- Operating Systems Basics
- Operating System (OS) Home
- Operating System Basics
- What is an Operating System
- History of Operating System
- Mainframe Operating System
- Server Operating System
- Multiprocessor Operating System
- Personal Computer OS
- Real-Time Operating System
- Embedded Operating System
- Smart Card Operating System
- OS Processors
- OS Memory
- OS System Calls
- Operating System Structure
- OS Processes and Threads
- OS Processes
- OS Process Model
- OS Process Creation
- OS Process Termination
- OS Process Hierarchies
- OS Process States
- OS Process Implementation
- OS Threads
- OS Thread Model
- OS Thread Implementation
- OS Pop-up Threads
- OS Interprocess Communication
- OS Scheduling
- OS Thread Scheduling
- OS Deadlocks
- OS Deadlocks
- OS Deadlock Resources
- OS Deadlock Conditions
- OS Deadlock Modelling
- OS Deadlock Detection
- OS Deadlock Recovery
- OS Deadlock Avoidance
- OS Deadlock Prevention
- OS Two-Phase Locking
- OS Memory Management
- OS Memory Management
- OS Monoprogramming
- OS Multiprogramming
- OS Relocation and Protection
- Memory Management with Bitmap
- Memory Management with Linked List
- OS Virtual Memory
- OS Page Replacement Algorithms
- OS Local vs Global Allocation Policie
- OS Load Control
- OS Page Size
- OS Separate Instruction & Data Space
- OS Shared Pages
- OS Cleaning Policies
- OS Virtual Memory Interface
- OS Implementation Issues
- OS Involvement with Paging
- OS Page Fault Handling
- OS Instruction Backup
- OS Locking Pages in Memory
- OS Backing Store
- OS Separation of Policy & Mechanism
- OS Segmentation
- Operating System Input/Output
- Operating System Input/Output
- OS Input/Output Devices
- OS Device Controllers
- OS Memory-Mapped Input/Output
- OS Direct Memory Access DMA
- OS Input/Output Software Goals
- OS Programmed Input/Output
- OS Interrupt-Driven Input/Output
- OS Input/Output using DMA
- OS Input/Output Software Layers
- OS Disks
- OS Disk Hardware
- OS Disk Formatting
- OS Stable Storage
- OS Clocks
- OS Character-Oriented Terminals
- OS RS-232 Terminal Hardware
- OS Graphical User Interfaces
- OS Network Terminals
- OS Power Management
- OS File Systems
- OS Files
- OS File Naming
- OS File Structure
- OS File Types
- OS File Access
- OS File Attributes
- OS File Operations
- OS Memory-Mapped Files
- OS Directories
- OS Single-Level Directory System
- OS Two-Level Directory System
- OS Hierarchical Directory System
- OS Path Names
- OS Directory Operations
- OS File System Implementation
- OS File System Layout
- OS Disk Space Management
- Multimedia Operating System
- Multimedia Operating System
- OS Multimedia Files
- OS Audio Encoding
- OS Video Encoding
- OS Video Compression
- OS Multimedia Process Scheduling
- OS Multimedia File System Paradigm
- OS File Placement
- OS Caching
- OS Disk Scheduling
- OS Multiple Processor System
- OS Multiprocessors
- OS Multiprocessor Hardware
- OS Multiprocessor Synchronization
- OS Multiprocessor Scheduling
- OS Multicomputers
- OS Multicomputer Hardware
- Low-Level Communication Software
- User-Level Communication Software
- OS Remote Procedure Call
- OS Distributed Shared Memory
- OS Multicomputer Scheduling
- OS Load Balancing
- OS Distributed System
- OS Network Hardware
- OS Network Services and Protocols
- OS Document-Based Middleware
- OS File System-Based Middleware
- OS Shared Object-Based Middleware
- Operating System Security
- Operating System Security
- OS Threats
- OS Intruders
- OS Accidental Data Loss
- Basics of Cryptography
- Secret-Key Cryptography
- Public-Key Cryptography
- OS Digital Signatures
- OS User Authentication
- OS Trojan Horses
- OS Login Spoofing
- OS Logic Bombs
- OS Trap Doors
- OS Viruses
- OS AntiViruses
- OS Internet Worms
- Give Online Test
- All Test List
- Operating System Test
OS File Types
There are several types of files supported by many OS. For example, Windows based operating system supports following types of files:
- Regular files
- Directories
And UNIX based operating system supports following types of files:
- Directories
- Regular files
- Character special files
- Block special files
Now, let's describe all the above different-different types of files supported by both windows and unix based operating systems.
Regular Files
Regular files contains user information.
Generally, regular files are either ASCII files or binary files.
Now, let's describe briefly about ASCII files and binary files.
ASCII Files
ASCII files basically consist of lines of text.
The big plus point or advantage of ASCII files is that they can be displayed and printed as is, and they can also be edited using any text editor such as Notepad, Wordpad, Notepad+, etc.
Binary Files
Binary files on listing on the printer gives some random junk.
Generally, binary files have some internal structure that only known to the programs that use them.
Technically, binary files are just a sequence of bytes, the OS will only execute a file if it has proper format.
Directories
Directories are the system files that are used to maintain the structure of the file system.
Character Special Files
Basically, character special files are related to the I/O and used to model serial input/output devices such as printers, networks, etc.
Block Special Files
Basically, block special files are used to model the disks.
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