Ch. 12 MS-DOS Operating System

1. Ch. 12 MS-DOS Operating System • History • Design Goals • Memory Management • Processor Management • Device Management • File Management • User Interface • Additional Commands

2. MS-DOS, PC-DOS or DOS • Developed to run single-user, stand-alone desktop computers. • Exemplifies early OS because it manages jobs sequentially from single user. • Advantages: fundamental operation & straightforward user commands. • Disadvantages: • Lack of flexibility & limited ability to meet needs of programmers & experienced users. • Written for a single family of microprocessors (Intel family of chips: 8086, 8088, 80186, and 80286).

3. History of DOS

4. Design Goals • Accommodate single novice user in single-process environment. • Standard I/O support includes keyboard, monitor, printer, & secondary storage unit. • User commands are based on English words/phrases indicative of action to be performed. • Commands are interpreted by command processor. • Layering approach “protects” user from hardware.

5. First 2 DOS Layers : BIOS & Kernel • BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) -- interfaces directly with various I/O devices. • Device drivers (control flow of data to/from each device). • Receives status info about success/failure of each I/O operation & passes it on to the processor. • DOS kernel -- routines needed to interface with the disk drives. • Read into memory at initialization time from MSDOS.SYS file on boot disk. • Accessed by application programs. • Provides collection of hardware-independent services, such as memory management, & file & record management (system functions).

6. Third DOS Layer : Command Processor 3. Command processor (shell) -- sends prompts to user, accepts commands, executes commands, & issues appropriate responses. • Resides in a file called COMMAND.COM, which consists of 2 parts stored in 2 different sections of main memory. • Not interpretive. • MS-DOS Version 4.0 -- menu-driven DOS shell. • OS/2 -- designed to replace MS-DOS. • In its heyday, MS-DOS ran enormous collection of software packages making it difficult to discontinue.

7. DOS Memory Manager • Relatively simple job because it’s managing single job for single user. • Uses a first-fit memory allocation scheme since it is most efficient strategy in a single-user environment. • Main memory: • Read Only Memory (ROM) -- very small in size & contains program, section of BIOS, with sole task of starting up system (bootstrapping). • Retrieves remaining resident OS & loads it into RAM. • Random Access Memory (RAM) -- where programs are loaded and executed.

8. RAM Layout for 1MB of Memory Reserved for BIOS 1M Unused 640K Transient part of Command.COM Transient program Area (user memory) TSR programs Resident part of Command.COM Installable Drivers Buffer Cache MS-DOS Kernel BIOS Interface Interrupt Vectors 0

9. DOS Main Memory Allocation • First versions had simple contiguous memory allocation scheme that gave all available memory to resident application program. • Applications couldn’t dynamically allocate memory blocks. • Version 2.0, MS-DOS support dynamic allocation, modification, & release of main memory blocks by applications. • Amount of memory each application owns depends on type of file from which program is loaded & size of TPA. • Programs.COM -- given all of TPA, whether or not they need it. • Programs.EXE -- given amount of memory they need. • Except for COM files, there can be any number of files in TPA at one time.

10. Memory Block Allocation • Allocates memory by using first-fit algorithm & linked list of memory blocks. • With Version 3.3, use best-fit or last-fit strategy. • With last-fit, allocates highest addressable memory block big enough to satisfy program’s request. • Size of a block can vary from 16 bytes (paragraph) to maximum available memory.

11. First 5 Bytes of Memory Block Define Block’s Structural Characteristics

12. Busy Free Busy Free Busy Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block 4 Block 5 Free/Busy Block List • Whenever request for memory comes in, DOS looks through free/busy block list to find free block that fits. • If list becomes disconnected, system stops & must be rebooted. • Well-designed application program releases memory block it no longer needs.

13. Process Management • MS-DOS wasn’t written in reentrant code because it was designed for a single-user, single-task environment. • Reentrant code is basis for multitasking. • Programs can’t break out of middle of DOS internal routine & restart routine from somewhere else. • There's no interleaving & no need for sophisticated algorithms or policies to determine which job will run next or for how long. • Some software programs give illusion that two jobs can run together. • E.g., Microsoft Windows versions 1.0 to 3.0. • Possible because MS-DOS interrupt handlers give programmers capability to save all info about parent program that allows its proper restart after child program finishes.

