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Unit 2: Evolution of Operating System

2.5.3 File System Manipulation Notes

The output of a program may need to be written into new files or input taken from some files.
The operating system provides this service.
The user need not have to worry about secondary storage management. User gives a command
for reading or writing to a file and sees his/her task accomplished. Thus, operating system
makes it easier for user programs to accomplish their task.
This service also involves secondary storage management. The speed of I/O that depends on
secondary storage management is critical to the speed of many programs. Therefore, it is left to
the operating systems to manage it rather than giving individual users the control of it.

Figure 2.16: File Management System

2.5.4 Communications

The processes need to communicate with each other to exchange information. It can be between
the processes those are running on the same computer or running on the different computers.
By providing this service the operating system relieves the user of the worry of passing messages
between processes. In case where the messages need to be passed to processes on the other
computers through a network it can be done by the user programs. The user program may be
customized to the specifics of the hardware through which the message transits and provides the
service interface to the operating system.

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