disk operating system

operating system (DOS) The name of a number of operatingsystems which include facilities for storing files on disk.

Such a system must handle physical disk I/O, the mapping of

file names to disk addresses and protection of files from

unauthorised access (in a multi-user system).

A DOS should present a uniform interface to different storage

device such as floppy disks, hard disks and magnetictape drives. It may also provide some kind of locking to

prevent unintentional simultaneous access by two processes to

the same file (or record).

(1998-07-08)