In
computer science, very common term is to hear is Operating system and after listening operating system the question
arises what an operating system does and what services an operating system
gives. So, I’m here writing this post to discuss these about operating
system.
First of all you all should know what is an operating system?
Definition
says that an operating system is like an interface in the form of software (system
software) between user (end – user) and
hardware.
From
definition of an operating system we can say that it does all the things we are
interacting in a computer system.
Here
especially I’m focusing on what services an operating system give to the user
and the programs used by the user in a computer system.
Program Execution
When
a program is going to execute then an operating system has to load that program
into memory so it would execute normally or shows an error. This is the service
to load program into memory for execution.
File System Manipulation
Operating
system provides service to program which is using file system for writing into
and reading from files. Other operations handled by operating system on files
are deleting and creating files.
I/O Operation
We
know that programs running in a computer system could ask for file or i/o
operations so these operations can’t be handle by user directly without the
help of operating system.
Communication
In a
computer system a program or process could ask for information which is using
by any another process at that time. So former process needs to communicate
with later process, these operations are also handled by an operating system. Communication
can also of two types:-
In
first case, both processes are on a same computer system.
In second
case, both processes are on different computer systems and these computers are
linked through a computer network. So communication can be made through shared
memory or by message passing mechanism i.e. data packets having information are
moved from one place to another.
Error Detection
The
operating system constantly needs to be aware of possible errors. Error may
occur in the CPU and memory hardware (such as memory error or power failure),
in I/O devices (such as connection failure on a network or lack of paper in the
printer) and in the user program (such as more use of CPU time, to access illegal
memory location). For each type of error the operating system should take the
appropriate action to ensure correct and consisting computing.
Resources Allocation
When
there are multiple users or multiple jobs running at the same time instant,
resources must be allocated to each of them. Different type of resources such
as CPU cycles, main memory, files storage, I/O devices are managed by the
operating system.
Security
Security
of the system from unauthorized users is also an important service provided by
an operating system. Such security starts with each user having to authenticate
him to the system by the means of a password to be allowed to access the
resources. Security must also provide backup and recovery routines for starting
over in the event of a system failure.
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