[OSTEP] 1. Introduction to Operating Systems

ch1 ~ 2: 인트로

2024.07.16.

Three pieces

virtualization
concurrency
persistence

In learning about these three pieces, we'll learn about

how an operantion system works
how OS decides what program to run next on a CPU
how OS handles memory overload in a virtual memory system
how virtual machine monitors work
how to manage information on disks
how to build a distributed system that works when parts have failed

Introduction to Operating Systems

What happens when a program runs?
- It executes instructions.
  1. Fetch : The processor fetches an instruction from memory.
  2. Decode : i.e., figure out which instruction this is
  3. Execute : i.e., add two numbers, access memory, check a condition, jump to function, and so forth.
- and the processor moves on to the next instruction and so on until the program completes.

Operating System

There is a body of software(= operating system, OS) which is responsible for

making it easy to run programs
allowing to share memory
enabling programs to interact with devices

Virtualization

The primary way the OS does things above.
virtual machine: the OS takes a physical resource and transforms it into a virtual form of itself.
- physical resource : i.e., processor, memory, disk, etc.
- virtual form : more general, powerful, easy-to-use
- thus we sometimes refer OS as a virtual machine
system calls: interfaces provided by the OS in order to allow users to tell the OS what to do and thus make use of the features of the virtual machine.
- we sometimes say that the OS provies a standard library to applications.
resource manager : the OS's role is to manage resourses(CPU, memory, disk) efficiently or fairly or other possible goals in mind.
- sharing the CPU → allows many programs to run
- sharing memory → allows many program to comcurrently access their own instructions and data
- sharing disks → allows many programs to access devices

1. Virtualizing The CPU

Example

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include "common.h"

int
main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
	if (argc != 2) {
		fprintf(stderr, "usage: cpu <string>\n");
		exit(1);

	}
	char* str = argv[1];
	while (1) {
		Spin(1);
		printf("%s\n", str);

	}
	return 0;
}

Figure 2.1: Simple Example: Code That Loops And Prints (cpu.c)

This program repeatedly checks the time and returns once it has run for a second. Then, it prints out the string that the user passed in on the command line, and repeats, forever.
Let's run this file on a system with a single processor the result will be like
```
prompt> gcc -o cpu cpu.c -Wall
prompt> ./cpu "A"
A
A
A
A
ˆC
prompt>
```
and this program will run forever until we press "Control-c" to halt the program.
Let's do more complicated example
```
prompt> ./cpu A & ./cpu B & ./cpu C & ./cpu D &
[1] 7353
[2] 7354
[3] 7355
[4] 7356
A
B
D
C
A
B
D
C
A
...
```
Even though we have only one processor, all four of programs seem to be running at the same time.

⇒ virtualiziing the CPU = the OS turns a single CPU (or small set of them) into a seemingly infinite number of CPUs and thus allowing many programs to seemingly run at once

2. Virtualizing Memory

(Physical) Memory

an array of bytes
- to read memory : one must specify an address to be able to access the data sotred there
- to write(update) memory : one muse specify the data to be written to the given address
memory is accessed all the time when a program is running.
- program keeps all of its data structures in memory
- each instruction of the program is in memory → memory is accessed on each insstruction fetch

Example

#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "common.h"

int
main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
	int* p = malloc(sizeof(int)); // a1
	assert(p != NULL);
	printf("(%d) address pointed to by p: %p\n",
		getpid(), p); // a2
	*p = 0; // a3
	while (1) {
		Spin(1);
		*p = *p + 1;
		printf("(%d) p: %d\n", getpid(), *p); // a4
	}
	return 0;
}

Figure 2.3: A Program That Accesses Memory (mem.c)

a1 : allocate some memory
a2 : print out the address of the memory
a3 : put the number zero into the first slot of the newly allocated memory
a4 : loop, delaying for a second and incrementing the value stored at the address held in p.
in every print statement, there is process identifier(the PID) of the running program.

