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File System Summary

Operating systems provide a file system
  • as an abstraction over physical storage devices (e.g. disks)
  • providing named access to chunks of related data (files)
  • providing access (sequential/random) to the contents of files
  • allowing files to be arranged in a hierarchy of directories
  • providing control over access to files and directories
  • managing other meta-data associated with files (size, location, ...)

Operating systems also manage other resources
  • memory,  processes,  processor time,  i/o devices,  networking, ...