14. Interrupt Handlers Are Responsible for Synchronizing Processes • PC has 256 interrupts & interrupt handlers, & they are accessed via interrupt vector table residing in lowest bytes of memory. • Internal hardware interrupts -- generated by certain events occurring during program’s execution (e.g., division by zero). • External hardware interrupts -- caused by peripheral device controllers or by coprocessors & assigned by manufacturers. • Software interrupts -- generated by system & application programs to access DOS & BIOS functions, which, in turn, access system resources. • Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) -- a process without releasing its memory, thus providing memory-resident programming facilities.

15. Device Management • Ability to reorder requests to optimize seek & search time is not feature because it’s designed for a single-user environment. • All requests are handled on a first-come first-served basis. • Version 3.0 BIOS can support spooling so users can schedule several files to be printed one after the other. • MS-DOS written for simple systems using keyboard, monitor, printer, mouse, 1-2 serial ports, & maybe second printer. • Use one of each type of I/O device for each port, so no device channels. • Devices do not require special management from OS. • Device drivers are only items needed by Device Manager to make system work.

16. File Name Conventions • File name consists of : • Drive name (usually A, B, C, or D) is followed by a colon (:). • Directories/subdirectories are 1-8 characters long & preceded by back slash (\). • Primary file name is 1-8 characters long. • Period. • Extension is 1-3 characters long with possible special meaning. • Relative name --primary name & extension, if used. • Absolute name -- drive designation & directory location (path) followed by its relative name.

17. Managing Files • Earliest versions of MS-DOS kept every file in a single directory. • Version 2.0 implemented hierarchical directory structure. • Inverted tree directory structure. • When disk is formatted its tracks divided into sectors of 512 bytes. • 2-8 sectors are grouped into clusters & that's how File Manager allocates space to files. • Supports hidden files—files that are executable but not displayed in response to DIR commands.

18. FORMAT Creates Three Special Areas on Disk • Boot record -- first sector of every logical disk & contains disk boot program & table of disk's characteristics. • Root directory -- where system begins its interaction with user. Lists system’s primary subdirectories & files (name, extension, size, date & time of modification, starting cluster #, file attribute codes). • FAT (File Allocation Table) -- contains status info about disk’s sectors: which are allocated, which are free, and which can’t be allocated because of formatting errors.

19. Managing Files in DOS • Looks at data in a disk file as a continuous string of bytes. • I/O operations request data by relative byte (relative to beginning of file) rather than by relative sector. • Transformation from physical sector to relative byte address is done by File Manager. • Supports noncontiguous file storage & dynamically allocates disk space to a file, provided there’s enough disk room. • Compaction (MS-DOS Version 6.0) available via utility used to defragment disk (DEFRAG.EXE). • CHKDSK command used to determine need for compaction. • Restricting user access to computer system & resources isn’t built into MS-DOS.

20. User Interface • Command-driven operating system. • When user presses Enter key, shell (COMMAND.COM) interprets command & calls on next lower level routine to satisfy request. • User commands include some or all of these elements in this order: command source-file destination-file switches

22. Batch Files & Redirection • By creating customized batch files, users can quickly execute combinations of DOS commands to configure their system, perform routine tasks, or make it easier for non-technical users to run software. • MS-DOS can redirect output from one standard input or output device to another. command > destination

23. Filter Commands (SORT, MORE) • Filter commands accept input from default device, manipulate data in some fashion, & send results to default output device. • SORT accepts input from keyboard, sorts that data, & displays it on screen.   • Sort the file by column. • MORE causes output to be displayed on screen in groups of 24 lines, one screen at a time, & waits until user presses Enter key before displaying next 24 lines.

24. Pipe • Cause standard output from one command to be used as standard input to another command. • Symbol is a vertical bar, |. • Alphabetically sort directory & display sorted list on screen: DIR | SORT • Combine pipes and other filters. TYPE INVENTRY.DAT | MORE   MORE < INVENTRY.DAT DIR | SORT | MORE DIR | SORT > SORTFILE MORE < SORTFILE

25. Other Commands • FIND -- filter command that searches for specific string in given file or files & displays all lines that contain string from those files. • PRINT -- allows user to set up series of files for printing while freeing up COMMAND.COM to accept other commands.