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The functions of the Linux kernel: 1. Management of processes, the kernel is responsible for creating and destroying processes; 2. Management of memory, the kernel and the memory management subsystem interact through a set of function calls; 3. File system, the kernel is responsible for the creation and destruction of processes. A structured file system is established on structured hardware; 4. Device control, each device driver is embedded in the kernel; 5. Network management.
#The operating environment of this tutorial: linux7.3 system, Dell G3 computer.
1. Managing processes:
The kernel is responsible for creating and destroying processes, and handling their connections with the outside world ( Input and output), communication between different processes (via signals, pipes, or inter-process communication primitives) is fundamental to the overall system functionality and is also handled by the kernel. In addition, the scheduler, which controls how processes share the CPU, is part of process management. More generally, the kernel's process management activities implement the abstraction of multiple processes on a single or several CPUs.
2. Management of memory:
Computer memory is the main resource, and the strategy used to deal with it is crucial to system performance. The kernel establishes a virtual address space for each of all processes based on limited available resources. Different parts of the kernel interact with the memory management subsystem through a set of function calls, ranging from simple malloc/free pairs to more complex functions.
3. File system:
Unix is largely based on the concept of a file system; almost anything in Unix can be regarded as a file. The kernel builds a structured file system on top of unstructured hardware, with the result that the file abstraction is very much applied throughout the system. In addition, Linux supports multiple file system types, that is, different ways of organizing data on physical media. For example, the disk can be formatted with the standard Linux ext3 file system, the commonly used FAT file system, or several other file systems.
4. Device control:
Almost every system operation is ultimately mapped to a physical device, except for the processor, memory and very few other entities. In addition, any device control operations in all are performed by code specific to the device being addressed. These codes are called device drivers. The kernel must have embedded drivers for every peripheral present in the system, from hard drives to keyboards and tape drives.
5. Network management:
The network must be managed by the operating system, because most network operations are not specific to a certain process: messages entering the system are asynchronous event. Messages must be collected, identified, and distributed before a process takes over. The system is responsible for delivering data messages between the program and the network interface. It must control the execution of the program based on the network activity of the program. Additionally, all routing and address resolution issues are implemented in the kernel.
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