CS4513 Practice First Exam

1. File system initialization:

   1. Briefly describe what happens when a file system is formatted.
   2. Briefly describe what happens when a file system is mounted.
   3. Which happens first, a "format" or a "mount"?

2. What is the maximum number of disk I/O operations required to add a block to the end of the file for each of: contiguous allocation, linked-list allocation with index and i-nodes. Assume the base file descriptor is currently cached in memory, but nothing else is.

3. Consider a file system that supports aliases (links). Suppose we have:

       /home/mark/file.txt
       /user/local/temp.txt
   

   Where "temp.txt" and "file.txt" are intended to refer to the same set of data blocks on the disk (ie - the same file). If "temp.txt" was a hard-link, what would happen if "file.txt" was deleted? If "temp.txt" was a soft-link, what would happen if "file.txt" was deleted? Explain.

4. Why do large file-system blocks (typically) result in better file system access times. Why do large blocks result in less efficient use of disk space?

5. Name and describe 3 types of possible transparency in distributed system.

6. Name 2 techniques to aid scalability of distributed systems. Provide an example for each.

7. Briefly describe the main advantage of a distributed shared memory system. Briefly describe the main disadvantage of a distributed shared memory system.

8. Give an example of a Client-Server system with a "fat" client. What would be the effect of making the client "thin" for this system?

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