Unix Operating System
Abstract
This paper is a general overview of Unix operating system. It starts by presenting a brief history of the early development of Unix. It concentrates on main aspects of Unix operating system. Key concepts covered are interactive multi-user operating systems, the design objectives of Unix, file-store organization, text processing and programming, the role of C programming language with regard to portability and reliable system software, process control (signals and fork), error logging and recovery from system failures, modifiability and application.
Outline
I. Introduction of Unix
a. History of Unix
b. Interest in Unix
c. Early marketing
d. Developments
i. GUI ii. Linux
1. Linus Torvalds
II. The Design Objectives of Unix, File-store Organization, Text Processing, and Programming.
a. Benefits of text files
b. Unix shell
c. Unix goals
III. The Role of the C Programming Language with Regard to Portability and Reliable System Software
a. Typeless language
b. Important features of C
IV. Process Control: Signals and Fork
a. State of a process
b. Unix event handling sequence
c. Non-Unix event handling
d. Unix process control allows maximum flexibility
V. Error Logging and Recovery From System Failures
a. Unix recovery features
b. Advantages of recovery procedures
VI. Modifiability and Application Programmer Interface (API).
a. Platform dependency
VII. The User's Perspective on Unix.
VIII. Bibliography
I. Introduction
Strictly speaking, UNIX (in capitals) has been a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories (first owned by AT&T, then sold, in 1993, to Novell, Inc., then sold, in 1995, to SCO). The Open Group currently owns the Unix® Trademark. But the word "Unix" has also come to refer to a collection of very closely related operating systems (e.g. AT&T UNIX System V, BSD 4.3 Unix, Sun Microsystems' Solaris, Silicon Graphic's Irix, DEC/Compaq Tru-64 Unix, IBM's AIX, Hewlett-Packard's HP Unix, FreeBSD, NetBSD, SCO UNIX, Minix, Linux, and many others)
This paper is a general overview of Unix operating system. It starts by presenting a brief history of the early development of Unix. It concentrates on main aspects of Unix operating system. Key concepts covered are interactive multi-user operating systems, the design objectives of Unix, file-store organization, text processing and programming, the role of C programming language with regard to portability and reliable system software, process control (signals and fork), error logging and recovery from system failures, modifiability and application.
Outline
I. Introduction of Unix
a. History of Unix
b. Interest in Unix
c. Early marketing
d. Developments
i. GUI ii. Linux
1. Linus Torvalds
II. The Design Objectives of Unix, File-store Organization, Text Processing, and Programming.
a. Benefits of text files
b. Unix shell
c. Unix goals
III. The Role of the C Programming Language with Regard to Portability and Reliable System Software
a. Typeless language
b. Important features of C
IV. Process Control: Signals and Fork
a. State of a process
b. Unix event handling sequence
c. Non-Unix event handling
d. Unix process control allows maximum flexibility
V. Error Logging and Recovery From System Failures
a. Unix recovery features
b. Advantages of recovery procedures
VI. Modifiability and Application Programmer Interface (API).
a. Platform dependency
VII. The User's Perspective on Unix.
VIII. Bibliography
I. Introduction
Strictly speaking, UNIX (in capitals) has been a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories (first owned by AT&T, then sold, in 1993, to Novell, Inc., then sold, in 1995, to SCO). The Open Group currently owns the Unix® Trademark. But the word "Unix" has also come to refer to a collection of very closely related operating systems (e.g. AT&T UNIX System V, BSD 4.3 Unix, Sun Microsystems' Solaris, Silicon Graphic's Irix, DEC/Compaq Tru-64 Unix, IBM's AIX, Hewlett-Packard's HP Unix, FreeBSD, NetBSD, SCO UNIX, Minix, Linux, and many others)
Bibliography: • Free Software Foundation, Overview of the GNU Project, http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-history.html • Kernighan, Brian W., and Pike, Rob, the Unix Programming Environment, Prentice-Hall Software Series, 1984 • Kernighan, Brian W., and Ritchie, Dennis M., the C Programming Language, Prentice-Hall Software Series, second edition, 1988. • Microsoft Windows NT, October 1991 White Paper on Windows NT and Microsoft 's Operating System Strategy • Lewine, Donald, POSIX Programmer 's Guide, O 'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1992. • PressPass Single Instance Store and Symbolic Links Explained, Microsoft Press Release of February 28, 2000, http://www.microsoft.com/features/2000/02-28w2k-b.asp • The Open Group http://www.opengroup.org/ • Quercia, Valerie, and O 'Reilly, Tim, X Window System User 's Guide, O 'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1993 (for release 5) • Stallman, Richard 'The GNU Manifesto ', 1985, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc. • Stevens, Richard W