Operating Systems, unit: File Systems and I/O. Core concepts, terminology, and worked-example cues a college student meets for this unit, building on prior units without repeating them. Front: a term, concept, or short problem cue. Back: the definition, explanation, or answer.
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- What is a file system?
- The OS component that organizes and manages how data is stored and retrieved on storage devices
- What is a file?
- A named collection of related data stored persistently on a storage device
- What is a directory (folder)?
- A file system structure that organizes files and other directories hierarchically
- What is a file's metadata?
- Information about a file, such as its size, creation date, and permissions, separate from its actual contents
- What is an inode, in Unix-like file systems?
- A data structure storing a file's metadata and pointers to its data blocks
- What is file allocation, in terms of how data blocks are stored?
- The method the file system uses to assign disk blocks to a file's contents
- What is contiguous file allocation?
- Storing a file's data in consecutive blocks on disk
- What is linked file allocation?
- Storing a file's data blocks scattered on disk, each block pointing to the next
- What is indexed file allocation?
- Using a separate index block that lists all the data blocks belonging to a file
- What is a file allocation table (FAT)?
- A table-based file system structure tracking which disk clusters belong to which files
- What is journaling, in the context of file systems?
- Recording planned changes in a log before applying them, to help recover from crashes
- What is file system fragmentation?
- A file's data becoming scattered across non-contiguous areas of the disk over time
- What are file permissions?
- Rules determining who can read, write, or execute a given file
- What is the difference between a hard link and a symbolic link?
- A hard link points directly to the same data on disk; a symbolic link is a pointer to a file's path
- What is I/O (input/output)?
- The communication between a computer system and the outside world, including storage and peripheral devices
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