|
|
|
Modern Operating Systems by Herbert Bos and Andrew S. Tanenb...
Modern_Operating_Systems_by_Herbert_Bos_and_Andrew_S._Tanenbaum_4th_Ed.pdf
Showing 1041 out of 1137
Modern Operating Systems by Herbert Bos and Andrew...
Modern_Operating_Systems_by_Herbert_Bos_and_Andrew_S._Tanenbaum_4th_Ed.pdf-M ODERN O PERATING S YSTEMS
Modern Operating Systems by Herbert...
Modern_Operating_Systems_by_Herbert_Bos_and_Andrew_S._Tanenbaum_4th_Ed.pdf-M ODERN O PERATING S YSTEMS
Page 1041
1010
OPERATING SYSTEM DESIGN
CHAP. 12
Check for Errors First
Many system calls can fail for a variety of reasons: the file to be opened be-
longs to someone else; process creation fails because the process table is full; or a
signal cannot be sent because the target process does not exist. The operating sys-
tem must painstakingly check for every possible error before carrying out the call.
Many system calls also require acquiring resources such as process-table slots,
i-node table slots, or file descriptors.
A general piece of advice that can save a lot
of grief is to first check to see if the system call can actually be carried out before
acquiring any resources. This means putting all the tests at the beginning of the
procedure that executes the system call. Each test should be of the form
if (error
condition) return(ERROR
CODE);
If the call gets all the way through the gamut of tests, then it is certain that it will
succeed. At that point resources can be acquired.
Interspersing the tests with resource acquisition means that if some test fails
along the way, all resources acquired up to that point must be returned.
If an error
is made here and some resource is not returned, no damage is done immediately.
For example, one process-table entry may just become permanently unavailable.
No big deal.
However, over a period of time, this bug may be triggered multiple
times. Eventually, most or all of the process-table entries may become unavailable,
leading to a system crash in an extremely unpredictable and difficult-to-debug way.
Many systems suffer from this problem in the form of memory leaks. Typi-
cally, the program calls
malloc
to allocate space but forgets to call
free
later to re-
lease it. Ever so gradually, all of memory disappears until the system is rebooted.
Engler et al. (2000) have proposed a way to check for some of these errors at
compile time. They observed that the programmer knows many invariants that the
compiler does not know, such as when you lock a mutex, all paths starting at the
lock must contain an unlock and no more locks of the same mutex. They have de-
vised a way for the programmer to tell the compiler this fact and instruct it to
check all the paths at compile time for violations of the invariant. The programmer
can also specify that allocated memory must be released on all paths and many
other conditions as well.
12.4 PERFORMANCE
All things being equal, a fast operating system is better than a slow one. How-
ever, a fast unreliable operating system is not as good as a reliable slow one. Since
complex optimizations often lead to bugs, it is important to use them sparingly.
This notwithstanding, there are places where performance is critical and optimiza-
tions are worth the effort. In the following sections, we will look at some tech-
niques that can be used to improve performance in places where that is called for.
Ace your assessments! Get Better Grades
Browse thousands of Study Materials & Solutions from your Favorite Schools
Concordia University
Concordia_University
School:
Operating_Systems
Course:
Great resource for chem class. Had all the past labs and assignments
Leland P.
Santa Clara University
Introducing Study Plan
Using AI Tools to Help you understand and remember your course concepts better and faster than any other resource.
Find the best videos to learn every concept in that course from Youtube and Tiktok without searching.
Save All Relavent Videos & Materials and access anytime and anywhere
Prepare Smart and Guarantee better grades
Know more
Students also viewed documents
lab 18.docx
lab_18.docx
Course
Course
3
Module5QuizSTA2023.d...
Module5QuizSTA2023.docx.docx
Course
Course
10
Week 7 Test Math302....
Week_7_Test_Math302.docx.docx
Course
Course
30
Chapter 1 Assigment ...
Chapter_1_Assigment_Questions.docx.docx
Course
Course
5
Week 4 tests.docx.do...
Week_4_tests.docx.docx
Course
Course
23
Week 6 tests.docx.do...
Week_6_tests.docx.docx
Course
Course
106
