Test Questions & Answers Ch2 Operating-System Structures

Chapter 2

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following statements is incorrect?

A) An operating system provides an environment for the execution of programs.

B) An operating system manages system resources.

C) Operating systems provide both command line as well as graphical user interfaces.

D) Operating systems must provide both protection and security.

Feedback: 2.1

Difficulty: Easy

2. Which of the following is an inter-process communication that requires two processes share memory?

A) message passing

B) shared memory

C) socket communication

D) all of the above

Feedback: 2.1

Difficulty: Easy

3. Which of the following is not an operating system service?

A) program execution

B) I/O operation

C) protection and security

D) graphical user interface

Feedback: 2.2

Difficulty: Easy

4. Which of the following is a user interface where human fingers slide across the screen or press buttons to select choices?

A) touch screen

B) graphical user interface

C) command line

D) voice control

Feedback: 2.2.1

Difficulty: Easy

5. Which of the following is not a type of command interpreter?

A) Bourne shell

B) C shell

C) Korn shell

D) KDE or GNOME

Feedback: 2.2.1

Difficulty: Easy

6. _____ provide(s) an interface to the services provided by an operating system.

A) Shared memory

B) System calls

C) Simulators

D) Communication

Feedback: 2.3

Difficulty: Medium

7. Which of the following is the only gateway between user space and kernel space?

A) user interface

B) system call

C) operating system

D) hardware drivers

Feedback: 2.3.2

Difficulty: Medium

8. What is the relationship between library call open() and open() system call?

A) open() system call is part of open()

B) open() system call in an alternate version of open()

C) open() is a predecessor version of open() system call

D) open() invokes open() system call to get service from operating system

Feedback: 2.3.2

Difficulty: Medium

9. What category of system call includes the ones for process creation of and termination?

A) process control

B) file management

C) device management

D) protection

Feedback: 2.3.3.1

Difficulty: Easy

10. Which of the following defines the view of the operating system seen by most users?

A) application and system programs

B) system calls

C) device drivers

D) library calls

Feedback: 2.4

Difficulty: Easy

11. The Windows CreateProcess() system call creates a new process. What is the equivalent system call in UNIX?

A) NTCreateProcess()

B) process()

C) fork()

D) getpid()

Feedback: 2.3.3.1

Difficulty: Easy

12. The close() system call in UNIX is used to close a file. What is the equivalent system call in Windows?

A) CloseHandle()

B) close()

C) CloseFile()

D) Exit()

Feedback: 2.3.3.1

Difficulty: Easy

13. The Windows CreateFile() system call is used to create a file. What is the equivalent system call in UNIX?

A) ioctl()

B) open()

C) fork()

D) createfile()

Feedback: 2.3.3.1

Difficulty: Easy

14. The ________ provides a portion of the system call interface for UNIX and Linux.

A) POSIX

B) Java

C) Standard C library

D) Standard API

Feedback: 2.3.3.1

Difficulty: Medium

15. A message-passing model is ____.

A) easier to implement than a shared memory model for intercomputer communication

B) faster than the shared memory model

C) a network protocol, and does not apply to operating systems

D) only useful for small simple operating systems

Feedback: 2.3.3.5

Difficulty: Medium

16. Microkernels use _____ for communication.

A) message passing

B) shared memory

C) system calls

D) virtualization

Feedback: 2.8.3

Difficulty: Easy

17. Android runs Java programs _____________

A) in the Android RunTime (ART) virtual machine.

B) natively.

C) in the Java virtual machine.

D) Android does not run Java programs.

Feedback: 2.8.5.2

Difficulty: Medium

18. ______ is a mobile operating system designed for the iPhone and iPad.

A) Mac OS X

B) Android

C) UNIX

D) iOS

Feedback: 2.8.5.1

Difficulty: Medium

19. Which of the following operating system structure is the one for MS-DOS?

A) monolithic structure

B) layered structure

C) microkernel

D) modular approach

Feedback: 2.8.1

Difficulty: Easy

20. Which of the following inter-process communication is used in microkernel?

A) message passing

B) shared memory

C) socket communication

D) all of the above

Feedback: 2.8.3

Difficulty: Medium

21. Which of the following operating system structure is the one for Mach OS?

A) monolithic structure

B) layered structure

C) microkernel

D) modular approach

Feedback: 2.8.3

Difficulty: Easy

22. Which of the following operating system structure involves using loadable kernel module in design?

A) monolithic structure

B) layered structure

C) microkernel

D) modular approach

Feedback: 2.8.4

Difficulty: Easy

23. Which of the following is a much more restricted, or even closed, system to developers than others?

A) Linux

B) Mac OS X

C) iOS

D) Android

Feedback: 2.8.5.1

Difficulty: Easy

24. Which of the following is the correct program type for GRUB in Linux and Unix systems?

A) bootstrap program

B) compiler program

C) binder program

D) system utility

Feedback: 2.9.2

Difficulty: Easy

25. When a process fails, the operating system takes a ________ which can then be probed by a debugger for failure analysis?

A) core dump

B) crash dump

C) capture of network statistic information

D) capture of CPU usage information

Feedback: 2.10.1

Difficulty: Easy

Essay Questions

1. There are two different ways that commands can be processed by a command interpreter. One way is to allow the command interpreter to contain the code needed to execute the command. The other way is to implement the commands through system programs. Compare and contrast the two approaches.

Feedback: 2.2

Difficulty: Hard

2. Describe the relationship between an API, the system-call interface, and the operating system.

Feedback: 2.3

Difficulty: Hard

3. Describe three general methods used to pass parameters to the operating system during system calls.

Feedback: 2.3

Difficulty: Medium

4. Describe some requirements, or goals, when designing an operating system.

Feedback: 2.7.1

Difficulty: Medium

5. What are the advantages of using a higher-level language to implement an operating system?

Feedback: 2.7.3

Difficulty: Medium

6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a microkernel approach?

Feedback: 2.8.3

Difficulty: Medium

7. Explain why a modular kernel may be the best of the current operating system design techniques.

Feedback: 2.8.4

Difficulty: Hard

8. Describe how Mac OS X is considered a hybrid system.

Feedback: 2.8.5.1

Difficulty: Medium

9. Describe how Android uses a unique virtual machine for running Java programs.

Feedback: 2.8.5.2

Difficulty: Medium

True/False Questions

1. Application programmers typically use an API rather than directory invoking system calls.

Feedback: 2.3

Difficulty: Easy

2. In general, Windows system calls have longer, more descriptive names and UNIX system calls use shorter, less descriptive names.

Feedback: 2.4

Difficulty: Easy

3. Many operating system merge I/O devices and files into a combined file because of the similarity of system calls for each.

Feedback: 2.4.3

Difficulty: Medium

4. Applications compiled on one operating system can be directly executable on other operating systems due to common structure.

Feedback: 2.6

Difficulty: Easy

5. One important principle is the separation of policy from mechanism.

Feedback: 2.7.2

Difficulty: Easy

6. Mac OS X is a hybrid system consisting of both the Mach microkernel and BSD UNIX.

Feedback: 2.8.5.1

Difficulty: Medium

7. iOS is open source, Android is closed source.

Feedback: 2.8.5.1

Difficulty: Medium

8. iOS and Android combine different structures, resulting in hybrid systems that address performance, security, and usability issues.

Feedback: 2.8.5

Difficulty: Easy