The output

prompt> ./mem
(2134) address pointed to by p: 0x200000
(2134) p: 1
(2134) p: 2
(2134) p: 3
(2134) p: 4
(2134) p: 5
ˆC

The newly allocated memory is at address 0x200000
It updates the value and prints out the result

Running mem.c multiple times

prompt> ./mem &; ./mem &
[1] 24113
[2] 24114
(24113) address pointed to by p: 0x200000
(24114) address pointed to by p: 0x200000
(24113) p: 1
(24114) p: 1
(24114) p: 2
(24113) p: 2
(24113) p: 3
(24114) p: 3
(24113) p: 4
(24114) p: 4
...

It is as if each program has its own private memory.
Each program allocated memory at the same address, but updated the value at the address independently.

Each process accesses its own private virtual address space (address space)

the OS maps address space onto the physical memory of the machine
A memory reference within one running program does not affect the address space of other processes

3. Concurrency

refers a host of problems when working on many things at once (i.e., concurrently) in the same program
the problems of concurrency are not limited to the OS: modern multi-threaded programs exhibit the same problems

Example

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "common.h"

volatile int counter = 0;
int loops;

void* worker(void* arg) {
	int i;
	for (i = 0; i < loops; i++) {
		counter++;

	}
	return NULL;

}

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
	if (argc != 2) {
		fprintf(stderr, "usage: threads <value>\n");
		exit(1);

	}
	loops = atoi(argv[1]);
	pthread_t p1, p2;
	printf("Initial value : %d\n", counter);

	Pthread_create(&p1, NULL, worker, NULL);
	Pthread_create(&p2, NULL, worker, NULL);
	Pthread_join(p1, NULL);
	Pthread_join(p2, NULL);
	printf("Final value : %d\n", counter);
	return 0;

}

Figure 2.5: A Multi-threaded Program (threads.c)

main program creates to threads
each thread starts running in a routeine called worker(), in which it simply increments a counter in a loop for loops number of times

prompt> ./thread 100000
Initial value : 0
Final value : 143012 // huh??
prompt> ./thread 100000
Initial value : 0
Final value : 137298 // what the??

these odd and unusual outcomes relate to how instructions are executed.
1. load the value of the counter from memory into a register
2. increment it
3. store it back into memeory
these three instructions do not execute atomically (all at once) → problem of concurrency happen

4. Persistence

We need hardware and software to be able to store data persistently
- hardware: I/O device; hard drive, solid-state drive(SSD)
- software: file system

Example

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/types.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
	int fd = open("/tmp/file", O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC,
		S_IRWXU);
	assert(fd > -1);
	int rc = write(fd, "hello world\n", 13);
	assert(rc == 13);
	close(fd);
	return 0;
}

Figure 2.6: A Program That Does I/O (io.c)

code to create a file (/tmp/file) that contains the string “hello world”, making three calls into the OS.
1. open(): opens the file and creates it
2. write(): writes some data to the file
3. close(): closes the file thus indicating the program won't be writing any more data to it.

5. Design Goals

OS does:
1. takes physical resources such as a CPU, memory or disk
2. virtualizes them
3. handles tough and tricky issues related to concurrency
4. stores files persistently
Design goals
1. Build up some abstractions
  - Make the system convenient and easy to use
2. Provide high performance
  - = Minimize the overheads of the OS
  - provide virtualization and other OS features without excessive overheads.
3. Provide protection between applications or the OS and applications
  - isolation; isolating processes from one another is the key to protection
4. Provide a high degree of reliability
  - OS must run non-stop
5. energy0efficiency
6. security
7. mobility

Table Of Contents

Three pieces

Introduction to Operating Systems

Operating System

Virtualization

1. Virtualizing The CPU

Example

2. Virtualizing Memory

(Physical) Memory

Example

3. Concurrency

Example

4. Persistence

Example

5. Design Goals