Basics of UNIX Operating System

Basics of UNIX Operating System

UNIX is an operating system, similar to Windows. An operating system is a collection of multiple software programs that manages all the resources of a computer such as the CPU, memory, and storage.

UNIX can be understood in the following way:
UNIX → Operating System → Collection of Software → Collection of Programs → Set of Instructions.

The main role of an operating system is to act as a manager between the user and the hardware. It converts high-level language given by the user into low-level language understood by the hardware, and it also converts low-level machine responses back into high-level language that the user can understand.

Operating systems are mainly classified into two types: single-user operating systems and multi-user operating systems. In a single-user operating system, only one user is allowed to access the system resources at a time. A single-user single-task operating system allows one user to perform only one task at a time, for example MS-DOS. A single-user multi-task operating system allows one user to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, for example Windows 10.

In a multi-user operating system, multiple users are allowed to access the system resources at the same time. UNIX and its flavors such as Linux, Solaris, IBM AIX, and Ubuntu are examples of multi-user operating systems.

UNIX provides several important features. It supports multiple users working simultaneously and also supports multitasking by allowing many background processes to run at the same time. UNIX provides high security. At the login level, the password length is not displayed. At the file level, security is maintained using ownership and permission control. UNIX also supports communication in both online and offline modes such as mail services. It provides support for many programming languages and includes built-in help facilities to assist users.

The architecture of UNIX is organized in layers. At the lowest level is the hardware. Above the hardware is the kernel, which is the heart of the operating system and is responsible for converting high-level language into low-level language. Above the kernel is the shell, which processes user requests and executes commands. At the highest level are application programs used by the users.

In UNIX, all data is organized into files. These files are grouped into directories, and the directories are arranged in a tree-like structure known as the UNIX file system.

There are three types of users in the UNIX operating system. The super user, also known as the root user, has all privileges. The normal user has limited privileges and is created by the super user. A pseudo user is a normal user who is temporarily given super user privileges.

 

Author    : KTExperts

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