OS interfaces
The job of OS is
Share programs.
Abstract low-level hardware, so program need not concern what disk is being used.
Provide ways for programs to interact.
Design philosophy
OS defines interfaces to be simple and narrow. Combine programs to provide much generality.
User space and Kernel Space
When a process needs to invoke a kernel service, it invokes a system call. The system call enters the kernel, the kernel performs the service and returns.
Privileges
Kernel uses CPU’s hardware protection mechanisms to ensure each process in user space can only access its own memory. When a user program invokes a system call, the hardware raises the privilege level and starts executing a pre-arranged function in kernel.
The shell
The shell is an ordinary program that reads commands from the user and executes them. In our journey, we will be implement a new shell ourself (see lab2).
Xv6 system calls
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