Project 3 - File Systems

Teams: For this project, you will work with the same partner you had in project 2.
Out: Monday, May 15
Due: Part A: Wednesday, May 24, 11:00 am
Due: Part B: Wednesday, May 31, 11:30 am

Assignment Goals

• To understand the problems that file system implementations must solve, and the range of approaches that might be taken.
• To practice design (in this case of file systems).
• To gain further experience with concurrent software

Part A - File System Implementation

In Part A, you're given a very simple file system implementation, one that places unrealistic limitations on what can be stored, and asked to improve it. This involves writing kernel code, and running on VMWare.

Details are here.

Part B - Design of Tagged File Support

In Part B, you will explore possible ways to better support for mp3 files (and the like) than what exists currently. The goal is to illuminate the trade-offs involved in providing this support at a number of levels: none (support is at the level of the user), the shell, libraries, or OS (file system). This is a design exercise, and no implementation is required.

Details are here.