The three major areas in which an operating system provides services are:
-
Process Management: This involves managing the creation, scheduling, and termination of processes and threads. Examples of services provided in this area include process creation, context switching, inter-process communication, and synchronization.
-
Memory Management: This involves managing the allocation, deallocation, and sharing of memory resources among processes. Examples of services provided in this area include memory allocation, memory protection, virtual memory management, and page replacement algorithms.
-
File System Management: This involves managing the storage and retrieval of data on secondary storage devices, such as hard disks and solid-state drives. Examples of services provided in this area include file creation and deletion, directory management, file access control, and file system backup and recovery.
Examples of specific services provided by an operating system in each of these areas are:
-
Process Management: Process scheduling algorithms, such as round-robin, priority-based, and multi-level feedback queue scheduling; process synchronization mechanisms, such as semaphores, mutexes, and monitors; process communication mechanisms, such as pipes, sockets, and message queues.
-
Memory Management: Memory allocation and deallocation functions, such as malloc() and free(); virtual memory management mechanisms, such as demand paging, page fault handling, and page replacement algorithms like LRU and FIFO.
-
File System Management: File system APIs, such as open(), close(), read(), and write(); file system access control mechanisms, such as file permissions and ownership; file system backup and recovery tools, such as backup and restore utilities.
Note that there are many other areas in which an operating system provides services, such as network management, device drivers, and security. The specific services provided by an operating system will depend on its design and intended use.
