FILE MANAGEMENT AND RELATED TOPICS
Robert M. Graham · 1970
Introduction The subject of these notes is file management. We will develop the problems of file management within the environment of a large information and computing service, often called a computer utility or general purpose time-sharing system. We do this for two reasons. First, this environment imposes the most severe constraints. Other environments are obtained by relaxing these constraints. Secondly, large information and computing services will become more and more prevalent in the years to come. Let us first look briefly at those objectives of an information and computing service which are significant to this discussion. a. Continuous service The system must normally run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This implies a high degree of reliability. It also implies that maintenance of the system must be done on-line. b. Multi-user The system must be able to service a large number of users working on diverse applications. This implies some sort of resource managem