Operating System Services

We know that an operating system provides a number of services to users as well as to the programs of the computer.

To users, it provides the service to execute the programs in a way that is very convenient.It also provides the environment that a program needs to execute.

Services provided by an operating system to program and to the user of those programs are:

• Program execution
• Input and output Operations
• File System Manipulation
• Communication
• Error Detection
• Resource Allocation and
• Protection

Let’s dive into each service one by one.

1. Program Execution

The user doesn’t have to worry about the allocation of memory as the operating system provides a very convenient environment to run programs.

Operating system loads a program into the memory and then executes it. The program should be able to end its execution properly and timely.

To run a specific program the program must be loaded into the RAM, then CPU time must be assigned for its execution. It manages the program by loading it into the memory, executing it and handling the execution.

After the execution process it provides a mechanism for process synchronisation, process communication and deadlock handling.

2. Input/Output Operation

Operating Systems must provide the required input and output as a program needs input and output devices while running.

Users cannot control input and output devices directly because of efficiency and protection so the operating system must provide a means to input and output.

3. File System Manipulation

Users need to manipulate files like opening, saving and deleting them from the storage disk. This task is also performed by the Operating System.

Operating System makes it easier for the programs to manipulate the file system by providing it the required service.
This specific service is performed by secondary storage management.

Basically Operating Systems grant permission to the program for operation on the given file.The operation can be anything like opening, reading, deleting or saving a file.

4. Communication

There are situations in which a process needs to exchange information with another process. These kinds of communications between two processes that are executing on the same computer might occur. In some cases, it may also occur if the systems are different yet are tied together by the same computer network.

In these types of situations, the communications are implemented through shared memory or message passing.
Here in message passing, packets of information are moved between processes by the Operating System.

5. Error Detection

The operating system constantly monitors the computer to avoid any hardware problems and if a problem is detected the errors are fixed by the operating system.

One of the main functions of an operating system is to detect errors.

Some examples of errors are memory overflow, bad sectors on hard disk or any errors related to input/output devices. After detecting an error the operating system takes the required action.

6. Resource Allocation

In case of multi-users, the resources must be allocated to all of them. Allocation of the resources required by the processes is the responsibility of the operating system. Resource allocation promotes better utilisation.

Algorithms such as process scheduling, CPU scheduling and disk scheduling are a part of resource allocation.

7. Protection

In the case of a multi-user system when several processes execute parallely it should not be possible for one process to intervene with others. The protection ensures that the situation never arises and that access to system resources is controlled.

Summary

An operating system provides services to program and user both. Some of the services as discussed in this segment are Program execution, Input and output Operations, File System Manipulation, Communication, Error Detection, Resource Allocation, Protection.