disk controller. 31
Boolean expression , 110 Disk !nodes, 35
Boot Block, 12 Dup, 60
Bourne Shell, 103
Buffer Cache. 23 E
Buffer Headers. 23 Environment Variable, 113
Buffer, 10, 36
F
Built-in Functions, 140
Built-in Variables, 134 Features of UNIX, 3
File Creation, 56
c File Input, 163
Character Codes, 166 File system layout, 12
Clear Command, 108 ForkO. 83
Closing pipes, 59 Freeing a Block. 47
18.9
190 U NIX AND SHELL PROGRAMMING
G p
Getline, 137 @_Parameters, 170
Grep Family, 116 Pattern Matching, 112
Per Process Region Table. 18
H Perl, 148
How to Run awk Programs? 129 Perl ChopO Function, 150
Hash Arrays-%, 159 Perl Script, 149
Perl- $_ and @_, 156
I
PERL- Arithmetic Operators. 152
lncore Copy of inode, 35 PERL- Assignment Operators. 153
!nodes, 13 PERL-Logical and Relational Operators, 154
Internal and External Command, 105
Pipes, 58
Interrupts and Exceptions. 8 Process, 15
Process Creation, 83
K
Process Data Structure, 17
Kernel Data Structure, 21. 71
Process State and Transitions, 18, 70
Knoppix, 180
Process Table, 17
Korn Shell, 103
Process Termination, 89
Process Tracing, 90
L
Process Tree and Sharing Pi pes. 59
Layout of System Memory, 72
Link, 66
R
Linux, 177
Race condition in assigning inodes, 45
Linux Distributions, J78
Read. 50
Linux Operating System, 181
A Reader and A Writer Process. 53
Loops in awk, 131
Region Table, 17
LSeek, 54
Relation expression. 110
Remembered Inode, 43
M
Remove file and directory. I 06
Messages, 92
mknod, 56
s
Mount, 61
Scenarios for retrieval of a Buffer. 25
Multiprocessor Systems, 99
Sed, 171
Semaphores, 95, 102
0
Shared Memory, 93
Open, 49
Shell Programming, 117
INDEX 191
Shell. 88. 103 System Calls. 49

Sleep and Wait, 120 System V IPC, 91
Sleep and Wakeup, 20
Sleep, 77 T
Sockets, 97 The X Window System, 178
Startup and Cleanup Actions, 132 Tree Structure of UNIX O.S. 5
Stat and Fstat, 57 Types of Shell, 2
String Processing, 165
Strings, 150
u
U-Area, 17, 72, 75
Structure of UNIX System,
Subroutines. 169 UNLINK, 68
Super Block, 12 Unmounting, 65
System Administration, 21 user-10, 86
System Calls and Libraries, 9

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UNIX AND SHELL PROGRAMMING

UNIX AND SHELL

ANOOP CHATURVEDI B.L. RAI

UNIVERSITY SCIENCE PRESS

C opyrigh t © 2011 by L axm i P u blication s P vt. L td . A ll righ ts reserved w ith

F irst E d ition : 2011

1. INTRODUCTION TO UNIX 1-·6

2. OPERATING SYSTEM SERVICES 7-11

3. FILE SYSTEM 12-22

4. BUFFER CACHE 23-30

5. READING AND WRITING DISK BLOCKS 31-41

6. INODE ASSIGNMENT TO A NEW FILE 42-48

7. SYSTEM CALLS 49-69

8. STRUCTURE OF A PROCESS 70-82

9. PROCESS CONTROL 83-89

10. INTER-PROCESS COMMUNICATION 90-96

11. SOCKETS 97-102

12. UNIX COMMAND 103-127

13. AWK AND PERL PROGRAMMING 128-182

13.6 Loops in awk 131

Exercises 183 - 188

T h e U N IX system w as first described in a 1974 paper in th e C om m u n ication of th e A C M

It is m y pleasu re to ackn ow ledge th e assistan ce of m an y frien ds an d colleagu es w h o

1.1.2 Structure of UNIX System

Kernel → This is the name of UNIX Operating System.

1.2 TYPES OF SHELL

1.3 FEATURES OF UNIX

Host M/c Modem

1.4 HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF UNIX O.S.

bin der etc home mnt stand dmp user

loginsal prags safe

( a)) Full Path Name

( b)) Partial Path Name

( c ) Relative Path Name

2.1 ASSUMPTION ABOUT H/W—LEVEL OF UNIX SYSTEM

2.1.2 Interrupts and Exceptions

1. Internal to process 1. Externel to process

2.2 PROCESSOR EXECUTION LEVEL

Terminals Lower Priority

2.3 ARCHITECTURE OF UNIX O.S.

2.3.1 System Calls and Libraries

System call Interface

Fig. 2.3 Block diagram of system kernel

2.3.3 Device Drivers

2.3.4 Process Control Subsystem

2.3.5 H/W Control

Boot Block Super Block Inode Blocks Data Block

3.1 FILE SYSTEM LAYOUT

3.1.1 Contents of an Inode

3.1.2 Logical and Physical Blocks

3.2 BLOCK ADDRESSING SCHEME

Inode Modi. Time

Fig. 3.1 Inode structure

Fig. 3.2 File descriptor, file table, inode table

3.2.1 File Table

User File Descriptor Table

LOCAL hat Direction of

Ret addr after write call

new Frame (3)