From: Reid Wilkes (reidwilkes_at_verizon.net)
Date: Tue Jan 06 2004 - 19:32:02 PST
In some ways, without the luster of ground breaking technology that UNIX had
in 1974, this paper more closely resembles simple run-of-the mill product
documentation than it does a scientific paper. Specifically, the paper
presents a fairly detailed discussion of the early UNIX file system and
shell. Although the paper does spend some time dealing with actual
implementation details, mainly it explains the technologies from the point
of view of a user of the system, whether that be an administrator or
programmer. One interesting bit I noticed early in the paper is the seeming
marvel the authors hold for the fact that a UNIX system can be run on
hardware costing as little as $40,000! The description of the file system is
interesting in that it begins with an explanation of what a file is.
something that would certainly be assumed knowledge today. It goes on to
describe in quite explicit terms the nature and use of the file system, from
how files and directories are named to the basic file usage API's provided
by the system. Also included in the discussion is the protection mechanism
for objects in the file system. Another nice nostalgia bit is the
description of the mechanism used to track physical allocations for a file.
a mechanism which caps the maximum file size at 1 MB! The UNIX shell is also
described in a nice overview. Not having a deep understanding of UNIX
workings, I found the description of how the shell process forks to execute
commands quite interesting and a very elegant design. Overall, the paper was
quite interesting and improved my knowledge of some fundamental aspects of
UNIX. It says a lot for the design of this system that many of the
fundamental concepts presented in this paper are with us still today in
virtually the exact form as presented in the paper. Many if not most of the
file system conventions, such as directory and file organization and naming,
are still around not only in UNIX but also in systems like Windows. In
addition, the UNIX shell, and similar shells in other systems modeled after
the UNIX shell remains one of the most powerful environments (if not the
most friendly) for using computers.
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