Functions of File Management in Operating System

File management is one of the important features of any operating system, among other features like process management, memory management, disk management and file management. File management has all the tools and processes required to manage files and directories on a computer. File management has the required tools to create, manage, modify, access, and organize files stored on the computer’s various storage devices.

The key functions of the file management in operating systems are as follows:

a) File Creation

The first function for file management to manage files stored on a computer’s storage device is File creation. In File creation, users can create new files of any type and format using various text editors, image editors, and other software applications. The OS (operating system) provides the necessary resources and APIs for creating files.

Let us explain the process of file creation with the help of an example in the Python programming language:-

In order to create files in Python, we have to use the built in function open () function. Arguments taken by the open function are: - the file path and the mode in which you want the file to be opened (read mode, write mode, append mode, etc.). Here is the Python code snippet for creating a file:-

Code:

file = open("example.txt", "w") # opening the file in write mode and name of # the file example, which is a text file
file.write("My name is Alex .") # writing the text in the file opened
file.close() # closing the file again after writing in it.

In this above Python code snippet, we have created a file named ‘example.txt’ and opened this file in the write mode using the ‘w’ argument to the function open. We then wrote the string ‘My name is Alex ’ in the file opened using the write () function. And at last, closed/terminated the open file “example.txt” using the close () method/function in file management.

b) File Editing

In file editing, users can modify and update the files using various tools such as text editors and graphic editors. Operating System (OS) provides tools to manage file permissions and locking to ensure that multiple users can edit the file at the same time.

A Python code snippet for file editing is given below:

Code:

file = open("example.txt", "r+") # opening files for editing purpose
text = file.read() # reading the file
file.seek(0)
file.write("New text.") # writing new text in the file using write function
file.close() # closing the file after operations

c) File Organization

In file management, File organization is used to organize the files and directories. With this function, you can create, move, copy, rename, and delete files stored in the memory.

A Python code snippet for file organization is given below:

Code:

import os
# Creating a new directory
os.mkdir("new_directory")
# Renaming a file
os.rename("example.txt", "new_name.txt")
# Moving a file to a different directory
os.rename("example.txt", "new_directory/new_file.txt")
# Deleting a file
os.remove("new_file.txt")
# Delete a directory and all its contents
os.rmdir("new_directory")

d) File Search and Retrieval

This function of file management allows the users to search and retrieve files based on various criteria such as file name, file type, date modified, last edited, etc.

A Python code snippet for file search and retrieval is given below:

Code:

import os #importing the os and glob libraries
import glob
# Search for all files in the current directory with the .txt extension
files = glob.glob("*.txt")
# Print the path of each file
for file in files:
print(os.path.abspath(file))

e) File Backup and Recovery

This tool of file management in operating systems allows the users to backup files to protect against data loss due to hardware failure and other issues. This function of file management may include restoring files from the backups.

A Python code snippet for file search and retrieval is given below:

Code:

import shutil
# Creating a backup of a file
shutil.copy("example.txt", "backup.txt")
# Restoring the file from the backup
shutil.copy("backup.txt", "example.txt")

In the example given here, the shutil.copy () function is used to create a backup of the example.txt file with the name backup.txt. We can use the same shutil.copy () function again to restore the file from the backup by passing backup.txt as the source file and example.txt as the destination file.

Hence, these are all important functions of file management in operating systems.